There are a few programs I use on an almost daily basis as an artist and illustrator which I find invaluable, but that seem to be unfortunately more secret than they deserve to be. Which is too bad, because they solve a lot of small workflow problems that I think a number of people would find useful!
I’ll keep this list limited to my big three, but it is organized in order of usefulness. (And incidentally of compatibility, as the latter two are Windows-only. Sorry! Please do still check out PureRef though, Mac users.)
PureRef is a program specifically designed to make it easier to view, sort, and work with your references. I actually put off downloading it initially because it seemed redundant– couldn’t I just paste the refs into my PSD files? Indeed, the only real barrier to working with PureRef is that learning the keyboard shortcuts and the clicks to move around the program takes a little while. But getting over that hump is well worth it, because it has some distinct advantages over trying to organize your refs in your actual art program.
Firstly, you’re no longer bogging down your actual PSD file with extra layers, nor having to fight with said layers at all– PureRef has no layer panel, so you never have to scramble to grab the right one. All images you paste into the program retain their original resolution data, so you can resize, rotate, crop, etc as needed without distortion. If you find yourself needing to adjust the values, color, etc of a ref image, you can just copy paste it into Photoshop, make your adjustments, and copy paste it back into PureRef.
The other great advantage is that you can toggle the program as ‘Stay On Top’ and keep it above Photoshop (or whatever else)– which was always a problem when trying to make a reference collage in a separate PSD file. I find that I just don’t look at my references as much as I should when they are on a second monitor, and this solves that problem.
I’ve used it religiously for about a year now, creating a new PureRef file for every illustration I do, as well as a few for specific characters, cultures, or settings in personal projects. As you can see in the example above, I like to sort my images into little clusters or ‘islands’ of specific content, so that I can easily scroll out to see the entire reference map, then zoom in to the relevant cluster easily.
There is one big tip I would suggest for using this program, if you have the harddrive space: As soon as you get it, turn on the ‘Embed local images in save file’ option. This will make your PureRef files bigger, but you’ll never have to deal with a ‘broken link’ if you move around the source files you originally dragged in.
This is such a simple little app that it doesn’t have a very formal name, though I think of it as ‘Work’ or ‘Work Work’ (for some reason.) It’s a timer that counts when your cursor is active in any (of up to 3) program you set it to count for, and stops counting when you change programs or idle. No starting, pausing, stopping, or forgetting to do any of those three things.
I use this one to accurately track my hours, both to inform myself and for commissions or other client work. At the end of a work session, I take the hours counted and add them to the hours I’ve already spent on that image in a spreadsheet.
I have it set to count my three art programs (Photoshop, Painter, and Manga Studio), so based on the settings I use, it doesn’t count time that I spend doing relevant work in my browser (such as looking up an email to double check character descriptions or ref hunting), so to counter that, I set the ‘Timeout’ option in it’s menu to 360. This means it will count to 360 seconds of cursor inactivity before it considers me idle and stops counting. Since it instantly stops counting if you switch to ‘non-work’ a program, I figure this extra time just about cancels out relevant time that it ignores in ‘non-work’ programs by counting an extra minute or so when I walk away from the computer to grab some water or what-have-you.
I use Carapace the least of these three, since my work doesn’t often have a need for creating perspective lines. But when there is architecture involved in something, this proves invaluable in simplifying that process.
Carapace lets you copy paste an image into it, and then drop in vanishing points and move them around to create perspective lines. (Though you’ll want to scale down your full res drawing or painting a bit to avoid lagging the program.) Like with PureRef, fighting the shortcuts is the worst part of it, though for myself it’s more of an issue in this program because I don’t use it often enough to remember them. Still, it gets the job done, and it’s easy to adjust the points to feel things out until you get them ‘right’. Then you just copy and paste the grid back into your art program and you’ve got that information to use as need be on its own layer.
Of course, using Carapace isn’t a replacement for actually knowing how perspective works– you still have to have a sense of how far apart the vanishing points should be placed to keep things feeling believable. But it sure does save you a lot of trouble once you do have that knowledge.
So, there are my big three recommendations for programs to help your art workflow. I hope people find them useful– if you do, please share so that they climb a little higher out of their unwarranted obscurity! And if you’ve got a favorite tool like this that I didn’t cover, feel free to share it in the comments. I know I’m curious to see what else is out there, too. Also, if Mac users have any suggestions for programs that fill similar functions, feel free to share there as well!
You sure have seenthis post. It has spread like wildfire over the past few days so I doubt there is any artist out there who hasn’t seen it. But even if you didn’t, you should read on because I’m about to tell you a handy little thing that can help you to protect your art from such assholes as the anon who submitted this bullcrap, as well as art thieves in general.
The magic word is Metadata.
Metadata is like an invisible signature that is embeded into a file. It can contain all kinds of information, like Title, date, keywords for online seach engines, and copyright information. And the best thing is, since this information is “hidden” in the code of your picture, it’s hard to remove it.
There is a nice basic tutorial on how to add Metadata, or “additional file information” to your images in photoshop. It’s really, really easy so check it out!
I’m not sure if you can do the same with any other art program. If you know how to do this in other programs / can confirm that it works the same way there, please tell me so I can add the information to this post.
Adding the Metadata will not stop idiots from taking and reposting your art. It also won’t make them stop editing out your signature. It WILL however, help you prove that you are the original artist whenever you have to.
Always remember my friends. You, the artist, are protected by law. No one has the right to take your intellectual property and hard work and repost, use or edit it without your permission. Ever.
writing a paper: too perfectionist to do a shitty job too exhausted to do a good job
So for my adhders with this issue (and for anyone else struggling to work up the motivation to tackle a task that seems huge) the best piece of advice I ever got was to speed write.
When you absolutely can’t make yourself sit down and work, give yourself 5 minutes to write as much as possible. Don’t reference anything, don’t write in full sentences if you don’t want to, just write as much of the paper as you can. Make it bad and illogical af.
After that go for a walk or have some tea outside and then go back, skim what you have written, and do it again.
Once you have done this a couple of times just go and edit, put your references in and make it more logical.
The hardest part is often just getting something on paper and starting the process of writing. Aiming to write a shit first draft can be really freeing for perfectionists – it’s obviously going to be bad – it’s going to be illogical and mistyped and hilariously so. That’s what you aim for.
Editing is so much easier than starting to write when you want it to be perfect.
I love doing this. I just type what I know and what I’m trying to say curse words and everything and have my friend who finds my first drafts hilarious look over the paper and help me come up with words.
I did this all through college and grad school – basically write every thought that was in my head, sleep on it, then edit and rearrange. It’s not the method teachers will endorse, but for me it worked, especially when my anxiety was so bad I couldn’t start a paper, let alone do it “properly.” It worked the best when I was able to hyperfocus while my meds were at their peak and just write 5-6 pages of word-vomit in one sitting. Then, when you edit, you can sit back and look at the bigger picture of the paper – find your argument so you can structure it and write a good thesis, note what other topics/arguments you need to bring in to support your points, etc. Better to have words on a page and have to edit than being so paralyzed or distracted you can’t get *anything* written.
I also used the placeholder method – do whatever you need to do to *not break* your writing concentration. I used to put empty footnotes in places where I knew I needed a reference or write things like (insert example here) or (talk about so and so’s theory here). If I knew the sentence I wrote was crap, I would put (rewrite later) or highlight it. Looking things up breaks the focus you have, and you don’t wanna do that. Fill in your holes later.
Go forth and speed write Add/ADHDers – you got this.
You feel like shit is a website set up to help you get out of that funk/improve things just enough to not feel horrible and miserable all the time. It’s amazing.
Whether you struggle with mental health problems all the time or whether this is a new/temporary state for you, this guide is an easy and judgement-free self-care tool.
PLEASE TRY IT OUT! Really! You just click through the questions to answer and follow simple instructions that in the end, ideally, will help you to feel more comfortable and stable on a daily basis.
Good luck! Have fun!
Wow this self-care took is incredible.
I’m feeling ok right now and am about to settle into bed (but this was scheduled hence the early morning post) but I flipped through it for awhile just to see what it is like and holy crap it’s like a choose-your-own-adventure of self-care activities that not only aims to engage you in positive feel good behaviors but also tries to match its suggestions to your level of energy/ability/can even.
I think I am going to use this definitely when I am having a bad time but maybe also try to incorporate it into my life on at least a weekly if not a daily or semi-daily basis.
1. Draw the most common appearance for your character. This is your comfort zone. (Color)
2. Draw your character from the front, the side, and the back. This is something called a ‘turn sheet’. It’s a little boring to do, but will be very helpful to you in the future to have on hand.
3. Draw your character from the front, the side, and the back, but have them in nothing but their undies at most. This is to show off how your character is built. Drawing nothing but a straight pant-leg with no structure under it is no way to learn! (Skip this if your character doesn’t wear clothes)
4. Draw your character at three different ages than they currently are. (Must be noticeably different. No ages: 4, 5, and 6, etc.) Color one of them.
5. BANG! Your character just heard a loud noise right behind them. Draw their reaction!
6. Draw a bird’s eye view of your character.
7. Draw your character feeling very happy. Show body language.
8. Draw your character feeling very angry. Ditto.
9. Draw your character feeling very sad. You know the drill.
10. Draw your character with a different body type than they usually have. This helps you map distinguishing features onto different ‘templates’.
11. Draw your character if they were the opposite gender.
12. Draw your character as a different species than they normally are.
13. Somebody has just handed your character a live duck. Draw their reaction. Keep them in character.
14. Mary Sue the HELL out of your character. (Due to being asked “What is Mary Sue?” several times, I have included a link to the evil that is Sue: [Click if you dare.]
15. Draw your character lifting something heavy. (no magic allowed!)
16. Draw your character in an opposite role than they appear in your story/continuity.
17. Draw your character doing something they enjoy.
18. Draw your character doing something they do NOT enjoy.
19. Draw your character in a dynamic pose that is not a profile shot (from the side).
20. Draw the most common appearance for your character. Color it. (Pssst! See if it improved from the first one you drew. I bet it did!)
character A slowly falls in love with character B over the course of several years, realization hits them that they’ve been in love with B for a long time hits them like a truck
cool badass is actually a giant fucking nerd
The Power of Friendship ™
flat “what” reactions
sweet adorable characters with horrible tragic pasts
villains-turned-heroes becoming the Weird Uncle
characters that aren’t actually related having a parent-child relationship
characters that aren’t actually siblings having a sibling-like bond
“I can’t stand this person but I would die for them”
The most complicated theme I have ever made. Based on the Steampunk aesthetic, this theme is full of moving parts and detail galore. The only downside is it may take a while for the page to load the first time you view it, but it’s totally worth it.
Features:
Contains a ‘functional’ cog, pulley and weight system that moves with the page as you scroll.
Custom background colour.
Unlimited links. Your first 6 links display as fancy buttons to the right of your description. If you have more than 6 links, the rest display below your description.
Optional infinite scroll.
Custom sidebar image. Upload any square image and it’ll resize to fit.
A NYC grad student working on food stamps for her thesis has released a free cookbook for those living on $4/day.
SIG NAL BOO OO OO OOOST
hello
oooooh this is so nice!
I believe it’s important to eat well, even when you’re strapped for cash. It’s good for your health and energy! This cookbook is full of delicious and healthy recipes, the ingredients of which are fairly inexpensive.
I ACKNOWLEDGE THIS WOMAN AS A FELLOW WARRIOR AND A FANTASTIC HUMAN BEING.
Boost so hard. Feeding yourself well is a challenge when you”ve got little income
I HAVE BEEN USING THIS COOKBOOK FOR MONTHS AND IT’S AMAZING 100/10 RECOMMENDING EVERYWHERE
(just to give you an idea, my food budget is 30 euro/week at most [about $38] and I have to maintain a healthy diet due to weird medication side-effects and yeah, basically this book is a lifesaver if you’re broke but need to watch what you’re eating)
Reblog to save a life. Because it’s easy to find food for $4/day, but most of it tends to be garden variety junkfood
Honey and Venom is a webcomic about a goddess (Axiothea) who falls in love with her priestess (Caelia). They are reunited 2,000 years later, but it doesn’t go quite as Axiothea hoped: her priestess has no idea who she is! Now this ancient goddess is stuck navigating the modern world on top of trying to win back the heart of her soul mate!
ForeverSoaring Reblogs 