Heres all the WIP pictures together in hopes that they help show the process for people!
Materials used are listed as captions!!!!!!! QUQ Paper mache technique for #3 is HERE
My cosplay/costume blog shared with my 2 cousins is HERE.
Thanks for all the kind words friends!
Character Design is using Pinterest, an online pinboard to collect and share what inspires you.DEAR TIM I HAVE CONCEPTS TO COMPLETE DUE IN AN HOUR WHY DID YOU LINK THIS THIS IS THE MOST DISTRACTING THING YOU COULD’VE LINKED
CLICK IT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CLICK IT.
4 all u kids who wanna study some figure drawing/anatomy
- Figure Drawing For All It’s Worth - Andrew Loomis >PDF download<
- Mastering Drawing The Human Figure - Jack Faragasso >PDF download<
- Figure Drawing Design and Invention - Michael Hampton >PDF download<
- Dynamic Figure Drawing - Burne Hogarth >PDF download<
All the downloads are free they only take a little bit time to download because these are big files!
YES
WATERCOLOUR CHEAT CODES
I made really quick tutorials full of swatches to send my mom who wants to take up watercolour painting for a hobby. I’ll share them here as I find time to type what I wrote her.
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The first two pictures illustrate discoveries in mixing skin-tones. I try to find paints that make it faster/easier to mix skin colours - even if you’re adept at making these tones out of other colours, the right combo of purple and yellow can cut out a lot of time and money. The one I have most success with is “violet gray”, then “permanent magenta” for darker and wider ranges, and “purple lake” when I was cheap and it was on sale.
Mix these (sparingly) with raw sienna. The darker the purple the less you’ll need to add to your yellow (yellow ochre works as well). Ultimately, watercolour is tricky to mix so if you’re not confident right away make sure to paint swatches before putting a loaded brush to paper, otherwise be ready to mix with water on the paper.
For a lighter, paler, redder skin tone, raw sienna + brown madder is what I prefer, although as you can see in the first image (about half-way down the page on the left), “cadmium yellow pale hue” and “cadmium red deep hue” work just as well, and might be cheaper on you. With that combo, however, it’s easier to get stuck mixing a ton of orange.
Back to permanent magenta, it’s great with browns to get darker tones, not just for darker skin but for shading. I keep three browns on my “skin” palette (last pic), “burnt umber”, “burnt sienna”, and “vandyke brown”. Mix it with some skin-tone, even just a little, to keep it from looking straight-out-of-the-tube.
So mix your skin tones, make a few test swatches to figure out how much water you need (every brush behaves differently), and lay down some washes.
In the middle of the first piece of paper is a gradation in a skin tone (violet gray + raw sienna) from really warm (“brown madder”) to really cool (“turquoise”). This was done wet in wet, to show what kinds of tones you get from adding warm and cool colours.
To the left on the bottom are a couple light washes of colours painted over a skin tone (same ol’ raw sienna + violet gray) to show how different colours look on this mix when applied dry on dry. Blue (I used turquoise again) is great for some shadows, implied stubble, and veins close to the skin, reds and most browns for warmer shading, yellow for jaundice or boogers… you get it.
On the bottom right is an example of really warm vs. really cool shading on the same skin tone mix (just guess). The initial skin tone wash is a bit warm for the cool side, but the contrast makes the shadows really evident. Different colours in shading will have different effects that way. The only surprise here is the use of dark blue “indigo” which is great for coming close to black when mixed with other colours.
On the second page are two more noses, different skin tones, and just three extra passes with skin tone washes - although difficult to tell because I was lazy and didn’t wait long enough for them to dry after the 2nd pass. The extra passes aren’t particularly warm or cold leaning, but simply draw off of the initial tone I placed.
IMPORTANT: These little quick studies serve to be as economical as possible, using few colours but still not looking just like an awkward mix of red and yellow or brown and yellow. For a more detailed or accurate representation of skin tones, a ton more colours might be added - for instance the darker skin tone on the right would have more pinks, and of course different parts of the body appear to be tinted differently. Also never forget no matter what colour or how dark skin is, skin is shiny. Be mindful of even diffused light. At the same time - perfect representation of skin is hardly necessary. More expressive colour treatment rules.
But ultimately - colour in skin - who cares! Just play around with colours you like, build a base that’s easy for you to mix quickly for wet on wet or however you prefer to work. Play with colours on different planes or surfaces of the body, with light, and take everything I say as a tips - not rules - ‘cause watercolour is really unpredictable and that is often the best part.
Another note: I use pencil tins for palettes, it keeps things portable, easy to mix, minimal paint waste, and I can rearrange paints easily to make mixing easier. I usually have three but you could get away with one or two. If you try it out, keep the paints and empty space clean with jut a bit of water and the wipe of a cloth/kleenex.
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The third picture shows a really quick, easy, natural black mix I make. It’s simply “Hooker’s Green, Dark” and “Dioxazine Violet” at almost equal quantities. You can mix it with a blue or red or yellow for a warmer or cooler black, depending on which you need. I included some gradation and overlapping swatches. Just keep in mind black can be very powerful in watercolour, or any opaque application of the paint, so use it sparingly and with a plan in mind.
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Despite my shitty watercolour sketches up here, I spent a huge amount of being a child working at a cooperative gallery with some contemporary and purist watercolour painters alike so I picked up a lot. If anyone wants me to be more specific about something, or maybe produce a more specific guide or sketch for a problem you have, let me know and I can try to help out.
These were things my mum asked for and that I produced with her knowledge of the medium in mind, so if it really did interest you but you’re stuck on something, or found something I said vague and confusing, let me know.
Grell Sutcliff Cosplay Teeth Tutorial!
By popular demand! Since I’ve had so many people ask. I hope this is helpful to someone!
Here are some links to a few of the items you might have difficulty finding. Though everything you can get at a grocery store or hardware store, except the plastic pellets.
A few more tips I forgot to mention above:
Clean of any extra glue with a clean q-tip, and avoid getting the glue on the front of the tooth. - If the edges of the teeth don’t match up, wait until the glue is dry, and you can file down the tops of the teeth a bit until it’s a closer match. - When removing the retainer pull down carefully, and use both hands. - You can drink with these in, but I recommend -only- cold water. Don’t try to eat with them in. - Pointy teeth are sharp! Be careful, you probably will cut yourself.Enjoy the tutorial! )
A step-by-step breakdown of *Qinni’s short animated film, “Night Light.”
The whole film took me altogether about 5 grueling months (usually 10-12hours a day) to do. I often felt my butt was going to grow into the chair I usually sat at.
Please note that this was simply my way of doing my film to achieve the soft-shaded style I wanted; there are many other ways of doing this and some are a lot faster with different results~! :)
- My film on DeviantArt | My film on Vimeo
- My film gifs on Tumblr
- You can see my storyboard animatic here (although the original had music, but like I mentioned, my placeholder music was by Joe Hisaishi, you know, Miyazaki’s composer, so it’s not really legal to upload it).
This tut differs a bit from my dA version, because tumblr lets me put the combination of gifs and jpegs :D.
Here’s a book that will really help you start animating:
here’s some books that are good for composition, storytelling and colours:
- Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation
- The Art of Pixar: The Complete Color Scripts and Select Art from 25 Years of Animation
- Prepare to Board! Creating Story and Characters for Animated Features and Shorts
I hope these helpedI ask that no one removes the credit or source for this tutorial/guide please. thanks :)
hOLY CRAP there was a post going around about running out of undos SO IT GOT ME THINKIN: ”HUH IT’S DUMB THAT ADOBE HAS SIX FREAKING CREATIVE SUITES AND THEY HAVENT INVENTED A WAY TO LET YOU UNDO MORE THAN 4 TIMES”
BUT ALAS THERE IS A WAY AND I JUST MADE A VISUAL FOR IT (CUZ IDK VISUALS ARE COOL)
BASICALLY YOU BUST OPEN YOUR PREFERENCES->GENERAL->PERFORMANCE AAND YYOU CHANGE THOSE HISTORY STATES SO NOW YOU CAN HAVE UP TO 1000 FREAKIN UNDOS HOLY NUTs
IF YOU ALREADY KNEW ABOUT THIS BEFORE THEN WOW KUDOS TO YOU BRO IGNORE ME IM RLY SLOW LEARNER
This is a very helpful guide for those of you who love to undo.
There you go, buncha casuals-
How to take your wig from gross to great!
This isn’t a new method at all, but instead my results using this tutorial.
While the before shot is pretty terrible photo quality to begin with, you can see the wig is basically a ratty, gross-looking mess.
- Find a tank or bucket and empty a capful of fabric softener into it (more softener if your wig is longer).
- Add enough water to submerge the wig, and make sure to flip it inside out before you put it in the water. Swish it around to make sure it’s saturated, and then let it soak for a few days. I left mine is for a little over two days, but I would suggest leaving it in closer for the five days the original tutorial suggests.
- Lay the wig out on a towel to dry. I didn’t wash out the fabric softener, and when it was damp instead of dripping, I put it on a wig stand.
- After it’s completely dry, brush through it with a wig brush, or at least a brush with wire teeth. Plastic teeth will create static and no one wants that.
- If you need a wig brush, try checking out beauty stores. Failing that, you can usually find wire brushes at pet stores, and they work as well as any wig brush.
- Spray lightly with dry shampoo or sprinkle with talcum powder. Brush your wig again after a few minutes to help disperse the powder and keep your wig from looking chalky. You may experience a small amount of shedding during the brushing process, but it shouldn’t be anything too severe.
And there you have it!
Paint Bucket Resources: Tutorial: plastic keychains
I know a ton of you have been waiting for this one. Teaching you to make your own plastic keychains!
To start off, I think the biggest question everyone has is what I use to make them. I work with shrink film. You might be familiar with Shinky Dink brand shrink film as a kid. I use Grafix brand white inkjet shrink film. The inkjet kind is relatively pricey compared to the regular kind. If you’re using regular, I don’t recommend you stick it in your printer. Sharpie markers would be good for that.
Alright, now open up the file with the images that you’re working with. Make sure your images are a lot bigger than you want your finished product to be since they shrink significantly.
You’ll also want to lighten the opacity to about half. I go somewhere between 50-60%.
Now print your image out! I’ve found that it works best for me when I have it at the plain paper setting, and standard print quality.
Holepunch with a 1/4” holepuncher BEFORE you shrink them. It’s so much more work to have to punch holes when your plastic is thick!
Cut out your design, leaving the amount of border you want.
Set them on a tray for convenience. An aluminum foil sheet works too, but I recommend cookie trays because they are easier and quicker to get out of the oven.
Preset heat. Your shrink film package will tell you what temperature to set it at, but I find that it isn’t always accurate for me. I generally set temperature to 350 degrees or so.
Put them in the oven. Remember to keep track of time! I leave them in for about a minute and a half.
After time is up they should be super small! Magic!
If your charms are not flat, put something heavy on it right out of the oven when they are still hot and malleable.
If you’d like to, you can seal them now. In my last two batches, I used clear topcoat nail polish. The problem with that is that I need between 3-5 coats of it, and it takes a while to dry. I’ve been experimenting with modpodge.
For lariats, you can use jump rings or lobster clasps.
Here is one that I made that wasn’t sealed. The finished texture after shrinking is a little bit rough. There’s nothing wrong with leaving them unsealed, but because they are inkjet printed, the colors wash right of without protection.
This is one that was sealed with modpodge. The colors become a little more vibrant and smooth and water resistant. Things often get stuck on when applying or drying so be careful.
These ones down here were sealed with clear nail polish. They come out shiny if you put enough coats, but the grainy texture will still be there.
Well, there ya go! Have fun making your own keychains!
