AAOC Times #16

cele 09/29/19

677

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❁𝓐𝓐𝓞𝓒 𝓣𝓲𝓶𝓮𝓼 16❁

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Welcome to the 16th edition of AAOC Times!

This is a series of blogs dedicated to providing advice for blooming creators, as well as putting some amazing artists into the limelight!

𝒯𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝒞𝑜𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓈

❀ feature of the week

❀ advice column

❀ feeling underappreciated

❀ highlighted artists

❀ comic

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↳˳ ❀ ;; ❝ winstyn is typing ᵕ̈ ೫˚∗:

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•°•.•Feature of The Week•.•°•.

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N'yello! My name is Winstyn and welcome to this week’s Feature of The Week! This week I was given the opportunity to interview the lovely Under the Maple Tree"! (o´▽｀o)

As with every feature of the week, I interviewed this artist and asked them 7 questions that may enlighten or inspire you yourself! These questions ranging from the inspiration behind the piece to info about their art journey!

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This piece reminded me that it’s fall again! I fell in love the natural fall and earthy colours in this piece! The soft colors are just really pleasing and nice to look at, creating a warm environment to this piece. The anatomy, shading, and artstyle just looks really refined and professional to me, which makes sense since they spent such a long time on it! Not to mention Alysa and Daryl look absolutely adorable together, making it really feel like you’re there in the scene with them. Overall, it just makes me want to get up and make myself a cup of cocoa. ლ(´ڡ`ლ)

Bold = Winstyn (Interviewer)

Italics = Ivorime (Featured Artist)

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𝟏. First question! What inspired you to draw this piece?

❝ Well, I was at school and I saw a couple singing and playing the guitar. I also love the autumn season so it also adds a lot of inspiration to the piece. ❞

𝟐. You mentioned it took you 15 hours to draw this piece! Were there any bumps or challenges that came along the way when you drew this? If so, how did you overcome them?

❝ I didn't give up on the piece because I wanted to see my improvement on drawing perspective and anatomy. I struggled on the guitar so I used some references so I could draw it correctly. ≥﹏≤ ❞

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𝟑. Can you tell me more about Alysa and Daryl? Why did you choose to draw them? Did you design them yourself?

❝ Yes, I designed them myself. I chose them because I wanted to see how they’ve improved from when I first designed them.

Alysa and Daryl had been childhood friends since the age of 5, but got separated because of their own family problems. ❞

𝟒. Tell me a little bit about your art journey! How'd you get into art? How has it changed over time?

❝ Well I was really into art when I was 3 years old and basically as long as I can . At the age of 8 I tried to change my artstyle because the anime artstyle is very common, but still ended up with an anime artstyle lol. I also like practicing some semi-realistic and realistic stuff for fun! ❞

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𝟓. Do you like/use any other mediums besides digital? What program do you use?

❝ I also love to draw traditionally but nowadays all my traditional art are just sketches. When I first ed this amino I posted some traditional artwork, maybe 6 pieces. I’m trying my best to post more traditional artwork in the future though.

I only use Ibis Paint X because it’s very easy for me to use for drawing. I’ve also tried other programs but it they don’t really work out for me. :sweat_smile: ❞

𝟔. Are there any artists that influence or inspire you and your artworks?

❝ Yes! Some of them are from instagram such as isakytm, itslopez, tamytka etc. And also artists from this amino! ❞

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𝟕. Finally, do you have any advice or tips you could offer to beginner or aspiring artists?

❝Hmmm... This tip is very common, but it helps me alot and maybe works for other artists out there... Try to familiarize the geometric shapes, and don't compare yourself to others because it will just make you miserable and unmotivated. Try to watch speedpaints and study their technique of coloring and other things. Also, don't be afraid to use references, even aspiring artists need them because references can make your drawings more flawless and also make you improve. ❞

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That’s all for this week’s Feature of The Week! Again, thanks so much to Ivorime for sharing some great advice and answers, I highly suggest checking out their stuff! Anyways, stay tuned for the next feature of the week for more amazing artworks and artists! ヽ(´∀`。)ﾉ

『•• :fallen_leaf: ••』

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↳˳ ❀ ;; ❝ ren is typing ᵕ̈ ೫˚∗:

˗ˏˋ ◜ 𝓪𝓻𝓽 𝓪𝓭𝓿𝓲𝓬𝓮 𝓬𝓸𝓵𝓾𝓶𝓷◝ ˎˊ˗

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Bonjour, AAOC! It’s time for the Art Advice Column to shine once more! The Art Advice Column is where we, the AAOC Times publishers, address your questions as artists and help you out as much as possible.

Without further ado, let’s get right into these week’s biggest questions!

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STILMANN asked. . .

❝Can you recommend any good websites for artists that have good reference pictures of the human body? Maybe even a website where you can try some figure drawings?❞

A: There are many good websites for human references! There are actual online libraries that target figure drawings:

1. Line of Action – This one is best known as the practice tool for figure studies. They have multiple options, such as a timer for your daily study exercise or wrist warmups, you can make your sets, and choose which you can focus on – nude or covered models, faces/expressions, whole bodies, hands, and so on.

2. Quickposes – This is another archive with the same options like Line of Action! Just from the front page, you can choose which categories and they are sorted in various clusters. They also have challenges, featured artists, competitions, and more!

3. r/sketchdaily – This is also one of the biggest photo libraries up to date! With so many options you can set at its homepage, it even includes animals, vegetations, and structures. They don’t limit you to just human references!

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PUMPKINPUPCREATIONS asked. . .

❝ Which colors work good together on animal characters and human characters?❞

A: This is quite a question with broad answers. But, we’ll do our best to narrow this down! When it comes to choosing colors for your characters, whether it is an animal or a human, color theory is there to help you. Character design has colors play a major role. And it’s all because colors show personality – and this is where we should start from when it comes to thinking about color palettes.

What is your character like? Research about what certain colors symbolize. For example, red stands for boldness, fiery, anger, or ion – it can also symbolize seduction. Maybe this character is quite seductive, elegant, bold, a trickster?

You can also think about how dark hues represent a rather dark personality, maybe someone serious, just like Raven from Teen Titans, and how lighter hues represent bubbliness.

Through color theory, you can make these colors blend – either making them complement each other, or what we call as “opposite colors”. Just like Nick from Zootopia, his fur is orange, yet his eyes and clothes are green. You can also make them fall under the same hue, also known as analogous colors. Just like Marceline from Adventure Time, almost all her colors fall under the grayscale.

However, other than using symbolisms of colours, you have other factors to consider depending on the species you are making – when it comes to animals, you have to think about what their breed is, and what is much more likely for them to have as fur or skin color.

Researching references will help you! However, anthrophomorphic characters don’t have to stick to reality all the time, or else they’ll all look the same. It also is the same with humans, whether they are regular people, or humanoids (alien breeds, hybrids, etc.) At the end of the day, don’t be afraid to experiment! Think about your character’s personality before laying down the colors that will define them. Have fun!

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RUSU_KUERO asked. . .

❝How do you make your art style a bit more cartoony without making the anatomy look off?❞

A: When it comes to developing an art style, whether you want it to be realistic, semi-realistic, animesque, or cartoony – the only trick to make anatomy not look off is to practice anatomy itself! There is no other easy way out, unfortunately.

Studying anatomy might seem hard, but a good way to make studying anatomy fun is to do gesture studies. This is by simply following the flow of a pose by shapes, but not focusing on the structural property of a human body itself.

You can also follow the basic way to draw a body – by using shapes! Using shapes to convey a character, such as triangle, circle, and squares, can help you keep the cartoonish art style, without losing the concept of anatomy.

Practice and practice! You have to keep in mind that you have to know the rules before you break it. Cartoon artists like Lavendertowne often express this a lot. Observe artists with cartoonish styles! As an artist, one must have an architect’s eye – observe, understand, and adapt their techniques. Do not shy away from references either!

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IREO asked. . .

❝How do you get your shading to work properly with the character?❞

A: When it comes to shading a character, there are aspects that you have to consider:

1) The palette or base colors of your character. Shading can come in different techniques – one is cel shading, which is taking a darker or lighter hue of the base color, and making solid shadows without blending them. Another is soft shading, which involves blending the darker tone with the base tone. These are the most basic forms of shading, and you can look into which is best for your style by looking into its other options!

Shading a character doesn’t have to only stay as color picking the darker hue of the base color. You can always move the wheel and choose a different one analogous to the base color – for example, in shading a plant, if its base color is green, you can pick out a darker blue and blend it, rather than choosing a darker green. This makes the subject pop out even more! Example as follows:

2) Lighting. Of course, when the atmosphere is sunny, bright, the colors are saturated, but when it is dark, gloomy, the colors are desaturated, dark, and dim. Find your source of light! You can find videos tackling lighting by art youtubers such as JelArts.

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FLUFFIMEMES asked. . .

❝ Is there a easy way to draw hands?❞

Hands are the hardest for a lot of us – but there are tricks to make drawing hands easy! First, break down how a hand looks. In drawing, the key to make things look how you want it to be is through familiarizing its form. Instead of thinking about its symbolism, just like how a heart is represented with the “<3” symbol, think about the object’s form – the volume, how it moves, how it looks.

Through observation, we know that a hand’s palm connects the fingers and the wrist. Fingers are quite cylindral, while the palm can be seen as a form of trapezoid. A better demonstration is seen below to understand how to break down the figure thoroughly:

Hands are easy to draw from life. . . considering you have one. You can learn how to draw them by practicing to draw your own hand! References will help you tremendously, and once you’ve mastered the form of a hand through practice, you’ll be able to do it easily in no time.

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That's it for this week's Art Advice Column! Did you find these helpful? Got any more art crisis you want tips or advices to? If you would like to submit a question, please go to the AAOC Times Advice Wiki!

Please do NOT comment on this post. It won't be featured in the next article.

Au revoir! ꒰⌗´͈ ᵕ `͈⌗꒱

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↳˳ ❀ ;; ❝ rileyizdum is typing ᵕ̈ ೫˚∗:

Hello readers! My name's Riley, and today I will be writing about the feeling of not being good enough to post or feeling underappreciated in the art world .

Having a small following is completely okay, never feel that you as an Artist need to have a big following so that you can post . This this really toxic for the mind and will eventually stress you out. I myself beings small creator definitely fall into this and it for a couple of months prohibited me from creating new art and improving my style.

Try to that followed are just numbers and it’s really not the big factor of creating art. Art is what you create the feelings you create for the views should you chose to post your art. If you feel I loved like other artists who get alit of comments or likes try to that many of thoes people you know who get the likes and comments where on the exsact same situation and have grown over time .

Get in with others , small people. You may be able to create friends and you can both comment on each others stuff nothing making both of you feel loved and as well having an amazing friendship .

Tags and competitions are grate ways to grow and will help other to notice you, this is helpful for thoes who are strictly looking to share there art with as many people as possible. Never feel that you have to show everyone but it’s still there as an opportunity.

If you ever find yourself falling into this know that it’s perfectly okay and that things will straighten out for you. I hope to thoes who are struggling find my tips and wize words helpful .

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↳˳ ❀ ;; ❝ jayce is typing ᵕ̈ ೫˚∗:

Highlights of the Week

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Hello AAOC! I’m Jayce~! Here to introduce this week’s highlight artists !!

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:sparkles: Highlighted Cartoon Artist :sparkles:

Dr. UwU

Dr. UwU creates very unique character designs. Their bold use of color and confident line-art makes their work look straight from a cartoon. Don’t let the bright colors fool you though — this artist creates art with all types of genres. One post you could be seeing their see a television head trying to play extreme baseball.

:sparkles: Highlighted Animator :sparkles:

Naow

Although Naow doesn’t create many animations, the short animation are note worthy. Their most recent animation is quite impressive. Naow syncs the text to the character’s mouths perfectly. While it may seem simple, mouth syncing in animation can be very difficult. Their other animations are shorter, but hard work still went into them — their animal characters coming to life are fun to see!

:sparkles: Highlighted Comic Artist :sparkles:

Felixstuff

Felix’s comic “Phoalake” only has a few pages at the moment, but the storyline and artwork is already promising. Felix’s color usage is well executed throughout each , and the story itself is running smoothly. It’s also irable that there are several types of textures throughout each piece, so as to keep the audience’s eyes occupied. If you’d like to read Felix’s comic “Phoalake,” this blog will direct you to the first page.

:sparkles: Highlighted Anime Artist :sparkles:

Dead Slot 4

DS4’s character designs are absolutely amazing! A lot of time is clearly dedicated to each piece, and their personal style is food for the eye. DS4 primarily creates drawings for their character Mun and their style is consistent and clean. This consistency reminds me of animated televisions shows, because of their need for consistency. Mun and Haruko are definitely characters one could see in a fantasy based anime.

:sparkles: Highlighted Semi-Realistic Artist :sparkles:

Shy Away

Shy’s work consists primarily of stylized portraits. Shy’s semi-realistic art may not look like a photograph, but the authentic expressions and differentiating line weight creates a beautiful resemblance to that of a photograph. You don’t want to miss out on Shy’s magnificent portraits.

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Thank concludes this week’s Highlight Artists of the Week. If you haven’t already, please check out these artists and their artistic journey~!

~ Jayce

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↳˳ ❀ ;; ❝ honey is typing ᵕ̈ ೫˚∗:

hiya honey buns! For this week’s comic I made it about when you’re drawing in class and a peer comes up to you, breathes down your neck and says in the loudest voice possible “you DRAW? CAN I SEE?” So you show them your art and they respond with “WHat iS iT?” and your heart just... shatters