and-ARR-icks

May 31

Most perfect art ever.  (Get the games here)

(Source: themantablog, via blyumonsterdono)

May 30

Where have you been, Andarix??

(Kind of crossposted from my personal blog!)

Lately I’ve been WAYYYYYYY BUSY!  Non-stop!  Here’s why!

1. Commission projects.  (One of which is NOT going well so I might have to drop it.  Good thing is, they haven’t paid so if I drop it, it should be pretty guilt free.)
2. Diablo 3!  I got into this game really hardcore and I’m finding it very hard to stop.  With the promise of a real-money auction house though and my high skill, high volume, high content playstyle, I might actually be playing for money soon.  ._.  Living the dream, right?  Getting paid to play video games.  At least I won’t have to sell gold and my wow accounts anymore!
3. Working on learning to animate.  I’m such a baby at it, but I’ve been changing stuff that I’ve been drawing into something more than just static images.  Not happy with the results yet, but it’s obviously why I haven’t posted much.

Oh gosh I have so many messages to answer, I’m so so sorry you guys, I feel like I’ve been neglecting Tumblr a lot lately.   I’ll be back, I promise I will-  I just have to drop these commissions that have walled me into a corner (though there’s still one that’s no problem, will do that) and find some inspiration in what I actually get down as far as personal stuff.  

It’s strange how a few months ago, I was proud of some pieces in my gallery.  Now I look at them and I am disgusted.  I’m not satisfied with my skills at the moment.  I must improve!  I just have to find something I want to draw to help with that…

…now I’m off to go cry into the 200+ messages I have sitting in my inbox.  Omg, I’m so sorry.  ._________.

May 22

“Ooh Miss Aranea” A fan fiction

Mr. English I am home now! *smoulder*

And I am looking so sexy and also my skirt is too short?

(Possible nsfw due to booty smackin?  Idk.)  Fullsize here.

May 20

[video]

May 14

Where to Start with Digital Art

I’ve been asked a lot recently about how and where to start doing digital art.  I’m not much of a teacher, but I’d love to share some tips that I would have loved to have back when I started out.  These will mostly be pointing at specific questions I’ve received via ask, so I might be missing a few points here and there.

1. Photoshop or whatever program you use WILL NOT do the work for you.  Its like expecting paints to jump from their tubes and make shapes and shades without knowing where/how to do it yourself.  Digital programs are a medium, not a template or a wizard.
2. You CAN do very fine works with a mouse!  It will, however, take much longer to do the same job with a mouse than you can with a tablet most of the time.
3. Wacom is NOT the only tablet maker out there.  They are like the Macs/Apples of the tablet world.  You can find MUCH cheaper and same/nearly the same tech in tablets such as these.  Yes that is $12 for a tablet.  If you don’t have a tablet/never used one before, START HERE.  Upgrade to an Intuos later if you want to, but there is no reason to throw down 100-300$ for a tablet that you will get the same results from when you’re first starting.
4. Photoshop is expensive!  It is also the industry standard for most digital works.  However, it lacks a lot of features that other, cheaper (sometimes) programs have.  Painter is where I started and gives beautiful strokes and textures and real-life medium equivalents.  Paint Tool SAI is what I use nearly exclusively these days.  openCanvas is an old classic, and the oC 1.1 version allows you to connect to your friends so you can draw together! (Almost like Paintchat, but private!)
5. Vector graphics are an underappreciated print-ready art form.  Infinitely scale-able and extremely clean, if your style is crisp in form, I recommend using Illustrator or Flash to work with instead of Photoshop.  It’s great for design work instead of character art/illustration.  I used Illustrator exclusively for these pieces:  [X] [X]
6. Your stuff might not be as great as you want it right away.  Many of these programs have SO many options, you might not know where to even start drawing or how to even open a new canvas.  The user interface on photoshop in particular is so crowded that any newcomer could easily become too intimidated by it and ditch it without really getting anywhere.  If you want a private tutorial/class/whatever about how to use any of the above mentioned programs, I’m here to help.  There are many people out there just like me who would love to help out.

I’m sure there’s more tips I can add but I’ll keep this short for now.  If you are a starting digital artist with any particular issues (such as-  my lines are too shaky, how do you get this effect?, how do I choose colors?,  why does this look like this when I want it to look like this?, what resolution should I be working in?,) or any questions of any type about digital art in general, I’d be happy to help!

May 13

Commission of a blue blooded fantroll named Ferven Lucios.  Finished version of this.  Fullsize here.

May 08

Commission of Perkae Mishna from the fan adventure, Clusterbent.  Fullsize here.

May 05

Sometimes I find myself attracted to the women I draw.  Commission for Astra.  Bigger here.

May 02

Commission for Zephyrblue.  Fullsize here.

Apr 28

Hey Homestucks

Tell me about your ships.  

Seriously, I want to know what you consider good and what you’d never ship and why.

A gold-blooded fantroll, commissioned by Hobotoaster.  Fullsize here.

Apr 27

This is the best idea I’ve ever had.  Original. 

Apr 26

Commission for Cancerously.   Fullsize here.

Apr 23

GT: I want to join the opposition! 
GT: Fuck this witch i have lots of guns and reckless bravado and i want to stop her. Ill pick up where my grandma left off! 

Fullsize here.

Apr 20

[video]