git gud

Art and Drawing links and resources

Protect your art from AI with Glaze. Poison AI models with Nightshade.

⁂ The Vault of Knowledge ⁂

Spreadsheet of Animation/VFX/Game Industry jobs - spreadsheet that is always updating
Graphic Design Wage transparency spreadsheet
Designer Pricing Sheet

Alyssa's Art/Animation Resources
Marie Lum's Animation/Art Resource
Miranda's Animation Resources Doc
Storyboarding Resources by Paige Malatia
Studying Storyboarding on a Budget by Abby
Story for All - Storyboarding Resources
Art Education Masterpost by Dai
artofficialintel.com - Art & Design Fundamentals
ANIMATION LINKS AND RESOURCES - by Natalie Nourigat
Nickelodeon Animation Educational Resources Folder
TV Animation Writing Resources
Storyboarding Test Repository
Toniko Pantoja's art and animation tutorial videos
Aaron Blaise’s tutorials
Project City - Classes by entertainment industry professionals
Muddy Colors - Art resource blog with articles
Gurney Journey - Art resource blog by James Gurney, has tons of links for every type of art
MORPHO anatomy books - Great books for getting better at proportions and anatomy
Artists' Studio Archives - Practical strategies for artists, archivists, librarians, and museum curators
Resources for making Video Games
The Creator's Guide to Comics Devices - An online library of visual-narrative devices that are used in the medium of comics and other sequential art
Animation Obsessive newsletter
The Drawing Codex
Animator Guide breakdown, for quadruples by Daniel Fotheringham
Thomas Romain's tips for keeping things in perspective
CSP Tips for Webtoon Drawing
Jack Stauber MSPaint ANIMATION PROCESS - It warms my heart knowing Jack has a little CRT TV/VCR combo that looks like mine :)
ToadStool Records resources - mostly indie musician resources, but you might find something helpful here
Textbook-style Guide for Anime Compositing - by Studio Meraki
Manga Lettering Tutorial by Sarah Linsley

⁂ Reference Vault ⁂

Claire Hummel's Fashion Resource
References for Vintage Stuff via Flickr archives
Vintage Design Inspiration Archives - by bersletters
Game UI Database by Edd Coates
CARI Institute - vault of corporate aesthetics across the decades
Audiovisual Identity Database (AVID) - vault of logos, idents, bumpers
Vondell Digital Library - Y2K visuals resource
Design Reviewed - graphic design history resource
The Queer Zine Archive Project - an effort to preserve queer zines and make them available to anyone
Public Domain Image Archive - hand-picked collection of 10,046 out-of-copyright works, free for all to browse, download, and reuse
Smithsonian Open Access - you can download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images
Library of Congress - free to use and reuse assets

Meg's Pose Cove - Pinterest poses and references collection
TrueRef - free reference pose library
Real Action Pose Collection 01 and Real Action Pose Collection 02 - PDF files for Book Scans
Endless Reference - Comprehensive body mechanics library for animators

Lauren's Art Book Dump
My collection of "The Art of" Books PDFs - I scanned some using my university's library scanner myself. Here's the ones I scanned.
Moodyskeleton's Art Book folder - NOTE: it got taken down but I have a copy of it.
Art eBook Google Drive library

Making Physical Merchandise Resources
loose guide to common merch items by Zandra Illustration
Plush Manufacturing reference by kayochins

Physical Self Care for Artists and Writers - from an SPX workshop I attended. Kriota Willberg was nice enough to send me the powerpoint slides.
Stretches and yoga poses to do for self care - by mindcreator
ErgoRest Articulating Arm Rest - by Ergo Experts

Note: I use an ergonomic vertical mouse and it has personally helped me a lot! I no longer get wrist pain. I use Logitech MX Vertical but there are a lot of cheaper vertical mouse options out there.

⁂ Communities ⁂

Warrior Painters - Plein air painting community. They hold Plein Airpril every year
Heatsink - Online community for comic artists with a discord and open studio Zoom sessions
Comix Accountability Club - "Our Mission: To foster a welcoming network of cartoonists through shared resources and opportunities to equip creators with the tools required for self-publishing comics." They have mini-grants for comic artists!
Cartoonist Cooperative - Member-run organization that aims to improve and protect the careers of comics workers globally.
Animation Appreciation Hub - A collective of animators and video essayists devoted to uplifting the medium
Comics Advocacy Group - An organization dedicated to making careers in comics more accessible and sustainable. They do grants for artists.
LOSPEC - Pixel art community
Graphic Artists Guild
Sub It Club - a support group for writers and illustrators getting their work “out there”, particularly in the path to publication.

⁂ Fun Gadgets ⁂

Frame by Frame Gif Viewer App (for Windows) - Great for if you are referencing off a gif for animation. More info here
PadCrafter - Helps with creating control schemes for games
FolderFrame - If you use PaintTool SAI for animating via layers, this tool will help
Anatomy 360 - 3D adjustable pose reference software for artists
The Electric Zine Maker - A printshop and art tool for making zines
HTML template for your webcomic
PixLens - This looks to be a great tool for painters extracting colors from life. I just bought one of these, let's see how well they work! The Pixlens is made by monoli but be wary, there are a lot of counterfeit bootleg versions of this item popping.
Color Picker Wheel
pxl-srt - It sorts pixels in an image by color.
Perspective Tools
Poline - The esoteric color palette generator. Super fun to play around with
The Hydrant Directory - Color Palette inspiration tool
Blender’s Auto-Rig Pro - documentation here
ActionBoards - Storyboarding extension for Blender
Easymetric - Easy isometric tool for Acesprite users
Screentone Generator and Pixel Palette Generator
Transparent Textures - This site has a bunch of transparent repeating backgrounds.

Podcasts:

Creative Block Podcast- Interviews with animation industry people. I listen to this religiously.
Postmodern Art Podcast - Interviewing more obscure and upcoming artists.
Hey, Hire Us - Podcast about “wait why aren't these guys hired yet lol”
Showrunner Training Series - showrunning podcast with interviews by members of the Animation Guild Writers’ Craft Committee

Risograph resources:

stencil.wiki - A RISO wiki for artists, designers, and printers
In Depth File Preparation for Risograph Printing by MICA
More Risograph printing information by COLORAMA RISOPRINTING

For DMV and Maryland risograph printing places, check out this page.

Artist Software 😀:

I mostly use Paint Tool SAI 2 for digital art. It’s what I’ve been using since I was a wee elementary schooler. Even now, I always find myself coming back to it. If you have Windows, I encourage you to purchase it since it is a one time purchase (around $52) and made by one guy. If I'm on my ipad, I mostly just use Procreate.

ANYWAYS... ONTO THE GOODIES

Comprehensive list of Adobe program alternatives. Check out the famous chart too.
Adobe Suite - Go here and go to guide 7 Monkrus individual/collection
Toon Boom Harmony - Industry standard software for animation. The link got taken down so I need to refind it.
Toon Boom Storyboard Pro - Industry standard software for storyboarding

I use scripts for Storyboard Pro here and here. More info on Corey's scripts here.

TVPaint - A fantastic animation software for a frame by frame illustrative feel. Every Gobelin film uses this. FUN FACT: While the desktop version costs several hundred dollars, it’s FREE if you have an Android tablet (you just can’t export stuff so ya gotta screenshot it). One time I borrowed a Samsung Galaxy Tablet from my university for an entire semester and I straight up did 90% of the lineart for the first Cosmicals comic book using this.

Krita - Free and open source art program. My friend Errn loves it. They showed me a tool that automatically fills colors you choose within your lineart. Not sure how to do that since I don’t use this program but that slaps.
Photopea - Essentially a free browser version of Photoshop. I use this constantly.
GIMP - I don't use this but it's free so that makes it sexy i guess
FireAlpaca- Another one I don't know but it's free and one of the OGs of my internet era
MediBang Paint - I like their comic cutting tool thingy
HeavyPaint - Not free but I really like it; it's got some unique tools. You'll see many artists use it when 'Plein Airpril comes around. It costs about $5 on the iPad.
Infinite Painter - Less talked about painting program
Kleki - Paint online! Inspired by Paint Tool SAI.
Pixilart - Online pixel art software.

ZBrush - 3D sculpting software. During installation, when it asks "copy and replace fixed file", look in the folder that says "Cracked". Then, replace the executable file in there with the exe that is found in the directory.
Blender - oh come on I don't have to explain this one

Blender’s Auto-Rig Pro - documentation here
ActionBoards - Storyboarding extension for Blender
Kin Klei - Clay shader & asset library!

Xara 3D Maker - great for 3D Text
Bryce3D - Used for achieving that early CGI look. I don’t know how to get it or use it since this isn’t my expertise but I figured I should put this here.

If you have an Oculus - Tiltbrush and Quill!
- Zeyu Ren talks about Quill here and here.
- Not sure if these programs are still around or are being supported since I don’t personally own an Oculus (I’ve only borrowed ones from my university).

For Funsies:

Kid Pix recreated for the browser!
MS Paint (Classic) recreated for the browser!
MacPaint recreated for the browser!
Worm Paint - its got kidpix shitpost energy... here's the Newgrounds link to it

My Brush Settings 😀:

Toon Boom Harmony and Storyboard Pro - these brushes work for both

Paint Tool SAI brushes:
Splotched Sidewalk brush

For this brush, I don't use the same brush settings everytime. I switch around the values for "min size", "min density", and "intensity" all the time to conform with how I'm feeling. HOWEVER, I am always using "Splotched Sidewalk" as the brush shape. See here:

The Splotched Sidewalk option should just be pre-installed as an option in your "blotmap" folder for Paint Tool SAI 2. If not, I put the bmp file below. Save it, then go to your program files and put it in your "blotmap" folder.

DFeng canvas brush
For this one, I was trying to make a brush that looked like a particular TVPaint brush but I ended up making something new.
1. First, save this .bmp file into the "bristle" folder of your Paint Tool SAI program files:
2. Then, choose 'dfeng_vertical' as your brush shape in the drop down list:
3. Then, have all your settings match these:

Procreate brushes (They should also work with Procreate Dreams):

Be sure to play around with pressure curves to avoid carpal tunnel. This is what I’ve been doing. If any of my brushes feel different to you than how it looks in my art, it's probably because of this.
The current main lineart/sketching brush I use is this one.
My overall favorite brushes.
My assortment of other lineart/sketching brushes.
My assortment of brushes for painting: loading and detailing.
These are the sets I have installed. I pretty much messed around with a bunch of these brush settings here until they are up to my exact liking:

Not satisfied? Check out the Procreate brushes masterlist.

Similarly, there is a Clip Studio Paint assets masterlist for CSP users.
More for CSP, Procreate, and Photoshop over here.

FONTS😀😀😀:

DFont - A font I made for my Cosmicals comic
VDesigners’ Font Exchange (free for commercial use fonts)
Blambot Comic Book Fonts - if you’re an indie comic book creator, Blambot's Indie Font free usage policy applies to you.
The official Weezer font
Dharmas Studio fonts
Free Fonts (Summer Edition V.2) by Pietro Baudin
Free pixel fonts by Not Jam
MORE pixel fonts!
Y2K-esque fonts! by Wippo Type
Cute and Elegant Free Fonts
Elegant and Round Free Fonts
Sci-Fi font collection by Sadgrl
more and more and more fonts!!!

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