oh no dunklin what did you DO (& digital painting tricks i learned)

the candy figurine in this photo was much more on-model when it was made! i accidentally broke the ear off though and before i glued it i thought it made for a funny pic. i ended up doing a quick paintover to be more on-model -- it was supposed to be a quick dust removal touchup but i got kinda carried away haha...

[HUGE BLOG POST BELOW]

hey what's up. i switched linux distributions on top of the moping -- or really because of it, because it gives me something to do and tinker with. it's still ubuntu-based (if you're wondering my os history goes like.. dos/win95 as a baby -> win 98 thru xp until like 2002 or 3 -> mandrake linux -> ubuntu linux -> mac os 10.3? thru idk, whatever it was nov 2019, but i hadn't updated in a while -> kde neon -> elementary os)

(and windows 7 on the side at points for games, but i don't really play new computer games so much)

anyway! it didn't take that much tinkering since it's still ubuntu-based. i just copied over my gimp config folder and honestly way more than i thought would come with it did haha. i redid my gimp layout just for funsies and i think it looks pretty nice in elementary

you might notice a couple weird things about this image. one thing is the black rounded corners at the bottom -- elementary os rounds your ENTIRE screen's corners and it's SUPER cute

also i like to paint on one layer and work fast/sloppy. there's a couple things about digital painting and one of them is art in general and i want to say both just to remind myself, because i'd really like to paint more and i tend to be so underconfident that when i make art it ends up looking bad because i couldn't be bold enough. but i'm okay at art i think!

there's a couple other layers but they're just kind of temporary for like, i think there i had the mouth so i could tweak the face shape under. i usually end up flattening and just like, redrawing over shit 4 times lmao. if i'm in the mindset to paint i won't care because that's what painting irl is, and i think i'm decent-ish at that

oh also it's very low res. oops! i didn't mean for it to be but that was the one i started touching up. i've found it's easier for me to paint digitally when it's low res though, and i make kind of retro stuff anyway.... hmmm

i think it'd be fine at a higher res if i used something with some texture to it though. i should look into concept art brushes or something... i had some square ones i liked a lot in photoshop...

but the two things about digital painting i took forever to learn:

1. CHEAT!! if you see how professional artists work at like blizzard or w/e, they cheat to a shocking degree if you're just an amateur getting your art advice from elitist pricks like Good Amateur Artists or Art Teachers. at least it was shocking to me!

people will drop in a 3d model and basically trace it. they will load up (legal to use) stock images, fuck with the colors a bit, and use a chunk in the background. they will sketch something once and use the warp filter to move it around

none of this is illegal -- immoral, i guess? if you ask art elitist assholes? lmao. i'm sure when paintbrushes were invented the cavemen still scratching on the wall with a rock were all elitist about it too. oh pff, your fancy tool. when we stop making those, then you be sorry... what if all horses disappear... or you forget brush.... more gooder to learn with rock

but if you quickly need shit for a digital painting -- textures, photo bits, etc, there's a couple good free LEGAL sources! learn what public domain or creative commons is! be serious about it! people have gotten taken to court over this shit!

in order of my preference:

https://pixabay.com/ (typically highest quality -- can set to only show pngs already cut out! very handy)

https://snappygoat.com/ (worst quality, most photos. i end up using this one most)

https://unsplash.com/ (these are usually so processed they're useless -- idk if i've ever actually used one)

oh yeah, and https://opengameart.org/ which i don't use much because it tends to be a lot of like, "here's my first pixel art ever, hope it's useful!" -- you need to set your search to be cc0 or public domain manually though or else you'll have to credit people with something like cc-by. which hey if you're cool with doing that. again be serious about it!!!

WOW that was a big segue. anyway my second thing i learned about digital painting, and art in general:

2. KILL THE THINGS YOU LOVE!! "kill your darlings" is so quaint. that's shit you write in white text on a dimly lit photo of someone's legs in fishnets and post on tumblr lol

but basically what i mean is like... this is why i work on one layer, and why i prefer digital as opposed to irl and painting as opposed to drawing

when i get too into a line -- like it's set in stone -- the longer it exists, the less likely i am to want to change it. i think this could be universal advice too if you struggle with it because it seems like basic psychology attachment stuff

but if it looks kinda good, and i'm frustrated with the rest of the piece especially, i'll be way less likely to change that one piece. it starts feeling like the backbone of the entire drawing. there's a point where i'm like god that line? the only good thing in the pic. no way am i touching that line

ironically a lot of the time the entire pic is being held back by that one fucking line though. and it's only pretty good. the rest is obviously worse. what if it was even better? of course it could be. what if it was really easy to make it even better and just took a bit of warping or something? (often you can get away with warping a bit and then touching up instead of repainting an entire thing. see trick #1 that i learned)

anyway, working on one layer and especially using sloppy tools like warping and working quickly with sloppy lasso selects ends up feeling like irl painting but with undo. like, you end up accidentally fucking up part but it's not really a big deal because you can just go over it again. this is why i like one layer! the entire painting is basically in a state of flux and i can't get too attached to any given group of pixels.

but god, digital painting is so much easier than irl painting! my mind's eye can SEE the shape i want to do. why shouldn't i just warp it over there and touch it up? if i self-flagellate and get sexually fixated on drawing precisely and like an old master over the course of 80000 hours of practice and instead re-draw the curve precisely how i see it in my mind, i'd end up at the same result but slower -- even if i'd already practiced, who could be faster than a computer?

like there's a reason concept artists or big media productions don't use paper and pencil and irl pastels and stuff. not to throw shade but it's just like, basically the same thing but cheaper, easier, and faster. it's not like... inherently worse. it's just a different way of arriving at the same point

it's hard for me to stand up firmly against the bad art instruction i've had where people tell me i need to be drawing with charcoal irl though lol. like i am too poor to get a hobby where i have to buy stuff. i can barely afford weed and like one game every 3 months lol 6ω9

but see this is something that it's easier for me to say than do -- i know that's the sort of mindset that could get me productive and producing art like i need to be, but i just don't really have the mental energy lately haha. soon!

hell, i've even been thinking of cheating even more and just modeling things like guns and motorcycles and using more photos in backgrounds and stuff. i've been having fun heal brushing and warping and whatever

i don't think i'm like incredible at painting but i think i'm a little better at it than i am at drawing. did you notice the subtle global illumination on her hair? haha

and i think if i was feeling good enough to do a lot of paintings i could get better very quickly maybe...?? i feel like i'm on the path there with patreon anyway haha ;ω; thanks you alls!

(also tentatively i might be getting a fursuit made! like unless one of us dies or we break up but i've been in a relationship with the person making me a fursuit for a very long time so i don't think either is likely to happen.... i mean i bought all the fur already)

(well i mean one of us could get hit by a bus i guess)

(she also made the candy figurine here! she is not currently active in furry -- please don't dm me about this TωT💦️)