Maybe a tut on Networking and Tumbling for the intermediate artist?

Well, this is a complicated issue, but I’ll take a crack at it. I’m not tumblr famous by any means, but I do have a decent follower base. However, if any of you out there have had better luck with it — by all means, answer this question again.

1) Good content is always a great idea.

The best advice I have ever heard, and I can’t remember what the quote was exactly or who said it, was that the best thing an artist can do is draw cool things and put them online.

Networking is hard, and I can’t even say I successfully do it on my own blog. It took me a year to get 500 followers, and I don’t really see it jumping much higher than that.

It’s a trial system, too. I confess to drawing things that I think people will like, and people never like it. So I stop and I draw what I think would be cool, what I would click on an look at and examine, and that usually works for me.

The best thing to do is stay positive and keep going. Make friends with other artists, and follow every artist you can. Why? Well, I’m personally an egotistical person, and the thing that helps me the most is to see someone do something way better than me and be determined to do better next time. You don’t beat yourself up — you just say, “Next time, I’m going to do better.”

2) Deciding who your audience is and working within that audience.

Above I said that working on getting better as an artist will help, and that sounds like advice more geared toward artistic improvement rather than tumblr followers, but that’s the idea — being a better artist will always attract more attention. You can draw a million crappy pictures of yaoi pairings for attention, but what really draws the eye is one wonderful image of something that you feel passionately about, from your heart.

Of course, if that thing is still a yaoi pairing, then do it. Don’t be afraid to openly love something that is well known as something popular. It’s just as stupid to draw something for attention as it is to not draw something because of the attention you’ll get.

There’s an audience for everything. Sometimes the audience is small, so if you stick to that you’re never going to be “tumblr famous.” Some people cope with that by drawing many different things, which honestly is best because having a wide range of skill is never a bad idea. And some people draw things that are really popular, and so they get a huge fan base.

3) Getting to know other artists (the actual networking part).

Honestly, a lot of it is luck too. Maybe someone who is really popular on tumblr will start liking you art and reblog something — a lot of people will see it. On the other side of the coin, someone might love your art and reblog it…and only have five followers. That isn’t bad — that’s just how it works out.

I gained a lot of followers when a fellow artist who is pretty dang popular asked people to draw a portrait of her. I did that, and she loved it and went through my blog and started reblogging my art. We’re friends now. Had I found her and begged her to reblog my art, I doubt we would be.

You can’t track down an artist who is popular and say, “Look at me!” and you also shouldn’t track down an artist and suck up to him or her until they start to be friendly with you. Other artists see that and think poorly of it. And the artist you’re trying to get attention from probably won’t like it either.

It’s a really good idea to just start talking to people. I know I personally respond very well to followers talking to me. I try to respond and interact, and I really like that. I also usually click onto their blogs to see who they are and what they do, and a lot of the time I find a cool artist worth following. But if those people never spoke to me, I might not have ever found their art. I’ve also gotten a lot of follow backs for what I assume is the same reason — and I never did it by pretending to be someone else. I just made comments I was inclined to make.

4) Taking advantage of art content blogs.

There are lots of blogs that publish artwork of other artists to generate their own content, and you should always take advantage of that. There’s Eat Sleep Draw and lots of fuck yeahs for different types of art. Submit as often as you feel comfortable, and put a link back to your blog.

Some people will say, “Please follow me!” at the bottom, too. I personally wrinkle my nose and ignore that kind of stuff when I see it on those blogs, but I can’t speak for others. Discretely giving someone a means to get back to your blog is what I figure works best.

Basically, put yourself out there without making a fool of yourself.

How to keep color, tint and shade balanced in an image by Samantha Garrett

This tutorial is not specific to watercolor. I am going to demonstrate some points with watercolor and some points with digital art on a pencil sketch. At some points, however, I will mention some things dealing with watercolor, but they still apply to other media.

Step one: As always, I begin with a thumbnail. My general idea was a pretty basic one — just a girl sitting and reading, and the entire idea was not fleshed out until I started drawing on the watercolor paper (image 1).

Step two: When I sketched this out, I ended up redrafted all of the lines a number of times, because I didn’t have the idea completely fleshed out until I got to this point. That’s not the best method, and it lowered the quality of my paper because of how many times I used my eraser. But otherwise, I didn’t have many hiccups. I did something differently this time — I used a rubbing stick to apply some graphite shadows in the image. I had no idea at this point if it would turn out right or not (image 2).

Step three: This step is usually a mental one, but I decided to illustrate it for you. Here, I decided what the main hue of the image would be — which is dark red. The young woman is wearing dark red tights, sitting in a room with dark red wallpaper, and so on. I attempted to distribute the color throughout the image in a balanced way (image 3). Then I moved on to decide on what the rest of the colors in the image would roughly be. Everyone knows that red and green are complementary colors, and I decided to play on that in this image. Notice that all of the colors are fairly muted — this is because of the mood of the image, which is a calm, sedate scene. The sunlight coming through the window is diffused by the cloud coverage, and I reflected that in my color choice. All there is from here is to use these ideas while I actually paint the image (image 4).

Step four: Now it’s time to move away from planning and to actually start working on the image. It turned out that I didn’t have the right red, so I decided to use a magenta color. I like it all the same. I worked first with the background, and then I moved onto working on the figure. Once I had the base coat of color on everything, and it was dry, I applied shading and detail with watered down blue. The idea with that is to have enough pigment in the water to make a shade, but not so much that the blue distracts. I also created the appearance of diffused sunlight entering the room as a gradient on the wall. Throughout all of this, I was mindful that there was contrast throughout the image. Without contrast, the image can lose its interest (usually, but not always). I also left the white trim around the window, in the molding on the bottom of the wall, her cardigan, and her shoes. I did this so that I could establish three levels of color — the dark, the middle, the bright. Or, as I said in the title, the shades, the colors and the tints (image 5).

• Note: When I work, I avoid black. That’s my personal style, so instead of having black hair, this girl has gray hair. I also usually avoid whites by applying a base color wash before going from there, but I didn’t do that in this image. To get the look I have, you wouldn’t use black (except in maybe the outlines), but if you want to stray from that there is nothing stopping you.

Step five: This last addition to the image is what makes it balanced — I added the darkest shade (the lines). For some images, the darkest part of the picture might be more predominately displayed, especially if you prefer to use black or to use highly contrasted shadows. That isn’t the case with this image. But I balanced color with the predominance of magenta and green, and I balanced levels with the distribution of lightness and darkness (image 6).

Hopefully, this tutorial was helpful, and you’ve come to understand balance a bit better.

Using Motion by Samantha Garrett

Disclaimer: I’m definitely not going to claim mastery of the usage of motion, but it’s something that I’ve been trying to use more for my illustrative art. Proper usage of it can draw the eye around the image, attract attention to certain details, and give the image some life.

Planning the movement: The first thing I do is work out what the image is going to look like with thumbnails. You can kind of see it on the top that I tried to have his leg bent, but it didn’t work, so I extended his leg. I’ve also illustration the motion I tended to capture in the image with orange arrows. I don’t normally do that, but it can help if you are trying to really stress making sure you capture it in the final image. I mostly just put them there for you, though. But idea idea is that motion is extending down his torso and leg as he pushes against the dresser, and his arm is moving away from the dresser as he pulls out the drawer — which is also moving. And the magical contents of the bottom drawer are extending upward (image 1).

Using the movement: Here with the finished painting you can see the upward motion of the magical whatsit, the movement of his head pushing back with the effort, of his foot pressing on the dresser, and his arms pulling on the drawer. Keeping this motion in mind while planning the drawing, and then conveying it in the finished drawing can be very helpful for telling the story of the image. It doesn’t need to be obvious — just the subtle idea that there are moving parts involved (image 2).

Watercolor Backgrounds by Eva Anner

Backgrounds are hard! Of course you want a fabulous backdrop for your wonderful drawing, but you have to like…draw more things? And color them individually? 

Actually, no you don’t! Allow me to demonstrate how, with the wonderful magic of watercolor pencils, I have gained the ability to cover a large amount of space in a short amount of time, and have it look pretty. The great thing about this technique is that it allows you to choose a color pallet and just go go go.

1 - I have always inked my drawing and erased the pencil lines before applying my watercolors, because that’s just how I roll. I know that many watercolor artists (the lovely founder of this blog for instance) put color over their pencil lines and then ink them, which works just as well. Which method you use is up to you, but if you want to do lineart before color, then make absolutely sure that you have pens that won’t smudge.

2 - Here you can see the drawing just before I start painting in the background. Don’t worry, it’s supposed to look like a horrible scribbly mess at this point. 

The main trick to these kinds of backgrounds is never use just one color! Keep a general palette in mind and branch out from there. For example, this is underwater, so I used predominately light blue and yellow, but I also threw a whole mess of other colors in there: darker blue, light orange, green, light brown, black. The ocean gets darker as it gets deeper, so the darker greens and blues and blacks are mainly down near the bottom. Be very careful when using black! A little goes a long way.

As you can see, I’ve already painted in the foreground - the girl’s hair/necklace/skin tones, and the astrolabe. Although I don’t have a photo of it, I did paint in the tentacles and fishes before I started in on the main background. Painting these things in beforehand ensures that you won’t “lose” their colors once you start in on the mess of colors that is the background.

Random tips:

• when painting metal, apply the color from outside to inside, going from heavy to light.
• Use a tiny, TINY touch of black on a white article of clothing; it’ll make it more realistic.

3 - here I’ve started painting in the background. I usually use my fingers for this, I personally feel like I have more control with them. There are lots of different techniques you can use at this point! Usually I push the color around following the lines of the drawing, but you can also swirl the colors into circle-y things, or kind of gently slap them for a splattery effect. I’ve also been told there are all sorts of crazy substances you can use for different watercolor effects, like salt and alcohol. Experiment! Mess around!

4 - the final drawing! Hooray! For more examples of these watercolor backgrounds, please see every single thing I have ever drawn.

See this full-sized drawing, its companion piece, and much much more over at my art blog!

marythedaring answered your question: I’ve been trying to think of what to do with my next tutorial.

How to make watercolours a bit bolder?

Yeah! You guys are full of great ideas.

Just so you know, if any of you are interested in making a tutorial and are having a hard time thinking of something — if you feel like you could tackle one of these, go for it. I’m currently working on one about motion, so I haven’t started anything on any of these.

hidden-midden answered your question: I’ve been trying to think of what to do with my next tutorial.

Layering and paying attention to whites! I always overwork my watercolors, and I’d love advice on how to streamline the color mixing.

Oh, that’s a really good one!

nilecrocodile answered your question: I’ve been trying to think of what to do with my next tutorial.

hmm idk…but I was thinking of doing a submission! on how to do those smooshy watercolor backgrounds I am so fond of.

Definitely do it!

I’ve never really made a blog like this before, so I’m not too sure how I’ll run it. Options available to those wanting to submit are a little limited, so I would like to offer some people the chance to be contributors so that you can have access to things like uploading photo sets, etc.

To be a contributor, I would like to see more than one tutorial out of you, thus the fancy title of “contributor.” There probably won’t be a deadline, though a general idea of when you are going to post would be nice (just so that there aren’t long dry spells).

So shoot me an ask if you are interested and we’ll go from there.

other-side-of-the-universe:

Does that mean I can look forward to some submissions soon? *bats eyelashes*

I will say that the painting I got out of going through the slightly tedious process of letting it dry, stopping and scanning was very clean, detailed and pretty awesome — just because I had to take my time. So maybe, you know, you should make a submission just for that.

If you followed after the tutorial posted, click here to read the post.

Creating a detailed painting with watercolor and ink — by Samantha Garrett

Step one: In this case, I was brainstorming for an idea, and I had sketched out a number of things until I came to this idea. It’s one half of two images linked together. The original sketch is very rough (image 1) but that’s OK — it’s really just an oversized thumbnail. Compositionally, it’s very helpful. Sometimes I’ll draw several thumbnails before I am happy, sometimes with different levels of detail. Then I moved on to sketching out the image on the watercolor paper (unpictured).

Step two: After roughly sketching the image, I began to work out the finer details. That involves a lot more erasing than it does adding lines, and (for me) that also meant making original lines much thinner. Since watercolor makes pencil markings permanent, it’s important to make sure that every line that is on the page is eventually going to be covered in ink. I added the background, and that left the completed pencils for this painting (image 2).

Step three: Using a large, flat brush I covered the entire paper with an even coating of water, and then I immediately painted in a blue hue. My pallet is a pretty messy thing, so this is a mixture of three different types of blue. I then removed some of the paint in some areas. This blue will show in the colors I will paint on later, which is what I want for the tone of this image (image 3).

Step four: I began applying the base coat of colors. On the trees, I used a diluted mixture of brown and black. For the sky, I painted splotches of blue in various different areas to create the impression of clouds. I painted the hill in the background a mixture of green and brown. I put down an even coating of flesh color on her face and hands (image 4).

Step five: I went back to the trees and added lines of blue-black to create the impression of bark. I added shadows to the clouds. I also painted her shirt a mixture of flesh and red on a wash of water to make a nice peach color (image 5).

Step six: Now I began adding some more details — I used a prismacolor colored pencil to color her eyes, as I often have a problem with watercolor bleeding, and I finished up the detail on the trees and the hill in the background. All that’s left is the color for her skirt and some shading, and then I’ll move on to inking the image (image 6).

Step seven: I applied a layer of water to the area designated for her hair, and then slowly added black to the image. I used very little, leaving it more gray that anything. When it dried, I added some more color detail and some shading around her face area. Using very watered down blue and a pretty dry brush, I shaded on her face, her neck, her shirt, and her skirt. I painted her bow as well. At this stage, the water color aspect of this is finished. From here, I let everything dry — completely, too, because the ink will run if I don’t (image 7).

Step eight: I used a mixture of of Winsor & Newton black and nut brown ink to create a sepia look (I’ve been out of sepia for a while). I tend to avoid using straight black, but honestly there’s no reason not to. That’s just my thing. Using alternating pressure, I created ragged, natural looking lines on the trees. On the bent one, I traced around the lines I created with the watercolor to give it a stylized look. For the grass, I made short straight lines. For the clouds, I used thin rounded lines. Finally, on the woman I worked very slowly and carefully on her face. It’s important to not use too much detail there, or else it will give her an older look (which wasn’t what I wanted). I also added detail lines on her shirt and dress around the folds and creases. I like to draw in the stitches in clothing, too, so that’s what I did here (image 8).

Step nine: That being done, I went in and added some white acrylic paint in the whites of her eyes, a shine on her brooch, and finally some highlights on the clouds (unpictured).

And that leaves you with this finished image!

Materials used: various different brushes (most of them very small), Winsor & Newton watercolor, Van Gogh watercolor, Grumbacher watercolor, Winsor & Newton colored inks, Basics white acrylic paint, Canson XL series watercolor paper