What better way to start off the new year than with a good ol’ classic Art Hack video! Since it’s winter, let’s dive into how I like to breakdown snow and ice! This art hack has been added to the Art Hacks Guide course in the classroom and can be found here

No Excuse November continues with mouths! I love drawing active mouths, it makes the characters on the page just jump to life, and keeps my characters from looking too stiff! All previous practice sheets can be found here. Have fun practicing!

The next feature to highlight for ‘No Excuse November’ is the nose! I used to hate drawing noses, they just never seemed to come out the way I wanted them to, but after needing to draw them over and over again, they have become something I actually enjoy drawing. So get to practicing and if you missed any previous ones check them out in the classroom here

Here's a little bit about me and the whole idea behind Slinging Ink. You are probably here because of the art techniques, practices, or as I like to call them on TikTok, art hacks... BUT. While drawing and helping you be a better technical artist is of course my goal, I have found through interactions with my students, that understanding how to tell a story has seemed to resonate even more. I love traditional materials and processes and in an ever increasing world of 'content over creativity', I want to be able to share my love of story and equip creatives to go out and tell better stories. Are we losing the ability to tell stories that last? Do we have the tools necessary to make stories of substance? With impact? We have a generation of artists coming up that are talented and have loads of creativity and don't know what to do with it. While they may be talented with a great idea for a story, without the right tools it stays in creative limbo. You can read comics, manga, and watch movies, but if that is the only guidance you have to making your story a reality; at best, you will have a pseudo-copy, derivative of the source material, and at worst; a hollow shell of a story that lacks the substance needed to make your audience care. Nobody wants that. In short, I want Slinging Ink Studio to be the go-to resource for creatives who want to not only grow in their technical art skills, but also be challenged to tell stories with substance. My love is for sequential art, and the examples will be catered toward comic storytelling, but the concepts and principles extend far beyond sequential art. Art informs art. Take the tools and principles and write, draw or film. Create stories with substance. Care about what you make, because if you don't care, why would an audience? With that being said, there is so much coming that I am excited to have a place share, but for now enjoy the free resources and let's get to work. N. Colin Dyer