Artist Resource - Dec ‘11 to Aug ‘12

These are absolutely ancient. Some I found in December 2011, some are just links I found rotting in my bookmarks. And others are things that have made the rounds on tumblr before. I don’t even know if some of these work but here you go; Maybe you’ll find them useful.

News, Articles, and Essays

• When To Show, When To Tell
• Everything You Wanted To Know About Comic Marketing
• NaNoWriMo Pep Talk by Neil Gaiman
• George Orwell’s Five Rules for Effective Writing

Tutorials and How-Tos

• The Lost Boyz: How I Study Animation
• Understanding Anatomy: Introduction - by IBelievePracticeMakesPerfect

Resources, Tools and References

• The Round Table: Photoshop brushes of the pros for free, skills still required
• Art by Papercut - Free ebook with references and guides
• Cinemosaic - Screenshots of movies noted for composition curated by Pixar’s Lou Romano [No longer updated]
• Simply Scripts - Script Bank for hundreds of screenplays
• DeGraeve Color Palette Generator - Derives color palette from photos
• Color Wheel Pro: Color Meaning

“Other”

• Coolrus Color Picking - Adobe color wheel extension

31 August 2 Permalink

Artist Resource - November (Writing Cont’d)

I’ve learned I find good storytelling as interesting and as complex as good art. So even though I’ve basically stopped doing NaNoWriMo, I’m still including writing links. 

Asterisks (*) denote pieces I found to be particularly helpful. Basically, if you’re crunched for time and can only read a few, read the asterisks. 

News, Articles, and Essasys

• Why I Write by George Orwell
• 101 Tips From the World’s Most Famous Authors
• Why The ‘Batman: The Animated Series’ Opening Is The Best Thing Ever by Chris Sims [A study of storytelling economics at Comics Alliance]
• The Myth of Talent by Craig Tanner
• *A reminder about what really matters by Kristen Hoffman

Tutorials and How-Tos

• *Broca’s Area Style Guide: The ‘10 Mistakes’ List (Common mistakes of writing)
• *How To Improve Your Drawing Skills by sprite37
• Irrational Interviews 9: Guillermo del Toro Part 1 (How to tell scary stories and create compelling monsters to suit your story)
• Drawing Efficiency by Wes Molebash

Resource Banks

• Comprehensive Resource List for the Aspiring Artist - Resource Collection (via citrusshrimp on tumblr/twitter)

Resources, Tools, and References

• Making Comics (A resource for graphic novel and comic artists)
• Colourlovers - color palettes (via citrusshrimp)
• Best First Lines of Novels

“Other”

• Freedom - Turn your internet off. Literally. [program for Mac OSX and Windows]

20 November 15 Permalink

Artist Resource - October [Writing Edition]

What with NaNoWriMo coming up in a couple weeks, I’ve been gravitating away from the usual fair of the visual. This month, most of them are about story and writing in general. Hopefully you’ll find it interesting.

News and Articles

• 25 Insights on Becoming a Better Writer
• 25 Things You Should Know About NaNoWriMo 
• Space Invaders: Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period
• How Dan Harmon Drives Himself Crazy Making Community
• Six Ways Twitter Can Make You a Better Writer

Resource Banks

• Using Real Psychology In Your Writing (via @thisisnotpsychology)

Resources, Tools, and References

• The Round Tablet: Digital Art Resource

“Other”

• Q and A with Jeff Goldsmith [podcast]
• GoodNotes [iPad app]

14 October 10 Permalink

Seriously thinking about participating in Script Frenzy…

Script Frenzy is an international writing event in which participants take on the challenge of writing 100 pages of scripted material in the month of April. As part of a donation-funded nonprofit, Script Frenzy charges no fee to participate; there are also no valuable prizes awarded or “best” scripts singled out. Every writer who completes the goal of 100 pages is victorious and awe-inspiring and will receive a handsome Script Frenzy Winner’s Certificate and web icon proclaiming this fact.

Even those who fall short of the word goal will be applauded for making a heroic attempt. Really, you have nothing to lose—except that nagging feeling that there’s a script inside you that may never get out.

It’s like NaNoWriMo in the off season. In fact, it’s on the exact opposite side of the year than NaNoWriMo. I’ve got this graphic novel/manga story that wouldn’t work as a novel that I could use too…

Main Website for more information: www.scriptfrenzy.org

10 March 7 Permalink

NaNoWriMo

It’s snowballing. I didn’t even think of even trying to win this year let alone participate, but it’s picking up momentum. It hasn’t even started and I’m already thinking “FUCK”. Forewarning because I may be gone from Tumblr with this going on. 

—-

If you don’t know, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. For the entire month of November, you try to write a 50,000 word novel from beginning to end. If it sounds a lot, don’t worry; it comes out to about 1,667 words a day every day which isn’t too hard. It’s an international event (which had always confused me. Why is it “national” then?) with tens of thousands of participants and is a way to try to get people excited about the process of creative writing. 

30 October Permalink