Little Creature I Found Last Night Scuttling In The Rain. I Believe They Are Part Of The Cherry Millepede

little creature I found last night scuttling in the rain. i believe they are part of the cherry millepede family (Xystodesmidae), probably in the genus Dicellarius. image id in alt text.

lol nvm changed text color. looks more contrasted with white and pale red.

new pfp/avatar icon and image header! has been a long ass time since ive changed them! blog colors will stay the same though :3c

clover’s birthday photos! (also from November 4th) decided to separate her pictures from toast’s. she is much more photogenic than toast lol

[Image ID: 7 photos of an American foxhound; her base coat is white, and has two red coloured spots on her face and ears and has red freckles distributed over her body. She is wearing a pink bandana overlaid with cupcakes of various colours and has a green collar underneath the bandana. All photos have a watermark in the bottom left corner, which reads “xrinsu 2022″. In all but the first picture, where she is standing in a yard, she is on a porch. First Image: The camera is pointing up to the dog, who is staring towards the left. Second Image: She is standing with her head tilted to the left, looking beyond the camera. Third Image:She is standing and looking upwards to the right, mouth hanging open. Fourth Image: Profile view of the dog and is looking to the left. Fifth Image: She is resting her snout on a person's chin, facing up to the right with ears pulled back a little. Sixth Image: Someone's arm is handing a toy donut to the dog, who has started to grab by her mouth. Seventh Image: Someone's arm is still holding onto the toy donut, in which the dog has bit onto more firmly, her ears have moved back in motion. end ID]

new pfp/avatar icon and image header! has been a long ass time since ive changed them! blog colors will stay the same though :3c

tiny bluets for a long day

How I Study Anatomy

Everyone says NEVER TRACE!! THAT'S ART THEFT! Ok but we can do a little crime in the name of Learning.

Trace to learn, not to earn.

I like to take my own photos, but you can study whatever you want. Link back to original photos, and don't post copied artwork unless the artist is dead, cool with it, or both.

As always with learning, start every sketch with the intent to throw it away (trash for paper, quitting without saving for digital) This takes the pressure off and lets you make Bad Art, which is very important.

So let's make Bad Art of a Deer because I happen to have one handy

Start with a photo of your subject in a nice/neutral pose with all four feet visible. (so not like me)

Freehand copy it. Try not to stylize, focusing instead of matching proportions and pose. Don't get too detailed!

It's ok if your art looks terrible and has broken legs. I've drawn LOTS of deer so I have a leg up. Everyone's art sucks in their own eyes and here's where mine went wrong:

Either lasso-distort (recommended for beginners) or redraw a copy of your first sketch with your reference behind it (scaled to match the main body of your sketch)

Put the original and modified sketches together and compare the differences. Write it down if you want. This shows you where your eyes saw things the wrong size, so you can correct for that next time.

After learning about both deer and yourself, try freehand copying again.

Marvel at your newfound knowledge and skill!

but there's always room for improvement

You can stop here and move on to your real drawing, Or do another freehand-fix-compare cycle. I actually overcorrected my "draws heads too big" and veered into "heads too small."

Another note on tracing: Learning HOW to trace is more important than anything you could learn By tracing. Draw the Anatomy, not the outline. In real life, things don't have outlines, they have bones.

These are from the same shoot which is extra useful for consistency. The lines are minimal and follow where the animals joints are, and only important parts are drawn.

You won't know what Important Parts means right off the bat, which is where in-depth study comes in. You need to do learn the hard parts to do the easy parts right.

Next up: how to study bones and muscles.