The Dreamwidth Studios Art Community

More Hiroshige studies

2026-03-15T19:21:41Z

Posted by: mekare

The project is going well in so far as I've now established a regular painting habit in the evenings.

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Skull Studies

2026-03-13T04:32:12Z

Posted by: tally

I feel so lost with anatomy sometimes. I decided to start skull studies as a new exercise to hopefully understand how to better capture the human head/face.

I constantly feel like I'm missing something with regards to anatomy, though, like I don't understand the underlying shapes of the human form, and I don't know how to get there. If anyone has tips, I'll take them!

( Anyway, just a few skulls under the cut! )

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Hiroshige studies

2026-03-06T08:54:59Z

Posted by: mekare

I only just now remembered this community and thought my project would be of interest to some. I've started a series of monochromatic composition studies of the Japanese woodblock printer Hiroshige Utagawa (1797-1858) to improve my eye for compositions and backgrounds.

The previews lead to the entries in my journal with the full views:

This is the tag I'm using for all pieces in this series: project: hiroshige studies

Have you ever done a study of any professional artists for practice? If so, did it help you?

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Low Angle Facial Anatomy Vid!

2026-03-06T07:41:46Z

Posted by: tally

Found this video quite helpful! Lower angles looking up at the face are such a challenge to get right!

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[Fanart - Arcane] Lovecore MJV

2026-02-07T23:23:43Z

Posted by: queervanilla

Wanting to draw some fanart for one of my favortie ot3s

Can also be found on: Bsky

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Finding Art in 2026

2026-01-29T06:44:14Z

Posted by: ysabetwordsmith

Here are some resources for finding art and supplies in 2026...

6 Best Places To Buy Art Supplies Online Besides Amazon

The 9 Best Websites For Buying Art Online (2026)

The 50 Best Art Blogs of 2026

Art websites: 60+ Best Art Web Design Ideas 2026

Print-on-Demand for Artists: 11 Best Sites to Try in 2026
At a local gallery, I saw one artist's display with a sign that read basically, "Love the image but it's too big or small for your space? I custom-print all my digital art, so I can make it whatever size you want." Brilliant marketing.

The ultimate 2025 holiday gift guide for artists

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Limited Palettes

2022-01-30T03:22:53Z

Posted by: ysabetwordsmith

I'm more of a writer than an artist, and I came across the interesting idea of limited palettes while researching artistic characters. It's a terrific concept if you're into plein air painting, because then you don't have to lug a suitcase worth of supplies. It's also well worth trying if art supply costs make you cringe. A similar concept comes up in scrapbooking, which is a type of art I do -- most pages use just a few colors, and monochrome pages aren't rare. So I'd like to list some resources for art with limited palettes.

( Read more... )

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Hirameki challenge

2021-06-06T20:34:32Z

Posted by: mekare

For those interested: Turn blobs of paint into a drawing

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Midtone paper challenge

2021-03-03T08:55:58Z

Posted by: mekare

I know I keep promoting drawesome challenges (which is focused more on drawing rather than painting) but I thought this one would interest some of you, too:

This month’s challenge is a cool intermediate step between drawing and painting: Using mid-tone paper and black and white

Digital or traditional art is welcome!

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Question about skin tones and resources link

2021-02-07T14:09:30Z

Posted by: mekare

Hi everyone, hope your 2021 is full of creativity and cooperative muses!

Over in drawesome I asked a watercolour question and maybe some of you can weigh in as well:

How do you mix skin tones in watercolour for portraits of people of colour? I am especially looking at specific colours you use. My own watercolour set is pretty small and I am looking for some useful shades to add. For Caucasian skins I bought a Naples yellow (which is more opaque than I would like and does not work so well for making several layers), I often use yellow ochre, some English red or burnt umber.

The answers in the other community lead to some nice tutorials but those don’t mention the colours people are using.

I’d appreciate any input, and of course links to your works!

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The CW Exchange: Sign Ups Now Open!

2018-05-03T11:04:08Z

Posted by: cwmod

Guidebook / Questions / How To Nominate
Tagset / AO3 Collection / Sign Ups

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The CW Exchange: Nominations Closing Soon

2018-04-28T19:35:34Z

Posted by: cwmod

Guidebook / Questions / How To Nominate
Tagset / AO3 Collection / Sign Ups (Opening 1st May)

Nominations closing in roughly 24hrs.

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The CW Exchange: Nominations Open!

2018-04-18T11:36:09Z

Posted by: cwmod

Guidebook / Questions / How To Nominate
Tagset / AO3 Collection / Sign Ups (Opening 7th May)

Art more than welcome!

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Resources for artists

2017-09-16T13:00:15Z

Posted by: mekare

Hey fellow artists! The new fanart community drawesome has been really active since its inception in July and there are two posts that might be interesting for you guys too (disclaimer, yes I made those posts).

Posing references

This is a list of books, online articles, stock image sites and tutorials we compiled. I'd love more links though.

Storing art

This is a discussion I started today mainly because I don't feel I have a proper storage solution for my pastels yet.

I'd be delighted if some of you add your own resources or thoughts here in this post or over at drawesome. We artists should help each other out!

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Pastel galaxy with WIP shots

2017-08-26T17:07:50Z

Posted by: mekare

Hey all, I made a pastel drawing of a galaxy that I want to use as a background later but thought the WIP shots might be interesting to some folks here. It was the first time I attempted anything space-related in that medium and it went surprisingly well.

Final product:

Materials: rough white sketching paper A4-size, pastel chalks and pastel pencil

The WIP shots are in my journal.

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Artslam

2017-05-28T01:08:25Z

Posted by: armaina

I hope this would be alright to advertise in the community since it's art related, and it might be fun for some of you seeing this.

Back on livejournal we had a community called ArtSlam and I've since made a mirror of the community on dreamwidth. artslam. As for what it is, here's the general idea:

"ArtSlam runs from June 1st to August 31st, providing a summer-long challenge that is simple on the surface: draw something every day. For this community, we prefer that you pick a concept and stick with it for at least one month. If you have a world that you want to explore with art, or a set of characters, this is a great place to do it! If you're shaky with perspective, background art, anatomy, or just really want to draw 30 pandas, you can hone your focus that-a-way, too."

So if you're looking for an active community this summer with feedback on your progress or world building and want to dive into it, please join us!

Sign Ups are here: http://artslam.dreamwidth.org/1942.html

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Flower Icons!!!

2017-05-25T10:55:04Z

Posted by: 3y3

Flower Icons for flower lovers!

...

( Flower Icons )

Please comment & mention which one's you would be taking, that would be lovely! Credit me! <3

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Little Flowers

2017-02-12T05:13:43Z

Posted by: blackmare

One reason I like to teach is that it leads to things I'd never otherwise create. Here's one from this week's class.

Flowers, Oil on gessoed paper, ~ 8" high. It was a demo sketch, showing a student how to start with a wash of green and a fast block-in, and then build layers to create the flowers. It was going to be a throwaway, and then ... we both liked it, so after class, I kept working.

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Hand over the tuna and she might let you live.

2017-01-09T05:33:44Z

Posted by: blackmare

Mistress Murderpaw, 8 x 10" mixed media and collage

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Greetings! I've started drawing again lately.

2017-01-09T03:17:02Z

Posted by: amyvanhym

My DeviantArt

EDIT: I'm really disappointed to see the that first line in your community rules reads "Art is subjective." Because objective standards of quality and taste actually do exist in art, and because I value these objective standards, I sadly will not be able to participate in this community any further. Byebye.

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Sunland Art Colony

2016-12-24T19:38:59Z

Posted by: sunland

Hello, fellow artists!

Have you ever dreamed about getting out of crazy workday world with its boring rules and depressing atmosphere, because of which any creativity disappears? Do you want to enjoy creative space on the shore of a tropical sea and solitary or collaborative work and pastime? Then, the project of Sunland Art Colony is exactly what you need. Being initially launched by the same artist as you are, this project aimed to reach following goals:
- creating a place, where creative practitioners can work and live more freely, doing their artworks even better
- provide an atmosphere of creative interaction between artists
- enhance and contribute to the cultural life of the country - Cambodia and the city - Sihanoukville. If you're interested, please, find out more about the project here https://igg.me/at/sunland and join our FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/1738348083149411/

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Fanart of Thorin Oakenshield

2016-01-14T00:18:25Z

Posted by: mekare

I hope this post inspires other artists to show their work again this year! I'd love to see it! I have been on a very long hiatus - not creating anything due to hectic work but I managed this pencil drawing a couple of days ago. Mostly it was a challenge in drawing hair spilling naturally over two pillows and I'm sure it could be better. If anyone would like to share some tips regarding hair, I'd appreciate it!

See it here at my journal

All the best for all of you and happy creating!

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[Art] Cheeky

2015-08-13T02:11:16Z

Posted by: cehrulean

A drawing of my OC. :]

View it here!

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Class project: Copy of Fealing Lin's "Morning Cyclist"

2014-04-17T02:33:19Z

Posted by: tamouse

Our class assignment today was to reproduce "Morning Cyclist" by artist Fealing Lin.

Here is a sequence of my work on the subject today:

Sky

Yes, I'm painting it upside down :) so the paint runs the way I want it to, and not down into the space for the buildings.

Foreground

Buildings

First I tipped the edges where the buildings are reflecting the rising sun.

After the yellow dried, I painted in the building area. Underneath I had a beautiful layer of tourquoise, but forgot to capture it. You can still see it in part, mainly the rider's head and shoulders. It adds to the glazing over the buildings quite a bit.

Final

The final version, which I'm quite happy with.

My utmost thanks to Ms. Lin for providing such a stunning inspiration to play with.

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Pastel still life

2014-04-12T10:25:26Z

Posted by: mekare

Hi everyone, I posted a completed work from my course on pastels here in my journal.

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