Questions Regarding Beginner Art Resources For Fantasy Art

[Shortstop]

Hey there,

I would showcase my art website, but I'm in the middle of trying to figure out a better and easier way to setup an art gallery page that looks nice but is way easier to maintain.

Before I was literally deploying an art gallery creator website that would painstakingly go through folders of artwork via a Python 3 script and create a related page that looked okay at best.

With this in mind, I would pretty much distill my best artwork to just pen and ink drawings, mostly fantasy based.

That being said, I have a few question as I'm still kind of a beginner at heart really:
- What are the best resources to learn how to draw figures and backgrounds for fantasy art like for Basic Fantasy? Anything would help in terms of books, courses, etc
- What are easy to deploy art gallery websites that I could just use on a personal website that's running on a VPS running Debian?

I've tried to look for local art resources in my area, but there's just not really anyone doing anything fantasy based art course wise which is a slight bummer.

Curious for your thoughts! Thanks.

[RamsHornStudios]

This isn't necessarily *fantasy* art focused but there are a bunch of good art fundamentals lessons on this site:

https://www.ctrlpaint.com/

[FantasyCargoPantz]

I am not sure about the coding specifics,
If your only goal is to showcase your art, then an instagram or facebook is perfectly acceptable for beginners. Personally, if you want to be business minded, I think art station is the next bigger thing, or possibly consider and a LinkedIn page.

But when it comes to creating art I have some suggestions.

Learn from other artists-
Find art that you like, make a folder or personal gallery on DeviantArt(I'm old) or Art station of fantasy art that you like. Then ask yourself these questions,
- What do all these pieces have in common? (Do you like their style, color choices, subject matter etc.)
- Is this something I want to also create? (This might seem like a funny question, but for some pieces you might surprised) Example- I love paintings and painterly styles, but I am not a painter and don't speak color very well[imo]. Lines and hashmarks come much easier to me.
- Get technical (over time this gets easier, but try to look at the pieces you selected[and want to emulate] with a construction point of view.[an artists eye] try to take apart each element and come up with a reason it was chosen.[Why place blue here? This figure in this pose has what effect?] )

Your preferred style might be different, but the basic steps these three artists take are excellently explained.
Trent Kaniuga- A seasoned veteran of the video game concept art industry with online courses and even more how-to YouTube videos. He focuses on concept art, BUT he always has fantastic real art job tidbits.
James Gurney- The mastermind behind Dinotopia. He also actually ahs a YouTube, but his personal site is filled with years worth of instructional material and the reason why I suggest him ->How create a believable suspension of disbelief. How to use real life to inspire fictional worlds, thats the job of an artist, especially a fantasy artist.
Sinix Design- YouTube veteran. Great tutorials on how to draw parts of the figure, since you asked. There are lots of great art Youtubers. But this guy knows the classic knowledge and will go over the structure and concepts not just the motions.
Anatomy Quick Tips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVbqoy_ ... uqeqvlV0Qd

*Keep in mind that as you look around for artists to admire, none of them are going to have everything you want, in the way you want. This is the reason why the world needs you to be an artist. What you bring to the table with your world lense will be unique, maybe similar - likely similar, but nothing just the same.


Replicate-
This is part of the looking at the work with an artists eye.
You can go so far as printing a cheap b+w version of the work and tracing it. or you can create your own sketches of the work. OR you can even do what we call 'master copies' This is recreating the work you are studying from sketch to final. Some people approach this as if they were a forger, copying not only the image but the process of the artist. Making strokes how they did inck for inch. Others only replicate the image and the style, but the process they use is there own. There are things to be learned from any which way you choose to do this.
*OBVIOUSLY the way to do this is NOT to claim credit for other peoples work. These master studies are only for the eyes of the student, not for portfolios or markets. If you want to share them on social media, make sure to say you studying someone elses work and give them credit, the older the piece the safer.


Practice-
The most crucial but basic advise. Do-it-in-your-style type challenges are great if you just want to focus on how you draw, not what you draw. Nothing can replace this step, only assist.


Hope this was helpful. Sorry for regurgitating and best of luck.