Topics

1

General Discussion / The limit of improving an idea?

« on: July 31, 2020, 01:49:39 AM »

I'll try and not ramble :P

Lately I have been trying to improve my ideas more consistently, and I suddenly struck an interesting issue, and I'd love to get other's insights on it.

Basically I'm wondering, is there a limit to how far you can improve a sketch/illustration/idea?

I see this as several categories:
-Improving the quality/accuracy
-Improving the idea

I think that most people would agree that a more accurate piece is better than a sketchy half finished piece, like the ones below.



But what exactly makes an idea on its own better than others?
The illustration above is just a standing girl , so it could certainly be improved with a background, or an action rather than just standing still. But then what can be improved after that? and after that?

And when comparing artworks, what makes you say "this one is better than that one"?
Is that not essentially personal taste?

So in other words, is the limit on improving an idea - your own sense of what a good idea should be in the first place?
i.e. if you like sketches then you are more likely to prefer a sketch to a more complete artwork, and if you like cute girls you are more likely to prefer a slightly inaccurate bad proportioned cute girl to a really accurate armoured old guy?
.....But I think even if you preferred one piece to the other, your view of which one was "better" would change if you were asked which one was more "skilled", which one was more "detailled" etc.

There are lots of things you can do to improve an idea:
-add more details
-add colour
-add patterns instead of plain colours
-add unique details
-improve proportions

So the question is, when producing an idea - is there a limit to how far you can improve it. Once you have done all the above, is there a point where an illustration or idea can't be improved anymore?

Is this essentially what an artists style or personal preference is?

Although a little outside the scope of this topic, the same question can be applied to a story/plot
what makes a better story?

is continuous improvement possible or will one always reach a plateau?

2

Tips and Tutorials / Lace Drawing Methods (GIMP)

« on: March 21, 2020, 12:24:41 PM »

Since Lego requested it and I was planning to do it anyway, here's a couple of methods to generate lace, one from my tip thread and a new one for a slightly different style. I will update as I find new methods that are useful, and since I love drawing lace, it gets its own thread. It'll get quite packed I think.

This post is an index as always.
If you have any requests, including how to generate existing designs you have found on pinterest etc, please ask. I love the challenge.

Simple brush lace


Dotted pattern lace

3

Tips and Tutorials / Suuper's Scripts

« on: March 15, 2020, 01:51:46 PM »

So in case you don't know, I am a programmer. *nervously laughs*

I'm very keen on finding things that I can streamline and automate, and this includes writing scripts that work within GIMP
These are typically very specific to my needs so I don't really mention them much, but as I keep making scripts every now and then I make one that might be useful to other peeps.

I do recommend learning to program because it can be surprisingly useful once you see how many things you can do with code, something simple like renaming/sorting files or stuff can be automated and it really helps when you have a lot of something simple to do, plus you learn to think analytically and solve problems, which is helpful no matter where you are or what you are doing

So this is a thread for my programs and scripts that I decide to share. I do have some useful apps but they are all hacky so I don't want to share them at the moment haha.

You may also make a request for a snippet of code or a PC app that does something specific, but it's got to be interesting or useful to me for me to even think about it, but ask away.

This first post will serve as an index because I like to be organised.

GIMP Scripts
To add a GIMP script to your program, you must copy the text and save it as a file with an extension of .scm, and place the file in your GIMP scripts folder, in my case "C:\Users\MyName\AppData\Roaming\GIMP\2.10\scripts"
The script will appear in an extra menu bar called Suupersuite because it sounded cool at the time.

Lineart Softening Script

Feedback and suggestions are always welcome \(^_^)/

4

General Manga writer discussions / Silent Manga

« on: March 14, 2020, 01:35:51 PM »

do you think it's possible to have a serial manga that's silent? i.e. a full blown story with arcs and stuff.

there's always one-shots and competitions that are for silent manga, but I don't think I've ever seen one longer than a single chapter.

And what do you think are the limits of a silent manga, what things can't be conveyed through context alone?
conversely are there special ways to convey things in a silent manga that aren't used in a normal manga?

5

General Manga writer discussions / Naming Inspiration (Place names, Characters, Magic etc)

« on: November 20, 2019, 12:12:28 PM »

After musing on Lego's topic, I wondered what everyone's thoughts were on how characters and places get their names.

When reading manga, the last page on the chapter often contains translator's notes or author's notes of how they came up with the names, often straight out copying mythology, existing place names or people.

I'm not referring to creating a story based on real locations, people, or even myths, but reusing those names and aspects in completely different stories. Such as the Fate franchise, which uses characters such as Alexander the Great and King Arthur, but uses the characters as-is, although embellishing them for the story as they see fit.

I always notice that authors almost never get names straight from their own imagination. For example, almost all the magic used in Magi, is Arabic words that pretty much describe the spell like "explosion hot hot" in Arabic is "Har Har Ainfijar" or something. And a lot of Fairy Tail has Spanish names for stuff like "Oracion Seis" and so on.

here's another good one

The name James Bond came from that of the American ornithologist James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide Birds of the West Indies. Fleming, a keen birdwatcher himself, had a copy of Bond's guide and he later explained to the ornithologist's wife that "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born".

Obviously that's not cheating, but how do you guys feel about that sort of use, getting words from other languages or places etc rather than making up your whole magic spells or characters/place names from scratch.

I very much like working from scratch when designing things, so I'm wondering is it just an easy route to get words from places that already exist, and am I just being stubborn, or it it my style to work in this manner. Am I chasing after the impossible, am I just trying to create new words that don't exist?

Like even FF has Cloud Strife as a character - that's just (random?) English words?
Can I just roll the dice, so to speak, and see what words come up that I like?

I mean parents when naming children pretty much flip through a book or google lists until they find names that they like, or use words that they fancy to make a new name, so should an author do anything different? did that just answer my own question?

I very much like the way things are named in anime and manga, so it's not that I'm against the name itself, but it's origin. Am I just trying to reinvent the wheel here?

How do you all come up with names or characters and places?

Some thoughts and ideas would be appreciated!

Sorry for the repetition but I can't quite form the right question haha

6

Tips and Tutorials / Using brushes to create pipe/rope guidelines (digital tutorial)

« on: November 07, 2019, 04:58:23 PM »

I thought I would finally share one of my "secret" techniques, that I can't say I have seen other artists use, although it's not like I have been looking around much. If you've seen it elsewhere then it's not my intention to claim the patent on it XD
It's not really a secret haha since I have mentioned it in my art thread and it's visible in my sketches :P

It's a (digital) technique to quickly create guidelines for tubes,pipes,rope, mostly long and thin, winding things. The technique can be expanded to other things as well with a little imagination and the correct choice of brushes.
It's a bit more than a tip so it gets it's own thread :)

Basically you use a semi-transparent brush, the thickness of your pipe/rope, and just draw the path it takes. Then when inking, you can then trace the edges of your brush stroke to get the 2 edges of the pipe. Here's a simple example:



And another one, with a bit of a cable detailing:


For simple lines such as this, it might seem a bit overkill, as you could probably line it up by eye, but it becomes more useful when you have more complex paths, or interacting objects, such as a cable wrapping around something, or bangles worn on an arm etc. In this instance it helps to draw the entire object, including the parts that are hidden by the object in front of them, to help the lines to all be pointing to the right place and have continuity.




You need to use a bit of intuition to know which lines to trace, but it's quite simple really. Working from the front-most objects to the back-most prevents accidentally drawing a line somewhere when it should have been hidden by an object in front of it.

And here is a cable spiraling or twisting around itself. This could be useful for hair drills, plaits and other hair styles, mechanical parts like springs etc.



And finally, some proper practical applications, some of which you might have seen in my sketches:

Using a brush (with pressure-size dynamics) for tapering octopus tentacles: (not done too well!)



Lace or ribbon in clothing:



And finally, my favourite - shoe laces!





The reason for using a semi-trasparent brush becomes a lot more clear in the ribbon and lace examples - where the parts overlap you can still see all of the details. A solid brush would lose detail and make it impossible to trace the lines where overlaps happened, like below:



Here are some of my WIPs in which I have used the technique, to give you an idea of how it normally looks and is used in a sketch: (click to enlarge)

As ribbons and shoe laces guidelines:



As a fabric/clothing pattern guideline:



A large circle brush for a ball/sphere:



While I haven't quite perfected this method nor explored it's many possible applications, it's proved useful enough already that I am confident to suggest it as a way to speed up initial sketches, and create more accurate guidelines for inking. You can also use different brush shapes i.e. a square brush, to get different pipe shapes. You could also use different brush colours to remind yourself of different materials or to separate different parts of your design if it is complicated.

Feedback is appreciated as always, I'd be happy if this was useful to anyone, or if you have any more ideas on how it can be used!

7

General Manga writer discussions / How to be organised when writing your story?

« on: July 30, 2019, 12:07:47 PM »

I'm nearly at the point of writing a story (I mean when have I ever not been but yeah)
And I'm wondering if anyone has any tips or methods for keeping track of your world, characters and plot as you write and develop your story, as it seems a rather large thing and I can't wrap my head around it :P

Especially for a manga which is visual you'll want to have character references and sketches and manga page sketches, and for any sort of writing, you'll want to have chapter scripts and location references and so on. I can imagine it's easy enough to keep your story/script all in one word document with headers for each chapter or something, but then before writing that where do you put an idea/chapter plot description? Do you use multiple files, how many, basically, what?

I get the use of timelines to keep track of events (like Robin's flowchart timeline) but I'm more asking how do you organize everything, do you have a list of characters somewhere, are their character image/expression sheets in the same place, how do you find a character quickly/easily to add information or check something? And is it all in one folder on your computer or do you have it printed out?

Being the unstoppable programmer that I am, I'm thinking of making a sort of mini-wiki program (yes i know they exist already, for this exact purpose, but I like making my own stuff to suit my exact needs), to keep all my files and characters and info and plot all in one organised place, and be able to quickly navigate between it all.

So in addition to wondering how you guys keep organised already, I'm wondering if I did make such a wiki-program, what you would expect to see in it and what capabilities would you expect it to have?

8

Tips and Tutorials / Found a bunch of tutorials

« on: April 19, 2019, 07:36:58 AM »

I know the last thing we need is yet another collection of tutorials but these seemed pretty great and simple.
http://www.mclelun.com/p/tutorial.html

tutorials are, as he says "Not a detail step by step tutorial, but focus on the workflow"
easy to follow with any photoshop/GIMP software it seems.

mostly how to do different background stuff/visual effects.

the artist is also "a hybrid designer/programmer who also happens to be color blind" which is exactly what I am so it's extra strange lol.

plus he does timelapse videos and has DeviantArt and all that.
and animations too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGGUeyZ1xAA

also, wasn't there a huge thread for posting this sort of thing?

9

Members Workshops / Greebles (Visually interesting details)

« on: March 22, 2019, 07:36:40 AM »

here is a wiki page I ran into while googling star wars stuff
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeble

A greeble or nurnie is a fine detailing added to the surface of a larger object that makes it appear more complex, and therefore more visually interesting.

And here is a greebled cube from the Wiki itself.

The detail can be made from simple geometric primitives (such as cylinders, cubes, and rectangles), or more complex shapes, such as pieces of machinery (cables, tanks, sprockets).

This appears to be useful in vehicles, buildings, cities, props and almost anything you might draw, even outfits.
So the challenge is in several parts, which ever you fancy:
-Take an old drawing and add a lot more details to spice it up and make it more interesting
-Take a simple shape (cube, cylinder) and add details to make it look cool and interesting
-Take a normal object, prop, item of clothing, and add details to make it look cool.

Details can just be features of a similar theme, ie spacey parts in a spaceship, simple shape such as extra cubes and whatnot, or even a different theme to add a subtle extra layer of detail.

Steampunk is full of this kind of thing, and could almost have it's own workshop.

You could even post an image of an item for the next person to try and draw with extra details.
That being the case, if someone fancies it here's the first image. No restrictions on how you change it as long as it resembles the original item. It could even end up as a different object if you want (ie. vehicle/spaceship etc)

Spoiler

10

Manga Artists Tools / GIMP is version 2.10+!

« on: February 26, 2019, 07:26:17 AM »

So I happened to be having trouble with my tablet and wondered if GIMP was the problem instead and I just discovered that GIMP has been released in v2.10+ for ages now. There's a lot more features and stability that's been added apparently, including support for PCs with less muscle to process images better with less lag/crashing.

I'm a bit nervous to switch over after all this time in 2.8 but I'm sure it's just the same program. Especially as I work with large images (because of working in bulk) I'm hoping it clears up some of those little lags here and there that I get.

Just thought I'd let you guys know since if I didn't know, someone else might not know either.

to download:
https://www.gimp.org/
has some tutorials and stuff as well.

11

Tips and Tutorials / Expand all MR Spoilers on a page (Bookmarklet)

« on: December 29, 2018, 08:47:12 AM »

I thought there was a coding section somewhere but I couldn't find it so it sort of fits here I thought to myself :P

Something I threw together in 5 minutes that I thought I would share.
Sometimes you have loads of spoilers on a page and you just want to open them all if you're looking for something or reading the whole page, right?
(Especially if you have the post count per page to the highest value there's a lot of spoilers per page)
Well I made a bookmarklet that does that. Just make a new bookmark (or edit an old one), and paste this code in the URL text box.

Code: [Select]

javascript:(function()%7Bvar%20spBody%3Ddocument.getElementsByClassName(%22sp-body%22)%3Bfor(var%20i%3D0%3Bi%3CspBody.length%3Bi%2B%2B)%7BspBody%5Bi%5D.style.display%3D%22block%22%3B%7Dvar%20spHead%3Ddocument.getElementsByClassName(%22sp-head%22)%3Bfor(var%20i%3D0%3Bi%3CspHead.length%3Bi%2B%2B)%7BspHead%5Bi%5D.className%3D%22sp-head%20sp-closed%22%3B%7D%7D)()

So it looks like this in the edit window



Save it, and then whenever you are on a page you can click on the bookmark and it will open all the spoilers on that page.

It's only tested in Chrome on PC, so I can't say how it works in other browsers or mobile devices, but if it works for you then great :)

As a partially unexpected bonus it also works on the Ecchiworld forum as well.

It's not an extension so it cant permanently open every spoiler, just the ones on the page you are on. I will at some point write an MR extension with some other stuff but that's years down the line haha.

12

Tips and Tutorials / How to draw/paint a plaid pattern (digital art tutorial)

« on: October 31, 2018, 01:00:54 PM »

I just gave my character a nice sweater and figured I would explain how I made the plaid pattern. This tutorial requires a little previous experience with digital work, as I don't explain every single detail. Ask if there's anything you want explained more and I will oblige :)



Step 1: Procure a lineart
-draw your own or use a free to use one on the internet.
-you can download this tutorial image to use as well :)



Step 2: Do the base colour
-On a new layer in a new folder, paint the main colour of the clothing around the borders and fill.
-Your layer order should be:
>Lineart, set to Multiply
>Layer Folder, with base colour layer inside (the folder will contain everything we will do) (it's not necessary but keeps it neat)
>White plain background



Step 3: First set of stripes
-Make a new layer in the folder, above your base colour, and set to Multiply
-Use a paintbrush to paint the same colour (or a different colour), and make a set of stripes. Remember the folds of the clothing will affect the stripes as you draw them
-Erase any paint that goes over the boundary, or use a layer mask if you know how.

The stripe layer on it's own:


All layers so far:


looks pretty good already. You can stop here and have nice stripes, or move ahead.

Step 4: Second set of stripes
-Make another new layer, above your base colour, and set to Multiply
-Repeat as above, but for horizontal stripes

the stripe layer on it's own:


all layers so far:


looks even better, right?

Step 5: add more stripe layers
-You can add more layers in the same way as above, to get more depth
-OR: you can use different colours and shades in steps 3 and 4 if you know what you want.

the next 2 layers:




and all layers so far:


This is all you need to do to produce the pattern, but I'll add the shade step anyway

Step 6: Shade layer
-On a new layer, set to multiply as before, paint in your shade. I use a greyish pink which works well for almost everything.

the shade layer:


And our final image:


If you made it this far, well done!

Using different thicknesses of stripes and different colours will drastically alter the main pattern. Once you get a feel for how it works, play around and see what you can make!

I'd love to see what you made if this helped you, please post it here and we can give each other inspiration for patterns and colour choices!

13

General Discussion / If "Drawing" was an RPG skill!!

« on: October 31, 2018, 12:14:00 PM »

Download the file and fill in the details to make an RPG themed artist profile/signature!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VaCueGmZGsCoXE-xB5D-D0T53tleaQoh
it's a .html file (webpage) and should work fine if loaded in Chrome, I don't know about any other browser.
right-click and save the generated image to use as a signature :)
it should make a signature image like this one:


Each icon on the image reprisents a skill in drawing, such as hands, figures, backgrounds etc.
The more sketches/pages of work you have done in each area will give you a higher level. each level is slightly harder to reach than the previous one, which isn't completely untrue in art.
Your main level is the average levels of all your skills.
The file in the link above is to an interactive webpage that you can download, and fill in the number in the relevant skills to generate a profile of you as an artist.
You will be able to compare with anyone else using this method, as well as be able to notice what areas you are weakest in.

I would love to see how everyone's turns out so please post them, and I am very welcome to suggestions on how this can be improved in the future.

-----ORIGINAL POST (+OLD Explanation)-----

(is this even the right place for this topic? I get the feeling it's leaning more towards Pub than here lol)
In the milestones topic I came up with in interesting idea for quantifying your work as an artist and coming up with a level system. it's a bit choppy of an idea but I'd welcome feedback and ideas. I thought of it previously, but with Lego doing all these 1000X regimes I wondered what sort of way could an artist quantify their skill level.

It's more for fun than anything else, but it has a bit of practicalness mixed in. Please excuse the poor explanation as it's not a fully fledged idea yet but I don't think I can develop it any further on my own XD

Basically based on general RPG games (or virtually any game) where your skills level up when you use them, and applying it to art.

Basically each drawing "skill" (hands, faces, body, hair) is split up, and the amount you have drawn each thing is counted. so for example, Lego has done 1000 hands. each skill starts at 0 and levels up on a power of 2, so 2,4,8,16,32 and so on. that means his "hands skill" is at level 9, soon to become 10 (2^10 being 1024) (I think)

your artist level is either based on the average of all your skills, or you gain 1 point for every level of every skill, with the same 2,4,8 level boundaries.

This doesn't measure skill, but output, but since these are heavily linked I think it's worth a count. shame it's such a pain to measure. each level boundary being double is a reminder that you have to put in a lot of effort to significantly improve from the level you are at, and it's noticeable which area you haven't done much work in.
maybe double is too much but you get the idea.

I made this stupidly the other day on a high and Lego forced me to make this topic :P

here's one example just as a simple health bar style. Based on the 10,000 hours of mastery, although I'm using page count, not hours in this example.


red and blue for HP and MP obviously :P

here's a mini cool random mockup that would work as a profile image/signature (just about, given the tiny profile images) Probably better as a signature, and made longer like the one above.


It would be great if we could compare stats somehow, but it would be wildly out in terms of actual skill comparison. All good fun nonetheless :P

Let me know what you guys and gals think :P

This could actually be related to the badge system that has been floating round and occasionally gets mentioned (I can't find it in the search, did I imagine the whole thing?) ,with points awarded for entering in competitions or workshops (my programmer's blood is tingling!!)

14

Tips and Tutorials / Suuper's Tip Diary

« on: October 18, 2018, 07:18:35 AM »

Since it will be literally forever before I do any tutorials that I have promised over the years, I figured I would do a compromise and just use this thread as a diary of all the (very) little tips and things that I notice, primarily about my own art (which may not be useful to you guys), but also on techniques and guidelines and stuff. hopefully it's useful to someone :P

As obviously I am still a big learner, I can't guarantee that what I say is correct, but it seems correct to me at the time :P

I'll attempt to keep it organised in the first post here but it probably won't amount to much :P
(not sure if to double post with my first tip or not)

Tips on this thread:
Natural poses and compound angles
Drawing shoulders
Drawing socks/thighhighs
Straight lines without a ruler
Arm and shoulder proportions
Fabric Thickness
Flipping your drawing without a mirror
Manga Thumbnail Templates
Quick Lace Method
Flowchart Program
GIMP tool presets and tags

Tutorials on separate threads:
How to draw a plaid pattern
Open all MR Spoilers (Chrome Bookmarklet)
Using brushes to create pipe/rope guidelines (digital tutorial)
Different lace drawing methods (GIMP)

Other:
Scripts and Programs

15

Members Workshops / Inktober 2018

« on: October 01, 2018, 06:16:40 AM »

I've missed it every year and finally I remembered....on the day itself.
For those that don't know, Inktober is an event during October where artists try and draw something in ink every day in the month. It can be traditional or digital, whatever you want to improve your skills on.

see the offical website https://inktober.com/
the site also has some nice videos on using ink and tips to improve

there are also official prompt words for each day if you get stuck for inspiration.

I'll finally be participating myself. Anyone else up for it??

Ill post my art for each day in this thread, and I encourage anyone joining in to do the same so we can all easily see each other's stuff.

link for the rules and stuff https://inktober.com/rules/

my own rule for myself is that I can't sketch in pencil first - I have to jump in with ink straight away. Rather than one ink a day it will be one page of ink, be it many little drawings or one big one.

Looking forward to anything that you guys post too!