kingcholera

Creating References (for everyone)

More than anything else, I want to be able to help other artists. 

Don't get me wrong, I love painting and creating my own characters, but helping is what I feel like I'm meant to do. It's the reason why I created my first patreon, and why it seems like something is missing from this one. 

I tried for years to create lessons that were easy to understand, but putting everything together was so stressful. What if the information was incorrect...

FAVORITE PROGRAMS:

My main program is photoshop, but I use other software for various things like creating pose reference and lighting schemes! Some of them I just bought or rarely use, and others have become essential to my process. 

Clip Studio Paint ($) I don't have much experience with this yet since I just got it during the last 50% off sale, but it has some really cool features that photoshop doesn't, like the pose...

FAVORITE ART BOOKS:

As someone who could never afford art school or online classes, I have gathered a lot of useful resources over the years to teach myself. I wanted to share all of them, but I am going to separate each into categories like programs, websites etc. Today we will start with the books! I will either mark them as free, or with a dollar sign (3 being the most expensive)

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Confidence Building: Dreaming Big

This post has been sitting in my drafts since November of last year. My confidence was at an all time low and I was feeling really sorry for myself, so I started writing about dreams. One of the bigger dreams was to work with Guillermo Del Toro, even if it was for a small project, even if it was just an illustration. The entire post was going to be centered around that. 

I have mentioned him in the past, but he is one of my biggest inspirations and has been for a very lo...

My Brushes!

I am uploading the three brushes I use for almost all of my work. I found the source of the main brush here! However, that person modified it from the original. I have come across the middle brush in various packs, so again, not sure who the original creator is. The third, as far as I ...

"Lady Agnew" Master Study

Oh look, another Sargent master copy! No one is surprised. 😂 This one is of "Lady Agnew of Lochnaw", and it took me about five hours, half of which was spent trying to get her face right. There must be something about her face, because this is the third time I have done a study of it and I still st...

Q&A!

Since I had to put off the other lessons for now, I thought I would make a post where anyone can ask questions. Do you need advice on something, or are you just curious about what brushes I use? Maybe you just want suggestions on how to practice. If it is a personal question, you can always send me a private message too. I would love to help if I can.

You can ask several questions! I will either reply here, or make another post if I feel like the info can be useful for other ...

Tumblr.

Since everything that happened with tumblr, I have been feeling a little discouraged. 

Tumblr is where I became kingcholera. Most of my followers are there, and I have definitely noticed how much it has changed since the NSFW ban. I keep telling myself that there are still people around though, including all of you. I can't begin to tell you how much it means, especially right now, to have the encouragement, enthusiasm and feedback. Thank you. 

2019-02-08 22:45:28 +0000 UTC View Post

Alex and Epoch

TV and film style illustrations has always been one of the ways I pictured telling this story. When I imagine scenes it is in a very cinematic way, even down to the subtitles. The problem was, while I have done a good handful of studies just like this, I still struggle with drawing BGs by myself. So I thought, 'Why not practice both and loosely base scenes off of shots from TV and films?' 

I have a few rules set for myself though:

• I will never copy...
  2019-02-05 21:19:20 +0000 UTC View Post

Test #2

The lighting is a lot better this time around, but it is still pretty inconsistent in both contrast and color. I apologize for that, I was constantly changing the angle of the lights to see what worked best and so I decided to make them all black and white until I can get more cohesive colors.   

A few of them turned out really nice, like the one above (which I kept in color) I hope these are useful at least! There are 9 new sheets with about 72 poses in the zip folder bel...

Hand References (Feedback is appreciated!)

I kept putting this off because my equipment and the space I can shoot photos in is pretty limited, but I think with a lot more tests I can get lighting that is more consistent so I want give it a try. Right now I have an older model iphone, a tripod, a black blanket for the backdrop and a desk light + natural lighting from my window. I was using the front facing camera so I could see my hands on the screen, but I know that cuts the quality in half. The grain is not a good look at all. 😅&n...

Story Stuff!

There are two of these names that I am not 100% on yet, but everyone else feels 'right'. Some of them you already know, and others you might be able to guess, but either way I will match the names to their faces for all of you soon enough. 🖤

 Bloodless has gone through a few small visual changes. His extremities and lips are now tinged blue from being near death when turned, and his eyes are cloudier to complement his pallid complexion. I always wanted him to...

Small Portraits!

Under 40 mins each.

Give me your 'Value, Color and Light' Questions!

Nothing is off limits, so ask away.  😊

2019

In the summer of 2017, I was asked to participate in a Dorian art book by two amazing people that I now consider friends. That art book, Fortitudo, went on to raise well over 20,000 USD for two LGBT charities, and was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I got to be a part of something so much bigger than myself, and use my art for a very important cause. I learned a lot about myself as an artist, and I ...

❄️ Happy Holidays ❄️

I will have more to show you after Christmas, but for now let me show you a few of my favorite things:

A favorite art book of mine, "Drawing the Head and Figure by Jack Hamm" is free to read here. Highly recommend. 

The beautiful opening to my favorite TV show, "2018-12-22 18:35:56 +0000 UTC View Post

Drawing Without Reference

I mentioned this on twitter, but I have spent so many years studying from photos, doing master copies and learning realism that I forgot to practice drawing from my head alongside it. My confidence is already shaky to begin with, and using reference has been my safety blanket for so long that I always feel lost without it. 

But I'm nothing if not determined, and I'm also pretty good at kicking my own ass. So I sat down the other day with my ipad and drew the heads above with no refere...

I need your input!

For the lessons, should I go into detail on each individual subject (value, color and light)  or give a brief explanation and then focus on the relationships between all of them? 

Originally I was going to do the first one; focus on values and then transition into how values relate to color, but the more I think about it, the second option just makes a lot more sense. If I'm going to talk about gray as a value, why not talk about how a primary and a secondary color (for ex...

Uraomote

Which can translate to something like 'both sides' or 'two-faced' in Japanese. This is the name of an idea I've had in my head for a few years now, alongside Pestilent Prince. Uraomote is about the nightlife of the living, the dead and yokai who inhabit a small town.

I ...

Thank you, Patrons.

A lot of you have been with me from the very beginning. Not on Patreon, but since I made the name kingcholera and started posting on tumblr. Some of you were also the first to commission me when I was so scared to try again. Many of you are now my friends. 

This is not about supporting me monetarily, because even without that you have always believed in me. You encourage me to keep going on the bad days, and on the good days I can actually see...

A very rough 'Magister Dorian Pavus' concept

Using some of those gesture poses I posted, I messily put together a look that I would love to see for him in DA4. I must have a preference, because this is very similar to what he was wearing in my Necromancer painting. Either way, I want Dorian to greet us draped in black and dripping in gold. I might have to use that black glove for one of my own characters...

I really just wa...

Favorite Things...Sketchfab!

A few months ago I came across a collection of scans done by Benjamin Bardou (@meryon) of sculptures at the Lourve Museum in Paris. I was blown away by the amount of detail, and as someone that has never been to the Lourve, getting to rotate and zoom in on some of the sculptures like this is really cool.

But I found a few other things to share from sketchfab that might be useful for constructing the head. I know I am goi...

Figure Studies

I did these studies from reference for an idea I had, but who knows when I can get around to doing them, so here are the gestures for now. I will leave you with a few hints:

It involves training with a stave. Pay close attention to the body language too, because I tried to find poses that fit the character. 

A Lady and her Knight

Since Camilla and Marion are both characters based off of Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood paintings, it seemed only fitting to use Waterhouse as inspiration for a painting.  

This is just a rough WIP of it, and I probably won't be able to work on it until I get back from my trip, but I really wanted to share what I have so far! I used two Waterhouse paintings as reference ('2018-10-21 16:54:43 +0000 UTC View Post

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I can finally draw and paint while I travel! Expect updates as I try to learn how to use procreate. 😅 

👀

 Figuratively speaking, if I were to study and teach specific subjects next year, what would you like to see covered first? 

Figuratively speaking, of course. 

EDIT: 'Value, light and color' is winning by one vote!  

Brainstorming!

SPOILERS...but I wanted to share a moodboard for one of the infected. One design out of ten isn't giving away too much, right? Keep in mind that Marion is going to look very different from the portrait on this sheet. She is going to be so creepy. They are all going to be so creepy, and I cannot wait to draw them.   

2018-09-27 17:33:06 +0000 UTC View Post

4 years of improvement

Not sure why I keep coming back to this drawing in particular, maybe because I know where the reference photo is and it is of one of my favorite singers, but anyway...

There are things I like about all three, but I am going to tell you why I am so proud of the 2018 one. 

It looks the most like him. I can see how much I improved in proportions and form in the last two years. I can also see that vintage style I always wanted coming through. Years of studies from ...

Finished Sargent Quick Studies

I tried not to take too long on each, and so some turned out closer to the original than others. I am pretty happy with all of them though, considering how strange a few of the color palettes were and each was painted around 500x500.  I wish I could have found higher quality versions of all of them. Here are the names of the paintings I did copies from, attached at the bottom of this post:

Portrait of Sybil, Countess Rocksavage

Egyptian Woman 3 (Coin Necklace...

Daily Studies

I already study almost every day, but I decided to try and do faster, more focused studies instead of long poses and master copies that can take me weeks to finish. So here are the first few!

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