Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Egan_BW]

Remember that when you look at a dog you're seeing a mutant wolf. This is why I prefer the bigger dogs, they just look a little bit floppier, not insanely proportioned for their species.

[Parsely]

Does anyone know where this style of digital(?) sketching comes from and why it's so popular? There are many artists who make sketches using a similar style.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Frumple]

... other than anime in general? I don't particularly know, but if I had to wager a guess it would be starting resources for just that. Looks about in line with a higher quality example of some of the end results of those "how to draw anime" books that have littered shelves for a while (like, since the 90s or something) now.

Which would be both where it came from and why it's so popular, if that guess is correct; helluva' lot of artists faffing about nowadays cut their teeth on stuff like that, or were involved to some degree with someone who did. Those sort of instruction/intro books have pretty easily been one of the easier to find and engage with resources for a beginning artist you could just sorta' casually pick up -- and they've been that for a good chunk of a lot of artists entire lives, nowadays. Given that, it's pretty unsurprising it'd be common.

[Parsely]

No no no, by "style" I mean the kraft paper background, black india ink lines, and pure white highlights and outline. These exact things together I've seen from a lot of different artists.

[Frumple]

Oooh.

... common/easy to use effects in major photo editing software? Could swear there's some mimicry there of old stuff, too, actually. Just hit me that sort of general color scheme was fairly signature of, like... old autographed disney art and crap, if I'm not completely misremembering things.

[Aklyon]

Could just be a background and special brush types, if its a digital-only thing maybe.

[Parsely]

Right, and that's why I'm wondering where people got this from, because it's a very specific thing and yet it's fairly widespread.

[Frumple]

For what it's worth, poking around a bit suggests it might just be something like convergent evolution. Not necessarily a specific style or something, but more a set of colors and highlights and whatnot folks just tend to end up using. Contrasty things et al. The browning seems to be largely just an antique filter/aging effect, which is mostly just a stylistic flourish, or an artifact of common drawing paper, with the rest (dark lines, white outline) falling out of it more or less organically just 'cause it's good complimentin'. Ultimately not much more meaningful than sketches usually using a white background and dark lines made with pen or pencil.

E: All that said, totes could just email/message/whatever an artist that uses the pattern and ask 'em. If I'd noticed the question a bit earlier I would have just asked mi madre, heh.

[Arx]

I don't think that is digital. Looks like pencil lineart gone over with a marker (or maybe a brushpen, but it's signed in marker) and highlights in chalk or white ink, and then photographed, not scanned.

[Mech#4]

To me the image is physical. I would guess the brown paper is used so the white highlighting can be done (possibly with liquid whiteout) with a sketch in light brown and fineliner for line work. The coarse paper would also give more texture to the image without much need fo extra shading as well as giving a rougher surface for the fineliner ink to absorb into.

[Parsely]

AFAIK Kraft paper is smooth, but I've never used it before. "Rough" instinctively makes me cringe though and I imagine frayed fabric pen tips and metal quills skipping over the paper and leaving incomplete lines... That's just my instinctive reaction though.

[Frumple]

Nah, pretty sure that stuff's kinda'... canvas-y, iirc. Not (nearly) that far, but sort of in that direction. That type of rough. Stiffer than your average paper, also usable for foldystuff. Rougher, not necessarily rough. Something like that.

[Mech#4]

AFAIK Kraft paper is smooth, but I've never used it before. "Rough" instinctively makes me cringe though and I imagine frayed fabric pen tips and metal quills skipping over the paper and leaving incomplete lines... That's just my instinctive reaction though.

You can see some gaps in the linework on the lower, inner edge of the left wing as well as the outer thigh, above the knee on the right leg and the inner line of the right wing. Certainly it has been gone over a few times to get solid lines.
The paper to me looks about as rough as a piece of cardboard, maybe a bit less.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Polydactyl fingers are typically fully functional, aside from the social and design difficulties it causes. The six fingers version is also a dominant gene, so it'll grow in commonality as time passes. They mostly amputate them for convention's sake.

[martinuzz]

I know many a concert pianist who'd be horrified at the thought of getting rid of an extra, fully functional digit. In fact, they'd commit murder if they could get one.