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A Salandit's helpful tips to all things arty~
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Posted: Mon, 20/04/2020 13:40 (4 Years ago)
these are just a few helpful tips for those that stumble onto this diary <3
it's also going to be used as a OC/art dump for me!
feel free to comment if you still need a few more tips/want to ask about commission pricings/an oc of mine!
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ever run into this problem on MS paint? where a white border is now covering your other sprite? there is a way to get rid of this!!
first, you want to go to your menu and click on the drop down of the select tool
next click on the "transparent selection" box and make sure its ticked!
presto! now you can overlay sprites easily!
You can easily recolour sprites by using these tools:
first select your colour picker, use it to select the colour you wish to recolour.
your selected colour should look like this
in the first slot
select your second colour slot, using the
colour picker you can right click and select a different colour or
use the colour slider to pick a custom colour
select your rubber tool and right click dragging it over the sprite and it should only change that colour.
presto how to easily recolour sprites!
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art programs ive personally used and suggest: Fire alpaca, paint.net
make sure you sketch your drawings first-
using simple shapes to build up a pose first is always a good idea especially using circles and rectangles
taking a look at some real life references is also super helpful
such as animals , depending on the species take a look at their snout length and the size of their paws/tails - since every animal is different the lengths of key features are all different! for example-
canids have much longer snouts and heads
while felids have much shorter stubby snouts
and much rounder headslooking at natural animal poses is good as well
looking at the way animals naturally pose their limbs as they walk or preform actions is helpful to know and have in your head for future drawings
take this running wolf as an example, try and draw some reference lines for it then try by looking only a few times then try by not looking at it at all, make sure you use shapes and lines then look at my example when you're done
while its not 100% accurate it doesn't have to be , as long as it shows emotion in the way its posed then you're on the right track!
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I have a few tips on designing oc's!
when creating oc's use non bright colours (unless that's the theme you're going for! things like kidcore or neons are ok when used in a design too! ) using neon's as a accent colour doesn't look bad if used sparingly!
as an example i'll use my oc Linxus
he has neon green piercings and eyes, and it doesn't look overwhelming!
heres another of my characters; odoroki.
his colours are quite bright and he seems to have a theme , he is based on a gameshow host and the element of surprise- all in all he's a joke character but themes are good for characters!
themes can be important , as they can help world build and build your oc's backstory!
lets take a look at my character Darren.
his outfit is a parka , with a beanie and long jeans.
just by the look of it you can tell a few things about him, one is he's a demon, two he either lives in a cold or snowy place and three , that he hides the fact he's a demon.
your character having a simple theme that relates to their story can tell a person a lot about them.