Sunday, December 25, 2022

On Art and Practice (Motivational)

 I don't usually do posts like this, but I think it might help some people out, especially as the New Years' comes close. 

I had always wanted to learn how to draw, ever since I was a kid.  But I never had time.  

Then, suddenly during the pandemic, I had time.  

I started doodling and taking classes and a close friend requested erotic futa art, because she couldn't find any online she really liked.  So after a LOT of training and work and revising, at the start of 2022, I gave my friend this:


Yep, I actually looked at THAT skeletal, badly drawn abomination and said "Good Enough" and shipped it!  (I didn't even realize I had put the wrong YEAR on the caption, 2021, not 2022!  I just double-checked my emails to confirm, it was sent Jan 1st 2022.)

If you squint past the horrible proprotions and clumsy shading and BAD composition, you can SORT OF see a story going on there (futa girl is proposing to straight girl on this romantic cliff face overlooking a beach- I even drew a horrible RING), but that frankly embarassing picture was only ONE YEAR away from me being able to do something like THIS (click to make larger):
 

I mean, ohmygod- the characters are actually THREE dimenional now, with SHADOWS and everything!  And the smooth lines, the dramatic posing- even the 'story' is so much clearer!

But my point is, if I had looked at that FIRST picture with ANY sort of critical eye, I would have thrown down my pencils and NEVER drawn again. Which meant I would have NEVER gotten to that second picture a year later, which I'm decently proud of.  

And my gut says there are a LOT of people out there right now at the level of that first picture, whether it is with their drawn art or their erotic writing, frustrated or despairing that the clunky broken result on the page doesn't look at ALL like the beautiful, flawless, stirring, image they had in their head.  And they want to give up!  

So I decided to show you all the frankly embarassing first attempt at 'art' I made, to hopefully give folks an idea of what type of improvement is possible in just ONE year of steady practice.  How much better will YOUR art look one year from now?   

How about TWO?  

THREE?

(Ohmygod even the FACES in that first picture still make me cringe- but how good will my faces look NEXT year?)

You really have no concept of how GOOD you're going to be if you just keep practicing- I certainly didn't, and I sometimes feel like a pretty smart cookie with a good bead on things- so don't stop!  I was doing a sort of 'year in review' of my sketchbooks and came across that first disaster, and I was so shocked (and embarassed!) by how FAR I had come in just one year, I figured SOMEONE out there might be motivated to keep putting in the daily work, if they saw that improvement too!  So keep going, no matter WHERE on the curve you are!

That's the end of the purely motivational speech- the rest of the below is only for the digital drawing artists who want to know exactly WHAT I did in those 12 months to improve- if that's not you, thanks for reading this self-indulgent post, and have a Happy New Year!

***

Okay, so you're a digital artist who wants to make hot chastity or CFNM or ball-busting or futa art or maybe just draw HOT women in your spare time, what's the FASTEST way to improve?  Here's what I did:

1. The simplest, most basic, and FASTEST way to learn how to draw hot women I've found is this $37 course by former Disney artist Paris Christou: 

His video lessons are short and fast, and Paris gives you the SIMPLEST way to draw decent heads and eyes and hands and nice body shapes- he was an animator so I find his teachings are the most EFFICENT path to make a lot of slim, elegant women.  (Animators have to make HUNDREDS of stills to make just 1 minute of animation, so Paris doesn't do ANY wasted work!)

It was Disney, so your results will look a lot like PG Disney princesses, but with a little imagination you can make it PG-13.  And Disney Princesses are already long-legged, elegant, with big cute eyes, and his way of drawing HANDS is the most rock-solid I've seen.  A great way to start if you know NOTHING about drawing women.

2. If you want to graduate from PG/PG-13 to R-rated women, my best recommendation is Alvaro Munoz's $10 "How to Draw Women" book here: https://coaxdreams.artstation.com/store/816V/learn-to-draw-women-capturing-the-female-form

(I'm not getting paid by any of these, by the way.  In fact it's the opposite, I paid THEM for their products to learn and get better in 2022!)

Munoz is a master of drawing CURVY alluring women, and it's from his book I first learned the idea of drawing women's butts as SQUISHY water balloons, instead of hard, solid bowling balls, which makes them a lot sexier (boobs too!).  You can see the butt squishing around the boy's arm on the girl here, that idea I got DIRECTLY from Munoz: 




Munoz is behind the great 'coaxdreams' deviant art page, if you want to get a sense of his work look here: https://www.deviantart.com/coaxdreams

His book has a lot of great high-level tips on how to make your drawn women more alluring and sexy, but it's definitely not Disney, and definitely not for beginners (not a lot on how to use basic fundamental shapes to make ribs or legs or heads, for example.  Go to Paris Christou for that!)

3.  Those were the things I PAID for, here are two great FREE Youtube channels I also learned a lot from:

If you want FUNDAMENTAL line drawing concepts delivered VERY well, I recommend "Draw Like A Sir", starting with a video like this: https://youtu.be/9m4Hf_6U4Rc

If you want DIGITAL shading concepts from a working Blizzard character artist, I recommend Marc Brunet, like this one of his about shading: https://youtu.be/_p7p4g58l9Q

I use Draw Like a Sir to learn line work (pencils, inks, digital line art), and Marc Brunet for colors and digital shading.  Marc's a little sillier than Sir, but always seems to draw hot elfish women holding swords, so the implications are obvious.  

Besides that, if you're specifally into BALL-BUSTING art, one of my big inspirations is 'madtomy' on DeviantArt- one of my things to try and learn in 2023 is how madtomy gets that 'action blurry' look, here is one of my favorites: https://www.deviantart.com/madtomyart/art/Pinup-kneekick-921405246

Here's one with that good 'motion blur' I talked about: https://www.deviantart.com/madtomyart/art/Ballbusting-stories-preview1-908288513

Maybe by the end of 2023, I can do action BB scenes 1% as well as madtomy does!

Those are the biggest ways I've learned in 2022.   Just one more thing to mention:

4. Pin-ups are about a STORY.  

I see a LOT of great art around (especially commissioned work) where the whole message is "Hot girl stands around".  Like, lots of great linework, very cool shading, good pose, good proportions, sexy image, but it's nothing BUT an image of a hot girl sitting or standing.  

You'll see this a lot in OLDER 'pin-ups' too, where the whole point was "Hot girl at beach."

To ME (everyone is different) 'pin-up' art specifically has to tell a STORY, and a story means the reader understands: 
A. Here is what was SUPPOSED to happen
B. Here is what DID happen

There's a BEFORE and AFTER, a SET-UP and PAY-OFF implied by only the IMAGES on screen, that I find missing from a lot of modern 'pin-up' work.  Think about which is hotter: 

-A hot naked girl
-A hot naked girl having SEX
-A hot naked girl having sex with a muscular LARGE dicked man
-A hot naked girl having sex with a muscular large dicked man while her HUSBAND walks in, with flowers and chocolates in hand and a shocked look on his face but an obvious SUDDEN erection in his pants (or whatever story you're trying to tell)

Right?  In the last idea, there's a SET-UP and PAYOFF, which the first idea doesn't have, no matter HOW well drawn.

And I think a pin-up story should be obvious at a GLANCE, like I tried in that Santa piece: 



Right?  Maybe the Futa was rushing naked out of bed to deliver milk and cookies she had forgotten to put out, but the female Santa decided she wanted something ELSE instead- (or whatever story you want to tell yourself!)

But there's a BEFORE and AFTER, and really what makes it obvious is the falling plate of milk and cookies- such a small detail!  (And not techincally 'sexy'.)  I don't do it perfectly, I'm still learning, but that's what I feel is missing from a lot of modern pin-up art, so I wanted to make a special point about including such details.  

You're going to think I'm weird, but the absolute MASTER of this was... Norman Rockwell.  I won't link to any of his images here (copyrighted and a lot of them feature children and WAY too wholesome to include on this smutty smutty blog), but if you want to see the BEST IN THE WORLD at telling a story without using ANY words, google Norman Rockwell's magazine covers.  

Even if your artwork is VERY early on, you can make your pictures 10,000% more interesting to readers by including some Norman Rockwell touches to your composition- highly recommended!  

You can also look at some of Art Frahm's old work, some of them have a story going on, like this girl suddenly losing her panties: https://www.etsy.com/listing/800480320/vintage-pin-up-girl-art-frahm-2382

Frahm's work is hard to find, he's long gone, and there's MUCH more written about Rockwell's process, and Rockwell's story-telling is a lot better anyway.  

I hope all that helped, if there's any specific topic you erotic artists want to learn about, (I could do a whole blog post on JUST how to draw perfect nipples every time) or if you want some gentle pin-up art critique, always feel free to email me, at pfdee@comcast.net!

Happy New Year, and looking forward to seeing how YOU have improved in the next 12 months!

Friday, December 23, 2022

Merry Christmas to All!



Thanks for another great year!

Tuesday, December 20, 2022

UNLOCKED- Episode 3

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