Admin Post: Prompt Post

[goss]

This post will be used for brainstorming Prompts, projects and other drawing activities.

We encourage community members to contribute ideas, themes, phrases, lyrics, etc. in the comments section of this post, as well as links to drawing warm-ups, exercises, and any other interesting prompts that might inspire our artists.

Comments

[olivermoss]

Braids, swings, heatwaves, train travel, fairy market, cooking and hot springs.

[mekare]

I am all for the braids and swings prompts. *brain runs off to imagine things*

[chacusha]

Villainous, period costumes, fire and ice, leather, weather, dancing, in the style of (artist/art period)

Color palette challenges: https://www.google.com/search?q=color+palette+challenges&tbm=isch

Hexafusion meme: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/hexafusion-triple-fusion (very challenging, though, because it requires doing 4 pieces of fanart)

[dhampyresa]

Wow, the hexafusion concept is so cool!

[mific]

1. The same character drawn from at least two different perspectives.

2. Detailed drawing of a character's face, or their hands.

3. Draw an unusual animal that is or could be in one of your fandoms - a sci-fi alien animal or a fantasy creature.

4. Draw a typical background from one of your fandoms - somewhere your familiar characters might be set against.

5. Draw a favourite or typical weapon or artifact from one of your fandoms.

[mekare]

Hhhm. Maybe: "Draw your two favourite characters interacting"? Could lead to some nice crossover fanart. Or: "What would X/favourite character(s) take with them on a lonely island?"
"Draw what makes X happy."

I realize these are all character based and therefore not as open to interpretation as the other prompts.

Idea for a discussion post

[mekare]

Since image hosting is such a big topic for fanartists (and especially beginners) maybe we could have a discussion post or how to post or an exchange of tips for the technical side of actually getting your work online? Since photobucket changed their model I think a lot of artists would appreciate hearing about alternatives. I mean inside dreamwidth everything's fine and dandy but if you'd like to post your work to AO3 (as I do) there are some technical issues to consider. Don't know about other sites.

Re: Idea for a discussion post

[goss]

That's a good suggestion, having discussion posts for technical issues that artists encounter. Will keep it in mind. Thanks. :)

[mekare]

Just an idea from a comment thread in the check-in post:

Maybe we should have a post sometime where we link to artists we admire and what specifically we like about their art, or what particular skill we like, or learn from. Like for me, alby's use of pastel layering (she has a tutorial which could go into our resource post in the future here).

And I remember there was a comm like "meet the artist" or something on LJ or Tumblr I think? Where artists were profiled and they talked about their process and materials etc. That could go in our resource post, too since there'd be tons of cool links and how-tos and so on.

[goss]

Oh, yes! I was thinking along those lines, and coincidentally, about Alby! When I saw her pencil sketches this week, I thought it would be great to share with the comm.

Maybe we could have some kind of central monthly Art/Artist Rec post, where people link cool artworks and/or artists they discovered online over that month.

Either that, or different members of the comm could take turns to do a Fan-Art Recs or Fan-Artist Feature Post each month, sharing fan-art/artists they enjoy.

[mekare]

Oops another idea again. Talking about inspiration and muses. I know writers discuss this all the time but we could, too. Maybe it's too similar to the motivation post, hum... it could be part of what we talk about there - how to get in the mood/back to drawing and for me a lot of times that's a pretty face aka a new muse. *g*

[minoanmiss]

This community has been absolutely WONDERFUL for me, and I can't say enough how much I enjoy participating here.

After a little thought I have some challenge suggestions:

Eyes

Recursive art (aka The Droste Effect aka Mise En Abyme)

Rainbow (this doesn't have to be colored in -- how would one shade a charcoal drawing of a rainbow in the sky?)

Flight

In honor of the coworker who just walked past while I was writing this -- BEARDS (he has a Great big Bushy Beard)

Windows and openings

Visually convey another sense (smell, sound, taste, movement, touch, etc) Could be a mythical sense like clairvoyance)

[goss]

I'm so glad you're enjoying the community. ^___^

And thanks for all the different prompts. These are great!

[mific]

Another type of Word prompt post.

http://www.textfixer.com/tools/random-words.php

Set it to do three words, then hit it until the words produced inspire an idea to draw. Tell us your prompt words when you post. :)

[goss]

Oooh, nice one! I especially like the fact that you can just keep clicking until something strikes your fancy.

[mekare]

Using negative space.

(Just saw this beautiful art on Tumblr: http://sherlgrey.tumblr.com/post/163218874073/wont-be-long-before-this-pencil-dies)

[goss]

Cool effect! :D

[mekare]

Will we do something Valentine-y for February? Maybe as the next prompt?

[mific]

Sounds like a good idea! Will touch base with Goss and see.

[syntheid]

I did not remember this post existed, so here's a handful of prompts.

1. Creature Design: draw an alien or fantasy creature, the less humanoid the better? Could also be split into categories like insectoid / aquatic / flying etc for separate prompts.

2. The Conceptual Environment Art Challenge, technically to try to challenge you to focus on environment design, though could also be used as regular word/phrase inspiration prompts.

3. Modern AU (or period historial/futuristic AU if they are modern-day already) of a favorite character

4. 100 thing challenge-- maybe more of a long-term or special occasion thing than for the usual prompt, but one of the best ways to ingrain something in your personal visual library is to draw it a lot so people do challenges of drawing 100 hands or 100 expressions or 100 birds whatever they want to get good at. And post it for accountability.

5. Limited palette prompts: (e.g. https://78.media.tumblr.com/fae8479ba2027e3a0f15a090bad1773f/tumblr_p521pjukXD1x3kpw5o1_1280.png) Way more than that one and we could pick them off colourlovers and other places too, but just picking a palette that we all have to come up with a piece for.

Not really a prompt, but I had also been wondering if there might be interest in having (regular? or just sporadic with a tag?) art critique, where you can post and ask for redlines or advice on something you're having trouble with or stuck on.

[goss]

Excellent suggestions! I am personally intrigued by the 100 thing challenge. *___*

The creature design challenge sounds like something many in our community might be interested in.

Or even just going with creature themes (aquatic, flying, etc.) for those who like drawing characters that already exist in fandom.

Drawesome Anniversary

[mekare]

You know, on the 24th June this year it‘s the anniversary of the first post. Maybe we could do another group project for that? It‘s still a little ways away but we could maybe make a discussion post to get some ideas from members? Or somehow commemorate that with a special challenge.

Re: Drawesome Anniversary

[goss]

Yeah, I was thinking about trying another group project for our 1st birthday (yay!). I'm open to brainstorming ideas over the course of this month, so that we can plan something special and enjoyable for everyone. :)

Yup, spamming the prompt post again

[mekare]

I just did my first gesture drawing from the Line of Action site (should have read the articles first but whatever) and thought this might be a cool challenge to try? Maybe? We could make posting it optional, just writing "I did it" or soemthing. Or make it an optional side-project.

Re: Yup, spamming the prompt post again

[goss]

*nods* Oh yes! Gesture drawing is a wonderful practice to put in place for capturing figures in a few simple strokes.

I like using it as an introduction to drawing the human body with the kids, because you get to see instant results. :) :)

[mekare]

Just an idea, since October will probably be Inktober again (?), maybe we could have another group project? I think this time a poll might be a good idea to see when people are more likely do be able to do it. December is probably superbusy with yuletide, different advent calendars and personal stuff....maybe January is an option?or the dreary November when somethhing collaborative might brigten the mood (depends on other challenges running, mine are usually over by then)

[goss]

Good suggestion, especially with feeling out which months people might be more likely to have time to participate in a group project.

WIP Challenge

[mekare]

So, as I said, for weeks where everyone is super busy we could have a challenge to finish or at least keep working on older, half-finished art pieces that we meant to get back to, but somehow never did. I think we could do this regularly. I think if it just means, 'do some work on' instead of 'finish it' makes the challenge less imposing, also, you automatically have before/after pics!

It could also be good for weeks like this where lots of us have bang challenges ongoing and working on those would be allowed for this sort of WIPchallenge. The sharing is tricky with those, would have to think about that. Maybe in locked posts in our own journals?

[undergrounding]

Wanted to throw this into the suggestion pot. There’s a hilarious Scifi plot generator. https://themanofstone.com/random/science_fiction_generator
I’m going to actually try sketching some up. Maybe as a crossover with an existing fandom.

[mific]

Haha - that's a great resource!

[mekare]

Somethings for the noticeboard: holidayartswap has closed nominations, so sign-ups should be soon. yuletide has the wrapping paper challenge where you can request art, or go look for prompts if you want to treat someone.

[goss]

Cool! Thanks for bringing these to our attention. :)

Fantasy Creatures Thinking Outside The Box

[minoanmiss]

"Modern fantasy creatures and people being exposed to new lifestyles and developing dreams and goals that don’t fit with their species or their culture in the slightest. "

https://jaune-chat.tumblr.com/post/190476644902/okay-but-consider-this

Dwarf aviators! Elf miners! mountain climbing mermaids! Sailing centaurs! Diving fairies! Champion swimmer dragons! eee!

Re: Fantasy Creatures Thinking Outside The Box

[mekare]

I love this prompt idea!

[mekare]

An idea, since we have some new members, and many interesting challenges in our backlog, we could have a challenge to either redo an older challenge of your choice (for new members this would be incentive to check out what we‘ve done in the past), or to do one we missed the first time.

[mekare]

Since ylee led me to Kirsty Partridge I found 5 challenges she posted for 2021. The one with limited colours (otherwise free in subject matter), or the one about using mid tone paper to practice highlights and shadows looked particularly interesting!

[goss]

Nice! I like that these are more focusing on technique, rather than subject matter. :)

[goss]

Idea seen in minoanmiss' journal:

Gijinka: drawings of people 'dressed up as'/personifying non-human, often inanimate and/or intangible items.

[mific]

A tricky concept to get your head around! Do you think it could be done in a non-anime style? As many of us don't do anime/manga type work. All the examples will be in that style, though, I guess.

[seleneheart]

What about a challenge to tackle something that is your weak point, or you're afraid to tackle. Maybe spend the whole month working on it, and post a 'how it started/how it's going' post at the end.

Mine would be teeth, for instance.

[goss]

Oooh, a "Face Your Fear" challenge! Nice. Thanks for the suggestion.

Hey, that would make a cool theme for Halloween/October. *g*

Gijinka!

[minoanmiss]

We could probably get several challenges out of Gijinka!

[goss]

Prompt for artists suggested by jpegghost: Drawing over basic shapes

I like this idea - very similar to the paint blob one in a way, but more digital friendly.

(I also like how the hard, defined edges of a basic shape can invite the exploration of space, framing, lighting, etc.)

[mekare]

This one sounds fun! Is June going to be another group project month? It‘s anniversary time again!