The Strange World Of DeviantArt Bases
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- Опубліковано 22 лис 2021
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Today let's take a deep dive into the world DeviantArt bases! What are they? Why were they SO popular? Where did they come from? Why was there so much drama surrounding them? Let's find out, as we take a look at the strange world of bald anime drawings!
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It makes me so sad that I missed the “make ‘cringey’ OCs because it’s fun” phase of my childhood. I watched these videos about making art perfect and do this not that, and I skipped over the actual fun part of learning art. There’s so much pressure that makes kids think their character is “bad” that they lose passion for it, or end up being self conscious for the rest of their art career. I’m still trying to unlearn that.
Me too, I have a baby sister and I'll shield her from these types of videos where it stresses kids out to make sure your OC is not a "Mary Sue". She'll have all the fun making characters and she'll make it as rainbow and eye bleeding as she wants and I will love her :(
Same. Though I had fun in the beginning, presence on DA and concept art site had me learn «never draw fanart» and it really damaged me. im in my 30’s now and lowkey hate drawing, however i dont have that block in 3D modeling so i am pivoting. trying to learn to not care about others opinions. yes to mary sue self inserts!
it's never too late to make the cringy ocs of your dreams!
@That guy I agree. Kids have the innocence and confidence to make bad art and cringey OCs because they don’t care about standards, and they just want to be creative and happy. Once you start being self critical, it’s so hard to go back and I just hope it gets a little better, yknow
@That guy I wish I could relate. I still like cringy stuff so I create that sometimes and don’t care and get too anxious to do stuff of quality.😶 I mean, look at my pfp.
I wholeheartedly believe that badly made edgy OCs are an important developmental step for artistic/ nerdy tweens and teens. My favorite edgy OC of mine was a Pirates of the Caribbean self insert
Don't be embarrassed, pirates of the Caribbean is awesome, I'd wanna be in that universe too
Definitely! We've _all_ made edgy OC's and/or glittery rainbow Mary Sues 💀 my first OC's were both for Tokyo Mew Mew, one was a fox girl and the other was a leopard girl. Both of them were cringe. But you know what? It was innocent and fun! I feel like kids (and people in general) have forgotten that wisdom and skill comes from _experience,_ so you're kinda supposed to embarrass yourself at first.
Yeah I agree, I used to have dozens of Mary sue MLP OCs but now I'm here, designing and writing my OCs lore. It was a huge step for me in becoming an artist.
@@errortryagainlater4240 my first OC was also an edgy tokyo mew mew fox girl!!! 😁 I kind of brought her back with my current webcomic about a super edgy OC. It's about a half demon, half angel, and half magical cat girl whos really bad at maths 😅
I really think that bases do make people lazy. It takes a long time to be able to understand human proportion.
I agree that if you're tracing it, all of a sudden you are understanding the intricacies of anatomy in a way that you might not have before. For example, right now, I'm trying to draw the generic, Caucasian white skull and although I think I understand it, putting the image next to my drawing showed that I changed up a lot of the proportions.
However, if you're doing it a lot, especially using screenshots from shows and using bases that don't understand anatomy themselves, are you really learning? Tracing is not the same as using reference, and you can use screenshots as references. You just need to come to the place where you understand the human body. Sure, there are probably professions for tracing, but a lot of artists want to make stylised, original works without understanding anatomy. I get that kids don't know a lot but I really dislike bases.
Pro tip: use the pencil tool instead of the paintbrush in paint to avoid the gross outline gap when filling. You can change the thickness of the pencil, too.
THIS. MS Paint has no tolerance like other paint programs, meaning even the slightest difference in color will be ignored.
and i had to learn this ALONE when i was 7, im still a ms paint pro tho
don’t forget about the eraser tool
LIFESAVER
and you can replace a color with another by eraser tool. set the color you want to color over as color 1, the color you want to use as color 2 which is what the eraser uses, and hold right click when using eraser tool
i think a big part of why people hated bases back then was also this feeling of "unfairness". I remember when i started drawing fanart back then and posting it on deviant art i would only get a few views. it felt so frustrating to see poorly drawn over bases get more attention than my original artwork, even though i had poured in hours of work into it.
13 y/o me back then believed that base art was a lazy and quick way to steal the spotlight while the REAL artists of my fandom (me) were left to rot. oh tween entitlement, how i miss those simpler days :")
@KaKaeru grow up please
@@xX_Knives_Xx I think it’s deleted now 😅
@@seven-kilometers awesome
@@xX_Knives_Xx yo wtf happened
@@Rqndomasprson they grew up
I like how bases have grown from dramatic anime poses to absurd cartoony "draw ur squad" sort of pieces- those are always fun to see ahaha
Exactly what I was thinking! Those and other meme tracing pictures are pretty much bases of modern fanart community.
yooo, draw the squad memes are my favorite
YES i love those, I do them for art warmups because it's a good simple thing to start the day with
actually I prefer the anime ones especially the ones who made by korean and japanese people. Draw ur squad is absurd and extragaged
@@Limacinablues That's the thing. It's supposed to be funny.
This channel never fails to tap into a part of the internet that traumatized me but also brings back an odd sense of comfort due to nostalgia
(Edit: spelling)
same lol
So true. I remember all the videos about "DO NOT USE BASES OMG" and all the drama with stuff like that.
you worded it so well
so true
Traumatized? 😳😳
I used to carry a bunch of tracing paper around with me in middle school and early high school and whenever one of my more experienced art friends would show me a new picture they drew, they'd lend it to me at lunch and let me trace it. I used to make weird collages of parts that I really liked, such as the facial expressions, poses, or clothing details. I eventually did start drawing my own art and slowly abandoned the tracing paper altogether, but I truly believe that helped kick off my own style that morphed into a hybrid of all my friends' art to make something new. There's genuinely some merit to copying things, especially as a young or developing artist.
This is just such an interesting quirky thing haha. And I don't mean that in a sarcastic way. It would make a cute character trait.
thats super awesome! collage is totally underutilized, if you ever feel like it, i think you’d probably have fun with playing with collage considering your history! i’m personally FOR tracing in cases for personal use, as it can help people, especially beginners, figure so many things out. glad to see it helped you out! even experienced artists still trace sometimes
As someone who had to overcome debilitating nerve damage and paralysis, bases were *incredibly* helpful to not only re-teach myself how to draw my favorite characters but to rebuild the muscles. My PFP is one of my favorite recent pieces of a character I adopted because of this community. I had a blast because of bases helping me get through when I could barely just draw hair and a cute shirt. It helped me simplify my OCs and even design new ones. Now I draw them in my style again!
they were super helpful for me too, learning how to work with my disabilities. DIY physical therapy!
This comment and it's first reply is so wholesome and amazing. So happy you guys were able to continue doing what you love!! Your PFP is gorgeous!!!! Love the glow effect. (I can never draw 'glowing' right so I tend to gush over people who can do it ahaha)
You have no idea how loud I "WHAT?!"'d when I saw my shading tutorial (which I've hated for years now, it still regularly gets likes and I cringe thinking of new generations using that thing as a tutorial lol) show up cited as oldest on the site. I had a website where I provided pixel drawn bases back in the day, so yeah, we did call them pixel bases, and by the time I posted that it had been at least a couple months of me diving deep into the pixel doll community. And even back then, many of the bases (including some made by myself) were done by tracing anime images, official art and so on.
It must be really freaky to see something you created in 2004 show up in a random video on the internet, haha.
haha amazing!
Oh that’s pretty surprising and congrats on getting it on here-
If it means anything from an internet stranger, I don't see what's cringeworthy about it
You were one of my favorite pixel artists. You, Lei and Angy. Good times. Wonderful memories of my early teens.
Alright but for real?despite being for a joke, Izzy’s little art commentary avatar is adorable!
She even has the crossed arms. The only thing she's missing is her telling me about how The Last Jedi murdered her cat and burned down her house
The last thing we need is a sprite that says "I'm facepalming because I need to show how better I am than you by acting mature"
Plus it has her entire outfit, including earrings and make-up!
agreed
That avatar is ready to start some "serious" drama XDDDDD
I miss coming home from school and browsing deviant art for hours. I would often find a wonderful new artist and look through their entire gallery in one night. Something I never understood was Adoptables, that would be so cool to have a video on! I thought some of the artists making them were incredibly talented and it made sense to me someone would want an original character with an intricate design to show on there page, but there must be more to it than that! I also didn't get into bases but spend a lot of time with other artists posted sketch pages of hand, pose, and facial practices.
She actually did make a video on adoptables
Seen it on Gaia too. People with no life roleplaying and doing these imaginary craps. While I was leveling up playing games making progress these would sit all day in one spot and write dumb RP comments and posts spamming the damn pages and chat I had to block so many people it's not even countable. So yeah adoptables was one of their things.
Whats a adoptable
@@minmogrovingstrongandhealthyman you must be no fun and completely dull in the brain
@@Ra1nypuddl3 Many artists will create unique character designs and then either sell or raffle them off to other people. These designs are known as adoptables (or adopts). An earlier reply states why people usually buy adopts.
As an artist my biggest struggle is getting rid of the harmful concepts that DA and old tumblr gave me as I was just getting on the internet. I still feel like im cheating by using a reference in some way. The attitude towards beginner artists was definitely negative and impacts people for years. Despite drawing for years, its never gone away. Designing characters on base is honestly so fun and calming
I eventually stopped drawing because of this and even though I still draw from time to time, I hardly post my art anywhere. I remember being 14 and just really getting to art, and freehanding a picture of Absol that looked very similar pose wise to the reference of Absol I was using, and I posted it to my Instagram with virtually no following outside of my friends and parents, and some Deviant Art snob found it and accused me of being talentless, and an art thief, and of tracing all my work.
I remember discovering bases when I was young, and loving them. I had a lot of trouble drawing bodies, so they were awesome for me! When I discovered the “you’re a fake artist if you use bases” I was devastated. I even quit drawing because of the fear of “not being a true artist”. Thankfully I was able to get back into it, and I’m going to be an art teacher now, but man…some of those base barking people really crushed my dreams
same
Right? I used them for the poses
my brother was super strict about drawing, and when i used bases or tutorials or looked up ref, he would say i was a poser. And I stopped. That rlly stunted my growth as an artist, and he has apologized and now is growing his style too, but the important part is YOU CAN USE BASES AND TUTORIALS AND TRACING TO HELP YOUR ART GET BETTER. As long as if you trace, dont take the art as your own, you can always use it for practice.
Yeah, there's always going to be people saying 'this art style isn't real art' because they don't like how they look lol, art snobs are everywhere. :'D
What I think that they don't understand is that everyone takes their ideas and drawing styles from someone else and makes it their own.
@@Diamond1234 "What I think that they don't understand is that everyone takes their ideas and drawing styles from someone else and makes it their own." Not according to Plexplero, a guy who accused a young girl of stealing from vivziepop.
I always hated the controversy around using these bases, they're literally made to be drawn over. You don't hate someone for creating a custom character in a game instead of using the default.
They'd probably get mad at you for playing the Sims
@@davieholt4742 " how dare you use the base from the sims, program your own game and use your own character"
I think the controversy is because tracing and bases alike make an end product (art) in a way that side-steps many of the skills that are used in character drawing. (posing, proportions, and how style factors into it are done for you by the base)
That and art theft being super common with the thing, but things are certainly getting better.
It's less like using a custom character, but more like taking another person's custom character, or their race settings, then adjusting it into something else. It can be done well and credit to the original can be made, so it's not inherently bad. It's just got a history of abuse.
Pixel doll bases are okay of course, but as someone whose art was stolen for a deviantart base, I can tell you it's really not nice. I felt awful when it happened to me because they never asked for permission, much less credit me. You can't blame me for disliking them.
I think a majority of people have more against legitimate art theft than this strawman of an argument.
14:48 I love how this person is so mad. When most of the base making and using was done by tweens and teens. I can confirm how this progressed. In grade school(2002-2007) I played with pixel dolls and dress ups(and editing them in paint if there were no suitable assets for what I wanted). In late grade school to middle school I used anime bases to make my first OCs. In high school I did all of the above and made bases for deviantart. And now, as an adult, I am making orginal art and fanart on Tumblr and Pixiv. How time flies. Also, Winx OCs are still really popular. I can't log into deviantart without seeing them.
I remember my older cousins being shocked at how I used old Microsoft Paint to edit pixel dolls. I thought it was the normal use of paint because thats what my sister and I always did. But, looking back on it, we were pretty advanced 8 and 10 year olds when it came to digital art(at least for the early 2000s). I really wish I could find my old pixel art files. I remember having some adorable characters that I would love to redraw in my own style.
"the world needs more art and that includes badly recolored Total Drama Island OCs..."
As a member of the Total Drama community I felt personally honored.
I think a lot of people forget that you don't HAVE to always strive to improve your art. Sure, a lot of artist want to be better and want to make a career out of their work. But we have to remember that some people literally just draw for FUN. If they don't like drawing hands, they don't have to learn to draw hands. If they can't draw realistic anatomy, they don't HAVE to stress over learning proportions. If they only know how to draw one pose or one face, they can draw that one pose and face as many times as they want. Every artist's expression is different and we shouldn't have to put down other artists to feel "good".
Preach!
THIS!! something that i ignored for so long was drawing for fun and not to impress someone else (teachers- i was an art student-, friends, people on the internet, etc.). forgetting to draw for yourself really really ruins motivation
Yeah!
I really have to drive into my head sometimes that I'm not somehow "wasting my free time" when I'm sketching "easy" things in my pencil sketchbook, just because I'm not pushing my skills to be better or making things that are internet post-worthy. Sometimes I just want to draw to relax or make myself laugh, and that's ok.
i used to wanna pursue art as a career and that pushed me to improve, but after realising i wont like it im content with my silly little pen and highlighter doodles of eyes and cyclops girls :]
This is such a good point! I want to improve, because it adds to the fun for me personally but I need to take more time to just have fun and experiment. Thank you for the reminder💕
Oh my god, I remember back in the day where I would use bases for my OCs instead of actually drawing them from scratch.
omg same lol I still have mine saved
Same! I'd get people asking why my OC's always looked different (bc I used different bases) and I would say I was experimenting with styles lol
Samee
sameeeee
yeah same here
i love useing “draw your squad” for my oc’s, i use them as references and sometime draw over them for my own enjoyment
i genuinely rember using "draw ur squad" bases semi-frequently and having a whole identity crisis over whether or not i was stealing art. i got bored of them really quickly so i stopped. now, 12 years later, im drawing bdsm studies and improving quicker than i ever did being an art purist.
BDSM art studies sounds really interesting! I love the aesthetics involved in the subculture, there’s a lot of untapped potential for art there. Good for you for pursuing that!
my 9yo baby sis has been drawing digitally for a couple months now but shes recently discovered bases (mostly pokemon and, unfortunately, gachalife 😔) and has been having a blast creating her edgy little demon wolf ocs 😭🙏💞 i remember playing with bases myself when i was just starting my foray into art and i wholeheartedly agree with u, bases are harmless, esp nowadays, and are a good stepping stone for the youngins :)
What’s wrong with gacha life? It’s actually good for making art so you know what you’re drawing
@@c4tzrul3 :,) like all things, it’s the gacha life community
@@maiyo2916 the gacha community is like every single community. Toxic members scaring people away from the majority of the community who are good members.
@@c4tzrul3 i dont have any issues with gacha life on the surface and i dont think theres anything wrong with liking it, there's just some notoriously questionable content that comes outta there 0_0 tho, tbf, that can be said for a lot of fandoms 😔
Your pfp absolutely sniped me
I was that five year old who held my paper up to the television screen and traced off what I now realize were bases from Bambi. Its how I learned about things like line weighting, spacing and perspective, and now I'm a professional artist!
Good for you!! I don't recall tracing stuff a lot as a kid but I would constantly look at pictures for reference (and still do that sometimes). Any way you can learn is a valid way of learning 💖
Yooo my sister did that too! I remember us both putting paper over an iPad screen and drawing characters from whatever show we were watching
i was the 1 who would sit my toys in front of paper n trace the shadows 😭😭
LITERALLY SAME I TRACED SO MANY POKEMON LOL
me bruh 💀
I remember being misled to think that using references and tracing was 'bad art' until I was in college and looking into Rene Descartes' work, where he'd sketch ballet dancers and trace his work repeatedly. It is a valid form of learning how to draw the things you intend more naturally.
I don't see why tracing over and working around these bases wouldn't be similar.
Tracing is used in animation. Not actual art. Depends of the subject but in general you learn to draw from source replicate it best you could not trace it since tracing is not developing any skills whatsoever. Next to tracing you still need to know how to finish properly that piece. Again depends what is the theme and subject but often tracing is plagiatirism too especially if you make money on it it's illegal. So I would be careful about that.
@@minmogrovingstrongandhealthy you're just completely wrong lol, I'm currently in art school doing animation and my teachers have consistently explained that tracing is a tool outside of animation, it's a part of art, whether you like it or not.
@@justine4581 Depends of the artform really, and if you really go to animation school tell your teachers they are lost idiots and creating ones too. If you are from US then I am not surprised at all. With that said I am done on this pointless subject.
@@minmogrovingstrongandhealthy tracing is really useful actually. It helps build muscle memory and helps you deconstruct what your working on and gets you thinking about all the pieces. Like if you where to trace an arm it can help you get a grasp on where the bends are and how it looks. It’s a big recommendation when your starting anatomy to trace some pictures first to get the feel for all the lines, then start drawing them yourself.
@@fandomtrash7505 Tell that to a person the other day who got kicked out of his jobs for tracing art XD We lost a 'reputable' person for this and he will never work in art again... It ALL depends what you do... In lots of things tracing is illegal and will result you lose your job and even end up in jail ...
People parade this tracing like it's a good thing.
Practice and refine your skills, build your style. Tracing is very specific and what is it used for.
I've noticed that today bases are most common in the furry community due to the need for fursuit makers to have a ref sheet and not everyone having the skill to make cohesive refrence sheets so you'll find a lot of fursuit ref bases and people taking commissions to make fursuit friendly bases
As someone who is studying costume design In college, bases are incredibly helpful. Whilst they are mostly unrealistic they’re so much more fun to use for my costume designs than normal costume design bases that are just stiff women standing with their hands on their hips.
oh wow i haven't thought about that
That is a great use for them ^^. I've been using a base that's more accurate to my body type to get a better idea on how a costume will look when sketching.
As a seamstress, I 2nd this! Can't draw people to save my soul but bases really help when wanting to but a design on paper. Yeah, it's not normally realistic but I've seen fashion designer from all different time periods. Even ones people hand draw themselves never looks like real people.
Fr!! Bases are also really fun because there's more dynamic posing in them (usually) so it's easier to think of "how will this color look from this lighting angle" or "how does this material fold over" etc etc (I'm not a college student or professional, though. I just love fashion and drawing lol)
It really helps with fashion design in general. It also helps me focus on specific aspects of my art, like how certain fabrics fall, without always having to draw my own base to practice on.
Oh goodness. I remember when these bases flooded the pixel doll community, it made finding a quality base extremely difficult.
It still does. The bases section is still clogged with “adoptable bases” and it’s infuriating, especially since the pixel dolling community has become so small and obscure.
Absolutely, it was a huge pain for me- I’m a roleplayer, so finding bases for creatures I couldn’t draw like cats was very helpful, but I kind of just cringed whenever I saw the pixel doll bases. I usually just found someone on DeviantArt who commonly made bases and stuck to them instead of constantly going through other bases. So it was pretty much: Go to a base-makers page, see if they had a base I could use, and if not, go to another base-maker, and so on and so forth
I remember transferring from bases to pixel dolling because I liked the smaller scale that they tended to use. I remember the only reliable way to find one account and dig through their favorites/watchlist until you managed to find something good (or find one creator and cling to their content for dear life lol)
I remember this too. I liked doing pixel art and I followed so many doll artists, but after these bases became popular, it became VERY DIFFICULT to find them.
This will probably get lost in the comments but I've been binging your videos while I'm in the middle of a career/identity crisis right now, and the way you cover weird artsy internet culture from my early teens with such academic thoroughness is oddly comforting and reminding me it's okay to be who I am. Thanks, keep doing what you do.
this comment has not been lost 👍
on another note izzyzzz videos are so interesting especially ones that hit close to home
calling bases training wheels for new artists is exactly how i’d describe it! it builds familiarity with art programs and everything else you’ve already said and i wouldn’t have dipped my toes into digital art as easily as i did as a child if there weren’t bases that i could fuck around on in ms paint
It's so weird how many people had the misconception that base users were planning to become artists. Most I encountered (and me myself) were just people with vision but not enough artistic skills to make something from scratch, who just wanted to visualize their idea. The question is "how many base users want to improve to professional artists in the first place?"
Edit just to make it clear: I was referring to all those ranting youtubers who say "you'll never become a real artist if you keep using bases". Cause, some people who use bases just do harmless fun and don't indent on becoming artists. There are also of course those who don't have in mind to become artists and move on from bases. God, nowadays I use a base for proportions and then erase it piece by piece once it start drawing the clothes and edit the body type. Outside the pose nothing stays
I've tried, on and off, to get into art for at least two decades now. It's not gonna happen. I love bases since they allow me to get character ideas and color pallettes fleshed out.
I've got friends who ARE good at art, though, and when they're out of stuff they wanna do sometimes they will sketch out my ideas and I'll go through and do digital inking(?), coloring, and starting to learn shading.
I don't consider myself an artist and never will, but I do still have artistic ideas and do want to get them out there.
Facts
A lot of the folks I met in the pixel doll community did go on to become professional artists. But that was on the 'making from scratch' side of the community, not the 'I want to make art of my OCs' side.
I used bases for the exact same reason! But then it sparked a passion in me for art. If I had never used bases at my time and made things, I don’t think I’d ever think of doing art in the future.
Personally I used bases just to waste time with drawing really :/ tho when I got older I got seriously interested in art and learned until I was able to drawfrom scratch. I'm still learning and I kinda cringe at my base art but it was fun and that's what mattered to me back then. Fun.
omg i used to make these too, they were so much fun to make and use!
Oh cool, love your animations!
And this comment right here is a perfect example of why the "base users will never be real artists" statement is bullshit, your animations are AMAZING and I watch them all the time, your music videos for nsp are jaw droppingly well-done and your living proof that anyone no matter where they start from can become an amazing artist :)
Hell yeah, I even made my own KISS doll from a base (that I credited) 😄 And I loved having my bestie over, pulling up bases, and then editing them together until they looked like us!
Hey, Shoocharu! Loved your GG Animated videos!
did your brother kill a man
God, this brings back memories. I was active-ish on deviantart around that time. i remember drama around people tracing art for bases, and then not crediting the art, or even passing it off as completely their own. This ironically fed into the whole 'if you trace you're not legit' cycle.
LMAO this video killed me. For awhile, I was original base creator on DA (as in, I actually drew the bases from scratch for people to use and didn't trace screenshots) and it made me really happy to see people using them. I also agree that so long as crediting happens, who cares? I'd see some people take my bases and completely change them in amazing ways and were so grateful for me sharing my linework. I also used to draw over Lion King screenshots when I was 10 and it DID actually improve my art skills and ability to use photoshop. Art elitism has and always will be a problem in the art community and frankly is just a huge waste of time for the elitist person 'cuz they're expending their energy on something so insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Let people have fun.
"you're not going to learn anything by using bases" stuff like this is why I don't agree about cheating existing in art because art doesn't have to be about learning. Sometimes you just wanna create
plus it can be a good start.
it really is like they think you just need to Will your skill into existence. When I do metal work its with materials and equipment that someone else made, I lean how to tie new knots by untying them. you can learn a lot by tracing and red lining, just don't say it was all you.
And drawing has always been about how to make it more effective. Erasers, guidelines etc are all shortcuts and thats okay, we dont need to do everything from scratch
I dont know, there is people tracing over someone else's work and making profit out of it. Art theft exist.
It helped me learn how to draw proportions properly and how to get a feel for how the character was “built”. Then once I traced a few times, I could draw it by hand.
Thank you for covering this topic, Izzy!! This really brought back a lot of nostalgia for me. Especially the lick icon and anime bases, god those were such cultural keystones back then lol
Wow, a crossover I needed but not a crossover I deserved 🥺
I just subscribed to you recently ! Epic to see you here you are so cool :)
WE NEED A CROSSOVER
@@wolfgangamadeusmozart1532 I know right! I am also amazed to see them here! (Recently subbed too~)
@@RomulusMorgan seeing them here made me do a wjole double take this is E P I C 😎
I really appreciate how Izzzy gives completely understandable counterpoints towards the base hate stuff while at the same time understanding where they’re comin from
OMG, dress-up dolls were my childhood (I'm 35). I barely knew English back then, so participating in any sort of community was not available to me. I was very disappointed by the influx of "ugly" unrealistic bases (I didn't know anime exists, let alone be familiar with the style). I remember being 14 or 15 and figuring out how to make a detailed "base" out of my own photo in gimp. I had so much fun playing virtual dress-up, I was doing that well into my early 20s with "techniques" taught by dollz tutorials.
I'm the OP of that thread you found, and I had totally forgotten bases even existed. This makes me feel a combination of emotions that includes: pride (at my old post being found), shame (at how cringe it is), nostalgia (for my early 20's), shame again (for my early 20's), old (because this is now internet history), and other (other).
ETA: the main reason I posted the thread was because I was looking for things to complain about, because it was literally the Complaints Forum where all the discussion was driven by complaining. I never had strong feelings about bases, I just thought I was being real funny!
No sht you were in your 20s complaing about some kids using bases? Touch some grass omg
IT'S YOU!!?
Wha-pow base now outdate because i never hear anything about them anymore help
Huh, small world!
"Other (other)" lmao
When I was younger, I had a friend who could draw really well and I wanted desperately to learn how to draw like her! She'd actually make little "bases" for me in my sketchbook and I'd modify the character body types, color and shade them, and turn it into a full piece. Weirdly enough, I actually learned a lot about art from doing this. I'd have to look at anatomy to understand how to change the bases without warping them, I'd have to learn about lighting and weight and perspective to bring a scene together, and it was a lot of fun.
I did a little bit of digital art back when I was a little kid playing in MSPaint to make designs for my neopets, and discovered bases and frankendolling through there, but I never really stuck with it because it was not very fun to do with an old, shitty mouse lol. Still, though, I get so many flashbacks looking at these old pixel doll games and what they evolved into. Bit of fun history I sometimes thought about, but never really knew much on.
That's so cute 🥺
That's so wholesome
This is literally so sweet ;-;
That's so sweet! I did that for my friends too bc I was always "the art friend" 💀 It was super fun to all make our characters together. It actually helped me out because I'd use the bases as a way to experiment with poses.
I remember before I found Deviantart, there were "makeables" on Neopets where people made pixel bases for other users to draw their neopets on. "Custom" pets were very popular, even though there wasn't really a customization system on the site, people would re-imagine their neopets with a design inspired by the pet image. I ended up with several cool characters that way.
12:20 oh hey I have one of those tattooed on me. A derpy one. I didn't even know about the base stuff, I just knew there were several different versions and I wanted my favourite.
So glad someone's actually defending bases!!
I'm now 18, and able to draw well without bases, but I still like to use them every now and then, just for fun, or to get something done quicker!
Without the bases available nowadays, I would never have become an artist! I used nothing but mlp bases for... Around 3 years maybe, like from ages 8-11. The bases allowed me to create my own characters, my own universes without needing me to be super skilled! It was amazing, so much fun and genuinely helped me out a ton!
Yeah. Bases are very helpfull. I use DAZ3D models to make base or references for many of my arts :D
Sameee, I used bases and the such to show off my OCs. On instagram it was known as the editing community and people would use anime screencaps and bases alike to show off characters, but we all knew each other were editing and we were having fun.
Same!
If that profile image is anything to go by, you still have a long way to go.
@@SirBlackReeds I'm sorry but who asked you
In fashion design there is a tool called a "croquis" (crow-key) that is essentially a base of a human or an exaggerated fashion pose. I have a huge notebook full of these that I made from my University classes and they are helpful when you need to quickly get a design onto paper. We started with tracing humans but by the end of class had to start making our own poses.
honestly i go through so many sketches when working on projects it got too time consuming to do my own croquis, so i just bought some pre-printed croquis sketchbooks. they're printed in blue ink so they don't show up when you scan them. and yet, my teacher still said that was "cheating" like...i can draw my own, but why draw 50 of the same pose over and over for thumbnails i'm likely gonna toss out?
@@kerricaine my prof would let us use notebooks like that for quick ideas or during planning but we couldn't turn in a sketch that used one. I've started buying a small sketch book and filling it with my own while listening to podcasts. Then just carry that around in my bag.
That just reminded me of the existence of a webcomic called Spirit Fingers. (The main cast meets regularly to do croquis)
Hehehe I just pictured a crow holding a key
Bases are fun, I studied fashion design a few years ago. When it came to fashion illustrations, we were supposed to use bases to make everything look uniform. I was the only one who drew the bases myself beforehand. The others were provided with some. There are just official sites on the Internet for fashion designers regarding bases... xD
17:50 you did it, with the background music, you completed my childhood nostalgia trip. Thank you so much.
I feel particularly old watching this. I was a part of the dolling community too, but before Deviantart really took hold. Back when the pixel dolling community was webrings on angelfire and geocities. You could 100% still get bases, but they were originals offered up by popular pixel art designers to use for your own creations, to link back to their page, and it worked as branding. Making a doll using a particular base was like a badge of coolness in a way? The pixel art dolls were actually very small pixels though (especially with the tiny screen resolutions we all had).
While I saw the rise of the anime-style traced bases, that was well after my time in the dolling community. This video was a fascinating look into it.
I remember dollpalace
This was my journey in the pixel doll community as well. Making my geocities galleries was how I originally learned programming. It was only HTML and CSS at the time, but that base knowledge has helped me throughout my life. I miss the old communities, it was such a wholesome introduction to the internet for me.
I’ve hoped that someone would do a video on the 2000s era ‘dollz’ to be honest! I remember Xandorra and Angie-Chan in particular being huge dollz creators and base makers. I think it would be difficult though with the majority of creators and websites now offline.
I remember making websites on Matmice, angelfire and geocities hahaha!
Oh gosh yes, good times. I remember everyone having websites and pixel forums in the 2000's. Eden Enchanted was my first doll forum and I adored creators like Angychan. I miss the pixel doll community's. There arent much around anymore but there are still a few forums up, although dieing slowly.
@@plague_doctor0237 I miss DollPalace! That’s what got me into dolling.
The dolling community is still clinging to life. I really wish it could be revitalized.
I wish a video like this existed when I was little, I feel the entire “don’t use bases, references, or trace anything ever as this is cheating and makes you a worse artist” really stunned my art development as now in art school I am encouraged to do this (especially the reference one) and I have improved more now then I ever had before.
It's so funny how there was this whole culture of "you can't reference anything even a little bit" but then in art school some of the first classes you take usually involve life drawing, aka copying whatever is in front of you.
Oh wow. As a current art student who grew up that time period this makes total sense. It blew my mind when my professors encouraged us to trace certain parts of our drawings to make whatever we were drawing more accurate or speed up the drawing. Apparently even some famous painters used to do it. Though I do understand the the issues of tracing someone's unique piece of art and not giving credit (that's plagarism!), there are definitely some acceptable cases.
Digital fundamentals class was basically lessons like "hey let's learn about how to do digital linework by tracing over a photo in Illustrator". And the constantly talking about remix culture and how everything is a copy of a copy but with a twist.
god i hate those type of people. i feel like they're either hypocrites or they probably draw shitty anatomy and have inconsistent artstyle (if they have any that is)
I remember the "references are cheating" discourse and dear lord that was awful. Like, had those people never heard of life drawing or models or anything like that? I mean, I know (or at least, I hope) that the people engaging in that discourse were children, but it's still a weird sentiment to hear from someone who claims to take art very seriously.
Wow, I never thought my old DeviantArt account from when I was a teenager would make it into a UA-cam video LOL! I used to make and use bases because I thought they were fun, and they genuinely gave me a lot of stress relief during my younger years when I had no outlets. I don't do that kind of stuff anymore, but this definitely brought back a LOT of nostalgia and I was so shocked (in a sort of good way) to see myself on here.
hey! timestamp? id love to know your username :)
@@wrightcemberMy timestamp is 3:31 or 3:32 when Izzy says "Pokemon"! They don't feature my username and honestly I'm kind of glad LOL because I'm kind of embarrassed abt the whole thing. It's been a loooong time since I've even logged into the account but it was yoru-bases. I was like 18 or 19 when I last used it and I'm in my late 20's now so don't judge me too hard lmao (;ŏ﹏ŏ)
I can only imagine how hard you got jumpscared when it came up 😭😭
@@MimoriAzume NO FOR REAL. I saw that part and immediately was like "THAT'S ME?!?!" I was SHOCKED
I remember using bases when I was little, but I wouldn't say they ruined my art skills, they actually really helped. They helped me understand how to draw bodies and stuff like that. After I stopped using bases, yeah, it didn't look as good. But I still understood how to make it. After awhile I got better, and I'll say I'm pretty proud on how much I've improved.
I enjoyed this video, and I can't wait to see more.
Jesus, I was never super "in" the DeviantArt scene but that lick icon and the MLP heart base still got something out of me
I would find that MLP heart base EVERYWHERE while looking for Perler Bead designs!
@@galaxymew5138 oh god, yeah! Perler patterns and pixel art
@@Pokemanic33
It was the same with the simplistic looking chibi pastel goth girl too! I'd always find her no matter that kind of Perler Bead designs I was looking for.
I used MLP heart base once as a reference for Inktober challange.
But yes, I also own my OC as a cute heart pony! The memories...
yep same. never used deviantart but i did use scratch a lot when i was like 9 and that lick base was everywhere there lol
i'm a musician, not an artist. but this feels a lot like the arguments i've heard about if autotune or using backtracks in live performance is "Cheating". at the end of the day art isn't a sport, you can't cheat at expressing yourself. Great video!
well said
That's different though because you're still writing the song, that's more like using photoshop tools to put filters on your art that make it look better than you would be able to draw, which I do hear some traditional artists call cheating and that is a bullshit claim, but the reason that's more similar to what you said is because the artist still fundamentally creates the artwork, they just use shortcuts and available tools to make sure it comes out exactly how they want. Bases are more like writing your own original lyrics to an existing song, anyone can do it, the quality ranges from terrible to excellent depending on your musical and writing ability, and even though you've put an original spin on it and contributed your own creativity no one in their right mind would call it an original song, they'd call them original lyrics. So a drawing made with a base isn't an original artwork, but it is an original character (in most cases, if it's fanart I'd guess that's more of a mashup than something original, but still that takes skill to do well)
@@butasimpleidiotwizard the amount of music that is the same chords with different lyrics or a different rhythmic/melodic structure is insanely high. There are lawsuits about it that set a very dangerous precedent for musicians and music as a whole. Granted, it isn't the exact same as art and I'm not going to claim to understand the intricacies of this issue after watching one video about it but as far as music is concerned people reuse melodies, chord progressions, rhythmic structures, etc. all the time and most of the time no one cares as long as the song feels different. It does lend a bit more lenience because there can be a chord progression in two songs that is exactly the same and most people aren't going to notice because the song has so much more going on and what pops out is largely based on who's listening to it and what they've listened to in the past. In art it does seem like if there is a pose, you can make it different but the general idea is always going to be there if the person seeing it knows where it's from. Either way, thank u for ur thoughts they got me to consider another side to this discussion that i may not have otherwise thought about.
@@grey511 to put it bluntly, visual art does not work like that, and there's a very clear difference between posing characters a certain way and using somebody else's lineart as the basis of your drawing. Chords are building blocks, just like colours or line weight or things like that, that's why when artists use a base but trace over it with their own style of lineart and add so much extra detail and variation to the base like in the good examples in the video it becomes different, because at that point the base provided less to the piece than the artist did, but when it's just some 13 year old drawing bad anime hair in overly saturated colours over the top of it in mspaint that's just editing and messing around, it's not art but it doesn't need to be because the point of doing it is not to create art, it's to have fun.
Drawing with a base is like covering a song. Someone made a thing and you did something with it. The cover wouldn't exist without the original, but it's still its own song in its own right. Sometimes people sing other people's songs because they can't write their own and just want to sing something, regardless of their own skill, and sometimes people sing other people's songs because they're accomplished and talented musicians that wanna play with them and make them something their own.
In short i think you're entirely correct.
I am speechless, this unlocked a long forgotten memory. I now remember being on DeviantArt and collecting bases when I was 12 (i didn't even use them that much, but they were so popular I was just downloading them for nothing lol). I was also really into pixel art. I completely forgot about this part of my web-past, this is crazy!!
gosh, bases were such a huge help for me when i was younger. i remember having a favorites folder for just bases bc they helped me with posing my characters so much! i never used them digitally, just used them as a reference for traditional art. but wow, this was such a flashback.
10:58 you literally unlocked memories for me oml. As a kid I used to love bases and I think they're harmless fun. I used them to make some of my very first character designs and digital art on DA and now 8 years later I'm going to art school! It's really funny to see people trashing bases as if they are a stain on deviantart when they are FAR more innocent than many other things on the site...
Oh yeah, thee are plenty of less innocent things in DA and I need bleach for my eyes. But bases? Yeah, those hardly do any harm, unless you don’t credit or something.
Same!! I used to use mlp bases and draw over in paint ahaha, i was so proud of my edgy Mary sue ocs. And now im going to art school and creating my own original art. I even think creating bases sounds pretty fun
Same here, I started off using bases as a kid. Now I'm in art school, graduating in the spring. It's funny how many people in this age bracket got our starts with DeviantArt bases and tracing anime.
Hell, I started off _making_ bases when I was like 10 💀 they probably weren't very good but it got me interested in figure drawing and learning anatomy.
There's actually another way bases can be helpful: Practicing drawing wireframes for certain poses. Basically, find a pose you like and want to get better at drawing. Import it into your art program of choice, bring down it's layer's opacity, and sketch your wireframe in a separate layer above it. It'll give you a good idea of how the specific pose's wireframe should look.
not just that! You can also try figuring out the basic shapes and depth required to create convincing poses within the base (by drawing guidelines) and whatnot, training your eye so that it's easier to visualize it on your own next time!
This is actually how I taught myself how to draw better as a kid! It's super useful tbh
One thing I like about bases is how I'm able to draw a character concept. I love expanding upon how the design looks off base and turning a simple little oc into some important character for my story. It's fun and wild
This is the first I hear of bases, and it sounds like a wonderful idea. Not all artists need to get bogged down about everything. Poses, and anatomy is hard. And so is drawing hair and clothing. It's a lot to learn if you just want to make an original character. Being able to do only the parts you wanna practice or have fun with is a great tool.
Basically all art workflows I have heard of have specialized artists for multiple steps of character designs as well. It's not just one person that designed and put together Elsa in Frozen, or something. Art is a very collaborative effort, and being able to crowdsource that collaboration is great!
It's unfortunate that people ended up removing credit for a lot of the bases, etc. Because that kinda makes the whole collaborative nature of it fall apart. But overall this seems to have been a very good tool provided to lots of young artists who wanted to take a stab at making their own characters.
This healed my inner child. I loved bases because they let me experiment with character ideas in a fun, easy way. I used to pride myself on my work looking more like "tooled dolls", or pixel dolls with more complex shading and designs, but I was still using the same bases as other people.
I remember feeling so distraught when people came at me with base hate that it really weakened my feelings towards my work. I'm older now, and can recognize that, despite popular belief, bases did help me grow. I wouldn't have trusted myself to make these complex designs and interesting concepts if I didn't have the base to start with.
I'm still a digital artist and, though I'll use a base occasionally for MLP work (damn you, weird... pony... bean bodies), I'm relatively on my own. All the controversy has given me a weird complex about using references. I wish it hadn't.
That being said-- thank you for this video!! It felt like a kind of closure to my old art. :)
Speaking as a DeviantArt kid who still uses bases, exactly this. Often times they’re really helpful for character design and other aspects of just learning how to use digital medium in a stress-free environment. Sure, it’s not high art most of the time, but I’ve seen some pretty amazing things out there. It’s a lot more common in the furry community to have folks accept that, since that fandom is based around (hah) creative expression from all ages and skill levels.
Furries still use bases! Lots of artists sell bases for various animal species and they're really helpful for non-artists when making new furry characters. Plenty of fursuits are commissioned using designs that use bases :)
Bases are useful for artists too! When you just GOTTA get that design out or want to bulk up adopt sales theyre a life saver.
They are very helpful! I don’t use them, but they are great reference, and wonderful for fursuit designing, as a new maker, its super useful for when I need a quick reference sheet
They're definitely useful. I'm no artist, not the best at describing, so when I want an artist to draw a new character I use a base just to convey.
:o i had no idea fursuits had a similar system, i guess it makes sense considering sewing patterns are like ye olde bases
@@esotericpince the bases being used as reference help a lot with figuring out where markings need to go and exact colors. Also ye old bases is so fucking funny but accurate
Bases really were the Picrews of their time. Before I was competent in art as a kid, Bases were so key for making designing OCs, AUs, Fanart, etc.
I remember using a basic caramelldansen Avatar base for my Total Drama Island OC. Good times... good times.
i find this SO fascinating. for me, i found bases through flipnote hatena on my DSi. i would spend hours downloading base packs and going through to make my own characters with them and even went as far as making a web comic that never saw the light of day using bases for every slide. flipnote hatena for bases was unbeat because it enabled younger kids to easily make digital art.
“Casual artists exist”! Yes! I remember when I was lots lots younger it was common for fanfic/oc writers to just take a character and go MS Paint ham on it because we were good at writing, not drawing! I always found art really frustrating because I could never do what I saw in my head, but instead of that inspiring me to learn and get better, it just made me angry and I preferred to just write the same thing. I was meh, average, at art as in I could draw something from scratch that looked like a character in poses and whatever. My Mom was always impressed 🤣 But I was also really good at “copying”, as in looking at a picture and redrawing it, or redrawing what would basically be a base and then change it how I wanted. But oh boy, the HUGE negativity regarding this at that age turned me off for life, which is so stupid because I learned far more about posing and anatomy and how clothing and such worked from doing this, rather than the HEY nothing I have now because I felt so discouraged and resentful and hurt by the whole thing I never kept it up. If I’d kept drawing and doing art, of course I’d be better now after 20 years, but because we weren’t allowed to just have fun and do our own thing, I’m sure there are loads of people like me who gave up art and never went back.
Funnily enough, same deal has always surrounded fanfic and how “real writers” call it a “crutch”. I know loads of fanfic authors that have far more talent, skill, imagination and creativity, than half of those “real” writers.
Just let people do what they want and have fun if it’s not hurting anyone! Sheesh!
Honestly, I grew up on cringe culture and refused to do anything that I or random people online deemed as cringy
Unfortunately, like you, this just made me frustrated when trying to make anything because I was a literal child and not a pro at character development
Now, years later, I still have a hard time pursuing interests because I'm gonna be bad at it/it's embarrassing
It's so genuinely frustrating that I can't just let myself enjoy and be bad at something solely because of the stigma around it
Stars, this brings back memories.
I can totally relate to this!! I’m a writer, not much of an artist. Art can be discouraging to me due to the learning curve and frustration over not being able to perfectly show what’s in my brain, so bases were such a lovely thing for me!
Glad I’m not alone in everything you said.
Yes I'm the same! I'm a writer but I also imagine *very specific* scenes I want to draw! That's where bases (and merging multiple ones on a program with layers like PaintDotNet) come in!
i used to be one of those people who cried about bases being "cheating" as a kid, but now i basically always use them for reference sheets and adopts because they're really convenient. surprisingly, my art hasn't "become bad" like all those people said it would
almost like it was bs panicking.
Same
I grew up hating art because of bad teachers and feeling like I would never be able to draw because so many kids at the same age were infinitely better but one day I found bases and I drew some clothes and hair on it and I found out I'm really good at drawing clothes probably because I've been sewing my whole life but just seeing that there was some small part of art I wasn't terrible at inspired me to actually start drawing on my own and I continued to use bases for several years until I started to be able to look at my own art and the anatomy no longer ruined it and I could actually draw on my own ill admit my art definitely isn't anything special yet almost all my characters have the same eyes and mouth (working on that lol) but it's so much more than I ever could've imagined being able to draw and if it wasn't for bases I never would've got here I would've continued thinking I just wasn't meant to do art probably my entire life
1:37 aged perfectly.
I only learned to draw ponies, back in my heavily brony fandom phase, from bases. At some point I went from tracing art to using bases to referencing bases, to not needing a reference at all. In the present I can still draw ponies from memory because I learned it through the slow process from literal tracing to actively doing it myself. So. Yeah. Bases good.
What technique do you use? I typically use a three circle rule (Head, Chest, Hip)
I learned that way as well, i went from heavy referencing for poorly shaded art to actually being decent. wouldn't recommend my method though; didn't use tutorials and brute-forced talent with drawing every day for 1.5 years now
I used to use deviantart bases ALL THE TIME, especially when i first started digital art back in 2017. They were my best friend
asdfghjkl I feel old, read '2017' as '2007' at first. 🤦♀️
@@aspen1713 Both years had bases so nothing wrong was seen really
HOLY SHIT that thumbnail got me, i only got deviant art in the last 5 months for the point system for adoptables, but that licky cat gif base. i grew up on scratch and it was EVERYWHERE there where chains and chains that people added onto and you just unlocked that memory
Saying nobody learned from bases was so stupid. Bases were how I learned to draw hair and clothes, and also how shading and light sources worked. Using references also seriously helped me with anatomy.
I didn’t really know English as a child, so I would spend hours trying to find mlp bases. I remember when I finally found out that they were called bases, I actually spend the time revising that word so I wouldn’t forget. I loved watching people use bases and create beautiful pieces of art, and I also loved doing it myself. Now I want to go find my old laptop and see my old mlp art aaah
It's amazing seeing how far you've come now, being able to write all of this in English!
I started doing original art after using bases because it taught me how to use art programs without stressing over the actual drawing part of it. I still use bases sometimes because I like the particular pose and/or style, but I do original art, too. Bases allowed me to be more involved in the community I wanted to, even with a lower skill set. As long as credit is given and you respect the original artist, I see no problem with them.
omg this totally brings me back to my origins of drawing.
i was like 7-8 and i didn’t knew how to draw a good body/proportionate so i used bases for my ms paint drawings and got bullied by teens/adults for tracing and that it isn’t real art, real fun :).
i still draw to this day but use mostly references, i’m thankful for the people who made bases because it helped me a lot for my progress.
I'm a middle school art teacher and bases are very popular among a lot of my students. Most of them don't have any digital art experience or tools, and they trace them on paper from their laptop screens. A lot of them have learned to draw their own bases by doing that, and are often asked to sketch bases for other students. I personally love the idea of bases, because it lets you practice and have fun, instead of becoming frustrated. People who are interested in improving their actual drawing skills get a boost, and people who just want to have fun making characters get to do so.
Bases is one of those topics from my childhood that I remember being such a big deal to me. I remember watching a bunch of deviantart rants and taking notes on “Dos and Do not on becoming a successful artist” and I legitimately thought that if I ever used a base I would be shunned by the art community. As I gotten older, I’ve come to realized that bases aren’t that big of deal and they’re something for fun! I’ve even used bases as pose references for when im drawing cause they’re really helpful for stuff like that!
Same! But honestly..My time on Deviant art honestly led to me giving up art entirely. I was GOOD! But the amount of drama, hate, homophobia, predators, stalkers, harassers, and creeps on da 100% made my mental health struggles worse. 🙄 I used to draw to help with my depression, now I'm too depressed and self critical to draw!
oh my god YES! i use bases for poses til this day n yes i trace them what abt it🙄 deviantart was awful if u were a beginner in art. and what’s crazy is my art improved the moment i stopped listening to the little voice in my head reminding me the don’ts list i read on there when i was 12
@@AngelCaz7 seriously, same! The second I decided not to listen to advice like that is when art became less stressful for me. Idk why people on DA had such toxic mindsets when it came to young artists/hobbyists, especially the one person in the vid who was like “I hate, hate, hate, HATE, bases!” Like chill tf out and let people draw their MLP and BNHA OC’s using bases 😆
@@bluessbelles so glad we stopped listening to those ppl n let ourselves just do what we love
i remember in my country you could literally buy sketchbooks filled with bases made by actual companies (TopModel, Lillalou) . i used to love drawing on them.
I REMEMBER TOP MODEL
Wow I forgot about TopModel
Yes, I used to love top model! I was never one for colouring books so the design element really appealed to me. I doubt i still have any, certainly not in my room, but I actually bought a set of their colouring pencils and I'm still surprised by how good they are, ngl.
Anyway, TopModel was Top tier
Oh yeah i had this too it was so fun !
TOP MODEL YEESSS
Those things are definitely still a thing though most I‘ve seen now are fantasy themed, so that’s cool, I guess?
Thank you. I hate when artists try to gatekeep art. 🤮 This was a fair assessment on bases. I make my own bases sometimes that I trace and reuse whenever I need to quickly draw a character design or costume or something quick.
i remember having a few “rushes” of going onto google images, downloading a shitload of “draw the squad” bases, tracing them intricately with separate layers and everything, and then just. mashing my ocs onto them whenever i felt like it. i also had a pretty recent boom of downloading a bunch of mlp bases and making ocs out of those, it was pretty fun and actually did help me figure out how to draw those weird little horses! so yeah, i really like bases, i think theyre useful and fun, though i am 100% on the train that if you’re going to upload what you made from a base, you should link to the original base maker.
I'd like to throw my perspective out there. I'm autistic, my limited ability to see and understand facial expressions and body language hinders my ability to express my ideas when drawing people in general. It's never gotten better with time and practice. I dont USE bases persa, rather I keep a catalogue of them that I can reference when I'm struggling while drawing a person or people. This helps me tremendously.
So... you never learned facial expressions when you were younger?
I struggle with body language a lot too, and I like how a lot of pose bases will say what kind of thing they're going for, like powerful base, or relaxed base, or whatever the theme may be. I sometimes use them just for getting ideas down, but I make sure to give credit, as people have taken my art without credit before, and I had to report it to the site it was on.
@@ARCtheCartoonMaster its not something you can learn. autistic people have a limited understanding of emotions and social cues.
That's always what I do, mainly because it helps me get ideas when I absolutely need to come up with a pose and I'm struggling
So true. I'm also autistic and although I'm not an artist, facial expressions in general are very difficult for me to understand. It's such a struggle, and an aspect of being autistic that i feel like a lot of neurotypical people don't know about
As an artist rased on bases (who occasionally gets a little lazy and still uses them to do things like outfit design) I would even argue that it does start to teach you anatomy. My art teacher's best advice on "how to get better" was trace the heck out of everything. It helps build muscle memory and you slowly start to notice when an eye is of center or an arm is to long.
nowadays i draw my own bases for costume designs because i can, but it defiently helps not fokus on the clothes and not fiddle around for hours trying to get something anatomically correct and good looking done
Also you don't always want to practice anatomy. Practicing clothes and draping is so frustrating when the entire body underneath is wonky and you have no idea how to fix it. Without bases you're SOL if you want anything on your character to look good before you know anatomy
I used to use bases and I luckily have access to most if not all my sketchbooks from 2015 onward. I used to do them traditionally and it was so fun
as an artist who genuinely works hard and strives to get better, basically any time someone tries to say to casual artists that "you won't improve if you do this!!" or "you're stunting your growth!!" it's a) complete bullshit, and b) never actually comes from good intentions. people tend to use it as an excuse to make fun of usually kids whose art isn't up to some weird, obscure standard. in reality, if you're using art shortcuts because you want to have fun and don't intend to get into the art grind, that's completely fine. casual artists are totally valid and anyone who says otherwise is just a nasty internet nobody. and if you're an aspiring artist who uses shortcuts like these to help get over your struggles with things like anatomy and composition, so you can workshop other skills, that's great too! obviously if you rely on bases forever you won't learn those things, but there is absolutely no harm in using them to help get you started, because sometimes the hardest part of drawing is just starting. i personally learned how to draw humans by tracing katsuki bakugo from MHA over and over again, so i get it. and it goes without saying, but it's also definitely fine for experienced artists to use bases just for fun or to pump out an idea quickly. i've been drawing for years, and i've used them to get over art block or just to get an idea out without spending hours on posing and anatomy.
this is an absurdly long comment that no one will read, but tldr, bases are perfectly fine and if anyone says you're somehow worse or lesser for using them, they're a liar and a loser
Of all the obscure things on DeviantArt I somehow remember AMA, or ask me anything, blogs most vividly. I know they were mostly popular on Tumblr but there were quite a few ones on DeviantArt, which was the reason 12 year old me made an account and then abandoned it a few minutes later when they couldn’t figure out how to submit an ask. It would be a really interesting topic to hear you cover!
Fffff the amas 🤭 I ran one on wattpad back in the day, it was definitely not limited to da or tumblr
Haha I used to run a super cringe ama called "ask Jeff the Killer" that was actually fairly popular back in the day. Haven't thought about it in years 😅
I think Izzy's videos are the only ones I click the instant they pop up. Always worth it
True lmao
same
Omg I was just sitting here listening to the video thinking where have I heard this background music, like it had unlocked a child memory or something. me sitting in front of the tv watching my sister playing this game. it took me a second to remember, me watching my sister playing the fishing mini game of petz cats 2. waiting for my turn while she tried to catch the last fish she needed to complete the collection of that area.
A very vivid flashback, best game music ever. wish I could go back and revive my old wii and just listen to the music again.
God, I remember going on Devianart for hours searching for MLP bases to use in MS Paint. Memories.
I've heard "frakendolling" used recently. Apparently the concept still applies in the modeling community. My sister used it in reference to MMDs, which have a lot of similarities in regards to dubious credit and communal creation.
Franken dolling is a term in the doll customizer community too! For when you mix two different doll parts together
It's been a thing in the hobby scene for decades, but we call it kitbashing.
yeah, the frankendolling issue runs absolutely rampant in the MMDC, mostly as a result of the western community paying little to no mind to the rules of the original modellers of content. I mean, we still have a ton of issues with people combining model types that are illegal to part transplant together, or people that illegally redistribute parts of other people's models for others to make their model edits from. Tda models are by far one of the worst cases of this, since Tda literally stated in their readme file not to make bases from their original Tda Miku Append model, and yet someone still went and did it, and now no one bothers to read the rules enough to see that what they're doing is illegal and there's so many variants of just Tda bases alone. People honestly wonder why the eastern MMDC doesn't trust any of the western MMDC with their models anymore, but then we have cases like this.
man, this takes me back... i used to collect bases back in like 2010, categorized into folders like "ponies" "wings" etc, i had to have had up to 2 gb of them saved
The gif bases omg, the lick icon was EVERYWHERE on Scratch in 2015. There were these, 'make your own licky!' projects that you had to remix and color in.
I really don’t use bases at all any more but I do still use Deviant art, seeing bases makes me very nostalgic, bases did help me as an artist! Especially since I think most people who even used them were all children or minors, I always gave credit. I remember getting a comment as a child about to stop using bases, I just thought “I don’t always use bases though…”, though, this was really nostalgic. Even those “character adopts”! I still treasure the many adoptable characters I have 😅
Really happy to see someone defending bases. I think it’s a great learning tool that helps novice artist start out before they learn how to create their own drawings. In general as long as there’s no stealing involved, I’m all for young artists drawing what makes them happy and developing their art overtime.
i was OBSESSED with kiss dolls. i'm about 5 years too old to have gotten into bases, but i definitely used kiss dolls in a similar way, more as reference than tracing over. i'm so nostalgic for kiss dolls still lol. wonder what kimiki's up to these days.
I loved bases growing up. I used them as references poses, I would print them and draw over it, OI would draw shapes to understand the anatomy of certain anime styles, that's what pushed me to want to go to an art class and seriously helped me developing my own drawing skills. It sparked my love to draw characters.
I think references and bases can be so helpful to artists. Learning new poses, how to better draw certain body parts, and how clothes/hair should flow in certain poses is so helpful. My drawings with references always look better than without and they help improve my style and anatomy understanding
I think another thing that's really important about bases is their usage in the adoptable community! I know you mentioned it a couple times, but bases are genuinely really helpful to a lot of people who are designing OCs to sell.
Bases as actual character art are a little bit iffy in my opinion (in terms of the value of it, obviously do whatever you want if you follow artist TOS and the base is F2U), but bases work super well for adoptables where the goal is to design something unique. The actual lineart doesn't matter all that much, its all about accessories and color. And I think it's very valuable to allow people who may not be that good at art a chance to design and sell OCs!
Thank you so much for having a nuanced and interesting discussion about it, though. The only other times I've seen bases being covered were in rant videos from 2017 lol, and obviously we weren't getting a lot of depth in those
soooo useful in the warrior cats community when i want to "test-run" a new oc's design or quickly make a visual reference for a character im using in roleplay.
Yeah definitely!! I personally was an adopt artist using those mlp bases and I knew a lot of such talented people who could make good money from adopts and commissions and stuff. So much amazing pieces were created with it!
I'm not against bases, I think they're a neat idea, but I feel really really uncomfy with the idea of literally using someone else's art to make money without 1) explicit permission and maybe 2) sharing some of the profit. If the artist explicitly states that it's ok to do that with the work, I'm fine with it, but if there is no overt permission/you don't have a contract with those rights or some other agreement then that makes me clench up a bit in discomfort. I would be unhappy if someone did so to my work.
If you intend to break into the industry, you do need to learn early that contracts and permissions are incredibly important to honor. A lot of otherwise talented individuals have been frozen from the field because they didn't honor boundaries.
Bases are great and a cute idea, but do get permission the moment money becomes involved.
now that i think about it adoptables are basically nfts lmao
@@hellbreakfast1590
+ (just adding on) Most base makers usually have a description w their base, explaining whether they are okay or not with someone using their base for profit.
The vast majority are, but it is important to check nonetheless ^-^
I like bases to use as reference. The “naked” bodies make it so I can see how the clothes would fall, etc, I don’t think I ever traced over bases, but I used them as references A LOT as a little kid.
8:05 the way I screamed "KIMIKI!!!!!!" Omg 😭😭😭😭 yes plz plz cover kiss dolls they were my childhood
I admit it, I'm sorry, I stole a base once! Truly, 10 yr old me was a terrifying scallywag. I deleted the watermark on some dragon base and I'm forever ashamed.
But in all seriousness, I overheard my sister and her friend talking about how someone was stealing her friends bases, and that's when I read the description of the dragon base I was using and I saw the artist asking for peeps to leave the watermark. I didn't even realize what I was doing was wrong, and after I saw that, I never took watermarks off of bases again.
I think the people who ranted about "tracing isn't really drawing and it doesn't improve your skills!!!11eleven!!" listened a bit too well when art teachers scolded people for tracing. I can honestly say that tracing helps some artists by improving their hand-eye coordination, their observation skills, and so on. Not all, but it's useful for some. Nobody gets to tell anyone else that their method of learning isn't valid.
All I can think about was people I knew in high school who were wildly impressed by my mediocre art skills who couldn't even do circles and straight lines well.
If you don't know the basics like "how to make a line that looks nice" you need to learn somehow.
but it isn't lmao
Exactly! Growing up, I used to trace over so many pictures in the books I read and stuff while I still drew separate from that. It wasn't until I was older that I realized that's why my art skills were improving so fast but now I'm a fully self taught artist and am planning to go to college for animation or character design because of it.
@@pastelpurpledeathbed What, it's not valid? I used to use bases very often, it helped me understand VERY basics of where body parts go, from there I was able to branch off and make my own art, which is 10x better nowadays...So yeah, it's a valid thing-
Literally professionals in the industry trace to a degree
this video made me realize how much deviantart is carried on the shoulders of dweeby little kids
Your "artist commentary youtuber" segment TOOK ME BACK! Wow
I was watching this video for the sheer nostalgia since I was a base maker back in the day, when I suddenly see one of my old bases at 3:15! Thank you Izzzy, I’m honored to have been selected for your video out of the millions of bases still clogging dA to this day