Resources

Websites

  • The Abundant Artist – Very good resource with info on how to market and sell your artwork online.
  • American Painting Video Magazine – Hasn’t been updated in years but still worth checking out.  Each ‘issue’ is a mini-documentary about some of the big names in the world of representational painting.
  • Animation Resources – Blog devoted to compiling an ever-growing list of animation related resources.
  • Animation World Network – “[T]he largest animation-related publishing group on the Internet.”
  • ArtistADay – A website for discovering artists you may not have heard of.
  • Artist Daily – Online magazine similar to the defunct “American Artist” magazine.
  • Artists Network – Hub page for the above.
  • The Art Renewal Center – An organization devoted to promoting the appreciation of realist art.
  • Bodies in Motion – Sculptor Scott Eaton’s ongoing photo reference project of the human body in motion.
  • Cartoon Brew – One of the best sources for animation related news.
  • Character Design Page – A blog that features work of talented character design artists
  • Character Design Reference – Interviews, reviews
  • Concept Art World – a nice little hub site for concept art related stuff
  • Creative Triggers – Paul Foxton’s membership site which teaches you how to establish daily drawing and painting habits
  • Daily Paintworks – Marketplace for daily painters
  • The Dimensions of Colour – really exhaustive resource on color
  • Illustration Age – A ‘hand-picked’ collection of resources for illustrators that includes online classes, digital tools, art director contacts, competitions, books, podcasts
  • Illustration Friday – Weekly illustration challenge
  • Illustrator’s Lounge – a site that features illustrators past and present
  • Infected by Art – IBA hosts online art competitions and publishes compilation books.
  • Reference! Reference! – a free and very extensive video reference library for animators.
  • Realist Art Resource – sort of similar to the Art Renewal Center in their focus, but with better website design.
  • Smartmarx – Forum for posting and discussing resources for artists
  • Underpaintings – Matthew Innis kept a blog for a very long time (http://underpaintings.blogspot.com/) and has now turned it into a online magazine.  There’s some good stuff on there.  Most of the updates are about exhibits or auctions.
  • WikiArt – like Wikipedia, but for art.

Blogs

 

Podcasts

 

Youtube

  • Atelier Diary – Artist Jennifer Marie vlogs about her experiences as an apprentice at the Ravenswood Atelier.  She also wrote an article here.
  • Brandon Dayton – Illustrator, concept artist, and comic book artist Brandon Dayton shares videos on his process.
  • Draw with Jazza – drawing tutorials, with an Australian accent.
  • FZD School – Feng Zhu’s free tutorials
  • Zin Lim – lots of charcoal drawing and oil painting demos
  • Ben Mauro –
  • DGPaints – Daniel Gray’s Youtube channel
  • Ross Draws –
  • Scott Robertson Design – Scott Robertson has had a huge impact on the entertainment design industry.
  • Sinix – Digital painting tutorials.  He’s been making videos since 2006 and it’s neat to see his progression over the years
  • Swatches –
  • Sycra –

 

Facebook

 

Gumroad

Tools/Supplies

Traditional

Digital

  • Adobe – company that makes image editing software.  Perhaps you have heard of it.
  • Alchemy – Generative art tool that converts pen strokes into Rorschach-like patterns.  Good for idea generation.
  • Anastisy – Photoshop plugins for color and font management.
  • Autodesk – They make a bunch of software you’ve probably heard of.
  • Black Ink – Generative tool for creating custom brushes.
  • Blender – Free open-source 3D software that can be used
  • BrushBox – Photoshop plugin that color coordinates brushes for better organization
  • Coolorus – Color wheel plugin for Photoshop
  • Corel – One of the major alternatives to Adobe.  Painter is well known for its ability to mimic traditional media.
  • Cubebrush – Online shop for digital assets like 3D models, PS brushes, tutorials, textures, etc.
  • Digicel – Digital animation program.  In my experience pretty basic but I haven’t used it that much.
  • Dragonframe – Stop motion animation software used by Laika, Aardman and numerous independent animators.  If you want to make stop motion films Dragonframe is the best.
  • GrutBrushes – Photoshop brushes that mimic traditional media.
  • Krita – free, open source digital painting software
  • Kyle Webster’s PS brushes – Probably the best Photoshop brushes available, especially if you want ones that feel more like traditional media.
  • Lazy Nezumi – plugin that makes linework 1,000% easier by smoothing out your brushstrokes.
  • Maxon – They make Cinema4D, a 3D software package primarily used for motion graphics.
  • OpenToonz – Open source 2D animation software, famous for being used by Studio Ghibli.  It’s also free.
  • Paintstorm Studio – digital painting software.
  • Smith Micro – Clip Studio Paint (formerly Manga Studio) is another alternative to Photoshop.  From what I’ve heard, and from my own limited used of the program, it’s really good for linework and for comics.
  • ToonBoom – Animation software packages with a lot of useful features.  The animation I’ve seen done with ToonBoom software always looks a lot like flash animations to me, but I guess that’s because it’s vector based.
  • TVPaint – All-in-one animation software.  Uses bitmap as opposed to vector.  Seems popular among European animators.

 

Interships

 

Grants & Scholarships

 

Contests

 

Communities

  • ArtStation – Portfolio site aimed at the entertainment industry.
  • ConceptArt Forums – used to be one of the go to forums for entertainment art.  It’s gone down hill for somewhat cryptic reasons.
  • DeviantArt – World’s largest art site apparently.

 

Galleries

 

Misc.

  • Anatomy Next – Website dedicated to studying anatomy.
  • Anatomy Tools – Educational tools and workshops about anatomy
  • Croquis Cafe – Videos of figure drawing sessions.  This one is pretty cool because they’re not still images but real-time video of the model posing.
  • NMA Daily Life Drawing – timed figure drawing, both clothed and nude.  You can stream them in 4k and that doesn’t suck.
  • Draw This! – Reference image library
  • Figure & Gesture Drawing – Timed figure drawing with options for clothed/nude, faces/expressions, hands/feet, and animals.  You can set time intervals or use one of the presets.
  • Khan Academy – Learn about not-art, but also art.
  • Quickposes – Another figure drawing web app with good variety and customization options.
  • SketchDaily Figure Drawing Reference – Another figure drawing app

 

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