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I've got a couple of thoughts to throw into the ring, though these are all my personal preferences and my opinions, so take them with a grain of salt and feel free to ignore them completely if you disagree - though I'd love to hear your take on why these do or don't work for you! Overpowered Characters Are Fine: It's their personality that matters. I've had plenty of pleasant RP experiences with characters that were "overpowered"- the key to writing them is the same as it is for writing a Superman comic that's actually interesting: Superman doesn't go around laser-eyeing everybody to death over snide comments, nobody's getting punched through a skyscraper for accidentally spilling their coffee on him, and the only time I find Supes interesting or fun as a character is when he's played "soft". He's not here to tear everybody to shreds - maybe he's actively trying really hard not to! - even though he absolutely could. Goku is another classic and easy example of someone who is, technically, super strong, but who's friendly enough to come across as likeable, knows when to use his strength and who to use it on. I don't really mind roleplaying with "angels" or "demons" or, occasionally, if you really know what you're doing, """Gods""", but only if you're not going to act aggressive and then hit anybody who doesn't immediately roll over for you with "/me kills you". No matter how many paragraphs you put into it, it's lame, and acting like that makes you an asshole. Roleplay is like any other kind of play- it should be fun for both parties involved. It's also nice if you have a very specific set of "lore" for your overpowered character that makes them not-so-overpowered- Achilles had his heel, Samson had his hair, Wolverine's full of metal. Everyone should have some kind of Kryptonite, preferably something that's not an incredibly rare mineral, that encourages people who have a beef with your OP Super-Seraphim to use creativity and problem-solving skills instead of responding with "/me kills you even better". The second of my tepid takes is semi-related. Consent and Communication: Talk to people! Not just in-character, but out of character - talk to the other writers! This is a two-way street. Encourage the people you RP with to talk to you. You don't have to pre-plan the next five years of RP plot, answer questions about who you are out-of-game, or you don't need to know what the outcome of a fight is going to be before either of you have written the first post, but you should be equally comfortable both setting and following OOC boundaries about what happens IC. For example, if I'm playing a blind character, who's spent their entire life being blind and has completely adapted their life and fighting style around their lack of vision, if your character walks up and cures them of their blindness, even if your intentions are good, IC you've just ruined their entire way of experiencing the world, are now opening them up to a huge swath of brand-new stimuli that they might not enjoy, and they now need to re-learn how to handle combat from scratch. OOC, you have, without asking, completely nullified a core chunk of the character I made, and now I, as a writer, have to essentially make a brand-new character out of the rubble of the established character you un-made on a whim. This can be easily avoided by asking people before you do anything huge or weird. My personal preference is to ask people (and be asked) prior to grievous injury (might land them in the hospital for a week or more, could be fatal if untreated), loss of a limb or sense, any attempt at character death, anything that would make a massive change to a character, and anything that's going to be exceptionally graphic or unpleasant - detailed depictions of violence/torture, anything involving eyes or fingernails, that sort of thing. It's both a courtesy, one that by accepting they also have to extend to you, and an easy way to ensure you don't traumatize a player who's not as old as you or upset someone who doesn't enjoy the same kind of RP you do. At the end of the day, this is a hobby. We're all doing this for fun, and most folks use roleplay to unwind - keeping other people in mind tends to get you the same treatment in return, so being nice (even if it's only OOC!) to the people you play with can go a long way, especially if you want to keep writing stories with the same people in the long run! Anyway. Regardless of how you like to handle your RP, I hope you have fun out there! 💞

I made a little sheet with some of my own tricks for lineart! It's very basic, but I hope it helps! 💖 please let me know if there's a better/more accessible way of shoving a huge image into a post. <:') EDIT: Cori on the Homecoming discord mentioned some stuff that bears repeating when I posted this there! "I feel like line weight is more useful to describe objects' relations in space by using thicker lines on parts of the subject that are closer to the viewer, and thinner lines on things that are farther away [...] I think it looks better when line weight is used to make things 'pop' from the canvas, rather than having the outline be one consistent weight." You can, of course, use line weight to do all of these things at once if it suits your tastes/style. Also, keep in mind that the tips I'm giving are just tips and my personal preferences, and not rules! One of the reasons I like art so much is that rules and guidelines can be bent and broken if it'll make your piece stronger or convey what you want better. You need only take what suits you, and leave the rest if it doesn't!

My favorite thing to do other than drawing and playing City is helping other people draw and get better at drawing, so I figured I'd make a thread where people can give advice, post their work for critique, and share links to learning resources! With that said, there are some things I'd like to set out before we get into the useful stuff. This is a thread for helping people get better! To that end, telling someone that their work "is bad" or saying things like, "it sucks" is not helpful, and doesn't belong here. Critique doesn't need to be "overly kind", but it does need to address specific problems in a piece, not just state that you don't like the piece or think it looks bad. Similarly, try to keep critique of someone's content out of this thread. If someone wants to draw lemons, and you want them to draw Batman, trying to tell them in your critique to draw lemons that resemble Batman is something of a moot point. We're also not here to tell someone what style they should draw in! Every rule and guideline ever made can be properly broken if done so intentionally/for the purpose of enhancing the work, and while it will help lend a sense of reality to an anime catgirl in a mecha if there's some understanding of anatomy behind it, these things are flexible and can be bent and broken responsibly! Please remember to credit the artists of the things you post, preferably by linking to where they post their art. If they say not to repost their work, please don't post the image directly, link to it on their website! All that aside, the useful parts of this post! Youtube Channels: Moderndayjames - Probably the most solid guides I've ever seen regarding fundamentals for so many things. I'm still working through his Understanding Perspective series, but if perspective isn't your cup of tea at present, he's got loads of other subjects comprehensively covered and split into reasonably-sized parts. Sycra - Wonderfully multifaceted, Sycra covers both solid technical knowledge, fundamentals, and how to improve and practice stylized work. Proko - Ditto! Proko has a lot of videos that are almost identical to my time spent under a classical art teacher, but he's also got an array of videos that cover the absolute basics and some videos where he (often with a conversational partner) discusses certain aspects of art and art theory. He also invites other artists onto his channel to collaborate in videos a lot, so it isn't just his work you're learning from! Marc Brunet - Loads of great information on digital painting, some of which would probably transfer over to traditional media just fine. Marc also does some anatomical videos and while you may need to sift through some of his videos advertising the online school he works for (or founded? 🤔) there's loads of great information here and some really enjoyable speedpaints. Ahmed Aldoori - There are some tutorials hidden between his Medcasts and speedpaint videos, and they're all pretty solid, but you won't lose out if you sit through some of the videos where he's just working or discussing theory/various aspects of life for artists. Mohammed Agbadi - I love this guy! He's primarily a colorist, and though he covers some other aspects of stylized art too, his different videos on shading (especially the ones about dynamic lighting!) are fantastic. Ethan Becker - Personally, I don't like this "NEVER [X]" style of teaching, how he insults other artists (even in jest) and I find his screen persona grating, but Ethan's advice on stylized art is solid regardless of how it's delivered and I'd be doing a disservice to anyone trying to learn if I didn't include him. Drawing Wiff Waffles - A bit of a departure from people who cover fundamentals and structure, Waffles does nearly exclusively stylized art and doesn't make many tutorial/"how-to" videos, but watching her work is both an absolute joy and a good way to learn some new things! Dina Norlund - I don't know if she's made any tutorials at all, but this is another "watch them draw and pick up some things while you're at it" artist I can't get enough of. Art References: SenshiStock - Warning: People in leotards ahead! Lots of wonderful pose references, mostly female with some couples and men mixed in here-and-there. Faestock - Again, mostly female. Lots of fantasy-themed images and a lovely assortment of flowy clothes to struggle with help you learn how to draw folds and drapery! 🤭 LaLunatique - Female-centric, with a few male-themed sets. Several pose sets that use interesting props! ManStock - This is a group, and not a single user. If you find someone whose look or poses you like, follow up with the rest of their gallery! I figured this would make up for the previous female-focused entries. 💦 Posemaniacs - 3D skinless figures (it's not as gross as it sounds, promise!) in a wide variety of poses, this site lets you move the poses left and right to get the angle you want (though you'll want to select the proper vertical height you're after from the list of poses)! There's also a random viewer and a "30 Second Drawing" mode for doing gesture drawings. Pexels - Free stock site, there are images (and videos!) here of loads of different things - people, objects, environments - and you can download them onto your computer for later use. Guides, Tutorials, and Tips: Griz and Norm's Tuesday Tips - Tidy little images that pack a lot of information! There are loads of topics covered, just make sure you hit the "next" button to see more of them! The Etherington Brothers - Solid guides for a wide and eclectic variety of topics - they've got a guide up on how to draw crabs, for example. There are also some writing guides, in case you wanted to make comics! How to Draw Anything by Xuu - I have no idea about the rest of their blog contains, but this single tutorial will take you VERY far.

Thank you so much for the cheat sheet! The formatting seems to have borked the shortcut keys, though: The written-out ones (shift, control, alt, F1 etc.) are fine, but the second part is consistently "#38;#8211;".