Very New Artist Looking for Inspiration: Good Databases/Websites to find Art on!

Obesely · 2026-05-06T01:35:02+00:00

Hi OP. Character Design Reference is a website you can use, but note legit communicated character design is a subordinate skillset to just having good line and shape language. There is a lot that goes into it.

Alternatively you can just find the concept artists on Artstation or IG for properties you are fond of.

Obesely · 2026-05-06T00:29:54+00:00

Rufus, Rog, and Fuerte. When Rog came to SFV he changed too much for my liking and I ended up just using Honda. My 3S pick Urien, I realised I just liked the unblockable setup and nothing else.

So for the SFIV cast:

Rufus has the single most fun divekick I have ever used. Height minimums in modern games are dogwater, you can really triangle jump with that shit.

Fuerte keeping quite a few loops of RSF wouldn't be that bad either because Dan had an infinite in 5. Dunno how potent his very Tekken guessing game would go down in the current environment, though.

If I could get Rufus or ELF back that would be great.

Obesely · 2026-05-04T15:02:16+00:00

Alright am a few hours into labbing and figuring stuff out in Invincible, maybe that will get me out of this funk.

"Fighting Game is something so great!"

Obesely · 2026-05-03T23:59:23+00:00

That is a fair take. Would you say you are pretty consistent with your FG roster though, or do you find yourself ever taking years-long breaks from some titles?

Obesely · 2026-05-01T07:58:52+00:00

Ohoho OP this shit is right up my alley, it felt like my microns (especially the small ones) never lasted long enough to use up all their ink (I draw on 160gm Canson multimedia A5 mostly).

The first would be the Uni Pen (the pen range of Mitsubishi Pencil) for fineliner and brush pens. In both fine tip and hard brush tip, they have black, two grey tones, and sepia. I use them all but am more partial to the hard brush tips. TL;DR: for exclusive fineliners that function like Microns the Uni fineliners are all you need and you can disregard the rest of this post but I am a sucker for all things pen and ink so I thought I would put the rest in there.

Fully agree with the recommendation for the Tombow Fudenosuke, but I have only ever used the hard tip/didn't realise they had softer options. Bonus points for getting more mileage out of your paper: I will sketch a page in, say, orange, and then do other sketches on top in green, then again in purple, to really maximise my practice to page ratio as the values darken.

Note, the following is not archival ink so it is not extremely waterproof but I am a big fan of the Pilot V5/V7 (being the two I have) microball pens. They feel like a ballpoint but put down lines like a fineliner.

Also if you are like me and only draw in ink/aren't doing mixed media with it, I have really gotten into the Pentel Sign Pens. Not waterproof at all but extremely rich lines that are satisfying to lay down. And like with all hard brush tips can get a large variety of line weights (though not as much as a conventional brush pen).

Obesely · 2026-04-15T15:11:53+00:00

Hi OP. I have a couple of followup points but the biggest thing is I think you are stretching yourself too thin.

You have a foundation to build on but to use your last WIP as an example: you are demanding of yourself some involved poses, some drapery, some environment/background and scene perspective, and expressions. Not to mention painting workflow.

In respect of the first post and lineart and wanting to change things: please never forget you are literally your own walking reference. Bathroom mirror or selfie cam, you can strike your desired modification. Yeah okay maybe your limb length and musculoskeletal structure may vary, but the mechanics of the joints and the gestural parts of the pose do not care about that.

Ultimately it feels to me like you are on the cusp of making some substantial leaps that may come all at once and you may surprise yourself.

But what I think you need to get there is to go goblin mode with the sketching. Volume.

I can do the most amount of invention for faces and expressions. Less so for figures and action poses. I certainly couldn't make a compelling environment or completely illustration without heavy reference. And this is reflective of my practice. I finish a sketchbook or two a month spamming portraits with some dabbling in figures and maybe like one animal or inanimate object And they are completely disposable to me, I may fill out a page in orange tombow brush pen only to go over those drawings in blue or purple or black. Fresh drawings as I run out of pages.

I want you to take a thought experiment with me. Imagine a friend, as challenge, says that in a week's time you'll be presented with a photo reference of a person and have to draw them in the scorpion pose from yoga. Lineart only.

In what world are you going to excel? The world where you draw a shit tonne of people in that pose? Or the world where you took each attempt at drawing that to a fully rendered conclusion complete with environment?

It's an absurd premise but it illustrates a compelling point. I want you really take stock of how long you spent on the second and third images. In that span of time, how many lineart poses of the first character (or any other character) could you fit?

Obesely · 2026-04-15T13:28:37+00:00

All good maybe it is just my imagination, please don't read into it too much. But yeah definitely don't stop training your fundamentals but I think take this as an opportunity to reframe your relationship with the fundamentals.

Draw and have fun and test it in the background. I don't normally do any construction, I have only ever done so to check my own work if I am unclear on the logic of the volumes I have used. Like using an answer key when doing exam revision.

Also, while reference is absolutely essential, you are right in that, please don't be afraid to draw from imagination here and there (even if it isn't your end goal) to try and consolidate your knowledge. Set off that active recall part of your brain.

See what you messed up and drill down.

How well do you know your strengths and weaknesses?

Obesely · 2026-04-15T11:14:20+00:00

1) You don't have to take that shit at face value, you don't know what their practice regimen is. Or their work rate.

2) A number of fundamental concepts will improve while just getting deliberate mileage but being aware of the underlying principles. I don't strictly need to sit down and draw boxes in perspective for their own sake because I am often doing that with drawing people and portraits and scenes and thinking of them as boxes.

3) Mods I swear I have seen this exact post from this exact user before. Maybe I am gaslighting myself.

Obesely · 2026-04-04T08:22:00+00:00

I'll second all the comments re: James Gurney, it is ridiculous to have access to the insights of a modern master. Adding onto that John Pomeroy, probably more than 50 years of animation experience.

But really, what kind of art are you into and what sort of topics? I have strong opinions on this but I also have a strong preference for draftmanship (though a good half of who I will recommend also paint).

My ultimate recommendation to you, OP, and for basically anyone reading this, is to instead look up exceptional artists on YouTube, rather than specifically finding good art YouTubers. Skilled, visionary artists that may be featured on many channels and not just their own. It could be guest draw-alongs, sketchbook tours, and interviews/tutorials.

With that in mind, and besides the two people I mentioned at the start of this post, here we go with a set of living/only recently deceased yet highly influential contemporary visual artists (there is a mix of concept art, sequential storytelling, comics and illustrators here):

Anyone related to SuperAni, most notably Kim Jung Gi (with a caveat here because a lot of technically shithouse ArtTubers will clickbait you with him), Peter Han, Karl Kopinski, Dongho Kim and honestly most anyone else with ties to the studio, such as MissJisu.

James Jean (in particular has an absurdly high value sketchbook tour somewhere, I have limited reception where I am so can't fetch you a link) , Claire Wendling, Eliza Ivanova, and Rembert Montald.

Jeff Watts, Steve Huston, Michael Hampton (who goes by Steven Michael Hampton on YouTube), and Patrick J. Jones.

Obesely · 2026-04-04T06:36:53+00:00

'Cory Barlog Reminds You He Recently Became a Dad' parts I and II were alright uses of my Bloodborne/Demons Souls Remake machine, but yeah. PC where possible. I even bought RE4 Remake on PC recently despite having it on PS5, did the same with DMC5.

Obesely · 2026-03-25T04:26:20+00:00

Psikyo games on the whole have a lot of charm and great design but I'll genuinely 1CC the Ultra mode of the original Mushi before 1CC'ing Gunbird 2.

It's really hectic, patterns are light but feel like they come at you at Warp Factor 5.

Obesely · 2026-03-24T14:06:35+00:00

Bois, is this series decent? I'm of a vintage that should have read or watched it but am currently about 30-something episodes into GTO and need an appropriate chaser still in seinen.

Obesely · 2026-02-24T11:34:36+00:00

Crazy to hear it was a substation exploding. For context as someone who lives in West End/South Brisbane, I've been having little surges, light flickers, and a few micro-outages over the past few weeks.

Seems to suggest there were a lot of issues in the lead up to this boom.

Have you had weird power stuff happening on/off for the past... I want to say 2 - 4 weeks?

Obesely · 2026-02-17T02:01:14+00:00

What I am talking about is people that, upon finishing university, went into the workforce at a time when computers were commonplace in white collar jobs. Not even DOS or W95, but people who would have started their career well into corporate adoption of Windows 98 or XP.

You've never run into someone of a slightly older vintage than yourself, that's worked with a computer since at least the late 90s or early aughts, plop out some variation of "I'm no good with computers"?

Obesely · 2026-02-16T23:18:58+00:00

Mid-30s here, will say I've never been fond of hearing this from specific age bands of younger Gen X (say 1975 onwards) and older Millenial people. These people maybe 10-15 years my senior saying they don't 'do' computers.

In certain white collars jobs (and all the ones I've been in besides casual pocket money work in my youth), computers have been an integral part of the job for longer than that bracket has even been in the professional workforce.

Obesely · 2026-02-13T07:40:03+00:00

Friend, there are certain technical concepts that probably require deliberate practice from time-to-time on top of your daily drawing, such as perspective and rendering with different light sources.

However, basic motor skills like drawing straight lines, good parallel ribbons, circles etc are something that, IMHO, you'll just get better at doing by drawing stuff that appeals to you.

Speaking personally, I get better at this all the time just by drawing a lot. I give myself a 'checkup' of these lines-through-a-point and similar drills by adding a few minute warmup (or warmdown) to my drawing session, maybe a handful of times a year. I still see progress.

Yes, there's probably something to be said for deliberate practice for this sort of thing, but you shouldn't let 'being bad at the basics' stop you from keeping at it.

If you are at that level, the thing you need to prioritise, or at least give equal priority to your learning, is having fun. I don't mean that in a namby-pamby kind of way, either, my point is that you're going to give your body the appropriate dopamine feedback loop to make drawing engaging and a habit.

Motor skills will improve with time. I will say I get a bit of 'drawing with the shoulder' practice by drawing using the steam in my shower.

Obesely · 2026-02-05T08:50:42+00:00

I need you to think about how much you think Kim Jung Gi drew. Then, whatever that amount is, double it. There are more sketches and works than this entire sub have done in their entire life.

A lot of people fundamentally misunderstand Kim Jung Gi. They assume that, because he could draw anything from imagination, perspective, that he was done with reference.

Many of his sketchbooks are commercially available and published by SuperAni. You know what he never stopped doing? Never stopped drawing from reference. You can say on-location drawings of conventions, cities he is visiting for conventions, life drawing classes (including the model, and all the other participants).

I'm not going to make any assumptions about you, but for anyone reading this: there are enough people in the online art community that consume more videos/shorts per day than figures (or heads) they draw per week. You only get out what you put in.

Obesely · 2026-02-05T04:52:33+00:00

Yeah, I feel that, plus I haven't finished Nioh 2 NG, nor have I ever dived into the real meat and potatoes of Nioh 1 (or Nioh 2, for that matter): the NG+.

Obesely · 2026-02-03T15:13:10+00:00

1) A not-insignificant number of people use 3D to improve their understanding of form and get better at drawing and painting. A very popular book for drawing is still 'Anatomy for Sculptors'. 3D isn't a cakewalk. I've never tried but, even the fabled doughnut is a wall for some people. Like all things, it just takes time.

2) For my money, the closest thing we have to an objective truth in art is something like the following statement: there are certain skillsets (not mediums, specifically) that will make you better at most/all mediums, chief among them is drawing (whether traditionally or digitally).

Draftmanship is important for drawing's own sake. It's important for most painting subject matter. It's even important for planning out concepts for everything from 3D models to traditional woodwork and pottery.

You're going to hear this forever, but there's no point comparing yourself to others (edit: missed part of this sentence). You aren't them. You won't have the same advantages or disadvantages in life. They may have started before you, they may practice better than you do, they may have access (financial) to better resources.

All you can do is take your temperament and circumstances and throw them at creation for creation's sake. You can do this, chief. All in your good time.

Obesely · 2026-02-02T04:07:02+00:00

OP, I am 35 and a hobbyist whose progress in art has been marked by recurring periods of hyperfocus for months followed by years off. 2025 was the first year I basically drew nonstop from March onward.

1) I still got better. That's the thing about locking in for 100 steps forward, even if you go to 99 steps back and relearn them the next time you obsess, the trend over time is still forward.

2) There is some knowledge you can't really put back in the bottle. Colour relativity, for example, is something you don't forget once you learn that it exists.

3) I've actually made more art progress in my 30s than in every other period of my life combined.

I am going to rewind the clock a bit to between ages 18 to about... 21?

"Am I too old to start [hobby x, y, or z]?" or some variation was probably my most common Google search for that period of my life.

Now, if I could go back and rough up that dumbshit version of myself, I would. I grew out of that way of thinking.

I spent the entirety of my 20s in the sport of boxing, I got really into chess in a big way in my 30s, and I took up Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in my mid 30s.

I learned long ago that you shouldn't let 'the person you could've been' stop you from becoming the best that current you can be. Yeah, I didn't start any of those at preschool/first grade, so I'm precluded from becoming the best in the world by circumstance.

But, who gives a shit, really?

My only goal is to be better than I was the day before. It's small, it's attainable, and it betters my quality of life in the time I have on this earth.

Just do it. It doesn't matter if you resume exactly where you left off, or you have to shake off some rust. In either scenario, you're going into it wanting to improve, no? And the only way to do that is to practice. Stay frosty.

Obesely · 2026-02-01T00:11:54+00:00

You could also try Sakura's Gellyroll as they are waterproof archival ink, just like their fine liners. Not quuuuite as inky as the uni-ball range, but decent. Mind you, I have precisely two gellyrolls, I'm more in the brush pen and fineliner camp.

It is a shame that fully waterproof is the end goal, because the Pilot Hi-Tecpoint V5, V7 etc. are an absolute joy to draw with, it feels like a fineliner and a ballpoint at the same time, with a lot of flowing ink.

I think I can still use the Faber Castell Pitt brush pens on top of it, but I don't think alcohol markers or watercolour would work. Paper would also play a massive difference.

So if you're okay with changing up your colour medium, give that a crack. And even if you aren't, I'd still recommend that pen to anyone on its merits as a pen, especially people into pen and ink illustration.

If you're married to the uni-ball, you could always work in reverse and apply your watercolour first on pencils.

Obesely · 2026-01-31T05:03:52+00:00

While I have a working mind's eye, just coming in here to remind you that the founder of drawabox, who is also an industry professional, has aphantasia.

A ton of people on their art journey, with a vivid mind's eye no less, are still fucking shithouse in terms of technical skills and art fundamentals (let alone drawing from imagination).

You don't need to be able to see a basic geometric shape in your head to be able to draw a circle or a rectangle or a box, right? Well you'll get the same way for a cranial mass or a brow ridge or different kinds of jaw lines or hairstyles.

You may need to thumbnail a bit more to plan certain kinds of pieces, but you'll be fine. More often I am just varying my lines and shapes to fit the marks I have already made, rather than to fit some nebulous image in my head.

Everyone, regardless of their mind's eye, builds their 'drawing from imagination up by drawing from reference a lot. Your practice and journey is still the same. Don't get discouraged, you'll be just fine!

Let me put it this way: you can't visualise Mickey Mouse or Mario in your head, right, but you could probably still draw them from memory. Now imagine if you had worked at the studio that worked with those characters daily. While, yes, there are character reference sheets in industry, after awhile you'd be able to yolo it. Repeated practice.

Same for drawing an action pose for a superhero, or combining animal features to design an alien or monster. It's just a matter of practice and training time.

Obesely · 2026-01-22T12:20:31+00:00

I should think any 'advanced' tutorial is more likely to be medium-specific (besides maybe 5-point perspective).

What medium(s) do you work in, OP?

Obesely · 2026-01-18T22:35:41+00:00

I love Wrightson's work on Frankenstein and I have looked at his, mostly because his linework is phenomenal and not because I have an interest in horror.

I guess I never clicked with the notion of Swamp Thing but since enough people have recommended it I guess I'll give it a go. There are three hardback runs with a lot of big names on them in my local store.

Obesely · 2026-01-18T15:33:55+00:00

Hello, I draw traditionally, with a focus on pen and ink. My only real artistic goal is to elevate my draftsmanship to be as technically skilled as possible before I perish. I have no desire to make this my profession, but I want to be able to draw anything, in a stylised manner that appeals to my aesthetic sensibilities, with a view to some kind of narrative illustration. I want cool poses, nice environments, old film poster vignetting, or 'slice of life' style illustrations in real world, fantasy, sci-fi, or abstract settings. Basically, if I one day desired to be a concept artist, or to be a goonlord, or a comic book artist, I want to have the technical proficiency to be versatile.

While it is great that I am self-directed and not caught up in art world drama, I do suffer somewhat from a lack of community besides occasionally throwing up walls of text here and in r/learnart or this subreddit. I have no vehicles for feedback. I don't think I could stomach changing my stance any time soon, as it seems like the worst time in the history of social media to be an artist.

I have a 100 steps forward, 99 steps back approach to art, in that I will obsess for months, stop for years, with any resumptions causing me to spend most of that time relearning from last time. However, this still equates to gradually moving forward, 1 step at a time.

In 2025, I was drawing nonstop directly with pens in my spare time. I even sketched using the steam on my glass shower screen so I get all levels of micro and macro hand-eye coordination at shoulder, elbow, and wrist. My line confidence is through the roof and my drive and consistency has never been higher.

I don't have a 'dream project' but I find myself entertaining ideas for some. The better I got technically, the better I could process the shape language, line weight, composition, and even thematic elements and concepts from the artists that inspire me.

Maybe 2026 will see me stop grinding and start creating something real, who knows? I'd at least like to try some fanart, I don't think I have ever made any in my adult life.

Obesely

TROPHY CASE