Mini Mahou March!

Hey there Magical guys gals and pals! A new month is almost upon us and I’m sure some of you know many months have art challenges, usually involving a piece of art a day either themed or done in a type of material.

That’s a lot of art. So I want to host a mini art challenge- specifically for designing magical girls! I’ll post a prompt early each Monday of the month and pin it to this blog, and if you’d like to make a magical girl (or boy, NB, ect) based off that prompt, @ me and I will reblog them here Sunday before the next prompt! 

That’s just four pieces, and for extra incentive- If you complete all four prompts by 11:59 est each Sunday, I will draw something for you! Something relatively small of course, not 30 character pieces, but your oc, a bit of fanart, maybe even a character design. Nothing hateful and nothing lewd natch. The only other requirements would be to follow this blog and to have messaging from accounts you follow open so I can contact you for what you’d like drawn afterwards. 

All posts and re-blogs will be tagged ‘Mini Mahou March’ for easy searching, tagging, and if you don’t want to see original designs on this blog, blacklisting.  Prompts will be fairly light like ‘x color scheme witch magical character’ or ‘specific-fashion-style warrior character’- I’m hoping to highlight how the same idea on paper (like animal and dessert themed magical warriors) can still end up with very different results from different people, so I hope to see some people participate! If you have any questions feel free to shoot a line!

Facebook is launching a Patreon-like “Fan Subscription” thing and it’s got red flags all over it already.

One part of the terms is that they get a lifelong, transferable license for your content, which persists even if you stop using their service. They can transfer or sub-license it to third parties, and you can’t stop them, because you agree to that when you sign up.

Another is that once they start taking a cut, which they will once this launches officially, they can take up to 30%. For comparison, Patreon takes 5%. So you sign up, you post content, they raise the fee, you decide it’s no longer worth it and stop using it… and they get to keep using your content anyway.

You can read more about it here. But basically, the takeaway seems to be that this is another example of Facebook trying to make their own version of a good thing, and turn it into a worse thing, and sell it to you as the best thing ever. Don’t buy it. Please, please, do your research before you sign up for anything.

DON’T USE IT. EVEN THE MEDIA KNOWS IT’S FULL OF SHIT!!

listen, if you’re an artist, you need to get the fuck OFF of Facebook. Facebook has done nothing to rectify their terms. Your account could be private, doesn’t matter. Your account could be public, doesn’t matter. If you post art (or images) on Facebook, they own the license to that piece.

But Aery! How will I grow an audience if I’m not on all social media!? You know how if you click water mark on DeviantArt and it covers almost the WHOLE image; do that but make sure it coveres the important bits. Make a box signature with a disclosure on the bottom half “Property of (insert website or common username you use everywhere)”

Redirect your Facebook fans to a different website, be it your own or a site that won’t steal your fucking license in their TOS/TOA (Terms of service/terms of agreement).

Honestly, at some point, make the transition where you HAVE your own site. You can start with cheap alternatives and grow into better options, but don’t feel like you have to rush. Artists aren’t made of money when they start out after all. Only make the transition when your able; but STAY AWAY FROM FACEBOOK IF YOU CAN’T PROTECT YOUR ART.

Don’t have a digital software to put the water mark on? AVOID.

Don’t have the time to inform yourself of the websites shenanigans? AVOID.

If a stranger can’t look at your art and know it’s your art. You need to actively protect your art and start signing shit. I know I’m guilty of never signing my works, but it is a form of claiming a piece. Some sites you have to do the WHOLE image, other sites you have to do partial an image. And if that shit is reposted, YOU GIVE THEM HELL.

Send them a cease and desist (you don’t need a lawyer to type this up. There are plenty of examples online to help give you an idea). If they still don’t, you contact staff of the site and let them know you have sent a cease and desist to stop and they have not. If the staff does nothing, you have two options. Raise hell in the fandom, or take it to court.

Artists are not free content providers for websites or thieves.

Basically all websites have a clause in them about the license so they can legally host your work.  That’s normal, and you’ll find that on any site you look at.  Things like being allowed to do a transformative work, etc. are so they can produce thumbnails and that kind of stuff without getting hit legally.  They’ll also state it’s non-exclusive, meaning they aren’t demanding you only host that work on that website.

When looking at these, you’ll note they stop holding effect when you remove your work from the website.  Meaning that if you take it down, you are revoking those rights and they acknowledge and will (theoretically) respect this.

Facebook’s terms include after you leave and/or remove your work.  Basically other websites you retain your creator rights and just give them the legally required rights in order that they can host your work.  Facebook wants you to sign your rights over to them entirely.

After about three months of work, collaboration, working with fans, Magpie Games, and with the mods on the Masks Discord Server, we’re SUPER HAPPY and very pleased to announce that the Kickstarter for The Fan Favorite: A Masks RPG Zine is LIVE!

The Fan Favorite Zine will be 56 PAGES, and will include fanart, articles on how to GM for big groups (like…huge groups), how to GM for teens, and supplements for your Masks game that include adventure seeds, a MeRIT scholars breakdown, and multiple one-shot modules, including a Homecoming Dance Horror Story and a puzzle-based one-shot. 

We also have tons of fanart, creative writing, and aids for your game! We’re paying all our contributors and we have rewards for every level. Check it out!

@zinewatch @fandomzines @zine-scene @zinefeed@zinesubmissions @zinehunter @kickstarter

I was one of the artists! Masks is a  great superhero themed tabletop game that’s way easy to get into since it’s story based rather than stats based. I highly rec!

30 day improve your draws

so i looked around for something like this but all the ones i found were like HEH SUCK YOUR OWN DICK DRAW YOUR OWN BORING OCS FOR 30 DAYS DRAW HOMESTUCK FOR 30 DAYS DRAW YOUR OWN BORING OCS AS HOMESTUCK FOR 30 DAYS etc which w/e is fun buddy but i don’t find that shit helpful so i made my own that i can do. these are meant to not be super heavy time investments since i have a full time job and i need something i can spend like 2 hours tops on anyway here

DAY 1. paint a BG

DAY 2. draw a figure in perspective

DAY 3. STILL-LIFE DAY don’t go crazy but you know, challenge yourself maybe do something a bit more complicated then a rubber ball in direct sunlight

DAY 4. draw a animal you’ve never drawn before

DAY 5. paint a picture using a limited palette, you can get those anywhere but here are some sites

DAY 6. draw a figure in: 1 hour, 30 min, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, 1 minute, 30 seconds

DAY 7. put your ipod on shuffle and play the first song it gives you. illustrate that song. if you have a zune get the fuck off my blog you heretic

DAY 8. 2 POINT PERSPECTIVE DAY

DAY 9. draw the same picture 3 times with 3 different compositions

DAY 10. STYLE DAY 1 - pick a artist with a unique style and emulate it!

DAY 11. STYLE DAY 2 - pick a artist with a unique style and emulate it!

DAY 12. STYLE DAY 3 - pick a artist with a unique style and emulate it!

DAY 13. watch a movie or episode of a show that you find visually appealing. while watching draw thumbnails of shots that catch your eye and try to articulate why it’s visually appealing/why it works

DAY 14. paint another BG but it has to be different than the one you did  DAY 1 SO if you painted a outdoors scene, do a interior if you painted a tree try some water w/e

DAY 15. do a lineart, then swap with a friend who also did a lineart and color each other’s pictures. if you don’t have friends then make some ok

DAY 16. paint a portrait of your favorite celebrity (mine is adrian brody!!)

DAY 17. do another limited palette picture b/cuz they’re easy and fun but this time after you’re done INVERT THE PALETTE (CTRL + I in photoshop) AND PAINT A DIFFERENT PICTURE whoa

DAY 18. close your eyes and draw 3 random shapes with your non-dominant hand, then turn those shapes into legit draws

DAY 19. MAGICAL GIRL DAY FUCK ok go to here and draw the first 3 you get. i guess you could use any of the other generators but why would you want to?

DAY 20. pick a body part you have trouble with, find a bunch of photo references (or use yourself/a friend that you should have made by now) and fill up a whole page/canvas with studies

DAY 21. 3 POINT PERSPECTIVE DAY

DAY 22. random.org 1-648 3x. gijinka the corresponding pokemon no cheating yes metapod is 9 kinds of lame but do it anyway this is about growth i’m already trying to make it fun quit bitching. if you don’t like pokemon go to wikipedia and hit “random page” until you get 3 animals and gijinka them.

DAY 23. draw the keyframes of a walk cycle

DAY 24. this is a project i did in my intro to drawing for non-majors class (aka confused business majors who need a fine arts gen ed and couldn’t get into ceramics). pick a ancient culture that you’re interested in (aka not contemporary japan you giant child) and find a sculpture or piece of art (3D works best) that really speaks to your heart or some shit. render it as realistically as possible. this may seem odd but it was a weirdly engaging project for me except you have it easy b/cuz i had to recreate it on a 4ft x 8ft canvas in ink and, while engaged, i also wanted to fucking die the entire time (almost 2 weeks) so that’s the feeling you should be aiming for here

DAY 25. YOU’RE GETTING BETTER EVERY DAY DAY! find the oldest picture you have and redraw it for a quick and dirty self-esteem boost

DAY 26. have a friend draw you 3 very rough gestures and then you finish them. if you still don’t have friends you have bigger problems than needing to work on your art i gave you 10 days to find a buddy which is pretty generous i think

DAY 27. pick 3 basic geometric shapes, design 3 characters utilizing those shapes

DAY 28. find a book, open to a random page and draw the 2nd sentence

DAY 29. pick a character (whatever) and draw them happy, sad and angry. be consistent and push the expressions/pose

DAY 30. real talk nobody ever makes it to day 30 i could pretty much say anything here and it wouldn’t matter at all. i’m making this day about me, this is my day, national johre day. draw yourself god tier while listening to really cool music. pretend you are really a god wearing cool pajamas and have amazing powers and are not actually a disenchanted alcoholic woman lost in the financial abyss of post-university life christ almighty help me 

I’m doing this!!

i still need to do this

Some tumblr tips for artists

• only the first five tags are serchable so make um count.

•Some of the most popular art related tags are #art, #illustration, #design, and #artists on tumblr.

• If you put a link in your post it won’t appear in serch results

• The best time to post seems to be from around 8pm to midnight east coast time

• socialize with other artists. Comments and asks are appreciated by a lot of us, and being friendly will encourage others to check out your stuff

Thank you for sharing these tips @evan-bryant! Really great stuff to keep in mind!

I did not know that about the tags!

psa to all my artfriends looking to get more traction with their art!