I misspoke- this will actually be my 11th year participating in artfight... which means i've participated for HALF OF MY LIFE!!!! WHAT??? (also sorry for the weird audio in the video) edit 6/15: any fellow seafoam enjoyers 👀?
Waaaaiit but for artfight you have to be atleast 12 years old I think- And if you participated half of your life, this would mean you started when you were 11 :o Or I’m just dumb and can’t calculate lol
My biggest regret with my first few artfight experiences was feeling obligated to revenge. if someone didn't have any designs that interested me, but attacked me, i'd dread drawing the revenge and then all of my artfight activity would grind to a halt. i got way more out of artfight once i gave myself permission to not revenge if i didn't want to. and that's not to say i don't revenge- a lot of the time, i do! i just don't *all* of the time. maybe a hot take but it was really helpful
yess this was something i had to figure out too, if someone didn’t have any characters that fit my style i would get stressed out feeling like i owed something i wasn’t capable of. it’s definitely important to just do whatever will make the event fun for *you*!!
Yes! This year will be my 3rd artfight and I’ve had some that stressed me out trying to revenge back. It made the end of artfight less fun. But I do think in moderation it’s good for stepping out of my comfort zone and trying new things
omg I feel you! I still "owe" some ppl from last year that I kept pushing to the end because their characters didnt tickle my art brain. I still feel obligated to revenge them, but I know if I´ll force myself to do those I wont do anything else this year
The stress of feeling like I HAVE to revenge and I HAVE to put all of my planned attacks on hold to do the revenge first really made my artfight motivation grind to a halt every year so I finally put up a disclaimer that I don't do revenge and also don't expect revenge. I'm just here to attack because that's what makes artfight fun for me!! My ocs are up in case anyone is so inclined but I go in expecting absolutely nothing and it makes it feel even more special when someone decides to draw for me anyway :)
this is so fair!! I think cool we have a lot of freedom with our bios but fr it can be hard to read sometimes lol, I use light mode and bc so many people use white coloured text it can be very useful to simply highlight the text (and copy/paste if necessary) in order to read it better :D
Everybody is talking about white text in light mode but the inverse is also true, don't make your text black! it's not *invisible* like light mode is, but it is still hard to read in dark mode.
tip number 6 (giving thanks) is actually huge! one of my favorite drawings I did for artfight was one where the recipient didn't say anything and it was a sure-fire way to make sure I don't do anything else for them in the future. maybe a bit petty, but I can't even tell if they saw it, let alone liked it, so I don't want to waste my time drawing for someone who won't see it. no matter how good you think someone else's art is or how much effort they put in, they did it for you, the least you can do is show them you saw it
yeah, i spent a long time on a running animation GIF of this one person's character, and they didn't so much as comment on it D: i don't regret attacking them, but i won't be doing it again. part of why i love art fight is reading how happy my drawings make the people i draw them for! but when no one replies, it feels like i'm just shooting my kindness into a void... at that point, i don't even know if i've affected anyone
@@varena04something similar happened to me last year! I made an animated gif for my 100th attack and the person didn't even comment 😔🤙 to be fair they said they wouldn't be revenging art of that character (bc it seemed a lot of people were drawing it) but I was hoping for a "thanks" at the very least xD
@@guacamaca64 ahhh dang that's gotta be a bummer!! yeah, a "thanks" never hurt anyone!! i don't really understand why people join art fight if not to interact with people, but oh well. i've learned now to investigate how a person responds to defenses before i attack them :P i'm varena04 on art fight btw, i'd love to follow you!
Another tip for the bio, use bullet points! It makes it easy to get your character's personality across in a simple phrases. It's also helpful to add height, or at least generally if theyre short/tall, because sometimes its hard to tell. Good luck in Artfight everyone!
this! i always include a section "design notes" with details that are easy to miss or can be misinterpreted! i find its very nice to have and can save artists a lot of time carefully scanning the reference from tip to toe ^^
Some things to note: - Do refs as soon as you can before art fight since the site can slow down and sometimes even not load (a lot of people be attacking) - although their site has been improving over the years so who knows - Bookmark any characters you want to attack and download their refs as early as you can, once again website can slow down completely - Basically do everything early (except drawing attacks ofc) before art fight begins - Also for refs it's okay to not use your own art as long as you give credit!
I tbh kind of prefer longer character bios😭 I totally understand that not everyone may have the time to read each characters bio- but one of my most favorite parts of Artfight is learning about other people’s OCs and the worlds they’re from! It’s just really cool and interesting to me- and where I get most of my inspo form! I’ve found that I have a really hard time coming up with attack ideas when the character has minimal or no bio information, just because I don’t feel like I have anything to work with? The fun for me comes from getting to know the character and then figuring out something interesting to draw them doing! It’s also fun because lots of artists put lots of work into more than just the character design itself, and it’s always so lovely to see them react with so much joy or appreciation when they see how I incorporate their characters personalities and stories into the actual attack! Ofc, not everyone needs to do this! Just wanted to add this since everyone has their own way of enjoying Artfight! :D (My Artfight username is SpaceGhost if anyone is interested! B)
yes, i totally get this! lore-inspired art is definitely the most flattering thing to receive as a writer+artist, but personally i wouldn’t want anyone to feel obligated to read it, so that’s why i recommended using an external link ^^ also probably because i struggle to read(despite being a writer myself…)
@@rivli that’s fair! I’ve been trying to figure out how to add a drop down tab like I’ve seen other people do (I think? Unless I’m just crazy😭), just so people don’t have to go looking through my characters toyhouse to find more information (their accounts are jam packed with all sorts of info and doodles and old references, so i prefer to keep all the most important stuff on their Artfight accounts😔) But it’s helpful to hear what other people think- so I can keep my account neat and accessible ^^ so thanks for that! :0 /gen
I second this! I've barely participated in artfight (I participated Once and 100% burned out before the event even started) but in artfight and outside of it, I always struggle more to draw other people's characters when there's extremely short bios or no bio at all. this is very much reflected in my bookmarks too. Personally, I'm probably gonna run with having a short bio up top that is important to read and then a long version that is v much optional below it (and labeling them accordingly/making this clear in my character rules)
me too!!!! i like to put character lore on their profile if i can, but clearly label different sections so that people can just skim the personality section and scroll past the background stuff if they want to :P
I’ve decided to simply do both! (Works well for me too, since I don’t have a good, clean place to direct people for my OC lore anyways). On top, I have the most important, compact information, and then below it I let myself ramble. I still try not to be too overwhelming, but I like to give people something to work with to start generating ideas. For those that are into that sort of thing, it’ll just be so much more fun for everyone involved I think! And for those who aren’t, the top part should suffice
Don't feel like you have to do full body or fully colored/rendered art pieces! obviously these things are worth more points, but if you're like me and a lot of the fun comes from the chance to draw a lot of different characters, feel free to do sketch submissions, or submit head shots. I've been practicing a lot more on poses and anatomy, but there are definitely days where it feels like my brain completely forgets how to draw bodies, or my hands get too shaky to make smooth lineart
YEAH THIS I used to do all head/bust shots/full body and fully rendered pieces but I decided to ease myself a little this year and have some of my attacks be unshaded
This popped up in my recommended and I was like “Artfight? That doesn’t feel very relevant, Artfight isn’t even- IT’S IN TWO WEEKS WHAT O-o .“ Somehow af manages to sneak up on me every year and I only remember it when someone posts something like this
definitely made the grave mistake of having to make character sheets right b4 artfight.. (thought it started in june and wanted to wait till next year since i wasnt ready. then learned like three days ago that it started in july) but!!! very fun watching all these tip videos to prepare for my first artfight
Not my idea, but you can put extra lore/design notes behind a spoiler, so people can expand it if they want to read more, but won’t get intimidated. Best of both worlds!
Ty for this! I just finished updating all my characters’ written profiles yesterday to have the basic information at the top and then lots of inspiration stuff for people who want it below (hobbies, character interactions, symbolism ideas, etc), and I was worrying about it looking intimidating even though the basic info is only one paragraph, a theme song, and things like race and height. I’m absolutely going back and putting the inspirations lists in a spoiler when I have the time. The best of both worlds ✨
@@Tora-mw1nb Hopefully I’m not too late but if you’d like to put text behind a spoiler, you just have to put: [spoiler] at the front of the text and [/spoiler] after it! And it also works even if you don't turn on the 'view source'/BBcode view^^ *Ex.: [spoiler]Text here[/spoiler]* Hope this helped! (P.S.: If you have styled text like colours, fonts, etc, and you’d like your spoiler to also have the style, then you could just style it like it is just normal texts and it could work :) !)
Tip 8 is good for people who AREN'T like me who are extremely uncreative ESPECIALLY when it comes to writing, some of my character bios are just like "they exist lmao" Good video btw, some of these tips were kinda helpful :3
Eighth year on the side myself, and I honestly absolutely agree with the last one. As much as you want to revenge every attack you get or have an insanely high attack ratio, you have to go off of motivation to truly have fun during Art Fight. If you're not feeling drawing a certain character type, that's okay! This isn't a commission and there's no obligation to.
I practice aikido, and before we start class we do multiple different wrist stretch that have kept my hands... nimble? Y'all should totally look up "aikido wrist stretches" on youtube cause I think they work really well ;P
I did almost 50 attacks last year, would’ve passed 50 if not for Comic Con, and I can’t wait to do it again. Normally, I barely have any motivation to draw, but during ArtFight, my life revolves around drawing. I already have almost 90 targets, some of which I’ve already drawn mentally, and there are still two weeks to go. I think my main motivation is getting to make art for others. I enjoy that far more than making art for myself.
I'm sooo excited for this year, I've got eye strain issues but always forced myself to draw digitally bc I didn't think people would want traditional art (easier on the eyes) which means I could barely manage 5 attacks all month. Then this year I remembered "literally who cares it's free art of your blorbo" and now I'm hyped!!!! I can't wait :D Ty for the tips, the last one is such a big agree. I love getting to draw all sorts of ocs I can't wait to hunt down some cool designs :D
i love receiving traditional art attacks, i dont see them any different from digital ones personally! plus its really cool to know theres physical art of my dude somewhere out there
To add to the tip about not having crazy long bios, think about what info is actually *necessary* for an artist to depict your character. I tend to include info like: -Height -Fashion style, if I'm open to someone designing a diff outfit for them -Relation to other characters I have -Species details, if applicable (for example, maybe the markings on your OC glow when they are casting magic, which is a visual detail that could matter in someone's art of them) -Personality blurb And I really mean BLURB for personality, a few descriptors to get across what they are all about, not their entire backstory. Though I agree with the video that this can be even more effective visually on their ref sheet! Linking toyhouse or some other site where you can learn more about them is a great idea, cause then that's an option for the people that like doing a deep dive like that
TY SM for mentioning that text looks nearly invisible on light mode, I've had my profile on dark mode from the very beginning and it never crossed my mind that my light text would be hard for some people to read! Just edited my whole profile so everything is legible on both modes!
As someone who’s been doing artfight for a while now too (would be doing this for coming up 7 years count me as a veteran lol?) On the “don’t have too much info” part also don’t just put nothing either. That just might make it harder for people to get a grip of your character. Also for refs, if you still wanna draw, do something else other than references! I’ve been taking a break from refs and drawing gifts for my friends birthdays and it’s a breath of fresh air ^^ Edit: ALSO. Don’t feel pressured to make fully rendered pieces all the time! I actually plan on doing some basic colored sketches this year. 1) because I like drawing in that way and 2) so I don’t burn myself out. Have funnnn.
my only tip for artfight that i can think of is to just not worry about making full scale drawings for people. not all drawings have to be big and polished, sometimes it can just be doodles and that still works :) it's easier to burn out if you try to force yourself to make every attack look pretty and polished
great tip vid!! this'll be my 9th year participating and i haven't even reached 100 attacks yet either lmao, it's insane to me how there's people who've been doing it for less yet have drawn hundreds, hope everyone are taking care of their health above all!!
Just remember that no matter your skill set, most people will LOVE the art you make for them, and some people will LOVE the characters that you make! Take it as slow as you want it to be, there's always next year to participate if you don't this year!
A good tip especially if you have ADHD or struggle with focus, is to switch between attacks in the middle of drawing. Work on 1 drawing, and when you start to lose focus, switch to another. Then repeat. I tried this last year, and I ended up drawing way more attacks, and went longer without getting tired of ArtFight!
Honestly one of the better tips videos I've seen!! This is my 9th year, so I definitely get where the burnout can happen! I think my no.1 tip myself is to **never set a goal for how many pieces you want to make.** It's easily been my biggest mistake, took the fun out of artfight for almost 3yrs for me, and is one I'm still struggling to move away from! Draw as much as you've got energy for, and delight in what you made!
A lot of these are tips that should have been so obvious to me but weren't! I've done artfight for a few years but always beat myself up for not drawing as much as other people do and for getting so exhausted/stressed out by it and not drawing "good enough" attacks...this video helped a LOT and I'm really looking forward to it this year!
This is my 5th year and I have been on the losing team every single time. Truly terrible luck on my part!! But I am still in love with art fight and these tips totally fit with how I've adapted in my first few years :'D
this is gonna be my 3rd year of artfight and i cannot explain how unmotivated ive seen it make artists when there is no simple "thanks" on artworks wwww even if you don't like the art, letting the artist know you've seen it by an emoji or something is better than nothing!!!
This is the first time I’m joining artfight and this video honestly made me a bit less intimidated. It kinda makes me feel silly because I keep forgetting to just have fun and do art for myself! :D Very nice and silly (in a positive way) video :]
I love your sona/mascot for this video !!! Super cute sprites. These are some good tips, too! This will only be my 3rd year (4th if i didnt forget for 2021) so its nice to get tips from someone who has been here much longer than i have !
My art fight plan was to 1)Make detailed reference sheets for my OCS 2)Then start attacking people But it took me 8 days to realize I don’t wanna fucking draw reference sheets I just wanna draw so I gave up on uploading my characters and will just do attacks for now :D cause I enjoy it
I discovered this video very late, but doing artfight for YOU is so so right. I draw a lot of stuff I usually wouldn't. well, i draw a huge variety of species anyway, however many designs are still different from my usual work in terms of themes and styles. And artfight is so good to push yourself even more. I have that "i improve with every art piece" feeling again that i had lost a bit recently. Its a good event, if you make it fun for you.
i wont be participating in artfight for another couple of years because of school, but ill keep all of this in mind because i do want to eventually participate in AF. thank you for making this for everyone who needs it :3!
REAL SAME😭😭 They just. Literally consume my brain 24/7😭 it is SO HARD not to write too long about them istg (I have literally rewrote all of their bios at LEAST three times before giving up and settling for something semi-short) In full honesty my favorite characters are the ones with the long complicated lore and relationships I can read all about because then I get invested💖 (when I work best)
As a fellow art fight veteran (im on my 9th year this year) i agree about leaving up old art in your attacks! I actually really enjoy it as a museum of my improvement because i feel like its a good summary of my improvements over the years.
I agree with all of your advice. I first joined Art Fight in 2022 purely on a whim. I think it was in the middle of July and some other artists I was following online were posting their attacks. I thought suddenly "that looks like fun" so I joined Team Whither and had a lot of fun finding interesting looking characters to draw. Since then I've been doing it every year. I always look forward to doing Art Fight and this year is no different! The main reason why I enjoy Art Fight so much is because I love drawing other people's original characters when I love their design, and with Art Fight, there is such a huge variety of cool looking characters and I can choose from a very big selection which ones I feel like drawing. Getting praise and free art from other people are merely bonuses. I also don't really force myself to make too much art like so many other people do because that would likely make me feel very burned out. I make it clear on my profile as well that I don't always do revenge attacks so if someone attacks me and I don't feel like drawing any of their characters I don't have to feel obligated to do so. Like you said the event is all about having fun and there is nothing fun in my opinion about forcing yourself to draw art of a character when you don't want to. Plus I personally prefer to take the extra time to post attacks that look extra polished. I usually average around six attacks throughout the whole month. That's all just me though. I know there are people who like posting heaps of hastily drawn attacks and thats fine as well. It depends on the person. And I'm on Team Seafoam!
im extremely nervous to join artfight because ive always been almost shy-like with showing my art off or giving people art in fear ill embarrass myself (and also because i literally learned what artfight was only 3 days ago so... yeah im very new to this) so im thinking about studying this years art fight and joining in next year!
you can even make an account and join a team but not make any attacks if you’re not feeling up to it. it can definitely be intimidating, but once you get started i think you’ll see that everyone is very kind and supportive. artfight has a great environment!
There’s really no need to be nervous! I’m one of the people who will hide their sketchbook if anyone so much as walks by while I’m drawing, so I was nervous about ArtFight too. The ArtFight community is so sweet and supportive overall, and artists of all skill levels are celebrated. Because of that acceptance, I’ve been way more comfortable with sharing my art in general. Tell you what, if you decide to make an account and upload one of your characters, lmk your username and I’ll put you on my attack list. Even if you don’t end up participating this year, it’ll be easier to get into the swing of things if you have at least something on your page, yanno? Plus, you can always observe for a couple weeks and then participate, late entries are always welcome :P
Additional tip - in bios PLEASE include things that your character likes/activities they do. It makes it so much easier for the people drawing your character to think of compisitions for the art.
yeah!!! i found that doing a collage of my character's arts for the reference is much better than mkaing a sheet from scratch. It saves time and is a better showcase to who the caracter really is like!!
SOOOBBBB I LAUGHED SO HARD SEEING THIS PART 3:54 ALSO AMAZING VIDEO OMG all the tips are so crucial when it comes to art fight!!! keep up the amazing content
I've been participating in art fight for 8 years and i guess i have a couple of tips😅 1. save a few references before the fight. artfight can have insane traffic at the start that causes the site to crash for a few days, so having a few downloaded refs mean you can still draw the characters. 2. learn from my mistake! if someone begs for art !!do not draw for them!! even if they promise to revenge you, i guarantee they wont.
These tips are PERFECT! I actually completely redid my front page and removed all my old OCs because I wanted a fresh start and I wanted to keep thing a lot easier for me and any attackers/revengers! I currently have 2, possibly 3, with the planned max around 5 OCs total that will be up on my page! I have 3 OCs I'm making as I've always wanted them to get done and having expanded on my art a bit I can finally do that! Though with some I'm using a base to make things easier and faster. I also have some preset bios downloaded and ready for my OCs as well so all I gotta do is copy and paste! I'm super excited for this year! I am going in partially hoping to make people happy but I just really wanna have fun and evolve my art further as the years pass! I haven't been this passionate about art in a long time so Im riding this high while I still got it! Good luck friends, and TEAM STARDUST WILL MAKE YOU EAT OUR DUST RAAAAAAAAAAAH! Lol but seriously though have fun everyone and maybe I'll see you there!
This was actually very helpful! I've participated in artifght for a few years, but I have never considered a lot of the points in these videos. Thank you!
this video is really helpful!!!! i'm participating in artfight for the first time this year and i completely forgot abt the possibility of me getting burnt out over making ref sheets before the actual event starts!!!
Im glad im going at this with the right approach. I just wanna try drawing lots of different types of characters and participate in the art community online more. Ive done art my whole life and never spoke with the online art community until this year. Ive already met new people because of this event and its all so exciting to me!
This is actually the best art fight advice video I've seen, Thank you so much! Before watching I found art fight a lot more daunting, because all the advice videos were 20 minutes long and talked about having to get every single art category thing right first try and having exact references and in depth descriptions for each character, but this has really showed me how simple it can be, and how the main purpose is having fun. Now I just have to pick seafoam or stardust :)
I’ve been doing Art Fight for the past 7 years, with this year bringing my 8th. I’ve been a little low key for most of the year so far when it comes to my art (mostly recovering from the mental weight of doing several month long art challenges for the last two years finally catching up to me), so hopefully I can get that creative jolt back with my return to Art Fight.
It's my second year at Art Fight but practically the first year that I'll be able to participate properly! Your video helped a lot, especially with some points that I was already struggling with in advance (the thing about ref sheets lol) I'm very excited for this year, I can't wait for the start of next month
Great tips! I will say tho I disagree w/the long bios one: obviously there's such a thing as "too much," but the hardest part of art fight for me is just thinking of what to draw characters DOING, and like 99% of bios are just "This is my OC she's nice she's sisters with [character] :)" which tells me nothing & gives me 0 ideas. I DO like the tip of using tropes to explain characters tho - like your "squidward" example, that's a quick way to give a more complete image of a character & I'd probably draw them like....bored at retail or being annoyed by another character. Putting it in ToyHouse w/a link works too. Just please - if you want your character drawn, I have to know ANYTHING actionable about their life!!
THIS Like guys if you don’t start telling me SOMETHING or giving me SOMETHING to work with I’m about to draw ALL your OCs in the EXACT same pose NO LIE😭 Like I am BEGGING these people atp 7c7
Thank you so much for those tips! This will be my second Art Fight and last year I started soo motivated and burned out so quickly xD (which sadly was also portrayed in some of the drawings I did...they kept getting worse and worse) Hopefully, this year I wont burn out :)
This is only my third art fight, and I'm super excited!! I started working on my refs and stuff the other day ^^. I appreciate the perms and background info tips ^^
this is my 8th year and I'm stoked to find someone who's played longer than me :) we also choose the same team a lot of the time (including this time!) I'll be on team seafoam this year - lets goooooo!
Thank you so much for the tips!! This is my first artfight, im really excited!! (Also I love the stretches you showed for the wrists, that will DEFINITELY come in handy!!)
Yeah god I've seen some really really long bios that completely overwhelmed me. Like I'm talking pages upon pages if it was a google doc with things like their entire zodiac layout, huge personality chart and a chart with their feelings on every single one of their other characters. I've tried to find the desire to attack them 2 years in a row now and just can't cause the bio is SO LONG. My bios are set up in an "info sandwich" very top is vitally important info like Height, age, pronouns, etc. Then a few short paragraphs of lore, finishing off with short bullet points of important design notes. So as someone's scanning the page they can get the important bits just at the very top under the art, and the very bottom right above character perms.
This is my second art fight! Tbh I do it because all I draw is my boyfriend, myself and my 2 OCs. I like to draw some cool lookin OCs and last year I saw my art improve so much just over that month. Artfights awesome 10/10
10/10 tips I love your approach to artfight and motivation in general! Really appreciate the vid Inspired me to actually crack down on my character sheets I’ve been putting off 😅
This is going to be my first ArtFight so thank you for the tips! I love to create art especially when i get their reactions of it so supporting is a really important thing to show the artist that you appreciate them!
I did 22 attacks last year (my first year) and boi... It was tough. One of the attacks had SIX fullbodies + a background. This year, I wanted to do more (it's still going, but it's 14th day and I'm on my first attack, since my first dog died on the third day, so I've been pretty down in the dumps) BUT I love art fight SM it's so much fun!!
Thank you!! :D I feel way more prepared for artfight now that my expectations are set accordingly. I've wanted to participate for the last three years but it always seemed way too overwhelming a concept. This year I'll try to participate, even if I only draw one thing :]
second year here !!! I SECOND HAND THE PART WHERE YOU DO ARTFIGHT FOR YOU!! Last year I only ended up doing a total of *2 attacks!* this year I honestly have started a bit early hoping to get at least 5 out of my system :D although I've noticed I struggle to draw whenever I open my art program,, artblock in denial also, expect an attack yootooba >:D
i always collect all of the characters i want to draw during artfight in advance, because as soon as july first hits, the site becomes nearly unusable due to how much traffic its getting. so make sure you save all of the information you need to draw an attack beforehand, so when artfight begins you can start drawing right away! also, dont feel like you have to draw all of the characters you chose in advance, i only got halfway through my list last year xD
I love your energy and enthusiasm in this video, I haven't watched you before but I just subbed. We need more positivity in the world!! And i was unsure if doing artfight because I dreaded making ref sheets but I'm relieved that you say I can use old art :) 👍
I'd also add that it's fine to use art from others in your characters reference images with credit, I have a bunch of commissions of my characters, especially from one artist in particular. And while I think my art is fine to get the point, them giving permission to use the commissions of the character in Artfight is fine! And even a good idea!
Because of tip #1, im prolly gonna start my first year by looking for animal OCs. Making my own OC reference pages for the event made me a lil tired of drawing people and the event hasnt even started yet. But not every character out there is a person thankfully so i can take a break from humanoids while still participating ^_^
I think im gonna participate but there is other things i still don't know thank you for explaining, i want to join bc im bored in summer and i need to practice and to enjoy drawing
This is my second year and both last year and this year I’ve done paper sketch attacks only, because I know if I did digital art I would burn out very quickly, and the attacks would begin looking bad within maybe the 8th attack. Paper sketches are generally just a very fun way for me to draw and I enjoy it, so that’s what I do for art fight to keep myself having fun instead of burning out :)
Totally not me trying to make ref sheets for my characters before artfight even begins 😅 I got 3/4 done for this year, and I’m almost done with the fourth The remaining 4 will be worked on after this year’s artfight is over Also, thanks for the tips! I find them really helpful!
this is gonna be my 6th artfight and i have amassed a total of... 4 drawings made NHMGHNGMGNM its just im always so excited for it, and going "this year will be the year i will actively participate" just so that july comes around and its always the busiest month and i cant do anythinh gnmhgnmhg
I misspoke- this will actually be my 11th year participating in artfight... which means i've participated for HALF OF MY LIFE!!!! WHAT??? (also sorry for the weird audio in the video)
edit 6/15: any fellow seafoam enjoyers 👀?
SEAFOAM SWEEP!!!
Let's go seafoam!!
LEZ GO SEAFOAM WOOOOOO :DDD
I am a fellow seafoam enjoyer yes :)
Waaaaiit but for artfight you have to be atleast 12 years old I think- And if you participated half of your life, this would mean you started when you were 11 :o Or I’m just dumb and can’t calculate lol
as someone who did 51 attacks last year,… don’t do 51 attacks in one year
And I thought my 25 attacks last year were hard.. 😭
I will try to do 30+ attacks, cuz im drawing daily, so i can ATLEAST do 1 attack and defence per day!
Good lord how
I did 64 my first year and it was super fun. Definitely only do that many if you have tons of time on your hands.
My toxic trait is thinking I can do 100 so I'm gonna get back to you by the end of july😭
My biggest regret with my first few artfight experiences was feeling obligated to revenge. if someone didn't have any designs that interested me, but attacked me, i'd dread drawing the revenge and then all of my artfight activity would grind to a halt. i got way more out of artfight once i gave myself permission to not revenge if i didn't want to. and that's not to say i don't revenge- a lot of the time, i do! i just don't *all* of the time. maybe a hot take but it was really helpful
yess this was something i had to figure out too, if someone didn’t have any characters that fit my style i would get stressed out feeling like i owed something i wasn’t capable of. it’s definitely important to just do whatever will make the event fun for *you*!!
Yes! This year will be my 3rd artfight and I’ve had some that stressed me out trying to revenge back. It made the end of artfight less fun. But I do think in moderation it’s good for stepping out of my comfort zone and trying new things
omg I feel you! I still "owe" some ppl from last year that I kept pushing to the end because their characters didnt tickle my art brain. I still feel obligated to revenge them, but I know if I´ll force myself to do those I wont do anything else this year
The stress of feeling like I HAVE to revenge and I HAVE to put all of my planned attacks on hold to do the revenge first really made my artfight motivation grind to a halt every year so I finally put up a disclaimer that I don't do revenge and also don't expect revenge. I'm just here to attack because that's what makes artfight fun for me!! My ocs are up in case anyone is so inclined but I go in expecting absolutely nothing and it makes it feel even more special when someone decides to draw for me anyway :)
@@a.a659 thats actually pretty smart ✨
I set the rule for me this year to only do revenges when I would have attacked the character on its own too
Extra thing!- make your bios legible!! Too many times ive seen accounts with hard to read text colours 😢
Yes, especially if you use dark fight, switch to light fight to check that your whole account isn't invisible white.
YES! if your on dark mode ypu dont need to change the text color to white! Just leave it and it will update right.
Its a huge pet peeve of mine.
dude i’ve seen so many character descriptions and stuff that are just written completely in white text😭😭 some of us use light mode!!!!
this is so fair!! I think cool we have a lot of freedom with our bios but fr it can be hard to read sometimes lol, I use light mode and bc so many people use white coloured text it can be very useful to simply highlight the text (and copy/paste if necessary) in order to read it better :D
Everybody is talking about white text in light mode but the inverse is also true, don't make your text black! it's not *invisible* like light mode is, but it is still hard to read in dark mode.
tip number 6 (giving thanks) is actually huge!
one of my favorite drawings I did for artfight was one where the recipient didn't say anything and it was a sure-fire way to make sure I don't do anything else for them in the future. maybe a bit petty, but I can't even tell if they saw it, let alone liked it, so I don't want to waste my time drawing for someone who won't see it.
no matter how good you think someone else's art is or how much effort they put in, they did it for you, the least you can do is show them you saw it
For real!
yeah, i spent a long time on a running animation GIF of this one person's character, and they didn't so much as comment on it D:
i don't regret attacking them, but i won't be doing it again. part of why i love art fight is reading how happy my drawings make the people i draw them for! but when no one replies, it feels like i'm just shooting my kindness into a void... at that point, i don't even know if i've affected anyone
@@varena04something similar happened to me last year! I made an animated gif for my 100th attack and the person didn't even comment 😔🤙 to be fair they said they wouldn't be revenging art of that character (bc it seemed a lot of people were drawing it) but I was hoping for a "thanks" at the very least xD
@@guacamaca64 ahhh dang that's gotta be a bummer!! yeah, a "thanks" never hurt anyone!! i don't really understand why people join art fight if not to interact with people, but oh well. i've learned now to investigate how a person responds to defenses before i attack them :P
i'm varena04 on art fight btw, i'd love to follow you!
@@varena04 yep, now I check battle ratios and comments more often before bookmarking XD
and my user's guacamaca, I'll drop u a follow! :D
Another tip for the bio, use bullet points! It makes it easy to get your character's personality across in a simple phrases. It's also helpful to add height, or at least generally if theyre short/tall, because sometimes its hard to tell. Good luck in Artfight everyone!
this! i always include a section "design notes" with details that are easy to miss or can be misinterpreted! i find its very nice to have and can save artists a lot of time carefully scanning the reference from tip to toe ^^
Some things to note:
- Do refs as soon as you can before art fight since the site can slow down and sometimes even not load (a lot of people be attacking) - although their site has been improving over the years so who knows
- Bookmark any characters you want to attack and download their refs as early as you can, once again website can slow down completely
- Basically do everything early (except drawing attacks ofc) before art fight begins
- Also for refs it's okay to not use your own art as long as you give credit!
thank you for that last note i was getting so nervous about it for 0 reason 😭 i honestly just needed to hear someone say that
I tbh kind of prefer longer character bios😭
I totally understand that not everyone may have the time to read each characters bio- but one of my most favorite parts of Artfight is learning about other people’s OCs and the worlds they’re from! It’s just really cool and interesting to me- and where I get most of my inspo form! I’ve found that I have a really hard time coming up with attack ideas when the character has minimal or no bio information, just because I don’t feel like I have anything to work with? The fun for me comes from getting to know the character and then figuring out something interesting to draw them doing!
It’s also fun because lots of artists put lots of work into more than just the character design itself, and it’s always so lovely to see them react with so much joy or appreciation when they see how I incorporate their characters personalities and stories into the actual attack!
Ofc, not everyone needs to do this! Just wanted to add this since everyone has their own way of enjoying Artfight! :D
(My Artfight username is SpaceGhost if anyone is interested! B)
yes, i totally get this! lore-inspired art is definitely the most flattering thing to receive as a writer+artist, but personally i wouldn’t want anyone to feel obligated to read it, so that’s why i recommended using an external link ^^ also probably because i struggle to read(despite being a writer myself…)
@@rivli that’s fair!
I’ve been trying to figure out how to add a drop down tab like I’ve seen other people do (I think? Unless I’m just crazy😭), just so people don’t have to go looking through my characters toyhouse to find more information (their accounts are jam packed with all sorts of info and doodles and old references, so i prefer to keep all the most important stuff on their Artfight accounts😔)
But it’s helpful to hear what other people think- so I can keep my account neat and accessible ^^ so thanks for that! :0 /gen
I second this! I've barely participated in artfight (I participated Once and 100% burned out before the event even started) but in artfight and outside of it, I always struggle more to draw other people's characters when there's extremely short bios or no bio at all. this is very much reflected in my bookmarks too.
Personally, I'm probably gonna run with having a short bio up top that is important to read and then a long version that is v much optional below it (and labeling them accordingly/making this clear in my character rules)
me too!!!! i like to put character lore on their profile if i can, but clearly label different sections so that people can just skim the personality section and scroll past the background stuff if they want to :P
I’ve decided to simply do both! (Works well for me too, since I don’t have a good, clean place to direct people for my OC lore anyways). On top, I have the most important, compact information, and then below it I let myself ramble. I still try not to be too overwhelming, but I like to give people something to work with to start generating ideas. For those that are into that sort of thing, it’ll just be so much more fun for everyone involved I think! And for those who aren’t, the top part should suffice
Don't feel like you have to do full body or fully colored/rendered art pieces! obviously these things are worth more points, but if you're like me and a lot of the fun comes from the chance to draw a lot of different characters, feel free to do sketch submissions, or submit head shots. I've been practicing a lot more on poses and anatomy, but there are definitely days where it feels like my brain completely forgets how to draw bodies, or my hands get too shaky to make smooth lineart
(Not to be a creeper, but it’s pleasantly surprising to see a comment from you here and not on tiktok lol)
thats a _great_ tip, thanks!!
YEAH THIS
I used to do all head/bust shots/full body and fully rendered pieces but I decided to ease myself a little this year and have some of my attacks be unshaded
This popped up in my recommended and I was like “Artfight? That doesn’t feel very relevant, Artfight isn’t even- IT’S IN TWO WEEKS WHAT O-o .“ Somehow af manages to sneak up on me every year and I only remember it when someone posts something like this
HAHA this is so me. i swear we've still got like, three months at least!
Oh god oh god I've been meaning to sign up again because my old account is lost to the ages, wdym I completely forgot about it AGAIN?? 😭
I never even heard of art fight but it's a cool concept! Should I do it?
definitely made the grave mistake of having to make character sheets right b4 artfight.. (thought it started in june and wanted to wait till next year since i wasnt ready. then learned like three days ago that it started in july)
but!!! very fun watching all these tip videos to prepare for my first artfight
after several years of "hmm maybe i should do artfight this year" im finally doing it,, tysm these tips are so gonna come in handy
Not my idea, but you can put extra lore/design notes behind a spoiler, so people can expand it if they want to read more, but won’t get intimidated. Best of both worlds!
Ty for this! I just finished updating all my characters’ written profiles yesterday to have the basic information at the top and then lots of inspiration stuff for people who want it below (hobbies, character interactions, symbolism ideas, etc), and I was worrying about it looking intimidating even though the basic info is only one paragraph, a theme song, and things like race and height. I’m absolutely going back and putting the inspirations lists in a spoiler when I have the time. The best of both worlds ✨
@@mysty_nyx Glad I could help! Enjoy your artfight!
OMG YES IVE BEEN TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO DO THIS PLEASE LMK IF YOU KNOW HOW😭
(As someone who writes a LOT about my OCs😔)
thats a really interesting idea!
@@Tora-mw1nb Hopefully I’m not too late but if you’d like to put text behind a spoiler, you just have to put: [spoiler] at the front of the text and [/spoiler] after it! And it also works even if you don't turn on the 'view source'/BBcode view^^
*Ex.: [spoiler]Text here[/spoiler]*
Hope this helped!
(P.S.: If you have styled text like colours, fonts, etc, and you’d like your spoiler to also have the style, then you could just style it like it is just normal texts and it could work :) !)
Tip 8 is good for people who AREN'T like me who are extremely uncreative ESPECIALLY when it comes to writing, some of my character bios are just like "they exist lmao"
Good video btw, some of these tips were kinda helpful :3
Eighth year on the side myself, and I honestly absolutely agree with the last one. As much as you want to revenge every attack you get or have an insanely high attack ratio, you have to go off of motivation to truly have fun during Art Fight. If you're not feeling drawing a certain character type, that's okay! This isn't a commission and there's no obligation to.
Wonderful tips!! The stretching of hands and taking brakes are so underated but so necessary! I should make an actual tip video one day. ;v;
Heheheheeeee... hi muffuuu
right? i get wrist pain even when drawing less than 10 attacks, so i always worry for the people who do 100+ every year!
I practice aikido, and before we start class we do multiple different wrist stretch that have kept my hands... nimble? Y'all should totally look up "aikido wrist stretches" on youtube cause I think they work really well ;P
I did almost 50 attacks last year, would’ve passed 50 if not for Comic Con, and I can’t wait to do it again. Normally, I barely have any motivation to draw, but during ArtFight, my life revolves around drawing. I already have almost 90 targets, some of which I’ve already drawn mentally, and there are still two weeks to go. I think my main motivation is getting to make art for others. I enjoy that far more than making art for myself.
I'm sooo excited for this year, I've got eye strain issues but always forced myself to draw digitally bc I didn't think people would want traditional art (easier on the eyes) which means I could barely manage 5 attacks all month.
Then this year I remembered "literally who cares it's free art of your blorbo" and now I'm hyped!!!! I can't wait :D
Ty for the tips, the last one is such a big agree. I love getting to draw all sorts of ocs I can't wait to hunt down some cool designs :D
i love receiving traditional art attacks, i dont see them any different from digital ones personally! plus its really cool to know theres physical art of my dude somewhere out there
Me (drummer + pianist + artist) hearing the wrist stretching thing was so real and i need to stretch more. The carpal tunnel is REAL.
To add to the tip about not having crazy long bios, think about what info is actually *necessary* for an artist to depict your character. I tend to include info like:
-Height
-Fashion style, if I'm open to someone designing a diff outfit for them
-Relation to other characters I have
-Species details, if applicable (for example, maybe the markings on your OC glow when they are casting magic, which is a visual detail that could matter in someone's art of them)
-Personality blurb
And I really mean BLURB for personality, a few descriptors to get across what they are all about, not their entire backstory. Though I agree with the video that this can be even more effective visually on their ref sheet!
Linking toyhouse or some other site where you can learn more about them is a great idea, cause then that's an option for the people that like doing a deep dive like that
TY SM for mentioning that text looks nearly invisible on light mode, I've had my profile on dark mode from the very beginning and it never crossed my mind that my light text would be hard for some people to read! Just edited my whole profile so everything is legible on both modes!
As someone who’s been doing artfight for a while now too (would be doing this for coming up 7 years count me as a veteran lol?)
On the “don’t have too much info” part also don’t just put nothing either. That just might make it harder for people to get a grip of your character.
Also for refs, if you still wanna draw, do something else other than references! I’ve been taking a break from refs and drawing gifts for my friends birthdays and it’s a breath of fresh air ^^
Edit: ALSO. Don’t feel pressured to make fully rendered pieces all the time! I actually plan on doing some basic colored sketches this year. 1) because I like drawing in that way and 2) so I don’t burn myself out. Have funnnn.
my only tip for artfight that i can think of is to just not worry about making full scale drawings for people. not all drawings have to be big and polished, sometimes it can just be doodles and that still works :) it's easier to burn out if you try to force yourself to make every attack look pretty and polished
great tip vid!! this'll be my 9th year participating and i haven't even reached 100 attacks yet either lmao, it's insane to me how there's people who've been doing it for less yet have drawn hundreds, hope everyone are taking care of their health above all!!
I saw someone last year who did 300 in that month alone! I have no clue how they managed that
@@stitchgor3i saw a video of 596 or something crazy like that i literally cried 😭
@@kaletastesbad HOLY COW?😭
@@stitchgor3I think probably lots of sketches
I've heard of art fight in the past and now I really want to join. Just need to get over my anxiety. 😅
Edit: Also thank for making this vid.
Just remember that no matter your skill set, most people will LOVE the art you make for them, and some people will LOVE the characters that you make!
Take it as slow as you want it to be, there's always next year to participate if you don't this year!
Join us join us!! It's so much fun, nobody will ever get upset over getting art of their beloved characters so don't let any self doubt stop you 💛💛
A good tip especially if you have ADHD or struggle with focus, is to switch between attacks in the middle of drawing. Work on 1 drawing, and when you start to lose focus, switch to another. Then repeat.
I tried this last year, and I ended up drawing way more attacks, and went longer without getting tired of ArtFight!
THANK U FOR THE STRESS OUT WARNINGS BC I KNOW IMMA GO OVERBOARD I NEEDED THIS 😭
Honestly one of the better tips videos I've seen!! This is my 9th year, so I definitely get where the burnout can happen! I think my no.1 tip myself is to **never set a goal for how many pieces you want to make.** It's easily been my biggest mistake, took the fun out of artfight for almost 3yrs for me, and is one I'm still struggling to move away from! Draw as much as you've got energy for, and delight in what you made!
A lot of these are tips that should have been so obvious to me but weren't! I've done artfight for a few years but always beat myself up for not drawing as much as other people do and for getting so exhausted/stressed out by it and not drawing "good enough" attacks...this video helped a LOT and I'm really looking forward to it this year!
This is my 5th year and I have been on the losing team every single time. Truly terrible luck on my part!! But I am still in love with art fight and these tips totally fit with how I've adapted in my first few years :'D
I just learned about art fight a cupple of weeks ago and I am gonna use the event to hopefully get my art to a point where I don’t wanna burn it.
this is gonna be my 3rd year of artfight and i cannot explain how unmotivated ive seen it make artists when there is no simple "thanks" on artworks wwww
even if you don't like the art, letting the artist know you've seen it by an emoji or something is better than nothing!!!
This is the first time I’m joining artfight and this video honestly made me a bit less intimidated. It kinda makes me feel silly because I keep forgetting to just have fun and do art for myself! :D
Very nice and silly (in a positive way) video :]
This is super helpful! Thanks a bunch ^^
Also GO TEAM SEA FOAM!!
NOT MY VIDEO AT THE START OK KISS ME RN
haiii 😚😚😚
I love your sona/mascot for this video !!! Super cute sprites. These are some good tips, too! This will only be my 3rd year (4th if i didnt forget for 2021) so its nice to get tips from someone who has been here much longer than i have !
thank you so much! 3 years is still impressive, here's to many more!! :-D
My art fight plan was to
1)Make detailed reference sheets for my OCS
2)Then start attacking people
But it took me 8 days to realize
I don’t wanna fucking draw reference sheets I just wanna draw so I gave up on uploading my characters and will just do attacks for now :D cause I enjoy it
In my side I draw quick overview of my characters then I start drawing attacks during last week of the event
Oh dear. This video made me realize how close we are to art fight. This is my third year doing it sdffjsdjkf very excited :333
I discovered this video very late, but doing artfight for YOU is so so right. I draw a lot of stuff I usually wouldn't. well, i draw a huge variety of species anyway, however many designs are still different from my usual work in terms of themes and styles. And artfight is so good to push yourself even more. I have that "i improve with every art piece" feeling again that i had lost a bit recently. Its a good event, if you make it fun for you.
i wont be participating in artfight for another couple of years because of school, but ill keep all of this in mind because i do want to eventually participate in AF. thank you for making this for everyone who needs it :3!
i am so guilty of long lore in bios lol :’) i love my guys too much; i wanna yap! you’ve got good tips, also an epic chair design hello?!
REAL SAME😭😭
They just. Literally consume my brain 24/7😭 it is SO HARD not to write too long about them istg (I have literally rewrote all of their bios at LEAST three times before giving up and settling for something semi-short)
In full honesty my favorite characters are the ones with the long complicated lore and relationships I can read all about because then I get invested💖 (when I work best)
As a fellow art fight veteran (im on my 9th year this year) i agree about leaving up old art in your attacks! I actually really enjoy it as a museum of my improvement because i feel like its a good summary of my improvements over the years.
I agree with all of your advice. I first joined Art Fight in 2022 purely on a whim. I think it was in the middle of July and some other artists I was following online were posting their attacks. I thought suddenly "that looks like fun" so I joined Team Whither and had a lot of fun finding interesting looking characters to draw. Since then I've been doing it every year. I always look forward to doing Art Fight and this year is no different! The main reason why I enjoy Art Fight so much is because I love drawing other people's original characters when I love their design, and with Art Fight, there is such a huge variety of cool looking characters and I can choose from a very big selection which ones I feel like drawing. Getting praise and free art from other people are merely bonuses.
I also don't really force myself to make too much art like so many other people do because that would likely make me feel very burned out. I make it clear on my profile as well that I don't always do revenge attacks so if someone attacks me and I don't feel like drawing any of their characters I don't have to feel obligated to do so. Like you said the event is all about having fun and there is nothing fun in my opinion about forcing yourself to draw art of a character when you don't want to. Plus I personally prefer to take the extra time to post attacks that look extra polished. I usually average around six attacks throughout the whole month. That's all just me though. I know there are people who like posting heaps of hastily drawn attacks and thats fine as well. It depends on the person.
And I'm on Team Seafoam!
im extremely nervous to join artfight because ive always been almost shy-like with showing my art off or giving people art in fear ill embarrass myself (and also because i literally learned what artfight was only 3 days ago so... yeah im very new to this) so im thinking about studying this years art fight and joining in next year!
you can even make an account and join a team but not make any attacks if you’re not feeling up to it. it can definitely be intimidating, but once you get started i think you’ll see that everyone is very kind and supportive. artfight has a great environment!
There’s really no need to be nervous! I’m one of the people who will hide their sketchbook if anyone so much as walks by while I’m drawing, so I was nervous about ArtFight too. The ArtFight community is so sweet and supportive overall, and artists of all skill levels are celebrated. Because of that acceptance, I’ve been way more comfortable with sharing my art in general.
Tell you what, if you decide to make an account and upload one of your characters, lmk your username and I’ll put you on my attack list. Even if you don’t end up participating this year, it’ll be easier to get into the swing of things if you have at least something on your page, yanno? Plus, you can always observe for a couple weeks and then participate, late entries are always welcome :P
@@scribblpad i'll update you when i make an account! thanks lots by the way :)
@@scribblpad Ive made an account! Its user is Kiiaup, (just as my yt account), and has one oc named guy. (yes his full name is guy)
@@Kiiaup I'm glad you decided to make an account! I really like your OCs, especially Vibe :D
100 pieces of OC fanart is crazy! that's awesome!
Additional tip - in bios PLEASE include things that your character likes/activities they do. It makes it so much easier for the people drawing your character to think of compisitions for the art.
yeah!!!
i found that doing a collage of my character's arts for the reference is much better than mkaing a sheet from scratch. It saves time and is a better showcase to who the caracter really is like!!
I really needed this thank you! Im a beginner artist and an art fight newbie; can't wait for it to start!
This will be my 2nd year doing art fight, I come to wish everyone who is participating luck and I hope to see you all on the battle field!
thank you so much!! this'll be my 2nd ever artfight, last year i only made one attack so this time i'm hoping to be able to make more than that!! :]
SOOOBBBB I LAUGHED SO HARD SEEING THIS PART 3:54
ALSO AMAZING VIDEO OMG all the tips are so crucial when it comes to art fight!!! keep up the amazing content
I've been participating in art fight for 8 years and i guess i have a couple of tips😅 1. save a few references before the fight. artfight can have insane traffic at the start that causes the site to crash for a few days, so having a few downloaded refs mean you can still draw the characters. 2. learn from my mistake! if someone begs for art !!do not draw for them!! even if they promise to revenge you, i guarantee they wont.
These tips are PERFECT! I actually completely redid my front page and removed all my old OCs because I wanted a fresh start and I wanted to keep thing a lot easier for me and any attackers/revengers! I currently have 2, possibly 3, with the planned max around 5 OCs total that will be up on my page! I have 3 OCs I'm making as I've always wanted them to get done and having expanded on my art a bit I can finally do that! Though with some I'm using a base to make things easier and faster. I also have some preset bios downloaded and ready for my OCs as well so all I gotta do is copy and paste! I'm super excited for this year! I am going in partially hoping to make people happy but I just really wanna have fun and evolve my art further as the years pass! I haven't been this passionate about art in a long time so Im riding this high while I still got it! Good luck friends, and TEAM STARDUST WILL MAKE YOU EAT OUR DUST RAAAAAAAAAAAH! Lol but seriously though have fun everyone and maybe I'll see you there!
This was actually very helpful! I've participated in artifght for a few years, but I have never considered a lot of the points in these videos. Thank you!
this video is really helpful!!!! i'm participating in artfight for the first time this year and i completely forgot abt the possibility of me getting burnt out over making ref sheets before the actual event starts!!!
Im glad im going at this with the right approach. I just wanna try drawing lots of different types of characters and participate in the art community online more. Ive done art my whole life and never spoke with the online art community until this year. Ive already met new people because of this event and its all so exciting to me!
This is actually the best art fight advice video I've seen, Thank you so much! Before watching I found art fight a lot more daunting, because all the advice videos were 20 minutes long and talked about having to get every single art category thing right first try and having exact references and in depth descriptions for each character, but this has really showed me how simple it can be, and how the main purpose is having fun. Now I just have to pick seafoam or stardust :)
I’ve been doing Art Fight for the past 7 years, with this year bringing my 8th. I’ve been a little low key for most of the year so far when it comes to my art (mostly recovering from the mental weight of doing several month long art challenges for the last two years finally catching up to me), so hopefully I can get that creative jolt back with my return to Art Fight.
It's my second year at Art Fight but practically the first year that I'll be able to participate properly! Your video helped a lot, especially with some points that I was already struggling with in advance (the thing about ref sheets lol)
I'm very excited for this year, I can't wait for the start of next month
Great tips! I will say tho I disagree w/the long bios one: obviously there's such a thing as "too much," but the hardest part of art fight for me is just thinking of what to draw characters DOING, and like 99% of bios are just "This is my OC she's nice she's sisters with [character] :)" which tells me nothing & gives me 0 ideas. I DO like the tip of using tropes to explain characters tho - like your "squidward" example, that's a quick way to give a more complete image of a character & I'd probably draw them like....bored at retail or being annoyed by another character. Putting it in ToyHouse w/a link works too. Just please - if you want your character drawn, I have to know ANYTHING actionable about their life!!
THIS
Like guys if you don’t start telling me SOMETHING or giving me SOMETHING to work with I’m about to draw ALL your OCs in the EXACT same pose NO LIE😭
Like I am BEGGING these people atp 7c7
Thank you so much for those tips!
This will be my second Art Fight and last year I started soo motivated and burned out so quickly xD (which sadly was also portrayed in some of the drawings I did...they kept getting worse and worse)
Hopefully, this year I wont burn out :)
This is only my third art fight, and I'm super excited!! I started working on my refs and stuff the other day ^^. I appreciate the perms and background info tips ^^
This is my first year of art fight and I'm so nervous and excited at the same time thank you for the tips!!
this is my 8th year and I'm stoked to find someone who's played longer than me :) we also choose the same team a lot of the time (including this time!) I'll be on team seafoam this year - lets goooooo!
This isn’t my first year doing Art fight but I’m still pretty new so this has been rlly helpful in giving advice besides the basics!
Thank you so much for the tips!! This is my first artfight, im really excited!! (Also I love the stretches you showed for the wrists, that will DEFINITELY come in handy!!)
I haven’t heard of artfight till today, thank god it hasn’t started yet! I’m planning on trying it out, it looks super fun!
best video so far, especially the comments! helped a lot for me doing airtight this year the first time!
This was so helpful!! I'm doing my first year of art fight right now, and I'm pretty nervous, but I'm excited to get out of my comfort zone!!
Yeah god I've seen some really really long bios that completely overwhelmed me. Like I'm talking pages upon pages if it was a google doc with things like their entire zodiac layout, huge personality chart and a chart with their feelings on every single one of their other characters. I've tried to find the desire to attack them 2 years in a row now and just can't cause the bio is SO LONG.
My bios are set up in an "info sandwich" very top is vitally important info like Height, age, pronouns, etc. Then a few short paragraphs of lore, finishing off with short bullet points of important design notes. So as someone's scanning the page they can get the important bits just at the very top under the art, and the very bottom right above character perms.
tip number 3 was actually so helpful or rather eases my anxiety! :D
This is my second art fight! Tbh I do it because all I draw is my boyfriend, myself and my 2 OCs. I like to draw some cool lookin OCs and last year I saw my art improve so much just over that month.
Artfights awesome 10/10
This is only my third year, but I have 41 attacks from the previous two years…. I think I’m gonna take it easy this year.
Thank you for the advice! I really like the inflections in your voice haha
Thanks so much for the art tips! It's my second year ^^
I wouldn't have thought of shortening my OC's bios, thanks for the tips!!
Thanks this is all so helpful! This is my first year :3
These tips are great! so excited for af 2024!!
10/10 tips
I love your approach to artfight and motivation in general!
Really appreciate the vid
Inspired me to actually crack down on my character sheets I’ve been putting off 😅
This is going to be my first ArtFight so thank you for the tips! I love to create art especially when i get their reactions of it so supporting is a really important thing to show the artist that you appreciate them!
I did 22 attacks last year (my first year) and boi... It was tough. One of the attacks had SIX fullbodies + a background. This year, I wanted to do more (it's still going, but it's 14th day and I'm on my first attack, since my first dog died on the third day, so I've been pretty down in the dumps) BUT I love art fight SM it's so much fun!!
Thank you!! :D I feel way more prepared for artfight now that my expectations are set accordingly. I've wanted to participate for the last three years but it always seemed way too overwhelming a concept. This year I'll try to participate, even if I only draw one thing :]
second year here !!!
I SECOND HAND THE PART WHERE YOU DO ARTFIGHT FOR YOU!!
Last year I only ended up doing a total of *2 attacks!*
this year I honestly have started a bit early hoping to get at least 5 out of my system :D although I've noticed I struggle to draw whenever I open my art program,, artblock in denial
also, expect an attack yootooba >:D
i always collect all of the characters i want to draw during artfight in advance, because as soon as july first hits, the site becomes nearly unusable due to how much traffic its getting. so make sure you save all of the information you need to draw an attack beforehand, so when artfight begins you can start drawing right away! also, dont feel like you have to draw all of the characters you chose in advance, i only got halfway through my list last year xD
artfight is the dark souls of art trades tbh
I love your energy and enthusiasm in this video, I haven't watched you before but I just subbed. We need more positivity in the world!! And i was unsure if doing artfight because I dreaded making ref sheets but I'm relieved that you say I can use old art :) 👍
thank u thank u thank u this will b my 4th year but like. these tips were sosososo helpful
IM SO HYPED FOR ARTFIGHT
I'd also add that it's fine to use art from others in your characters reference images with credit, I have a bunch of commissions of my characters, especially from one artist in particular. And while I think my art is fine to get the point, them giving permission to use the commissions of the character in Artfight is fine! And even a good idea!
Because of tip #1, im prolly gonna start my first year by looking for animal OCs. Making my own OC reference pages for the event made me a lil tired of drawing people and the event hasnt even started yet. But not every character out there is a person thankfully so i can take a break from humanoids while still participating ^_^
I think im gonna participate but there is other things i still don't know thank you for explaining, i want to join bc im bored in summer and i need to practice and to enjoy drawing
ur vibe is so nice. i subbed bc i'd 100% watch more vids! also this was rlly useful.
this will be my 1st year
@user-hq6vt3ip2r my channel was originally supposed to be a rr channel, before it was abandoned, and i am too lazy to draw a new pfp, so it will stay
This is my second year and both last year and this year I’ve done paper sketch attacks only, because I know if I did digital art I would burn out very quickly, and the attacks would begin looking bad within maybe the 8th attack.
Paper sketches are generally just a very fun way for me to draw and I enjoy it, so that’s what I do for art fight to keep myself having fun instead of burning out :)
Totally not me trying to make ref sheets for my characters before artfight even begins 😅
I got 3/4 done for this year, and I’m almost done with the fourth
The remaining 4 will be worked on after this year’s artfight is over
Also, thanks for the tips! I find them really helpful!
5TH YEAR BABYYYYY
this is gonna be my 6th artfight and i have amassed a total of... 4 drawings made NHMGHNGMGNM its just im always so excited for it, and going "this year will be the year i will actively participate" just so that july comes around and its always the busiest month and i cant do anythinh gnmhgnmhg
Me watching this trying to finish 6 ref sheets and start two more 👁👄👁
I'm in the ref burnout stage already :') got one left but because I did 4 in a week it's so much harder to do
this is a great video! thank you
I have never heard of art fight (I only started drawing/animating recently and I've never posted) tho I appreciate the video nonetheless lol