The-darke - This Is An Art And Writing Blog

the-darke

1 year ago

RadenWA is honestly a hero for these

they're got even more than these, too!

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the-darke

1 year ago

wait, you have aphantasia? do you (or your followers) have any tips for navigating aphantasia as an artist? i have acquired aphantasia due to a TBI and i am trying to relearn How To Do Art. have yet to figure out how i need to adjust my process to accommodate because i keep trying to do things the way I used to and getting frustrated when it doesn't work. Obviously everyone's process will be different but i'd love to hear if you have any ideas.

Oh dang first of all ♥ that is a BIG change to have to deal with. So ♥♥♥ First. THIS WILL BE LONG I GUESS I DONT KNOW HOW TO BE CONCISE ♥ I can assure you can still make art with this new, less picture brain. There's loads of artists with aphantasia and while many of us have had it our wholes lives and had no idea, I am certain we can help give you advice to keep your art going. I will say up front that I started making pose references because I found that my drawings were a LOT better when I worked from reference. Turns out I guess I don't have any head pictures so ??? This explained a lot! I wish I knew how my brain stored info if not visually because I know when I used to draw a lot especially when I drew a lot from life, my figure drawing dramatically improved and I got pretty good at coming up with stuff on my own without references. I guess these would be my tips and I hope people jump in, especially if there's anyone else that's an artist who was a visualizer and is not now. 1) References are your friend! HOARD THEM. Don't be afraid to MAKE them. Take lots of photos, save art that does things you like for inspiration, collect lots and lots of visuals outside your head. 2) Even artists who can visualize often seem to report they cannot always reproduce their head pictures the way they want to. When I have 'an idea for a drawing' it's like a concept in my head. It's kind of just words and maybe some vague composition but again - not sure what it is just know it's not visual. So I gotta THUMBNAIL. A lot of times when I wanna work out what an idea is I just have to doodle a bunch of little versions of it til I go "yep, that's it, that's the one." Basically when I see it I know it's right but I have to see it externally to "see" it. Every piece I make (even my hair bows) I can't really *see* until it's there in front of me. I guess that means this part's advice is: draw little versions of things to work out visual problems on paper rather than in your head. If anyone else has things to add please please do!

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the-darke

1 year ago

a list of 100+ buildings to put in your fantasy town

academy

adventurer's guild

alchemist

apiary

apothecary

aquarium

armory

art gallery

bakery

bank

barber

barracks

bathhouse

blacksmith

boathouse

book store

bookbinder

botanical garden

brothel

butcher

carpenter

cartographer

casino

castle

cobbler

coffee shop

council chamber

court house

crypt for the noble family

dentist

distillery

docks

dovecot

dyer

embassy

farmer's market

fighting pit

fishmonger

fortune teller

gallows

gatehouse

general store

graveyard

greenhouses

guard post

guildhall

gymnasium

haberdashery

haunted house

hedge maze

herbalist

hospice

hospital

house for sale

inn

jail

jeweller

kindergarten

leatherworker

library

locksmith

mail courier

manor house

market

mayor's house

monastery

morgue

museum

music shop

observatory

orchard

orphanage

outhouse

paper maker

pawnshop

pet shop

potion shop

potter

printmaker

quest board

residence

restricted zone

sawmill

school

scribe

sewer entrance

sheriff's office

shrine

silversmith

spa

speakeasy

spice merchant

sports stadium

stables

street market

tailor

tannery

tavern

tax collector

tea house

temple

textile shop

theatre

thieves guild

thrift store

tinker's workshop

town crier post

town square

townhall

toy store

trinket shop

warehouse

watchtower

water mill

weaver

well

windmill

wishing well

wizard tower

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the-darke

1 year ago

My animation process (in a GIF!)

So you've learned the 12 principles of animation but don't know where to actually apply them? Fear not!! For here is my step-by-step process, very very condensed, into one singular giant GIF.

Hope it helps!

(You may need to open it in a new tab to read the text)

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the-darke

1 year ago

some graphic design resources cause im bored and itching to write something but i cant write anything i'm happy with--- anywayssss

unsplash for lots of royalty free pics

heres a cool site to learn how to pair fonts together

heres another site to learn kerning [spacing]

in fact heres a bunch of games to help u get better at graphic design stuff

some free online video editors x x x

color accessibility resources :]

savee.it - like pinterest but for designers!! unfortunately it has a save limit for free users but u should still be able to browse it for inspo i think?

some free fonts

aside from coolors i really love adobe color!! it has color palette generator [triads, monochrome, complementary, etc.], accessibility tools, palettes+gradients extractors, and color palettes inspired by trends within diff industries.

make moodboards online for freeee i miss u polyvore

spline and womp for web based 3d design! + blender of course [go make that donut!]

we all know and love them: photopea [photoshop but free and on a browser?!] and canva [no introduction needed im sure]

upscale the resolution / quality of pics it says anime but it works really well with most stuff like video game screenshots [gets rid of hard edges/pixels]

typography inspo

more color palette generators [already meets accessibility guidelines]

filmgrab - a curation of movie scenes 💕

here's another one but for color palettes from films

more inspo and tutorials

cargo - for web design stuffs

an archive of BRANDING GUIDES

free online zine hosting

milanote - very very useful for organizing creative projects :D kinda like a mix of notion and pinterest ? [its basically notion but more visual]

a collection of free luts

lots of pngs for editing

freepik - lots and lots of free design assets.

flaticon - lots of flat icons / vectors. i haven't used this in a while, but it was free last i checked

in case u need more help pairing fonts go here and here

idk ilu all have fun!!!!

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the-darke

1 year ago

site that you can type in the definition of a word and get the word

site for when you can only remember part of a word/its definition

site that gives you words that rhyme with a word

site that gives you synonyms and antonyms

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the-darke

1 year ago

PSPSPSPSPSPSPS CLIP STUDIO IS ON SALE RELEASE YOUR ADOBE SHACKLES AND JOIN THE FREE MASSES OF THE RESISTANCE

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the-darke

1 year ago

Highly suggest using it.^^

Follow me for more 🌿

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the-darke

1 year ago

please i love you i'm begging you bring back suspension of disbelief bring back trusting the audience like. i cannot handle any more dialogue that sounds like a legal document. "hello, i am here to talk to you about the incident from a few minutes ago, because i feel you might be unwell, and i am invested in your personal wellbeing." "thank you, i am unwell because the incident was hurtful to me due to my childhood, which was bad." I CANT!!!!

do you know how many people are mad that authors use "growled" as a word for "said"? it's just poetics! they do not literally mean "growled," it's just a common replacement for "said with force but in a low tone." it's normal! do you hear me!! help me i love you please let me out of here!!!

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the-darke

1 year ago

A while back I got a comment that demonstrated a misconception as to what the character design process actually entails, and I thought it had real "teachable moment" potential. So let me make this perfectly clear:

Drawing a character is NOT the same as designing one.

Let's say I wanted to draw a guy. No backstory, no defined personality traits or preferences, no details about his current life, just doodling some random, generic guy who popped into my head.

A red sketch on a white background, featuring the face of a happy, thin white guy in a fedora, dress shirt and tie. He looks at the viewer and says, "Hiya, chum!"

That's just a drawing.

But what if I decided to flesh him out more? What if I wanted his appearance to reflect his lifestyle and inner life as well? Here's where the note-taking comes in.

Notes handwritten in red on a white background. To summarize, the first thing I did was check MIT's list of personality traits and use a random number generator to pick five positive, five negative, and four neutral traits from that list. Then I used various other generators to determine the character's occupation (clockmaker), age (late forties), nationality (Armenian), time period (1980s), and hobbies (camping, bodybuilding, and Tarot reading).

The last piece of the puzzle (for the moment, anyway) was his name. I used a random letter generator to give me the first letter, and it came back with M. Then I searched for Armenian men with names beginning with M, and "Mikhail" (a form of the name "Michael") stuck out.

And now for the visual research:

A photo collage of various male actors from the 1980s, showing off their hairstyles emblematic of the decade. Above this, a caption is handwritten in red. It reads, "80s hair inspiration".

A collage of pages from 1970s fashion catalogs, featuring full-body views of male models. Bright colors, sweater vests, and high-waisted bell bottoms abound. The caption reads, "70s fashion (I imagine he keeps his old stuff to save money)", as I picture Mikhail as a practical small business owner who wants to be careful with his spending. This could play into the "self-denying" personality trait as well: He gives himself less so others can have more.

A collage of vintage glasses from the 1980s. The caption: "80s glasses (needs up-to-date eyewear due to nature of his work). Mikhail would need to see every detail of a clock's inner workings in crystal clarity to make sure all the gears fit precisely as they should.

A collage of vintage wrist watches from the 1970s and 80s. The caption reads, "70s + 80s watches (a clockmaker should have his own timepiece)

A large photo collage of Armenian people. The top caption reads, "Refs of Armenian people (mostly stock images + some celebs of Armenian descent)". The caption to the right of the collage reads, "Trying to get a good variety of faces for inspiration".

I thought the bodybuilding angle would provide a fun contrast with this guy's profession. The mental image of a huge, burly dude working on a clock or watch with tiny, precise movements just makes me smile. Perhaps I could give him small, nimble hands that would suit his line of work.

Sketches and notes regarding body proportions, muscle tone, hands, and possible hair and facial features. Mikhail's broad torso takes up the largest portion of his body, while his legs take up a medium-sized portion, and his head and neck occupy the smallest portion. These proportions aren't true to life, but exaggeration and size variety make character designs more interesting to look at. I also made a note that perhaps his muscles are slightly toned, but not on the level of professional bodybuilders. The text reads, "It's just a hobby for him".

As for the face, Mikhail's hair is styled in a fluffy "permullet", which is thinning in front due to his age (which has also created wrinkles on his forehead and around his eyes). He has a close-cropped mustache and beard, and his eyes are circular, like clock faces. His irises have specified lines radiating out from the pupils, a design inspired by the gears inside a clock. His nose is pointy at the end, like the classic arrow shape of a clock hand.

A series of copy and pasted versions of Mikhail's face, each with small tweaks to the features. Four of these have reduced opacity, with different configurations of glasses sketched over them. The caption reads, "Face refinement and glasses tests".

A series of loose sketches of Mikayel's face with glasses, searching for interesting shapes and proportions. The caption reads, "Experimenting with proportions".

Four detailed faces based on the proportion sketches, with the caption expressing this.

Now that I have a better idea of how Mikhail's face and body will look, it's time to establish a pose.

Five loose sketches of Mikhail standing and posing his limbs in different ways. I started with him flexing an arm to show off his muscles, but then I figured I could also show off his gentle side by using that hand to daintily hold an item. At first it was a flower to hint at the romantic side of his personality, but I shifted it to his breast pocket and replaced it with a watch (which I'll explain in the next image).

A refined sketch of Mikhail smiling at a watch he holds aloft, with notes surrounding the figure. They point out his wide, focused eyes (denoting the alertness in his personality), and his circular belt buckle which is divided into sections to resemble a combination of clock gears and a sliced pomegranate (Armenian symbol of fertility and good fortune). There are small vertical lines on his bell bottom pants, indicating that they have a corduroy texture (the caption reads "Bell bottom cords").

Importantly, the flower in one of the two breast pockets on his shirt (seventies, remember?) is there for a character-relevant reason. The caption reads, "Keeps a flower in his pocket to give to his future soulmate- and keeps it close to his heart". This alludes to the "romantic" personality trait the random generator led me to in the beginning. Also, I chose a round carnation to fit the theme of circles: His circular belt buckle, circular eyes, circular wrist watch, and the circular pocket watch he holds in his hand. They're all the same shape as a traditional clock face.

Of course, I never expected to employ all the personality traits I started out with inside this single pose; those were just a jumping-off point. No one drawing will ever be able to encapsulate every single facet of a character, unless they're extraordinarily flat and generic (see also: random guy I doodled at the start of this post). If I wanted to write a story with this guy, I'd have to figure out how all the traits play off each other and how they'd cause him to react to different situations. There would be a lot more note-taking and development involved, but for the sake of keeping this post (somewhat) brief, let's just focus on visuals for now.

On to color!

An image labeled "color test", with three rows of five lineless color variants for Mikhail. The first two rows feature the same set of five colored shirts (pink, green, blue, yellow, and orange), except in first row, the figures have burgundy pants and brown belts. In the second row, they have dark brown pants and darker brown belts (and both rows have labels to the left noting their differences).

In the final row, the first three options are my favorites from the above rows: 1: Pink shirt and burgundy pants. 2: Blue shirt and burgundy pants. 3: Pink shirt and dark brown pants. Of these three, I chose the blue shirt to expand on, leading to the fourth option in this row, which has a lighter blue shirt. Finally, for the fifth option, I copy and pasted the light blue version, but gave it a darker belt and toned down the saturation of the red flower in his shirt so it would look more natural. By George, I think we've got it!

I decided to give Mikhail a carnation in his pocket (for its round shape), specifically a red one, which represents deep love and an aching heart. Thus, the flower needed to maintain its red color for the symbolism to come through.

For some reason I initially pictured this guy wearing a pink shirt (perhaps as an offshoot of the "romantic" angle), but I wanted to try some different colors inspired by the 70s catalog pages I found. I ended up really liking the contrast of the cool blue shirt with the warm red pants, and that option made it into my top three as a result. I lined them up next to each other to compare them, and in the end, blue won out over pink. I think it also reflects the "colder", more cerebral, less-emotional parts of his personality well (namely "systematic", "stern", and "callous"- one from each column!). Just goes to show that you shouldn't get too attached to your first draft, as better ideas are just around the corner.

I then lightened the blue of the shirt so it wouldn't compete so much with the rest of the outfit, and wouldn't be quite as loud and "in your face". Mikhail strikes me as a bit of an introvert, so the calmer, quieter blue is a better fit. I added a darker belt and watchband and de-saturated the flower just a bit to make the values feel more balanced, and I think we've got it!

Let's see the final result!

Mikhail in the same pose as he was in the sketch (smiling at a watch he's holding up), but with clean black outlines and color. He has fair skin, dark brown hair and eyebrows, brown eyes, and a thin, light brown beard and mustache. He wears large glasses with gold rims, a light blue shirt with a red carnation in his left breast pocket, burgundy pants, and dark brown dress shoes. His belt is dark brown, with a gold belt buckle.

Y'all, I was not expecting this process to make me emotional, but there's something special about fully realizing a little guy you've spent hours working on. All of a sudden you look at him and go, "Oh my god, there he is. That's him." This man wasn't even a twinkle in my eye a couple weeks ago and now I'd protect him with my life.

And the thing is, the only reason I'm calling this design "done" for now is that I basically just brought it into existence to make a point. But if this dude were attached to a larger story, he'd be nowhere near finished. I'd have to make a ton more iterations and go a lot more in depth with my research than I did (especially with the Armenian cultural stuff). Overall, though, I hope this quick project properly highlighted the difference between a single drawing and a more fleshed-out character.

A red sketch on a white background, depicting Mikayel and the generic fedora guy walking together. Mikayel happily talks to fedora guy, who smiles back at him. Mikayel's right hand is on fedora guy's shoulder, while his left hand is palm up in the air as he elaborates on what he's saying.

Later!

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the-darke

1 year ago

whoever made the decision to make umpires wear cameras... you are a legend

this is genuinely the funniest thing i've ever seen

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the-darke

1 year ago

Intimacy is not just about sex. It's having heart-to-hearts, staying up all night talking, sharing childhood memories, thoughts, fears, dreams & hopes for the future. It's uncontrollable laughter, direct eye contact and feeling each other without touching - it's exchanging energy

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the-darke

1 year ago

a list of 100+ buildings to put in your fantasy town

academy

adventurer's guild

alchemist

apiary

apothecary

aquarium

armory

art gallery

bakery

bank

barber

barracks

bathhouse

blacksmith

boathouse

book store

bookbinder

botanical garden

brothel

butcher

carpenter

cartographer

casino

castle

cobbler

coffee shop

council chamber

court house

crypt for the noble family

dentist

distillery

docks

dovecot

dyer

embassy

farmer's market

fighting pit

fishmonger

fortune teller

gallows

gatehouse

general store

graveyard

greenhouses

guard post

guildhall

gymnasium

haberdashery

haunted house

hedge maze

herbalist

hospice

hospital

house for sale

inn

jail

jeweller

kindergarten

leatherworker

library

locksmith

mail courier

manor house

market

mayor's house

monastery

morgue

museum

music shop

observatory

orchard

orphanage

outhouse

paper maker

pawnshop

pet shop

potion shop

potter

printmaker

quest board

residence

restricted zone

sawmill

school

scribe

sewer entrance

sheriff's office

shrine

silversmith

spa

speakeasy

spice merchant

sports stadium

stables

street market

tailor

tannery

tavern

tax collector

tea house

temple

textile shop

theatre

thieves guild

thrift store

tinker's workshop

town crier post

town square

townhall

toy store

trinket shop

warehouse

watchtower

water mill

weaver

well

windmill

wishing well

wizard tower

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the-darke

1 year ago

gonna show u guys a little opalescent highlight hack i threw together today

rainbow gradient above your main figure (i usually have all my main figure folders/layers in one big folder, so i can clip gradient maps + adjustments to it!). liquify tool to push the colors around a bit. STAY WITH ME I KNOW IT LOOKS STUPID RN I'M GOING SOMEWHERE WITH THIS

THEN: set it to add/glow (or the equivalent in ur drawing program), lower the opacity a bit, and apply a layer mask. then u can edit the mask with whatever tools you like to create rainbow highlights!!

in this case i'm mostly using the lasso fill tool to chip out little facets, but i've also done some soft airbrushing to bring in larger rainbow swirls in some areas. it's pretty subtle here, but you can see it better when i remove the gradient map that's above everything, since below i'm working in greyscale:

more granular rambling beneath the cut!

u could also just do this with a brush that has color jitter, but what i like about using layer masks for highlight/shading layers is how simple and reversible it makes everything. i can use whatever brushes i want, and erasing/redoing things is super low stakes, which is great when i often approach this stuff with a super trial-and-error approach.

example: have u ever thrown a gradient w multiple colors over an entire piece, set it to multiply etc, and then tried to erase it away to carve out shadows/highlights? it's super frustrating, bc it looks really good, but if u erase something and then change ur mind later, u basically would have to like. recreate the gradient in the area u want to cover up again. that's how i used to do things before figuring out layer masks!! but masking basically creates a version of this with INFINITE undo bc u can erase/re-place the base layer whenever u want.

anyway, back to rambling about this specific method:

i actually have TWO of these layers on this piece (one with the liquified swirls shown above, and another that's just a normal concentric circle gradient with much broader stripes) so i can vary the highlights easily as needed.

since i've basically hidden the rainbow pattern from myself, the colors in each brushstroke i make will kind of be a surprise, which isn't always great -- but easily fixable! for example, if i carve out a highlight and it turns out the rainbow pattern in that area is way too stripey, i can just switch from editing the mask to editing the main layer and blur that spot a bit.

also, this isn't a full explanation of the overall transparency effect in these screencaps! there's other layer stuff happening below the rainbow highlights, but the short version is i have all this character's body parts in different folders, each with their own lineart and background fill, and then the fill opacity is lowered and there's multiply layers clipped to that -- blah blah it's a whole thing. maybe i'll have a whole rundown on this on patreon later. uhhh i think that's it tho! i hope u get something useful out of this extremely specific thing i did lmao

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the-darke

1 year ago

Gomez and Morticia Addams got divorced. I woke up mortified and with a sense of inexplicable dread.

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the-darke

1 year ago

A Young Daughter of the Picts, Steph Wilson

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the-darke

1 year ago

art pet peeve: mermaid tails drawn bent
so here's a visual tutorial pic.twitter.com/jWpUpMYwwu

— 🐦‍⬛Ri | 리치 | リー (working on comms) (@catallarii) April 4, 2024

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the-darke

1 year ago

Myths, Creatures, and Folklore

Want to create a religion for your fictional world? Here are some references and resources!

General:

General Folklore

Various Folktales

Heroes

Weather Folklore

Trees in Mythology

Animals in Mythology

Birds in Mythology

Flowers in Mythology

Fruit in Mythology

Plants in Mythology

Folktales from Around the World

Africa:

Egyptian Mythology

African Mythology

More African Mythology

Egyptian Gods and Goddesses

The Gods of Africa

Even More African Mythology

West African Mythology

All About African Mythology

African Mythical Creatures

Gods and Goddesses

The Americas:

Aztec Mythology

Haitian Mythology

Inca Mythology

Maya Mythology

Native American Mythology

More Inca Mythology

More Native American Mythology

South American Mythical Creatures

North American Mythical Creatures

Aztec Gods and Goddesses

Asia:

Chinese Mythology

Hindu Mythology

Japanese Mythology

Korean Mythology

More Japanese Mythology

Chinese and Japanese Mythical Creatures

Indian Mythical Creatures

Chinese Gods and Goddesses

Hindu Gods and Goddesses

Korean Gods and Goddesses

Europe:

Basque Mythology

Celtic Mythology

Etruscan Mythology

Greek Mythology

Latvian Mythology

Norse Mythology

Roman Mythology

Arthurian Legends

Bestiary

Celtic Gods and Goddesses

Gods and Goddesses of the Celtic Lands

Finnish Mythology

Celtic Mythical Creatures

Gods and Goddesses

Middle East:

Islamic Mythology

Judaic Mythology

Mesopotamian Mythology

Persian Mythology

Middle Eastern Mythical Creatures

Oceania:

Aboriginal Mythology

Polynesian Mythology

More Polynesian Mythology

Mythology of the Polynesian Islands

Melanesian Mythology

Massive Polynesian Mythology Post

Maori Mythical Creatures

Hawaiian Gods and Goddesses

Hawaiian Goddesses

Gods and Goddesses

Creating a Fantasy Religion:

Creating Part 1

Creating Part 2

Creating Part 3

Creating Part 4

Fantasy Religion Design Guide

Using Religion in Fantasy

Religion in Fantasy

Creating Fantasy Worlds

Beliefs in Fantasy

Some superstitions:

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