Because It Is The Bane Of My Existence To See Artists Who Dont Even TRY To Get Bird Anatomy Right, When

because it is the bane of my existence to see artists who don’t even TRY to get bird anatomy right, when they’ll gladly put forth the effort to learn mammalian anatomy

BIRDS ARE SO EASY TO DRAW

THERE ARE NOT MANY MOVING PARTS ON THEIR FACE

NOT LIKE US SQUISHY MAMMALS

still debating if I should make my own HOW TO DRAW WINGZ ref or just link to some good ones I’ve seen, since there are a plethora of both good and god-awful tutorials out there for wings already. I’ll probs make my own because other guides neglect to mention that GASP DIFFERENT BIRDS HAVE DIFFERENT SHAPED WINGS BECAUSE THEY FLY DIFFERENTLY

How I paint faces with watercolor by anannart

I got my first table at a convention and I don’t know what to BRING or how to price my art if anyone is down to give me free or at least low cost advice I would appreciate it

On Creature Design

Artists and writers often don’t realize the full range of variety that animals include. This leads to “aliens” that are a lot less alien than a lot of creatures on Earth.

Imagine that you are designing an imaginary animal to go on an alien planet in a fictional universe. We’ll suppose for this example that your creature fits the Earth definition of “animal.” What might this creature be like?

Here’s just some of the traits that “animals” in fiction are usually assumed to have…that real animals often don’t have:

The ability to move around: To be fair, most animals have a motile phase of their life cycle, but many animals, such as corals, (most) sponges, and (most) bryozoans, don’t move as “adults.”

Bilateral symmetry: that is, there’s a left and a right side that mostly mirror each other. Humans are bilaterally symmetrical. But not all animals are. Take starfish for example. They have radial symmetry instead.

Either an herbivorous or a carnivorous lifestyle: The natural world…actually isn’t divided into predators and prey. Don’t forget the detritivores!

The ability to make that one specific roaring sound that every single alien and dinosaur makes in a movie: Animals make some WEIRD fucking sounds okay. Y'all ever heard a blue jay making its “swinging gate” impression?

Size comparable to horses, cattle, and humans: It’s weird to think about, but humans are megafauna. We’re enormous compared to most insects, worms, birds, and even rodents and bats, the largest groups of mammals. The “average” animal is closer to a bee than a human. A lot of sci-fi beasts and monsters are the size of a rhino, but try going outside on Earth—you’ll encounter a thousand much smaller organisms before you find one that large. A planet that is otherwise “Earth-like” would probably be similar.

Individuality or “Individual” lifestyle and consciousness: Yes, yes, I know the “hive mind” is a trope, but it’s often still assumed that “animals” are individual units independent from one another, where each “individual” has a complete set of all the organs and features it needs to survive. However, some real animals, like siphonophores and, yes, bryozoans, are colonial—their “individuals” are modules that can’t live independently, rather like organs in an animal like a human. Because I can’t stop myself from talking about bryozoans…in Selenaria bryozoans, the “individuals” around the outside edge of their colony use their setae as legs to walk around, and the other individuals provide the “legs” with food, since they can’t eat by themselves. Bryozoan colonies are also interconnected by a linked nervous system, and sometimes colonies that grow into each other will just…merge, and start sharing their nervous system even though they’re genetically different. Science.

Adaptations to full time life on land: Water worlds and sea creatures are not exactly missing in scifi, but it’s still under-acknowledged that land life is a weird adaptation to a weird extreme environment. Land animals are just water animals that have learned to carry around their own water inside them. It’s true! Living in water is so much simpler, because you can always just filter particles out of the water around you to eat, and when you need to reproduce you can just throw some gametes out there so somebody will find them.

“Male” and “female” individuals: Stories that mess with this generally have a MORE rigid biological “caste system” with more categories, but there are a lot of animals that can reproduce sexually or asexually at their whim, that change sex as part of their maturation process or when conditions require it, or that switch freely between producing sperm and egg cells. “The females are larger and more dominant!” isn’t even that weird or unusual. Try “every member of this species is “male” when they are younger and becomes “female” later in life” or “this alien decides whether to be “male” or “female” depending on what the situation requires” or “these aliens are engaging in ritual combat with their dicks to see who gets pregnant.” You know. Normal stuff like that.

Here’s another art tip, this time about some easy things you can do to draw your eyes more realistically (if that’s what you want).

fyi if you do figure studies, the croquis cafe guy is a trump supporter so here’s some figure drawing resources that aren’t that: 

senshistock sketch tool

senshistock’s deviantart (queen of queens tbqh)

fatphotoref (password protected, you can dm the creator for the password or ask me but i will only answer if i can see by your blog that you are an artist)

figurosity (free, kinda wild)

jookpub stock

photoref.org (paid packs, run by jenn ravenna tran, so you’d be supporting a woc artist/filmmaker!)

scott eaton’s bodies in motion (paid subscription and kind of pricy but good if you want to spend some time Really Focusing on Anatomy)

posespace (big library, also paid)

drawthis channel on yt

anatomy for artists course on proko (pricey but good)

always gotta mention schoolism

books:

force: drawing human anatomy

morpho books

figure drawing for artists: making every stroke count

andrew loomis books (ALL FREE!!!)

constructive anatomy (haven’t personally read this one but heard it’s good)