How I Design Characters with Shapes (Frog Reveal)

[@hi_jellie]

"How are you going to have performance anxiety if you don't even know what you're going to make?" This resonated so hard.

[@Inkwell]

uno reverse 🧠

[@henrypereira9503]

I literally stopped at the same exact quote and couldnt stop laughing , bc its so true lmao

[@tarabooartarmy3654]

I love the way the frogatar trembles when he speaks like he’s just so excited to share his knowledge with the world.

[@giulyanoviniciussanssilva2947]

True 😂

[@aaromalvarez2372]

I dont know who you are and Im not even a 2D artist but that Frog is peak character design and Im staying just to see more Frogs

[@imanispence9795]

Honestly this approach of working via shapes over purely lines, is something I needed to hear. I've heard so many people tell me that the way you draw directly correlates with the painting, but my brain has always thought more in shape and flow than purely in line. So this was a very refreshing and a nice take on the conceptual process.

[@DylanDecepticon]

The best way someone explained to me, is that some artists see in form, others see in lines. But we’re capable of learning both. It also seems helpful in getting over working destructively

[@diego-df]

Frog is awesome! 🐸 Thank you for sharing your process!

[@Inkwell]

@@diego-df ✨🙏😈

[@SavMortem]

Definitely been trying to lean into more of this sort of work flow. I find myself trying to go back to drawing sketches to start but having it not work out for me. I don't even like ending with linework or enjoy the process. Thank you for sharing your process, it's really nice to see how i could change my approach.

[@arknark]

I hope many people see this cause many people need this

[@zoelikesfrogs]

Omg I have been summoned! Frog gang unite

[@Inkwell]

The Power of Many! 🐸🐸🐸

[@ckatzell]

This was really validating to watch. I spent a lot of time learning the fundamentals and learning to draw well because it's my belief that, especially as a beginner or intermediate artist, it's important to have a good base. However I never could wrap my head around building things up using basic construction methods so anytime I create something I start with the form and overall shape first but I've always been self-conscious about that. Almost 5 years later I still approach things the same way and it's nice to see someone so skilled say this way of doing things is valid.

[@felixoesinghaus]

80% of the time I use the same 4 brushes: Hard round, semi-soft round, soft airbrush, textured chalkbrush. On occasion there can be stuff like clouds, greenery etc. where the right custom brush can speed up the workflow a lot but they work the best if you use them sparingly.

[@Mmmmatcha]

I just started the video but omg the frog is so cute, two of my favorite things in cartoony character designs are pointy hats and little bowties I love it so much!!

[@Inkwell]

Thanks! 🐸

[@ArasMPectol96]

Your art is so fuckin good and cool! im really just enamored with how you paint and how the shape and tri layer/shading is, for me next level.

[@Inkwell]

@@ArasMPectol96 🙏 thank you!

[@lillypollack2007]

"Art school teaches line art" Yes! And it's always been a struggle for me because I think and work in shapes and colors. I feel so much more valid now. Thank you!

[@wingedcanvas]

He makes great points in this, it's the exact reason we try to have a diverse range of Instructors personally who have different methods to their style. Art isn't one thing, there are many ways to accomplish it and some people find one way, or another, easier or more challenging and it'll help your motivation to start where you find the most progress!

[@lillypollack2007]

@@solarydays From my experience it was mostly line art that was pushed. I had a few college level art classes so what exactly would you consider "serious" classes? And if you mean art college, you are correct. The closet I will come to "serious" classes are the ones at my local college while I study for a career that will support my kids, one of them being disabled. I need a career with stability and good medical insurance. So while I immensely enjoy art, I can't take these "serious" classes you speak of. And I appreciate these KZbinrs sharing their knowledge, tips, and advice because that's all I can afford right now and probably ever.

[@toothycookie]

​@@solarydayswhat kind of elitist attitude is this about the arts? Your skepticism isn't helpful.

[@lillypollack2007]

@@solarydays Okay, so you're self taught, yet want us to take "serious classes", yet shame us for not making it work when you didn't do it yourself? Cool.

[@toothycookie]

@@solarydays Buddy, I have at most a high school art education, I used to do art crit for students, judge competitions, and i once helped curate for a bloody museum in my City. Respectfully, your resentment and petty personal attacks are completely misguided and target the wrong people, and it produces Zero of the results the Art World needs to see right now. Your attitude is all of what was the worst of the fine arts establishment I've ever had to roll my eyes listening to, and condescending to people online with a faceless icon without even having the audacity to share a portfolio to substantiate your weak justification for lambasting these young students who are largely hobbyists while conveniently ignoring the status quo that pushed the lie of influencing as a matter of viability is completely unproductive. Quit wasting the time of everyone in this comments section and go fucking make the art you insist you learned offline if you have time to ridicule people instead of giving productive and actionable suggestions, you smarmy little ant. Of all artists in the World, it's the ones like you, 'self taught' with a chip on your shoulder, who are clearly resentful that their craft didn't give them the social credits they sought, that seem to have the most shit to talk about strangers online while knowing NOTHING of their actual backgrounds. Go away.

[@pinxmon]

making "take that, stupid brain!" my new mantra when drawing to keep myself from getting too in my own head about a piece. Yeah man take hours do it the silly way have fun with it thats what arts all about babeeeee

[@otherme9138]

Your laziness is a type of professional I hope to achieve one day 😂 And maybe I can since I have the same struggles when it comes to drawing and I have to break down things to their basic shapes to make it work 😁 You have given me hope^^

[@Inkwell]

Best of Luck! 🤣

[@giulyanoviniciussanssilva2947]

I loved the reuse of pieces of old art or reusing the whole of a character for new works. I don't like to waste good concepts, just like a sculptor doesn't waste pieces, so I really appreciated that.

[@kaylabunting3277]

This is incredibly helpful and I would love to see more "how tos" on Procreate in your style!

[@knottylittlekitty]

General to specific is the way to go. Thanks for sharing a glimpse into your process.

[@randaart8489]

u love frogs , REPTILES . sea creatures , FANTASY , MAGIC and toned down colors , THATS JUST LITERALLY ME need more of these

[@wingedcanvas]

4:40 -- This is when you know you're a professional artist... In other news: I adore the rendering on your desk ducks🦆

[@Inkwell]

big fan of ducks!

[@stormycatmink]

I'd been fighting with lineart methods for so long.. until I just started making my lines thicker and filling them in, then just going all in on building things with solid shapes. Then, I'd go and draw lines overtop those and hide the shapes.. and yay! lineart! So much faster. I've always been very good at spatial/3d visualization in my head.. I wondered if that was why lines were such a struggle, but shapes were easy.

[@plausiblecoffee]

This video found it's way into my recommendations and I'm so happy it did. I've been struggling finding joy in making art and this video made me realize that maybe I've been stuck trying to make art that I dont actually enjoy making. The rendered anime style is what I've been trying to achieve but the whole process with sketch into line-art doesn't make sense to me. I naturally go towards more of a painterly style so the tecnique to start with blocking out big shapes and going from there seems really fun and more approachable.

[@Inkwell]

@@plausiblecoffee best of luck I hope this helps

[@DigitalDomator]

love your Art

[@Inkwell]

Thank you!

[@rklow2023]

froggie so kawaiii! Wondering if you can do " table tour" of the abundant knick knacks you usually have behind you/office? 0:04 for ref

[@bearoyay]

both are important. Understanding lines amplifies your understanding of shapes and vice versa.

[@MintyMido]

Seeing & hearing about your process is so helpful - your work is gorgeous!! I feel like I overly rely on linework & im trying to get comfortable with a more painterly/shape based approach at least in the early stages to help with my overall composition & color planning; thanks so much!

[@simonight_art]

Awesome piece and fantastic video, love this ;)

[@brokencreationlordmegatrol3037]

AH YES. Fellow square brush enjoyer >:D

[@ejderha13]

Although I'm not a digital artist (traditional to the core) I thouroughly enjoy these vidoes. I love the idea of working in shapes, but my brain is more linework oriented, probably because I only work with pencils. It's my plan to draw something so detailed and "busy" like this in graphite pencil, hopefully in the near future. Thank you as always for your wonderful and educational videos.

[@brianjetton3962]

I agree. Sculpting an image is a lot easier, I think, than the way I was taught in art school, which is to capture the contours.

[@Inkwell]

My True Form? 🦑

[@teteotolis]

🦑 ? 🤔

[@HelyaRavn]

But is it your final form? 🤔🤔

[@Inkwell]

@ 👁️👄👁️

[@Spiffycow]

Veadotube is the goat. Or the Frog, in this case. Love seeing creature-tubers!!

[@lunearch]

sooo exciting to see painting processes from you! I love all your frogs

[@Inkwell]

Thank you so much 😀

[@teteotolis]

"I would love to have a job just designing fantasy armor" ... Are you okay !? Who hurt you ?! xD

[@Inkwell]

Hey someone’s gotta do it!

[@teteotolis]

@@Inkwell ... You dropped this 👑

[@fernandobravan]

I was so happy watching this video because this is exactly how I approach my process, I never met another artist that does the same and I was honestly thinking about changing my whole process. I thought this could be a lmitation since I've never seen other professionals using it, but this video was a HUGE relief for me, thank you so much for doing this, I love your artworks and also love the frog

[@Inkwell]

@@fernandobravan embrace the process!!!! 💅

[@Houdini_Bob]

thank you sir for a much needed video, shall I say tutorial? I like the one brush to rule them all. I've followed a tutorial and d/l artist brush set, all 200 brushes in zip file. completely overwhelming as a very old (well into my 60s) newbie to art as a hobby in retirement, I found this video very informative, inspirational and helpful. I like your approach, especially not using any or much line art. just ordered Holiday Devils pin set. also, there are 162 vies but only 34 likes ??? what gives???

[@vonnart]

Love seeing and hearing about the process Squid man. 🦑

[@Inkwell]

👁👄👁

[@HalfWarrior]

The reds and slightly ‘greenish’ hues work very nicely together! Very interesting approach 👍🏻 Nice work man!

[@Inkwell]

Thanks a lot!

[@ChantelleArts]

the level of detail is insane!! 🥰

[@Bernd-Ballert]

>Frog Wizard called Inkwell I know where you're coming from brother - Big respects for your work!!!!

[@fussyfissy]

Loved this video and the art advice! also frog lovers unite! 🐸

[@Inkwell]

🐸🙏🐸

[@supermuffincake2914]

Amaaazzingg, how big is your canvas?

[@Mmmmatcha]

Second comet but i really just want to say im so greatful towards you for this chanel, its really helped myself and so many other people a lot. And making knowledge like this easily accessable I think is so important, so that you! And im sure you get this a lot but your art is absolutely beautiful i love your designs so much :D

[@Inkwell]

Thats nice to hear, thank you!

[@GCchanneled]

Thank you, I won't say I will use every tip in this video because as a traditional artist some flow does not match exactly with digital art but you motivated my but by showing the length it took to finish such a detailed piece. Also I will try to incorporate using larger volumes and silhouettes before digging in the details of a drawing.

[@quaternius]

I'm a 3D Artist, and I absolutely loved the video! There were some great bits of insight that I’m definitely going to implement. I’ll try sculpting some of your pieces soon.

[@Inkwell]

Best of luck and I would love to see the end result!

[@OneTwo363]

This is incredibly inspiring! Thanks for the video!

[@timkongart]

Ooh the frog has some mean teeth XD. I think we might be similar in that shapes and value comes more naturally. I somewhat forced myself to get better with lineart to improve my draftsmanship. I'm at this weird stage where I never feel comfortable with line but do it as a obligation to keep the drawing itself strong. I think Im still at this stage where I'm trying to find this inbetween stage that works out both ways. I always feel like I forgotton how to draw the moment I put the stylus on the canvas. Either way, its super cool to see your thought process on when you create your work. I think its nice to hear and see the small mental challenges a artist go through as they work through a piece and how they tackle and problem solve each area. Keep it up man, love the content you release!

[@Astryca]

Its really inspiring to see your process. I see now that i rely too much on linework, and should try a more painterly approach. thank you!

[@Inkwell]

give it a try, maybe it will click!

[@Astryca]

@Inkwell it does!! I feel my brain getting more wrinkly as i paint

[@goober272]

You make it all seem so simple :)

[@Inkwell]

Simple is all my brain can handle 😅

[@mx.yesterday3443]

Yeah, something I realized in my art journey is that line art was something that didn't come as easy to me especially when it came to trying to finish a piece (so much so I never finish a piece for the longuest of time) but thinking more silhouette and shape did !

[@Inkwell]

@@mx.yesterday3443 I wish I had leaned this sooner about my self but oh well 🤫

[@CrystalPrism]

very nice video, makes me really happy to see the blocking out of shapes and reusing stuff from your other art pieces being used by great artists. Your process is what I just happened to start doing bc it made more sense to me, so it's nice to know i'm not alone. also I like the Loredana cards and png vtuber model software. 👍

[@IrrelevantArt]

This is great work! and really inspiring =D Thanks a lot frog!

[@christinabrilla4030]

I would love to see an art book from you. You should really think about making one.

[@Inkwell]

@@christinabrilla4030 it’s in the works! I’m just slow af

[@christinabrilla4030]

@ I’m excited, can’t wait!

[@spookyartist1166]

Holy crap that’s the same brush I use on whenever I’m sketching

[@Inkwell]

A good choice ✨

[@lirrenfardig00]

More content like this please 😍

[@mashinarose]

I got so fed up with lineart, thank u for this video!

[@Lobstrique]

this whole video is such an eye candy 🥹🥹🥹✨ I'll definitely try out a square brush, your render style reminds me of gouache paintings which i absolutely love

[@finflamflamharrison9265]

dont loose the frog. never seen you before but I will be watching every video from now on

[@sakuraharuno0919]

This... has been what I was trying to figure out atm 😂 Thank you so much! ❤❤❤❤

[@enriquepx1698]

The spread looks genuinely gorgeous!!! (One question I have when I see people doing pieces that are so full of characters and details I, as also an artist, wonder: what canvas size and ppi do people use for theirs, cause I always struggle)

[@Inkwell]

I believe this one was 6000x12000px at 300dpi pretty much whatever the max procreate will let me have I do

[@19Mikeys_Block90]

This video was very useful! Especially with the subject matter of basically using colors to represent lines. Do you have a video of using actual physical supplies to draw with colors?

[@aaronpagniano7597]

And thus it was that inkwell became known as the frog artist

[@Inkwell]

What next? slugs?

[@varflock9777]

I'm the kind of painter who downloads tons of brushes, tests them and then uses like two very basic ones 98% of the time (chalk and airbrush in Krita).

[@mareolavvy6516]

FROG ERAAAAAA

[@Inkwell]

@@mareolavvy6516 🐸✨🐸✨🐸✨🐸

[@teteotolis]

Wait, we got a Frog Reveal !? I wasn't ready for that !

[@Dassatron]

Great lesson. But how do you go from silhouette to detail, guidelines and what not to do??

[@pacosp4052]

You actually have the voice of a frog mage

[@mix-up9003]

Very interesting video, it was very informative, keep it up dude.

[@LOREk.]

your rendering style is very beautiful ! can y make tips on that?

[@Inkwell]

I'll keep it in mind for a future video!

[@LOREk.]

Thx y ❤​@@Inkwell

[@thenekobean]

Forget everything else, I need the rubber ducks' backstory 🦆

[@Inkwell]

They are always watching always listening…

[@Dassatron]

Please could you teach rendering, you're so amazing at that. So my work can look finished too pleaseeeee?

[@Eduardo54cenationx2]

The frog matches your voice very well, I don't know what that tells about you but hey! 😆

[@Inkwell]

i am 🐸

[@Elpsychonaut]

nice channel, subbed

[@Very_icky]

Hey I had you sign some cards for me at a convention!

[@lowbudgetmic]

Professor Inkwell 😮💛🍑

[@Illuminatic]

What kind of canvas size are you using? Whatever I do it always ends up looking too pixelated

[@a.block.of.tofu.]

Im really new to digital painting, but not drawing necessarily but this still seems like good advice for someone like me who doesnt think my line art skills really transition to painting. Are you separating each color for a character into different layers initially?

[@Inkwell]

Not typically, when I separate things it’s normally more about what is forward and what’s behind, so if there is a arm crossing over the characters body that might be on its own layer but colors don’t make a difference for me

[@Kammoi]

Frog sensei, show us da wey 🙏

[@dandon1968]

spent the whole intro: "i do sketches in color blobs, i don't draw naturally", proceed to draw 3:33

[@HyacinthLilium]

I Keep flipping between being very line/sketch focused and color shapes as you talk about above. I just can't combine colors and lines... Unless I'm using mspaint and using the pixel tool.

[@Lunautau101]

I like to draw and sketch, BUT when it comes to painting, I find lines more of a hindrance than helpful and it feels really restrictive, so I wonder would happen if I just skipped lines all together. It kinda short circuits my brain to think without lines but I’m curious to see if it helps. 😊

[@sazero01]

очень круто

[@xRamada]

ay homie use AirServer to mirror your ipad to your pc, then OBS record it ezpz

[@Inkwell]

@@xRamada the bigger issue is I did half this painting on a plane, but when I’m at home for sure

[@xRamada]

@@Inkwell ooh i see, yeah for that you'd just have to screen record unfortunately. also the alternative to Airserver is good ol capture card + apple adapter lol

[@MichaelKocha]

Just discovered your channel and I'm here to request t-shirt merch. I kind of want to wear every one of your pieces on my body. K thnx.

[@Leikjarinn]

your art kinda looks like from the game Toads of the Bayou!

[@sofiaribadeneira2312]

I never know how big my canvas should be in procreate, how big is this one ?

[@drongobrat6471]

your frogsona is terrifying

[@Inkwell]

some real inner demons 🐸😈

[@Artlife0831]

I have to use lines. I have tried to draw using shapes but it doesn’t work out for me.

[@suzumecreates]

Frog Vtuber steram when??

[@Inkwell]

Trying to get everything set up, aiming for around the new year

[@silverblue73]

Your art reminds me of Zeen Chin, are you familiar with him?

[@hikarii-kun2698]

I was so confused like, "How come I haven't seen him on Twitch"

[@Inkwell]

@@hikarii-kun2698 I don’t stream at least not atm, maybe soon

[@KiloGraham]

Frog has teeth. Both 😮 and 😂.

[@Inkwell]

@@KiloGraham 😬🪥

[@sanglamart]

You would hate my 300+ layers psd file :)

[@Inkwell]

hurts me every time i think about it

[@JPEGTOMUSIC]

I like the scawy frog better

[@alonachiong666]

Omg you steal from your old art too? I've been so ashamed of doing that lol I sometimes use them as base before painting over them too XD

[@Inkwell]

It's only on my personal work, but I do find it can stiffen things. But it's a good starting point, for sure.

[@napostrophen]

Is he gonna evolve two weeks from now?

[@Inkwell]

Probably 💅

[@scoobin336]

anIMORPHS MENTION :DDD

[@mangonauts6464]

Great art piece but with regard to the title of the video, the part tackling "designing characters with shapes" was kind of super minimal and you talked about everything extensively (palettes and rendering and brushes and layers) except for actually designing characters by thinking of and playing with shapes.

[@JPEGTOMUSIC]

I think you found your frogsona

[@averagekirbyenjoyer7909]

Ngl, I like the 1st frog more.....