cthulhubrain

[cthulhubrain]

cobbled together a basic reference for my snake lady for artfight.

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i'm taking part in artfight this year!

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an update to this watercolour paper struggle, after learning MORE about proper watercolour paper, the physicality of how it's SUPPOSED to work with the water and pigment, and comparing that to the heckin plastic that this shit-paper is probably made up of.

real/best/proper watercolour paper is made OF COTTON. COTTON. the paint is supposed to be absorbed and bleed around through the material of the paper, easily spread around while wet, not sitting permanantly in any one space, but able to be picked up with water and pushed elsewhere to bleed again there (to varying degrees).

my paper? the pigment sits and sinks into a tiny lil pocket after it drips past the textured plasticy surface, becomes trapped in a lil grease stain, refuses to move anywhere else, and the pigment itself also decides 'okay i don't exist anymore, au revoir nerd!' and fades into another universe, as if you didn't use watercolour paint but like, dripped clear liquid that once bumped up against the concept of colour a long time ago. i think i'd have a better time using bristol board...

maybe i should just invest in bristol board...

my cheap-ass gaddamn dollarstore watercolour paper (the closest thing to actual proper watercolour paper i've been able to get my hands on in the past several months) is not only textured in a way beyond reasonable watercolour-paper-texturing, bUT ALSO reacts to water like goddamn printer paper!

what is this greasestaining water-seepage, paper?!? You literally are supposed to prevent that, you're supposed to not allow seepage at the slightest hint of moisture, that's what your ugly plasticy texture is supposed to protect against!

I thought 'oh maybe the water seeped underneath the paper through the masking tape and i just didn't make a good seal at the edges', but no, the water is being absorbed directly through the paper in splotches here and there, looking like grease stains. I also thought 'oh maybe it's the brushes i'm using, they're more acrylic-leaning and using them has produced more oily-like textures in my watercolour strokes on other papers, so maybe sOMEHOW that's what's going on?

No. no. I might have found a solution: I'm gonna have to turn the paper backwards.

that's right, i'm testing the smoothie smooth back of the paper and it didn't have the grease problems that immediately popped up when applying to the 'right' side. I'm waiting for this paint and water to fully dry but so far so good. Looks like i'm gonna have to be a lil freak and flip this goddamn insult-to-watercolour-paper around and use the pretty aesthetically pleasing backside like a goober.

art is a journey.

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just a lil update/fyi i HAVE been doing artfight work ;u; (i'm almost done my first attack, it's just in the ugly stage of paint where you regret your life choices and question everything you've ever learned).

the only reason i haven't put my card up yet (here's my ~~artfight link~~ ) is because i don't like my profile icon right now, don't have my snek char icon completely finished yet to go on the card, and am deeply considering making proper icons for the rest of my characters. that's it ;_____;

[cthulhubrain]

artfight is coming, and every single team card i have seen from artists on my dashboard and in tags i search, has been mcheckin team gawsh diddlydarn crystals.

why is this a problem? because it means that I have to actually work and get my own stuff ready! rather than continue to procrastinate!

anyways, tldr: team fossils is best theme. just fyi.

[cthulhubrain]

I feel like giving you guys a lil peak behind the curtain of my art struggles. So here we go!

The worst part of "traditional art" (aka, non-digital art for those who don't know) is transcribing it into a digital form. Hands down. For me, i take pictures of my sketchings/paintings with my phone's camera. No one will recommend you do this, especially not me; invest in a scanner if you can afford it... or you can suffer along with me.

As anyone who has ever taken any photo will tell you, lighting is tantamount, lighting is what will make or break you photo. This applies a quadrillion times more when you're trying to take a photo of physical art you've made. Best move is to wait for a sunny day and let that light in to get good focus and saturation on your stuff. Unfortunately for me, I live in newfoundland. What does that mean? Well if you type in 'newfoundland weather' to google...

... yeah that's about right. Obivously it's not snowing here all year round, but the weather is finicky, loves to switch to overcast at the drop of a dime, and most our year is winter because OF COURSE. So waiting for sunny days isn't always convenient. Indoor lighting is what I'm almost always working with. Which, isn't great; most indoor lighting is yellow-y and if it isn't, then it's not nearly punchy enough like natural sunlight, so most pictures of my art end up grey and washed out. And that's not even going in to the direction of your lighting potentially highlighting wrinkles and creases and texture in your paper that hinders the overall conveyance of the art on top of it. In short, lots of pics are taken and then I have to sort through which one is the least shit. Not the best, the least shit.

these are from last year's (2024's) artfight; different snaps of the same picture, with different phone-camera lighting-filters (which can help your colours somewhat show up), and none of them come close to the level of saturation or colour the actual paper-painting had. In the end i went in with photoshop and added layers and layers of translucent blobs of shading and colour.

and sometimes, when you think you have optimal conditions (a sunny bright clear day, your art supplies outside, a good art drive), the lighting can still screw you over in ways you didn't quite see when taking the photo

sO MANY DIVITS AND SHADOWS IN THE BUMPY PAPER, AAAAAAAAAGHGHGH.

So... yeah. Lot of struggle. Why don't i just suck it up and do digital art? ... because... (because that requires re-setting up my tablet to this laptop, fiddling around with a portable cd drive, potentially running into the brick wall of the replacement cable not working, all kinds of stufffff).

things that would make my life easier? painting on the proper paper for my paints. using my easel again. setting up a bright lighting space. using a camera instead of my phone to take pictures of my art. colouring with digital art. all kinds of stuff.

am i going to do any of these completely reasonable steps that i could actually do?

... ennnhhhhhh.

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old dorian artings (i say "old" but they're from like... february or march of this year).

i'm disappointed in my past-self for losing all of the expression when i coloured that first one up there.

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y'know, i haven't drawn spiderman ever in my life.

okay that's not entirely true. the last time i tried (and failed) to draw spiderman was when i was like... 7 or 8 years old. i was always intimidated back then, thinking 'whoa this is an advanced thing to draw. how do you even draw superheroes. and he's got no face! how do you do that!'. and i just, never tried again. ever.

all this to say, rediscovering my love of johnny storm and wanting to draw him means i'm probably going to eventually need to draw a spoodermins.

child-me would be proud.

[cthulhubrain]

guess what my recent hyperfixation has been...

(if you look closely at the fourth image you can see where my cat clawed through the paper ;__; )

[cthulhubrain]

practicing lighting & colour relativity with my watercolour paints.

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more eyes!

i like how this one turned out the best. but, as much as i love the colours, i'm not sure about settling on them.

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so, i'm a noob when it comes to colour (this is probably not news to anyone who has seen my art/followed this blog), and i've only really been experimenting and getting into the game recently, things finally clicking and all that.

anyways, all this to say i wanna talk about the paints i mixed for mergo's skin in those most recent images.

i had colours from 2 different paint brands: a sky-turquoise-y blue blob stuck to a palette i have yet to fully use up, and some peachy and warm oranges from a chalky-ish palette set with rad colours i just got in december. together, they made a greenish slop that looked neat, but looks neater on the paper i used, because the paints didn't fully mix:

there's shifting and layering there and it's beautiful and i love it!

it doesn't look like the greenish paint i mixed, but instead looks like... steely dusty cold corroded metal-y-ness.

(oh and you can also see other paint and marker and pencil crayon splorch-testings there too)

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more eyes!

i like how this one turned out the best. but, as much as i love the colours, i'm not sure about settling on them.

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oh i should probably mention i have a Bluesky account 🙃 I'll be posting art there(tumblr is still my main art space no worries), random posts, pictures of my cats, and will be using it as my like. Gamer, Twitch.....thing? account?

i dunno. Go follow if you want :P

[cthulhubrain]

(thank you for everyone's kind words, likes, and reblogs of my old witchy dunmer lady art ouo)

[cthulhubrain]

playing with eye placement, shape, and overworking non watercolour paper.

my elder scrolls online arcanist has cursed me.

[cthulhubrain]

more watercolour pen tomfoolery