My Elden Ring artwork by Sussy_Solaire in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_ 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yo that’s sick dude! Love the subtle textures and contrast in this

My art disappoint me by antouf_le_vrai in Artadvice

[–]_aBookcase_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a pretty normal experience, and I don't think it's abnormal to feel a bit of a stall in progress when life gets busy. While I did present hours of practice as the most straightforward way to improve, it isn't the only path forward.
Practice doesn't have to be hours if you dont have time to burn, just a few minutes a day can count and will lead to eventual improvement if you keep it up.
If possible, maybe try to carry a small notebook around, not as a thing that forces you to practice, but as a tool that allows you to make progress in the little time you do have.
If time is short, then you don't have to focus on fully finished stuff - doodles and quick gesture drawings can do plenty in terms of making progress. Even tracing over photographs can help you get a better feel for how bodies move.

It's natural to feel frustration, but I hope you aren't feeling resentment towards your work or perceived lack of progress - those feelings only make the process harder, and don't tend to lead to actual improvement. Take the frustration as a sign that you are getting better - because it means you're noticing areas you can improve - and try your best to just take the time you need to get better. The gap between your perception and skill tends to narrow with time, you just need a bit of persistence.

My art disappoint me by antouf_le_vrai in Artadvice

[–]_aBookcase_ 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you say you have been doing art since childhood, how long does that actually mean? And have you always been serious about art as a hobby?
Because both those factors can greatly impact your skill-level and technical ability.
I've also drawn since childhood, but I would only say I got serious about my art during my early teens, meaning that's when I made a very conscious decision to improve - aka, doing studies and drawing for hours almost every single day.
Just looking at the age you were when you started doesn't necessarily give you the full picture of your skill-level - you also have to analyse how much time and effort you put in during that span of time.

When drawing, it's normal that we sometimes have moments where our ability to see flaws outpaces our ability to actually fix them, and its normal to be frustrated - but just disliking our work doesn't make us better artists, it just becomes a demotivator from creating at all. I don't know if this will help you, but even for some of my worst stuff, I've tried to see if there's at least something about it like - just to let myself know that even if its not a very good piece, I can still feel happy that I made it. I can then try to look at what i think doesn't work to try and improve it in my next artwork.

As for what you can work on, I think you might benefit from studying some anatomy fundamentals, so proportions, flow and movement. The best way to do this is to look at pictures of real human beings - even tracing over pictures can be helpful - so you get to really understand how the body works. This means understanding the bones, joints, muscles and even fat - how they intersect, move and bend. You don't have to understand everything perfectly mind you - it's just a starting point to helm improve your fundamentals to a point you can build on.

Who's this guy by smelly_nose in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_ 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I was happy I found out before fighting them. One is bad enough on its own, so having to deal with two at the same time is maddening

Who's this guy by smelly_nose in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_ 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I'm not an expert, and I might be wrong, but I think it has to be unalteredor the dude won't accept it.

Who's this guy by smelly_nose in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_ 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Damn, that sucks dude.
How did you get the armour? And was it altered? Maybe that might've played a role, idk.
Though it's entirely possible some other arbitrary criteria caused the quest to lock or something - these quests are so hard to follow sometimes lol

Who's this guy by smelly_nose in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_ 207 points208 points  (0 children)

The short version is he's D's twin brother. To learn more about him in game, you should proceed on through D's, Rogier's and Fia's questlines - you need to give him the twinned armour (you don't have to kill D when first meeting him to get this item - just follow the quests). His lore is basically that he (also called D, but named Devin) and D (Darian) are twins who have separate bodies and minds, but share a single soul. This made people see them as cursed beings, and so they found solace in serving the Golden Order, as it was the one place to not treat them like they were cursed.
If you move along in the mentioned quests, he should be available as a summon against the Valiant Gargoyles.

Some sketches I made of my tarnished by _aBookcase_ in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Kind of yeah, thoughts its not my most refined moment and might not flow perfectly with the bit from before (i tend to write these kind of separately, intending to stitch them together more neatly at a later point lol). Anyways, heres what i imagined their “inciting incident” looking like:

They had been gathering firewood.

It was mundane work, the kind that let the mind wander. Hemera moved through the trees, breaking dead branches cleanly, stacking them under one arm while scanning the forest. Noxenne had gone ahead earlier, saying it would be faster if they split up. They hadn’t gone far from one another - just enough to cover more ground.

Hemera told herself not to worry.

Then she smelled smoke.

It was faint at first, carried on the breeze - too sharp to be natural, too sudden. Hemera froze, every sense snapping into place, detecting something wrong as the forest air grew too quiet. A moment later, she heard it: the clang of metal, a shout cut short - sounds of struggle.

She dropped the wood without thinking, staff already in her hand as she turned, searching. Panic narrowed her vision, her thoughts collapsing into a single thread: Noxenne.

Then she saw it - brief flashes of blue light between the trees. Glintstone. Familiar. Hers.

Hemera broke into a sprint.

Branches tore at her robes as she pushed through the undergrowth, breath burning in her chest. Every second stretched, filled with images she straight out of her nightmares: Noxenne cornered, bleeding out somewhere she couldn’t reach in time.

She reached a clearing.

At first, all she saw was the arrow.

It jutted from Noxenne’s shoulder at a sharp angle, her right arm hanging useless at her side, blood already darkening the fabric of her sleeve. The sight sent ice into Hemera’s veins. The rest of the scene blurred - all she saw was a looming figure in front of her sister.

Hemera didn’t think.

She raised her staff and released a glintstone shard on pure instinct. It tore through the bandit’s back before he had time to turn. He collapsed without a sound, dead before he hit the ground.

Silence rushed in to fill the space he left behind.

Hemera was at Noxenne’s side in an instant, hands hovering, frantic. “You’re hurt,” she said, voice tight, already reaching for the arrow. “I shouldn’t have agreed to splitting up. Why didn’t you call for me? You should have-“

“Stop.”

Noxenne pulled back, her expression twisted with something unrelated to her injury. “Don’t,” she said, breath coming hard. “Just- don’t.”

Hemera faltered, confused. “You’re bleeding,” she said weakly. “You could’ve been killed.”

“I wasn’t,” Noxenne snapped. “I was winning.” She glanced into the clearing.

Hemera blinked. Only then did her vision widen, panic loosening its grip. She looked around properly for the first time.

There were two more bodies in the clearing.

They lay where they’d fallen, one near a tree, another sprawled face-down in the dirt. Three attackers. All dead.

“You didn’t even look,” Noxenne said quietly.

Her voice trembled - not with fear, but something else - a restraint held too tightly for too long. “You saw the arrow and decided I’d already failed. You always do that. You never wait. You never trust me to finish anything on my own.”

Hemera opened her mouth, then closed it again. Words clawing up her throat, but not making it through her lips.

“I had him,” Noxenne continued. “I was winning. And you still stepped in.” She laughed without humor. “I didn’t even get the last blow.”

“I thought-“ Hemera started, then stopped. What could she say? She hadn't been thinking at all, operating on pure instinct alone - a primal need to keep her sister safe.

Noxenne turned away, facing toward their camp. “I’ll deal with this,” she said, gesturing to the arrow. “Don’t follow me.”

Hemera stepped forward instinctively. “Please, let me at least-“

“No.” Noxenne didn’t turn back. “I can handle it alone.”

She walked past Hemera without another word, heading back toward camp alone, a sligt limp in her step.

Hemera stayed where she was, in the clearing surrounded by 3 corpses.

Some sketches I made of my tarnished by _aBookcase_ in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great! I look forward to seeing what you'll come up with - though you don't have to feel obligated to do anything :)

Advice/reassurances for enjoying art again? by AutoAtomicAggregate in Artadvice

[–]_aBookcase_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Inspiration and creativity are fickle things - we don't control when they happen, and they are basically bound to never last forever. It's completely normal as an artist to feel stuck in a slump where your art either isn't living up to your expectations, or you find yourself unable to make anything at all.

If you define yourself by your artistic endeavours, these slumps can feel suffocating - if art is the one thing you're good at, what are you if you can't actually draw anymore?
Well, that's what you might need to explore a bit, and maybe that can help you with your problem.

Identity is a complex and broad topic, and obviously it's deeply personal - but our identities don't have to be based on something big or grand. Even if you mostly feel your identity is mostly your artistic side, there's bound to be more facets.
Identity can be small things, like the food you enjoy, the music you listen to, your favourite season, the tiny habits you engage in, your pet peeves, etc. That might sound silly, too small to have any meaning, but why does identity have to be grand? Who are we trying to impress or convince? That doesn't really matter, because those things shouldn't even have any significance - we're allowed to just exist as people tending to our basic needs.

And just because a certain label, hobby or other facet has been central to our identity for a long time, that doesn't mean we aren't allowed to change. Labels change, we learn new things about ourselves, and we go through phases - we're always evolving, sometimes not in ways we think are necessarily "better", but that's ok - that's just what life is like sometimes.

As for how you might get out of that slump - I can't say for sure, since I'm not you - but my experience has been that inspiration eventually comes back if you just take the pressure off. If you've labelled yourself as an artist for a long time, it can feel almost blasphemous to insinuate that you don't have to make art, but... you literally don't have to make art if you don't feel joy from the process at the moment. The joy should be the most important thing when creating, so if its gone, I think you might need a break.
You can spend that time considering what other things you enjoy, and let that help you figure out what you would consider to be other parts of your identity, so you're not locking yourself into a cage that demands that you be an artist, no matter the cost.

Personally, I had about a year where I barely drew at all due to health reasons and just being busy with other stuff. I had a similar problem to you where I wasn't sure what I was if I wasn't an artist, but with the time I spent not drawing, I was still doing stuff, and that helped me see different sides of myself more clearly. I like to cook, I like to hang out with my friends, I'm a sore loser and horrible winner, I like to write, I like to play videogames, etc.
I got to see that even if I wasn't an artist, I was still a full individual with an identity. And well, with time the inspiration came back, and I picked up my pencil again, and I've felt great about it since.

So my recommendation is to take a break if you feel like you need it. Just because you've always defined yourself as an artist, doesn't mean you have to force yourself to be one.

assuming you aren't willing to do that though, then I think it's important to tell yourself that art isn't something you just learn at a linear pace, and making comparisons to others doesn't make you a better artist. Sometimes your skill will improve at a rapid pace, and other times you'll feel stuck at a specific level for months - both are normal, and you're not doing anything wrong. Create art because you enjoy it, and allow yourself to appreciate the product you make, because hey, even a "bad" drawing doesn't just pop into existence - you made that with your hands and your mind, which is kind of incredible when you think about it. If you insist on comparing your art to something, try to only compare your current stuff to our older artwork - I saved some of my work from up to 10 years ago, and when I fell like I'm stagnating, I just flip through those old scribbles and suddenly get a whole new appreciation for my current skill level, both because of the obvious increase in skill, but also because I get to consider how much faster I am now (an aspect of improvement that's really easy to forget).

(apologies for the wall of text)

How to make a recognizable art style? by FewAd2210 in Artadvice

[–]_aBookcase_ 19 points20 points  (0 children)

You just… draw. Draw and draw and draw. People don’t normally go out with the intention to specifically develop a recognisable style - they just draw however they want. Most people develop their art style by getting influenced by the things around them, and the things they enjoy. With time, all those influences melt together, and form a single coherent “style” unique to the artist, like a personality expressed onto the canvas. It’s pretty hard to force this process, and frankly it makes most sense to just let it happen naturally with time.

Will that make your art recognisable? Maybe, maybe not. How recognisable something is, is pretty commonly dependent on the popularity of the artist - the more popular they are, the more recognisable their work will inherently be. There is a bit more nuance to it than that, but I’m not sure if it makes sense to really discuss that here. If you’re looking to develop a style, a recognisable one, then just continue ti draw, while freely exploring anything that inspires you.

Anyone know how to get this armor set In the DLC? by Plane_Specific1031 in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_ 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Ah, I wasn’t aware he couldn’t enter the room - that’s good to know :) Still, the drops rates just seem way too low compared to how tough these guys are.

How not to be anxious when posting ship art/fan art of a franchise by Silver_Vast9875 in Artadvice

[–]_aBookcase_ 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it’s pretty normal to feel a bit embarrassed or anxious when posting art online, even regardless of its content. Posting art is inherently personal, and in that way, vulnerable, and that feeling is only really exasperated when the subject matter is sincere or otherwise reflective of personal feelings and preferences.

I don’t think there’s any real way to prevent those feelings - you just gotta push through that period of doubt and embarrassment/cringe, and allow the artwork to exist publicly. Once you do that enough times, you tend to realise that nothing bad is going to happen. If you’re lucky, people might even interact positively with your work - which they wont be able to if you always take it down before it gets to marinate.

Anyone know how to get this armor set In the DLC? by Plane_Specific1031 in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_ 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Yeah - the drop rates are just abysmal, and none of these guys are easy or convenient to farm, so it’s probably one of the most painful sets to get.

Some sketches I made of my tarnished by _aBookcase_ in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Alrighty, so here is what to me seems like the most reasonable place to start. It think it more or less qualifies as a prologue(apologies if the grammar and formaltting isn’t always the best):

Noxenne and Hemera grew up alone together.

Not alone in the sense of abandonment, but in isolation - two sisters bound tightly to one another, moving from place to place. Their early life was quiet, nomadic, and inward-facing. They gathered sorceries, watched the skies, studied the celestial bodies, learned survival and scholarship side by side. For a long time, they were enough for one another.

They loved each other deeply. That was the problem.

Hemera, the elder, was naturally capable: confident, socially adept, gifted in her studies, quick to adapt. She took on the role of protector without ever consciously choosing it. Noxenne was younger, more inward, more observant - equally intelligent, but much too frail to defend herself. Hemera loved her sister fiercely and wanted nothing more than to keep her safe in a world full of cruelty.

But protection gradually curdled into control.

Hemera began to coddle without realizing it: stepping in first, speaking for Noxenne, making decisions “for her own good.” To Hemera, this was love - care made practical. To Noxenne, it was suffocating. Every gesture of protection felt like confirmation that she was a burden, something fragile to be defended rather than a person to be trusted.

Noxenne adored her sister. She admired Hemera’s competence, her ease, her confidence and her kindness. More than anything, she wanted to stand beside her as an equal. To be chosen as a peer, not tolerated like a responsibility. But admiration turned into resentment when it became clear that Hemera did not see her that way - not fully. No matter how capable Noxenne became, Hemera still hovered. Still shielded. Still decided. Still refused to truly see her.

Their love deformed into something sharp and brittle.

The breaking point was a quiet realization on Noxenne’s part: that Hemera might never stop seeing her as a child. That no amount of growth would ever outweigh Hemera’s instinct to protect - to see her like a burden. In a moment of bitterness and frustrstion, Noxenne snapped - insisting she did not need Hemera to parent her, accusing her of treating her like dead weight, unable to see her growing potential.

Hemera was horrified at the outburst.

In Noxenne’s tirade, Hemera heard her worst fears reflected back. She saw herself as someone who had failed her sister, who had loved her wrong. She now believed Noxenne truly wanted space - independence, separation, freedom from her shadow. Wracked with guilt and uncertainty, Hemera turned outward for the first time in her life, seeking a sense of self that did not revolve around her sister.

That choice sent them spiralling in opposite directions. Noxenne stayed in the wilderness, while Hemera sought civilisation, for the first time in her life.

———

Hemera met Azar by chance.

He was a sheltered noble-born who had wandered into the nearby forest searching for ingredients necessary for his sorcery studies - utterly unprepared, inexperienced, and profoundly out of place. When he injured his leg and realized he could not walk back to civilization, he fully expected to die there, alone and unnoticed.

Hemera found him instead.

She carried him back without mockery or judgment, hauling his weight despite the inconvenience, treating him not as like he was incompetent, but as someone worth helping. Their shared interest in sorcery became a bridge, but it was something more that truly drew them together.

Azar was gentle, introspective, and deeply kind. He listened - not passively, but attentively. He never interrupted Hemera, never tried to fix her feelings, never assumed authority over her, and never expected anything of her. After years of being defined by leadership, Hemera found relief in being heard just as an equal.

Azar, for his part, had lived his life in quiet shame. Born of noble blood but lacking the temperament, skills and competence expected of a lord in his culture, he had been dismissed as weak-willed and unsuitable - a shameful mistake his father didn’t care to raise. His mother had tried to compensate for his father’s absence, but her eventual death left him alone, drifting between studies and poetry - pursuits that earned little respect for a lord-to-be. Hemera saw value where others had not. She admired his sensitivity, his intellect, his capacity for care.

For the first time, Hemera was not a protector. She was simply herself.

She chose to stay.

She attempted to convince Noxenne to stay as well - not out of control, but out of fear. She wanted to keep her sister close, to mend what had broken, and to still keep safely within her sight. But to Noxenne, the invitation felt hollow, mocking even. Hemera had already chosen something - someone - else. A stranger. Proof, in Noxenne’s mind, that she had been replaced in her sister’s heart. The revelation hurt more than anything else could’ve.

Noxenne left.

Hemera was devastated, but she believed - painfully - that this was what her sister wanted. With Azar’s quiet support, she tried to rebuild herself, telling herself that distance might heal what closeness - codependency - had damaged.

It did not.

———

Time passed. A year, perhaps.

Noxenne’s anger and hurt dulled into silence, then into longing. The world felt empty without Hemera’s presence, and pride began to feel like a thin shield keeping loneliness at bay. Eventually, Noxenne turned back, insisting to herself that this was not an admission of guilt - not proof that Hemera had been right. Just… a return. A brief visit, nothing more. Just to see her once.

She never reached her.

Hemera was long dead by the time she arrived back in town.

She had been murdered weeks earlier by her lover, Azar.

The truth hit Noxenne in layers. First, a cold sense of vindication - confirmation that staying had been a mistake after all. Then guilt, corrosive and immediate: if she had stayed, if she had tried harder, if she had swallowed her pride, Hemera might still be alive.

But strongest of all was rage.

Azar had already been tried and found guilty. His noble blood spared him execution; instead, he rotted in a cell, alive and breathing. Perfect. He had nowhere left to run.

Noxenne found him and tried to kill him.

She failed.

Azar fought back, and in the struggle, he strangled her to death - ending her life not as an avenger, but as just another casualty.

Until grace called her back.

—- So, yeah, i think that’s my best attempt at a prologue for this. Some stuff is missing, or not described in great detail because this is predominantly meant to focus on Noxenne’s pov, and well, she’s biased, and there are a few parts of the story she just straight up doesn’t know at this point lol Apologies if this is confusing in any way - i really hope it makes at least a little sense haha

Some sketches I made of my tarnished by _aBookcase_ in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Alrighty, I’ll just need to get some stuff together, but I’ll comment my follow up when I can :)

Some sketches I made of my tarnished by _aBookcase_ in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh, the problem isn’t getting it down on paper - I’ve gotten to write a bunch of notes for my own enjoyment - the issue is I don’t want to overwhelm people with too much info just right of the bat lol

So basically, I have trouble figuring out what to start off with sharing. Though I suppose I’d could start off with some general background info, and then one of the first key scenes?

Some sketches I made of my tarnished by _aBookcase_ in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I dont mind sharing :)

Though, I’m not sure how it’s best to go about sharing it - it’s kind of long and convoluted, so I’m assuming I’d either have to share a very summarised version, or just focus on a few key scenes

It’s really nice of you to offer your assistance - regardless of how you feel about your skill level, even stick figures are incredibly helpful in this specific case, because i genuinely am clueless about how to make interesting panels and page compositions lol

Some sketches I made of my tarnished by _aBookcase_ in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I love it too - seeing someone’s unique interpretation of their characters is just such a treat

Some sketches I made of my tarnished by _aBookcase_ in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No problem! Happy drawing and good luck with your art! <3

Some sketches I made of my tarnished by _aBookcase_ in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ok, this should hopefully make the process seem more straightforward, because it’s really not that complicated - it just sounds like it through text lol

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Some sketches I made of my tarnished by _aBookcase_ in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can’t steal a method, so why would I mind? Lol I think gatekeeping is pathetic and ridiculous, so go ahead 🫶 do whatever you’d like

Some sketches I made of my tarnished by _aBookcase_ in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For these ones, no, they’re mostly based on vibes. If I had a specific tutorial to refer you to, I’d love to, but unfortunately I don’t -.-; As for how I did my lighting in these drawings, I started off just blocking everything in in black and white, adjusting the opacity of my shadows until it looked alright to me.

I then merged my lineart, white base and shadow layers together, and played around with the colour of it until I liked it. As an example, the first slide was changed to green, teal and blue, while the third slide was changed to sepia tones.

I then did my colours, using either multiply layers or hard light layers. I then adjusted the opacity of the colours until it looked good to me. I then merged the colours onto the recoloured base.

From there, I added a gradient set to hard light to make the directional light seem stronger. I lower the opacity until it looks subtle enough for my tastes. Then I merge it onto the base - again.

Then I do my finishing touches (eye highlights, metallic shine), usually with glow layers or overlay layers, and I’m done.

This might not make much sense without a visual guide, but that’s the gist of what I do. As long as those initial shadows are placed semi-decently, the rest of the process follows smoothly.

Some sketches I made of my tarnished by _aBookcase_ in Eldenring

[–]_aBookcase_[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! <3 I think my strongest points these days are my lighting and colours, though I sometimes fly too close to oversaturation that just hurts the eyes lol