ramonn90

Exploration Often Shows You the Way - 'Eat' Video and File

The concept of 'eat' evolved out of a totally different goal as you can see in the process video. I saw a nice moment between a couple in the bathroom that sparked the inspiration for this story, yet I was not sure what reference in terms of object, animal, or food would guide the art direction, as it commonly does.

I s...

Creating From Imagination - A Reminder!

Haven't you stared at a blank canvas with the intention of drawing or painting a subject, yet found this task impossible? You know that you want to paint a city, a knight, or simply an apple, yet there is no way to even start.

This is what many artists, especially beginner artists, struggle with. The problem is not just...

Authentic Ideas Matter More Than Art Skills? - ‘Miss’ Video + File

This week, I revisited the idea that I had let go of last week, the one I failed to deliver. Mostly because I had such a great amount of references saved already with this outfit theme from old time China, kind of romantic.

It was supposed to be a story about "pen and ink," but the composition was not there yet. I liste...

What to Do When Losing Social Media Popularity - How to Meet New Art Friends

A few days ago, I was answering some of your messages, and one patron asked me for advice on how to regain the social media popularity he had lost and how to meet new artist friends. This question led me to share a few thoughts with him on how to address this issue, and I figured it would be good to share with others who migh...

Smol Video and File: Planning for Creative Blocks in Deadlines

Making art is funny. I've created several ways to come up with concepts effectively, even on bad days, but during the process of this illustration, I was fairly blocked for a whole day. I'm not sure if it was the heat or simply one of those days.

Right before falling asleep, I imagined a picture of a small child in a re...

More Tips on Bringing Life to Your Art! - Dynamic Drawing

Hey everyone, I see plenty of artists struggling with rigid poses, angle views in their compositions, and boring narratives, so today I want to share some tips on how to bring dynamism to your drawings! Let's dive in.

Dynamism, in this sense, means adding a bit more movement through different points in your composition....

Sad Process: Onions and Concept Development (Video & File)

What I find interesting about this process is how I use three key aspects of the onion concept to develop a quick story with visual cues.

The first is the fact that onions make people cry. This universal truth makes the story very understandable. I just needed a common reason for why people cry and used the main charact...

Updates!: Unlocking Past Content, Dramatic Gesture and Boosting Motivation

Hey everyone! Here are some important updates for today.

Patreon Content

Some new patrons have been asking for tips about topics I've already discussed in past articles, and many of them don't have the resources to subscribe to higher tiers. So I've decided to unlock content from previous years....

'Bending' Process Video - How I Struggled to Paint This!

Hey everyone,

This illustration took two days to complete. I struggled quite a lot with the armor! Initially, I was looking for an excuse to paint armor and metal material. Starting from that point, I searched for a casual object that shared at least some similar characteristics. A smashed can was just perfect, as it ga...

Tips on How to Paint Metal - Let's Make an Armor!

Hey everyone! In today's post, I want to briefly explain how I paint metal, specifically armor metal. Let's dive in.

Shape

The difficult thing about metal is not precisely the lighting or colors but the shapes in which these values and colors will be positioned. For a quick reference, let's use a ...

Care Process Video: Creating Concepts and Stories!

So! Many people seemed to strongly resonate with my last illustration "Care," so here's a little bit of the process behind it.

I focused on creating a female carnival character with a long cape matching the moth design in the reference. Eventually, I ended up with a drawing, but it felt a bit weak, with not much to say ...

Tips for Studying Full-Body References - Anatomy!

Hey everyone! Here are some tips for approaching references for anatomy studies.

Body Weight

Start by asking where the body is resting its weight. Sometimes dynamic poses have the weight resting on one leg. Certain characteristics of the leg that carries this weight include a straight leg w...

Toothbrushes, Fairies, and Dentists - Unlocking Creativity

Hey everyone!

This time I chose a very simple and casual object for character design: a toothbrush. The electric toothbrush was a perfect case for an android-like character, and the white standard one is its companion. Of course, I needed to add some extra concepts, so I decided to include something related to this the...

Simple Tip for Facial Expressions with Perspective (Eyes)

Hey everyone! A few days ago, someone was struggling to make the eyes the way I do it. I figured it was more a perspective thing than shape anatomy. Since I've covered eye shapes and then jumped straight to 2024-07-02 18:57:43 +0000 UTC View Post

'Tongue' Studies - Process Video and File! 👅

Hi there!

Doing these kinds of studies is extremely useful for integrating new ways to capture reality. I guess it's a humbling experience, especially when you have been creating things from scratch for a while. It reminds you how important it is to keep practicing to improve!

I kept this process very simple since...

Step-by-Step Process of My Art!

Hey everyone,

Back in the old days, to improve my skills, I used to pick random references, paint them, and try different techniques with colors, textures, lighting, etc. I stopped doing this, but today I wanted to give it a try with no clear meaning behind the series. I think I was looking for some kind of "break" from...

Pufferfish as Inspiration - Check the Process & File!

Once I found four interesting references to use as a base in terms of gesture and costume design, I needed inspiration from a non-related subject (animal, food, object, etc.) during the initial phase of the drawing. I chose the octopus and pufferfish because I could envision them in the character's shape. As you will see in t...

How I Practice Character Design Using References

The goal of today's practice is to allow you to focus on aspects of character design that might be blocked by a lack of confidence when building gesture, anatomy, or costume shape drawings from scratch. By using a reference to address the previously mentioned steps, you will not only slightly practice these elements but also ...

Carrot Soup Process! - Creating Original Stories Out Of References (Video & File)

What I think many of you will find valuable about this process is how I slowly build a narrative out of very random references and also make adjustments to the versions of the studies I use, mostly changes in illumination, colors, and compositions. This type of treatment is very useful for those trying to create a concept art...

How I Pick References for Study!

Learning art is tough, especially if you don't know where to start. Today, I'd like to share how I pick my references for study, depending on the skill I want to develop. Let's make it quick:

References For Improving Your Drawing Skills!

With drawing, I like to call it "shape" skills since you use line art to bu...

Geckos Series Process + File! 🦎 The Value Of Rare Characters

In the previous post, I shared the overall process structure of this portrait series "geckos," yet there are a few things I felt differently about personally.

For a start, I noticed how after stressing over the first character sketch, my subsequent character sketches developed quicker and felt much better. I think this ...

Learn How I Paint Portraits in Two Simple Steps!

It's been a while since I’ve done portraits only, so this time I wanted to explore some visually nice ideas. Today, I'll share with you my process behind these pieces so you can follow the steps. Let's dive in.

Step 1

A series of characters with something in common. In simple words, I just jump ...

Shhh Process & File - This Is Why I Add the Reference in My Illustrations

Before painting, I often make a list of points about what the characters are about, but the day I did this piece I woke up with a particular character type in my mind instead of a specific narrative or character motivation. This character type was a dark-skinned female with white hair, and I imagined her dressed in an office ...

Tips for Creating Characters with Personality!

Building characters with compelling personalities involves understanding their motivations and how these drive their actions. Here are five tips to help you create characters that truly come to life.

1. Define Character Motivation

To craft a character with a vivid personality, start by defining th...

This Is What All My Illustrations Share - Rotten Apple! Process Video + PSD File

Recently, I've noticed how influenced by comedy my compositions are. I like to create dark, cute, and dangerous characters, but at some point in the process, I get stuck. I feel something is missing; I just don't know what. Then, suddenly, the ideas that seem to complete the puzzle tend to be funny ones, those that make me la...

Food Illustrations! - Process Video + Challenge

Today I wanted to try something different, another topic you guys suggested: 'how to paint food illustrations.' So, this time, I chose different kinds of food and recorded the process for you to check out my approach for each.

The process is very simple and similar to my structure in character design. I define the shape...

SOUR LIME! - Process Video + PSD File

The first hour of this illustration was a mistake well, not a mistake really, as it helped me understand what NOT to do. The initial idea I had for a lime character was a soldier. Although visually interesting to me, this concept was insufficient as it shared little relation to the lime, besides the color. So, I went to bed a...

Your Characters Do Not Look From The Same Universe? Here Are 3 Simple Tips

Someone suggested in our last poll, 'how to design a character with the intent of them being part of the same world'.

This is an interesting subject and something I've been doing for the past couple of years as part of worldbuilding for my perso...

RUN DEMON RUN! - Process Video + PSD File

Because I was writing an article about drawing legs and feet, I thought it would make sense to create characters inspired by muscular animals, horses for instance. I chose basketball as a second layer for this concept based on the sport's popularity and the athletic look of these kinds of professionals, plus I think it would ...

Anatomy Tips! - HOW TO DRAW LEGS (Process Video of Legs and SEXY FEETS Included)

I see many of you asking me to share an article for 'how to draw [insert anatomy part]'. Since I've shared plenty about the upper part of the body, let's continue today with the lower part: legs and feet.

I took the liberty of recording this particular session in which I approach two processes. One is drawing legs from ...