What are some of your artistic tricks?

[HumbertTheHorse]

mugenjohncel, what a good idea and what great results. Bravo!

[Tetiel]

I'm like Elze, I use the lasso and transform tools way too much when I'm in the sketching process. It's actually gotten to the point that I'm pretty sure I can't draw traditionally anymore :\ More than anything, I use the pen tool for lineart which makes it much easier to manipulate and perfect anatomy errors once you know how to properly use it. These are tricks, but I don't consider it cheating.

For backgrounds, I love love love yumedust's brushes:
http://yumedust.deviantart.com/art/23-B ... -117421513
It's made drawing trees and grass sooooooo much easier without actually looking obvious, unlike the photoshop defaults.

[mugenjohncel]

OK here's another one of my many tricks in my arsenal which I use regularly...

Say... you needed a background that will feature a very wide horizon containing a lot of details and in this case... the usual school rooftop found in most VN that has the School setting... Drawing the foreground is easy since the rooftop of most school buildings consist of a floor, the service stairs, the safety fence and the occasional watertank that is destined to fall and crush any unsuspecting cute girl who is unfortunate enough to be on the strike zone...

You now have two options...

Do it the hard and painstaking way by drawing each and every single detailed building or structure... manually... or you could do it "The Uncle Mugen" way...

First do the foreground using good old sketchup...


Then go someplace high and take a picture...


Next, overlay the foreground image you made earlier into the photo you took and add lens flare that will serve as your sun...


TADAH!!! Enjoy your CHEAP background!



Edit: Bah!... Youtube only understands Square pixels... to view the video properly please click on the youtube logo and watch it in youtube in it's full glorious correct aspect...

Oh boy... I can't wait for those tomatoes to fly here... I'm gonna have Tomato Paella tonight...

"POOF" (Hides)

[Graph]

Rather, I'm kinda impressed that it blends in that well with the rooftop part of the bg you used. In addition to the filters I guess the fence helps to "mute" the detail that's back there?

I would say it's a step up from using filtered photo backgrounds at any rate. And it have the limitation of needing a lifelike setting; you've got a lot of painting over to do if you're making a sci-fi city!

[LateWhiteRabbit]

LAYERS!

As Mugenjohncel pointed out above, layers are awesome and versatile. I draw a quick gesture layer, lower the opacity and draw a cleaner version on top on another layer, and repeat as many times as necessary, each time everything becoming easier and faster.

It also allows me to focus on sprite POSES and imparting good character and energy before ever worrying about clothing. Which I add on top using - you guessed it - another layer. Yes, every character I draw starts buck naked, because I'm not always sure how revealing future outfits may be, then I can reuse that pose base to add all the different outfits on top like a paper doll.

I also make all the outfits composed of different layers so I can change colors or details very quickly and easily without redrawing or repainting anything. It is a trick I picked up when I was working with film special effects - we rendered out everything in passes so we could tweak details to perfection without being forced to waste time and money re-rendering a shot. Then we could composite everything for the final image, and if the client decided they wanted an apple green instead of red it was a 5 minute fix rather than a 5 hour wait for another scene render.

Oh, and my other artist trick is that my "picture morgue" of reference is MASSIVE, and well-organized. I've got 400 GBs of reference images at high resolution, organized in such a way I can find what I need for any project very quickly. It is organized by subject AND time period. I've even got a folder of literal morgue reference, divided by time period. (Doing research for movies and games can get . . . bad at times. I once had to research period correct child burials and coffins for a game. Re-opened coffins, I might add. That'll give you nightmares. I've got parts of my picture morgue that I avoid like a small child avoids their dark closet . . . .) I've even got a reference folder for cinematic angles divided into what emotions and responses they are designed to evoke. Period-authentic Victorian Halloween Costumes? I've got those too . . . crazy prepared is what I'm saying. Before computers I used file folders and cabinets with magazine clippings for my picture morgue . . . .

Someone might mistake my human reference folders for a porn collection, except people of all ages and genders are represented, even the really old wrinkled ones! (Well - I guess someone might think I have REALLY weird tastes . . . . ) You know you went to a liberal school when the instructors handed out 20 GB of naked people to the students for art. The photos are such high resolution you can zoom in to see individual pores and spots ON freckles. Since I did 3D art and film effects we sometimes needed the actual photos to create textures.

So there are my two secrets - layers for modular design and modification and crazy amounts of reference.

[Sapphi]

I've even got a reference folder for cinematic angles divided into what emotions and responses they are designed to evoke.

...TAKE THIS! MY LOVE, MY ANGER, AND ALL OF MY JEALOUSY!!

Anyhow, I didn't think of layers as a trick, but I guess it kind of is. I'm just so used to it that I think of it as normal.

I'm trying to think of tricks that I do... I think palette-grabbing was already mentioned, as was flipping the image and sometimes using the resize tool to quickly fix proportions (I do this on the sketch only so the lineart doesn't get ugly and fuzzy).

I work with your typical Photoshop layer method, that being an outline layer with transparent whitespace, then a separate layer for every other color underneath the outline that can easily be cleaned up and then locked for shading. I leave the background plain so I can fill it with alternating colors to show me what I missed during cleanup.

For shiny-style coloring (Urushihara-esque, where any self-respecting girl has hair made of sheet metal), I alternately burn or dodge, then instead of using those brushes to color, I use the eyedropper tool to steal the hues it generates and then shade like I normally would.

Aaaaand now that I mentioned burning and dodging, I'll go stand by Mugen and take my share of tomatoes.

[LateWhiteRabbit]

I work with your typical Photoshop layer method, that being an outline layer with transparent whitespace, then a separate layer for every other color underneath the outline that can easily be cleaned up and then locked for shading. I leave the background plain so I can fill it with alternating colors to show me what I missed during cleanup.

Working on a white background isn't a good idea:
1) Eye strain.
2) It makes it harder to harmonize and see the true hue and value of colors. Colors look different next to different colors. The truest way to see the true hue of a color is to place it on 50% gray. I personally draw all my sketches using a very dark brown on a very slightly sepia tinted gray. Release yourself from the tyranny of the pure white void!

Look up "color contrast" for more info.

Aaaaand now that I mentioned burning and dodging, I'll go stand by Mugen and take my share of tomatoes.

I was about to say . . . BOO! Dodge and burn bad! The end result is all that matters of course, but considering the fact those tools only affect exposure and not color, they can lead to poor habits rather quickly. They also tend to make the artists that use them forget about ambient and bounce lighting that add all kinds of color to shadows . . . . but you already knew all this, so that's the only tomato I'll throw!

[Sapphi]

Working on a white background isn't a good idea:
1) Eye strain.
2) It makes it harder to harmonize and see the true hue and value of colors. Colors look different next to different colors. The truest way to see the true hue of a color is to place it on 50% gray.

Cool, I didn't know that! Thanks!
That's probably part of the reason my eyes hurt so much when coloring on the computer (the other reason is that I forget to blink) ^_^;

. . . . but you already knew all this, so that's the only tomato I'll throw!

Great, I'll make a little pizza out of it and salt it with my tears.

[nyaatrap]

I have None I think it's a trick... maybe the usage of color picker tool is the least one.
But I know a trick which is really efficient and widely used by many artists; Deforming trace on someone's work (which should be illegal whatever) then add gradation shading, plus massive textures to hide its origin ┐(´д｀)┌

[StarMasayume]

I don't think I have many tricks yet.

LateWhiteRabbit ~ I am SUPER jealous of your reference collection when hearing about it.

Trying to think of what hasn't been mentioned...

I find I sketch a lot better IRL so I end up scanning my sketches in rather than sketching on the computer. Don't know why but unless it's a really simple chibi I've always been more comfortable this way. Let's me get things down when I'm away from my pc too. I lower the opacity of the sketch, if I'm good and actually check for bad proportions or anatomy I'll flip and go over the area on another layer with some bright and glaring color till it looks right. Then lineart on top of that.

I'm not fond of my lineart so I often try to make it disappear or add finishing touches on top of it near the end ^^;

Hands are still a weakness so sometimes if it looks weird I'll try and capture a photo of my hand in that position on my phone. Once I think I stumbled on a hand you could pose in all different views online for reference and I'm so frustrated I never could find it again...

Anyone know of a place with good background references?

[Nuxill]

I know posemaniacs has a section with 20 different hand positions that you can rotate and flip. Is that the site you were talking about? http://www.posemaniacs.com/tools/handviewer/ nsfw since one of the 3d models at the top of the list is a nude male torso.

[pricklish]

Well, I guess I have a trick for making backgrounds...

Steps:
1. Make a 3D scene in Sweet Home 3D.
2. Save a picture of it.
3. Open it in Photoshop.
4. Trace the outline.

[Anthy]

Oh boy people will definitely laugh at me after this...

Someone once complimented me on how fast I can flesh out character poses... what I didn't tell her (yep!... she's probably reading this right now) is that my technique consist of...

1. Take a FIGMA out of the box
2. Remove the hair and accessories
3. Give it the desired pose
4. Take a picture of it and transfer it to the computer
5. Trace the outline
6. Tweak outline to make it less FIGMA and more HAND DRAWN
7. Overlay it with outfit that will make it unique and color it
8. Enjoy your new character sprite

Yep... if you look closely you can pretty much guess which FIGMA I used for this particular sprite. So you ask... why would someone like me who can and has draw my own characters from scratch before resort to such borderline cheating technique? Because it saves me time and effort... something I no longer have nowadays... You have to look at the larger picture here. If I did this using the traditional way (AKA sketch, edit, sketch, edit... repeat until satisfied) it will eat up way too much time. Time that can be productively used instead on scripting, writing and GUI (something you cannot cheat your way out of it)... The less time you spend on producing "decently acceptable" Graphical Assets, the more time you can polish and refine the other aspects of your work which will eventually lead to an overall decent outcome if executed properly. Besides, it's not like I did't exert some effort. On the contrary, all I did was take the outline shape of the pose and still manually added the rest... and that is something you cannot shortcut your way out of. Though it did took out the guesswork on how a pose would appear...

OK you can toss those rotten tomatoes now at me...

"POOF" (Hides)

I do this with Dollfies, since they have various heights and both sexes and only cost $15-30 each. (I'd mess with my Figma but she's so fragile, I broke her arm once already... D:)
Usually I just visually reference them though. But if I were doing digital work... photos would be much better...

And if I want a drawing to look really good, I mess around with lighting and take photos of my Dollfie Dream heads to make face shading look realistic for those stylized anime faces.
And if I'm feeling really hardcore, I'll wear clothing with shapes or styles similar to the character I'm drawing (major advantage to being a cosplayer) and do mirror poses. Either study it and draw from memory or actually take a photo. That way I get the clothing wrinkles JUST RIGHT. though if your body is dramatically different from the character you're trying to draw this trick doesn't work as well.

[StarMasayume]

I know posemaniacs has a section with 20 different hand positions that you can rotate and flip. Is that the site you were talking about? http://www.posemaniacs.com/tools/handviewer/ nsfw since one of the 3d models at the top of the list is a nude male torso.

That's it! Thank you so much. I stumbled across that years ago but never really got to take advantage of it. When I click on side options it's popping up for me to download zip folders rather than showing them in the main section... is that normal now?

I do this with Dollfies, since they have various heights and both sexes and only cost $15-30 each. (I'd mess with my Figma but she's so fragile, I broke her arm once already... D:)
Usually I just visually reference them though. But if I were doing digital work... photos would be much better...

You meant 150 - 300.... right? o.O;
I wanted a Dollfie years ago but they're so expensive...

Posing them for reference seems like a good motivation now though

[Anthy]

Nope, only $15-30

I'm not talking about Super Dollfies (which are more like $500-1000 range :[ and too heavy for easy posing), I'm talking about the original 1/6 scale Dollfies which come in 22, 25, 27, and 30 centimeter heights.
They're similar to Obitsu dolls which come in more varieties (and are a little more expensive) but I don't have an Obitsu. I'd like some someday though because of the variety.

you can get them from
http://www.volksusa.com/dollfie.html <--USA store
http://parabox.jp/eng_new/ for Obitsu dolls

unfortunately they're getting harder and harder to find because most people want the big pretty dolls. But trust me, the big ones are way harder to pose.