Ursa Major constellation from Uranographia by Johannes Hevelius

The night sky in southern California has been clear the last couple of nights. When I look up at the sky I see Orion the Hunter and the clear dots that make up the Big Dipper. The night sky shows different constellations ...

This beautiful image is from the movie Metropolis by Fritz Lang, it shows Atlas the giant carrying the weight of the entire city on his shoulders. In this image Atlas represents the combined might and labour of the working class. Interestingly the same theme in imagery is often used for ...

Paris Street; Rainy Day, Gustave Caillebotte, The Art Institute of Chicago

In less than twenty-four hours I am going to board a plane and end up in the city of my childhood. I am returning to the Windy City because it is Spring Break and because I yearn to have ...

image from The Art of Veiling, by yours truly

There have been posts before (I think) about how to go about creating a world, especially when it comes to fantasy settings. You’re supposed, if you want to do it right, to build everything that makes up the world in ...

We've all been there: all of the sudden, the trajectory of your own life seems to thwart you from your ambitions! Maybe it's obligations to schoolwork or your day job; maybe your partner or family; maybe you wind up homeless or awkwardly crashing on a series of couches ...

From the Best of Banes Collection…

CHARACTER SHAPES

I've never consciously designed characters this way, but I recently remembered hearing about this notion some time ago, on the dvd special features for an animated movie or show. I don't remember which one.
Characters derived from basic shapes can ...

Ying and Yan by TonyAlpsen

Ying and Yan are twin brothers who are joined at the hip…and the shoulder, and everything in between.

It's a simple, perfect premise for standalone jokes playing off the brothers' conjoined status, or the difference in their personalities, or snarky commentary on life ...

Niccea has unveiled the 2017 DD Awards and needs your help.

Topics for discussion:
How do we want to handle “For Your Consideration” submissions.
Do any categories need to change?

Also, I would like to have a strong partner to help me out for these awards. There might be long ...

LISTEN!

For this Quackcast we decided to chat about quirks- the things that stand out about a character, help you remember them, get interested in them, traits that pick them out as individuals and can ALSO be used to point at deeper character traits! These are so useful in so ...

Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith beheading Holofernes, 1611-12, oil on canvas, (Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples)

There are several different ways to read a painting. The perspective of the reader adds a new insight to the history behind the art. For the purpose of this article, I have selected Judith beheading Holofernes ...