AAOC Times #67

𝒜𝒜𝒪𝒞 𝒯𝒾𝓂𝑒𝓈 #67

AAOC Times is a weekly newsletter that features amazing artists, tips and tricks for new and experienced artists, as well as updates in what’s happening around the amino!

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                         ┊ :snowflake: —table of contents

                         ┊i. squad and staff events

                         ┊ii. advice column

                         ┊iii. highlights

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                                            ┊ ۵

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↷ ·˚ ༘ :snowflake: celeste is typing :: ꒱

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Squad & Staff Event News

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Hello! Celeste here to present the Squad and Staff Event News! This article features everything that’s going on in AAOC, from challenges to applications.

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Challenges

Clownin’ Around - Staff Challenge

Love clowns, gymnasts and all things circus? Then, this is the challenge for you! This event tasks you with creating a circus poster using your OCs.

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Art Array Easter Egg Event

Is your ion mystery? Do you love leaving subtle touches in your artwork? Then, I highly suggest you have a look at Art Array’s challenge. Here, you are asked to create an artwork of your OC, which includes an Easter egg about said OC!

Check out Art Array’s wiki here!

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Mirror Mirror: September Staff Challenge

This month’s staff challenge is all about redesign! You must swap your OC’s personality, and completely redesign their looks and traits based on the change. Sound fun? Then, check out this challenge!

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Pending Results

AAOC Times Applications

Our very own AAOC Times has just hosted applications! Unfortunately, they are closed now, but if you applied, keep your eyes peeled for the results on the featured feed.

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Results

SOS Egg Event

SOS’s Egg Event has just ended! If you participated, be sure to check out the results and congratulate the winners!

SOS’s official wiki can be found here!

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That’s all! Be sure to have a look at anything that interests you above! Bye-bye~

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↷ ·˚ ༘ :snowflake: zahley is typing :: ꒱

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Advice column

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Welcome to the advice section, brought to you by Zahley! This is where I answer your questions from the AAOC Times Wiki.

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• "Any realistic shading tips?" •

• - < Wick > - •

The most important thing when trying to do realistic shading is using references and building your library of art knowledge. This will help inform you of lighting, colours and tones of certain objects and materials.

Some good general rules are with warm lighting (most common), you want highlights to have a warmer hue and shadows to be cooler. And cool lighting will often have warmer shadows.

Having a good combination of sharp and soft edges in your highlights and shadows is very important in making something look realistic. Generally if the object is rounded or curved, it will have more soft shading, and more harshly shaped areas will have sharper shadows - think parts that just in or out significantly or less organic shaped objects.

Experimenting with different textures in your work can also help make something look more realistic.

• "Any tips on how to draw lineless?" •

• - < Demigod > - •

Attempting lineless art can be a very difficult process, especially when transitioning from using linework for everything. There are many methods to doing this, but I'll be sharing what I've found works for me and others I've seen.

My first recommendation is to still draw lines, or a sketch you intend to draw over. This can help you know where parts start and end, and where and what shapes features are. From experience, I find thinner lines work best for me, but that comes down to personal preference, give different things a try. It may help to mark where significant shadows and highlights are in the lineart to help later on.

Then there are some things to help prepare the sketch for further painting:

Firstly, I recommend using a dark shade of whatever the predominant colour for the piece will be, such as dark brown, blue or purple, instead of pure black.

Secondly, make sure the lines are light, reduce the opacity of the line layer or sketch lightly to begin with.

When working digitally, I recommend blocking in colours and shadows under the line layer to start off with.

From here, some find it better to fill in detail below the lineart layer and then touch up the areas with lineart on a layer above.

My recommendation is to start drawing over the lines as soon as possible. Get down some rough colours underneath then start painting over, if you are confident, merge all layers and start working with one layer.

The most important thing to when drawing lineless is to differentiate between objects through shading, textures and colour. You might need to consider changes to your character's design to make it easier to distinguish areas of the design, such as adding clothing textures or adding more tonal difference to parts.

Example:

• "How do you draw someone walking towards you? Or walking in general?" •

• - < Razzle Dazzle > - •

Drawing someone walking towards or away from you can be very difficult due to the perspective.

My first advice is take a video of yourself walking and practice drawing different stills from it.

The first important thing you will want to know is the main parts of the walk cycle, this is more obvious from the side, but can also be seen from facing.

The main parts of the walk cycle are:

- when the front foot makes with the ground, the back foot will often just be in with the ground on the front part and this pose is the most spaced out in the cycle.

Down- the weight moves towards the front foot and the back foot is lifted. The figure is often squashed a little as the legs bend to change weight distribution.

ing - this is where the legs each other, it is the least spaced out part of the cycle.

Up - this is where the leg stretches up and forward in the stride, the figure is often stretched back up as the back leg straightens.

The arms move in the opposite direction to the legs, I suggest marking the legs in first.

The hips and shoulders are very important to selling the stride, especially when drawing someone walking towards you. The hips will tilt to follow the position of the legs, i.e. when in the pose, the hip on the front leg will be more forward than the back leg. The shoulders follow the opposite rule as they depend on the arms. It can help to draw boxes and a skeleton underdrawing to work out the perspective and positioning.

Notes for drawing walking forwards poses in particular:

The shoulder that is forward will appear higher, and is opposite to the side of the hips that is higher.

The down or poses are the simplest and most commonly seen walking pose when facing towards the camera. This pose is easier to show perspective and the motion of the hips and shoulders so can look more like walking when being a still image.

Often the front foot will go towards the centre of the pose, blocking some or all of the foot behind it. This is often more exaggerated for females or when walking like a model.

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That's all for today's advice column, leave questions you want answered next time in the wiki!

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↷ ·˚ ༘ :snowflake: celeste is typing :: ꒱

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Highlights of the Week

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Hiya! I’m Celeste, presenting this week’s highlighted artists! This column features artists who excel in their style of art.

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Cartoon Artist

☆ Blue_Lune ☆

Blue_Lune’s cartoony style is absolutely amazing! Their character’s chibi-like proportions combined with vibrant colors create a very pleasing effect. Great job!

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Anime Artist

☆ Kazuo ☆

Kazou’s artwork is practically to die for! Both their digital and traditional pieces are extremely detailed, with emphasis on the stellar shading, and look as if they are straight out of an anime. Simply a fantastic artist!

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Animal Artist

☆ Remy4326 ☆

This animal artist, Remy4326, does an amazing job! Their animal anatomy is right on point, and their feral creatures have an elegant and majestic feel. The color palettes used also contribute to the feel as well. A remarkable artist overall!

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Pixel Artist

☆ PinappleDoubt ☆

Pixel artist can be difficult to work with, but PineappleDoubt makes it look easy! They make the pixel style work perfectly with their characters, and their animations appear as if they jumped out of a retro video game!

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That’s all! Be sure to check out all these amazing artists! ʕ੭ •ᆺ• ₎੭

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And that’s all! Hope you enjoyed, and we look forward to creating more interesting content for everyone (/^▽^)/