Resources for Art and Writing

[Mike McC]

I was just browsing around, and it occured to me that there a many sites out there that are helpful, with tutorials and pointers and advice, with one learning how to draw (or some other form of art), or wanting to improve thier writing skills. Then it occured to me that it would be a good idea to create a thread into which we can pool sites which are helpful to us, and hope that someone else will also find them to be helpful.

Post any link that is geared to helping anyong improve thier drawing, photoshopping, digital art, writing, or editing skills.

Also, I think it would do well for this thread to be stickied, so it's always easily accesible.

Anyway, I'll post a few sites which have several very good tutorials and resources for learning to draw:

Save Loomis! --- Gives links to several books by illustrator Andrew Loomis (the entire books are scanned and posted on these webpages). I find them to be extremely helpful, and very well made, despite thier age (they were written back in the 30's and 40's, I believe).

PolyKarbon --- Geared more towards a manga style, the tutorials are stuill quite useful here. Very nice.

And, for those who have some cash to spare....

How To Draw Manga --- Here you can buy print copies of the How To Draw Manga book series, a very useful series of books for drawing in a manga style.

So, any helpful links you might have for art and writing, please post them!

[pochercoaster]

Sai-manga-tuts - Specific manga tutorials on hair, expressions, certain characters, etc.
http://homepages.tesco.net/~p.wilkinson/ - Tutorial on drawing portraits.

Hope those are helpful

[CHICAGO¤lollie]

Bakaneko - Anime tutorials on... well, a lot of anime stuff. Also has tutorials on cell-style shading.

[Hamelin]

The best way for a new writer to get a short story published is to submit said story to writing journals.

Writer's Market is an excellent resource for this. If you're serious about getting your work published, I highly recommend that you buy the book. Most book stores always have this year's version of it. There are literally thousands apon thousands of different magazines, books, companies, scholarship programs and so forth listed in it.

My former English teacher swears by it and says it has helped her extensively in getting her short stories published. And as soon as I write something I feel is publish worthy, I'll have to go out and get this year's version as well.

It is all well and good to come out with a novel right off the bat, like Brian has, but he already has a large enough fanbase as to which he can sell his book and at least break even on the editing and publishing costs.

For the rest of us, we have to slowly build up recognition in the field, and the best way to do that is to get published in noted literaty magazines.

***

Some other good advice:

- When writing short stories, unless you are submitting to specality publications, you must remeber in writing it that the average reader does not know you. They don't know the circumstances in which you write the story, nor the background of the story which you have set up in your mind. Don't go into too little detail.

Along that note, too much detail can make a story dull and drawn out, find a balance.

- Don't be afraid of proofreading and editing. I have this problem all too often. Everyone makes mistakes. It is very important to leave a story on the backburner for a day or two, only to come back to it later and give it a few run-overs for misspellings, improperly used words, grammer usage, and so forth. Other people are extremely helpful with this. It is a lot easier to find other people's mistakes then your own. In the end, you don't have to take their advice anyway, so what's the harm in getting a friend to read over your work.

Spellcheck is your friend, but don't abuse it, it isn't a perfect system. If you're serious about writing, you should be able to do it yourself anyway.

- Read dialogue aloud to yourself. I cannot stress this enough. If you read it and it doesn't sound like something an actual person would say, chances are it won't read very well either. Even characters with weird speech (lisps, heavy dialects, foreign accents) need to sound natural.

I just finished reading Stephen King's book On Writing, which is pretty self explanatory. The first quarter/half of the book is kinda a memoir dealie, but the whole second half is laden with tips on writing, and has examples of other famous authors/books. He talks about similes, and description, and setting, and dialouge, pretty much everything, then finishes by showing how the editing process can change a story by showing one of his Before Editing and After. It also has tips on getting an agent and getting your work published. And he lists some required reading to help the juices flow I guess.

Even if you don't like King, this is still a good library pick up.

[Caska]

I guess this is the best place to ask. Does anyone know a good site for CG tutorials? I've learned a lot on my own, but I know there's a lot I'm missing.

[Amake]

Sorry, can't help you. I just wanted to add another writer's resource: Neil Gaiman's online journal. Every goth's favourite author loves to write about writing, as any reader of Sandman - that should be everyone with an Int score high enough to turn a page - can testify and by God, this is an overly contrieved sentence. Anyway, this journal is like a completely natural growth of years' worth of informational tidbits, fascinating links and thoughtful social commentary without any system whatsoever in it. Worth a look even if you've never wanted to write a book, nor ever heard of the guy.

[MasterOfMagic]

http://fredart.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=43
Yes, a link to a thread just like this one, in another forum. But there is lotsa stuff there. I think there is even some CG tutorial links in there, Caska.

[Antaren]

its not really a recource for learning anything but i make my sprites here http://charas-project.net/index.php?lang=en

[Mr. Viewtiful]

The Spriter's Resource: an awesome sprite sheet archive for all you spriters out there. Has many different kinds of sprites, from the popular Mega Man to the less-used Fire Emblem series. If you need some sheets, chances are this place has it.