This blog is an artwork history and work in progress log. NSFW/R18 images are present.
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2024年9月3日の投稿［3件］
Not sure if this has been asked before but: do u have any advice for drawing old men?
-Asked by holdinglines
KRAD: Appreciate you asking, this post would be most relevant there ~ I also did two artbook reviews covering JP-styled ossans, if that’s the specific angle you’re looking for.
Otherwise good ol’ observation, practice, and dignity goes a long way.
Observation (preferably from real life if it’s possible, documentaries or gifs if not) to equip the mental library with how skin ages and how bones are a wonderful map underneath. Almost every time I’m talking to a person, I’ll be mentally sketching out how I would draw their interactions and the curvature of the face. If you’ve ever played the videogame Okami, it’s a remarkably similar notion to “drawing” on top of that world. :)
On the other side, I like documentaries specifically because you get a wider variety of folks and you can see the specific body language as well, and how age affects how people move.
Practice, if only for the (unfortunately unavoidable) fact that learned repetition over time teaches you what lines are critical and what lines aren’t needed for the sake of clarity. There’s also going to be a period of adjustment time in getting used to drawing those different shapes, lines, and motions especially if favorite subjects have skewed younger before. It’s totally natural and nothing to be ashamed of - I find it takes me a solid year before I’m truly comfortable drawing a brand new subject.
And last but greatest: dignity, as they’re no less visually interesting than any one of us, regardless if you’re coming from a place of personal attraction or not. You can (and should) draw breathtakingly erotic, kinky, sexual pieces that channel that dignity hand in hand - but it’s dignity in how you breathe a lived life into those lines, both on paper and what you’re depicting.COLLAPSE
-Asked by holdinglines
KRAD: Appreciate you asking, this post would be most relevant there ~ I also did two artbook reviews covering JP-styled ossans, if that’s the specific angle you’re looking for.
Otherwise good ol’ observation, practice, and dignity goes a long way.
Observation (preferably from real life if it’s possible, documentaries or gifs if not) to equip the mental library with how skin ages and how bones are a wonderful map underneath. Almost every time I’m talking to a person, I’ll be mentally sketching out how I would draw their interactions and the curvature of the face. If you’ve ever played the videogame Okami, it’s a remarkably similar notion to “drawing” on top of that world. :)
On the other side, I like documentaries specifically because you get a wider variety of folks and you can see the specific body language as well, and how age affects how people move.
Practice, if only for the (unfortunately unavoidable) fact that learned repetition over time teaches you what lines are critical and what lines aren’t needed for the sake of clarity. There’s also going to be a period of adjustment time in getting used to drawing those different shapes, lines, and motions especially if favorite subjects have skewed younger before. It’s totally natural and nothing to be ashamed of - I find it takes me a solid year before I’m truly comfortable drawing a brand new subject.
And last but greatest: dignity, as they’re no less visually interesting than any one of us, regardless if you’re coming from a place of personal attraction or not. You can (and should) draw breathtakingly erotic, kinky, sexual pieces that channel that dignity hand in hand - but it’s dignity in how you breathe a lived life into those lines, both on paper and what you’re depicting.COLLAPSE
ANONYMOUS: What are your favorite brushes?
KRAD: Ha, you timed that well as I was considering making a ‘what tools do I use’ post. information wants to be free and all of that ~
Before I get into specific brushes, I need to mention hardware. Two years ago i switched permanently to linux (Ubuntu distro), via a system76 laptop . Linux isn’t for the tech-fainthearted, but if you hav a passion for playing with computers and are feeling increasingly constricted with the subscription BS that mac/win is pushing, consider giving it a trial run.
Krita is an open-sourced free paint/vector program that’s available on all major OS’s (win/mac/linux), but is by far the best one for linux. Frankly, I adore Krita; it reminds me of the best of paint tool SAI way back in the day, a little of photoshop CS2, and I just discovered in the past two weeks it’s got some deceptively powerful vector tools for speech bubbles and comics. open source programs used to be pretty pathetic compared to “professional” ones but the gap between krita and say, CSP is pretty nil.
Now to talk brushes: I uploaded a slightly older version of my go-to brushes here on mediafire some which have been slightly tweaked from krita defaults. there’s a solid pen one, a halftone brush, and some watercolor ones.
however, I discovered these brushes (thanks to @am-herrington) a few months ago and am convinced the linked newer brushes are going to make everything else I have obsolete - the natural/textural inking is just that good. tl;dr - just grab these.
some other odds and ends to my process: i could not draw without the hydrus network which is essentially a booru-esque media organizing program. stores gifs, images, can mass-download images, and has a robust tagging ability. taco’s drawing book is one of the one I’ll also reliably flip through when my brain’s trying to figure out a piece of tricky anatomy. lastly, blambot is my trusted go-to font store when I’m in need of a manga/comics related font; there’s some very generous pricing and freebies for indie comics. COLLAPSE
KRAD: Ha, you timed that well as I was considering making a ‘what tools do I use’ post. information wants to be free and all of that ~
Before I get into specific brushes, I need to mention hardware. Two years ago i switched permanently to linux (Ubuntu distro), via a system76 laptop . Linux isn’t for the tech-fainthearted, but if you hav a passion for playing with computers and are feeling increasingly constricted with the subscription BS that mac/win is pushing, consider giving it a trial run.
Krita is an open-sourced free paint/vector program that’s available on all major OS’s (win/mac/linux), but is by far the best one for linux. Frankly, I adore Krita; it reminds me of the best of paint tool SAI way back in the day, a little of photoshop CS2, and I just discovered in the past two weeks it’s got some deceptively powerful vector tools for speech bubbles and comics. open source programs used to be pretty pathetic compared to “professional” ones but the gap between krita and say, CSP is pretty nil.
Now to talk brushes: I uploaded a slightly older version of my go-to brushes here on mediafire some which have been slightly tweaked from krita defaults. there’s a solid pen one, a halftone brush, and some watercolor ones.
however, I discovered these brushes (thanks to @am-herrington) a few months ago and am convinced the linked newer brushes are going to make everything else I have obsolete - the natural/textural inking is just that good. tl;dr - just grab these.
some other odds and ends to my process: i could not draw without the hydrus network which is essentially a booru-esque media organizing program. stores gifs, images, can mass-download images, and has a robust tagging ability. taco’s drawing book is one of the one I’ll also reliably flip through when my brain’s trying to figure out a piece of tricky anatomy. lastly, blambot is my trusted go-to font store when I’m in need of a manga/comics related font; there’s some very generous pricing and freebies for indie comics. COLLAPSE
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one, is i guess i’ve always found it neat when peers and mentors explained changes in their work. maybe you get bored. maybe you level up so much that it requires a different process (more complex comic projects aiming to evoke emotions vs single page doodles). maybe you want to showcase your work to a different audience (a background painter wanting to pivot to animation for work, or to simply study character design for fun). maybe you want to get into specific kinds of nsfw art; either for “yolo” reasons or something else.
maybe my reasons have absolutely nothing in common with yours. maybe they do, and it sparks more understanding. talking to satisfy curiosity’s sake, basically - it’s a bonus if more happens.
another take is i feel that a large part of my workflow (both dayjob design management and hobby work) is asking the “why” and then iterating off of that. just my humble opinion but in the age of ai images, the biggest missing step between those images and a sentient creative is the capability of asking the why, (why this as a illust? why are those three lines stylistically drawn like that? why is that prop in there? why is that line arced like so?) and using your slew of mental, physical, and digital tools to execute the work in aim of an unspoken goal (or several).
maybe artists misstepped by not extending an olive branch and illuminating that missing reasoning, in a similar way to educating others on critical thinking (but with visual arts). maybe selfishly i want to leverage this as a way to separate myself from the goopy grey morass of images in a unique way.
maybe this is half a diary to my future self to track what actually works, or to get past an area that i feel stuck in. there’s a concept in tech called rubber duck debugging that’s essentially talking about that why until you get past a mental roadblock.
i also miss how resources back in 2008 just used to be … free. not “technically” free if you sign up for a newsletter/class/etc, but freely given, sincere - no strings attached. honoring the ethos of early-internet ‘information wants to be free’ culture, even if it’s mostly extinct now. mindfully knowing that you’re lifting the current & next generation of artists up, if there’s a need for a reason to go with the extra effort.
i never do anything without multiple reasons why.
perhaps some of these are the answers. COLLAPSE