#'is it in reference to-' the monochrome stuff? tbh yeah

[comedy--pink]

ingo is a will wood fan while emmet is a lemon demon fan. do you hear me

[dabeywabeys]

How do you do your colors? Do you have a tutorial by chance?

aaa i dont have one onhand but i can go through my process? (this ended up being really long oops😭)

most of these arent like color theory rules or anything this is just how i like to do things

usually i choose 2-4 hues for the flats and pick some colors for my pallette off those

i generally like to stay away from desaturated colors but thats just cus super saturated colors r kinda my thing and i like em :]

and in my color picking for the pallette i try to make sure i have a substitute for black and white! you can give the impression of those two colors without actually using pure black or pure white by replacing them with other colors that have darker or lighter values than the rest of your pallette (ill say more on values in a sec)

picture example of everything so far

nowww we talk about values!! a lot of people have a tendency to stay away from brighter more saturated colors cus they dont know how to use them in a pleasing way, and part of the reason for that i think is they arent checking values. values are a term to refer to white, black, grayscale colors, and when i refer to the values of your pallette, i mean how it looks in grayscale

this is how the colors i chose earlier look monochrome. i tried to make sure there was a good variety of dark and light values (could've done a little better than this tbh but you get the idea)

i Always check this when im picking colors cus i am prone to eyestrainy color clashy stuff and fixing values usually helps keep it pleasing

nowww we get into choosing shading and lighting colors. values also help for this!

i usually use a multiply layer for shading and a screen layer for highlights to start off with and choose a color id like for both. this time i did blue for shades and yellow for lights

also i avoid shading the black substitute sometimes cus sometimes it can look weird since i usually also make this my lineart color but thats not a hard rule or anything

but, while these are a nice starting point, im not satisfied with them so i merge all the layers and start adjusting them, making them more saturated and making sure the values look okay

aaaand it turns out like this!

usually this would be where people would stop but iiiii have been messing around with transitional shades as of late so i should probably talk about those too. basically i saw a painter say she avoids blending the base colors with the shading and lighting too much because it makes pieces look muddy to her, and that she prefers to make her own transition shades that keep the saturation up. so i took that to mean blast bright ass colors all over my piece as long as the values line up.

im still kinda figuring out how i like to do this and this is mostly just based off me like fucking around and isnt really apart of color theory rules from what i know but its how my pieces look the way they do

basically for each highlight color ill pick it, and move the hue level a little in the direction away from the base color, and then ill adjust that until the value is between the base color and the highlight, and then i repeat that process with the shading colors.

and it should look a little like this in monochrome with the values between the ones of highlights base colors and shading. cus it transitions between themmm thats why its a transition shade.

and this is how it turns out in color! the general idea is to make them pop while still being close enough to the base colors/shading/lighting that it isnt so jarring that it looks gross. im still fucking around and figuring out how to do this in a way that looks good to me but yeah! :]

that's my whole process basically. i did not realize itd make a whole essay but i hope its helpful in any way? feel free to ask for clarification if any parts are confusing

[resbang-bookclub]

AMA Transcript: Close Your Eyes

Next up, @redphlox​ & @mrsashketchum​ stopped by to chat about their Resbang, Close Your Eyes. Here’s some of what went down:

Q: What inspired the concept behind the fic?

redphlox: WELL, I've had the idea to write a left-at-the-altar fic for a while, but I never quite had it envisioned in my mind scene/plot wise. I only had the premise. Then this year I decided to research wedding planning and ask my married friends [about] their wedding planning experience, and after brainstorming/talking it out with @professor-maka​ I had a solid idea finally. I love writing about emotions, especially coming-of-age/working through difficult situations, but writing this was difficult because I've never been in that situation (being left at the altar) so it was a journey.

Q: Mak, what went into how you chose which scenes to art/gif?

Mak (mrsashketchum): I actually had to work closely with Julie on what scenes to art and for the animatic :D But for the first piece, I really loved the bathtub scene and I thought it was such a unique challenge for me to draw the backgrounds and to bring the scene to life visually :0 If it makes sense?

redphlox: Mak drew the bathtub scene first right after she read the first chapter, like she mentioned, and we worked on picking out the scene for the icon collage together! I had the characters closing their eyes during specific moments and wanted to highlight those, and Mak brought them to life!

Q: Jackie/Soul brotp is a thing that you've created in not only this fic but some of your past ones as well! What inspired that? :D

redphlox: I LOVE Jackie so much, I think it's because I see her as a snarky, quietly sarcastic type that I relate to, so writing her with grumpy ass Soul just makes sense to me. They both are so reticent in canon, it just fits to me to put them together and have them be BFFs :D

Q: Mak, what made you decide to do an animatic?? It was so cool I looooved it.

Mak (mrsashketchum): I enjoy making animatics so much and I've always wanted to be a storyboard artist. I've also been planning to make an animatic anyway for Resbang, but when I saw Julie's fic summary I knew that the animatic was absolutely something I wanted. And I thought a trailer-like thing would go very well with the story? (This is definitely not because of watching so many wedding themed movies before, nope, lol).

Q: For Julie: There were a lot of feelings spread out through the fic, some that nearly brought me to tears. Did you have the same reactions to writing it? What emotions exactly were you trying to bring out in the reader? (because you brought out a lot).

redphlox: Hmmm, well... I wanted to bring out a sense of loss in reference to relationships, and rebuilding, and growing together after the trust is lost or the other person seems to be changing in a way you aren't. I also wanted to touch on Soul and Maka's separate and individual relationships with other people outside of their relationship, if that makes sense? I also aimed to highlight all sorts of love, so it was important to me to talk about everyone's relationships with each other. Friendship, lala, haha. My reaction to writing it was... ahh, frustration, because certain scenes were beyond reasonably difficult to write.

Q: What brought about the Soul and Wes conflict? Because like I was telling you in DMs, that wounded me ahahaha it was way too real.

redphlox: The Soul and Wes conflict was something that came up as I writing. Originally Wes was supposed to be the all-knowing, all supportive and understanding brother, but the more I wrote the more Soul started to resent Wes's blind optimism, and it makes sense - Soul can be a negative person, and it seems like he needs to sulk to process, and Wes just wasn't having it. Their personalities are too different, and showing that was important because it's okay to love someone and not know how to comfort them.

Q: That felt so real julie I loved it. As the owner of many siblings it read as absolutely true. Did your life influence that?

redphlox: Wes and Soul's relationship issues are inspired by some self-reflecting I've been doing, and taking the Love Languages test and comparing it to my loved one's results.

Q: For Mak: What inspired your color palette for the bathroom scene? It was very warm and it brought out as much emotion through visuals as the words themselves did. Was that intentional?

Mak (mrsashketchum): Yes it was definitely intentional! Like I said in my previous answer, I worked so closely with Julie (we fangirled so much over everything honestly), she helped me with colors and their poses and if there were tiny details I missed. She sent me a lot of references too which is very helpful for me since I tend to make use visual references more. It's always helpful to work closely with the author so that the feeling of the artwork doesn't wholly overwhelm the feeling of the writing style? Like I wanted it to match as well :") I'm glad it turned out amazingly.

Q: I was wondering Julie how you came up with the concept of the radio confession. I loved that Jackie's show was commandeered.

redphlox: Well, I was thinking, what's the opposite of having Soul be constipated with his feelings?? Blurting them out in public of course, haha, so that's how I came up with that scene. It's the first scene I had actually, and I plotted the fic for that ending. I also have Jackie as a public figure in many of AU's, she was a blogger in my model au, so the role seems a running gag in my writing.

Mak (mrsashketchum): Constipated was the best way to describe him with his feelings.

Q: So weird question for Julie: There's a movie I remember watching years and years ago, that I was reminded of when reading the radio confession scene, unfortunately for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. Did you draw that scene up from what would have fit into the story, or were you influenced by an outside source, like perhaps that mystery movie?

redphlox: I like to listen to the morning radio and always wonder how people are brave enough to go live on air and talk about their relationships or embarrassing moments etc, so that kind of inspired the radio scene too!

Q: I really enjoyed TsuWes btw, and it's not a ship I've really seen. What made you decide on it?

redphlox: AHHH well, they're both Tall, and I love both of them so.... I made them love each other. Also the ship name WesTsu Bestu got me.

Mak (mrsashketchum): I always thought that Tsu and Wes love to tease Soul and Maka together, so the ship happened like that haha.

Q: Btw Tsubaki owning a flower shop is greaaat was that always the plan?

redphlox: Tsu owning a flower shop was also one of those things that just came about because I needed someone to deliver those "I still love you" flowers, but it fit so perfectly because of how Soul fit into learning flower arranging from her and thus getting him to stay in Death City. It was one of those things that fell into place.

Mak (mrsashketchum): Those stuff in AUs that fall into place are the best accidents, if u can call it that.

Q: Question for Mak; the animatic, that collage, the illustration; how did you manage to capture the fic in its entirety, while still giving each piece made its own personality so to speak? For example; the bathroom scene with your color choices made it warm, melancholy, touching, the watercolor for the collage was deep and soothing at the same time, intense, and the animatic, the monotones give it a blank canvas for each viewer to create their own emotional interpretation. How are you absolutely amazing I guess is my overall question??

redphlox: This is the most important question of this AMA tbh. I love the lighting in that piece akfdsgnfkdfdss. I felt it in my heart.

Mak (mrsashketchum): Oh my god. Thank u for the question!!!! I... actually honestly have no idea haha. I guess it's just that when you love a concept so much and completely have a wonderful connection with your partner that it just flows? I wanted to really make the artworks fit into the theme and the feel of the writing. I made sure that while Julie checked if my artwork had the feel she was going for, I also wanted to make sure that what I was feeling was gonna reflect on it as well. This is for the bathtub scene btw haha. The collage was actually supposed to be monochrome as well but I wanted to give it some color too? Like the fic in its entirety is just blasting with emotions? And yet it's generally so soft to me. The animatic was really supposed to have that gray background because I've seen a lot of animatics drawn that way haha. But I did make it work to my advantage that it wasn't too overwhelmingly dark but it's so that you could see the tears as well? It would be hard if the background was white and the tears were white too, right? :0

Q: By the way I loved the weddings in the fic. Like I wanted to attend them they sounded gorgeous. How did you decide on those elements?

redphlox: I have an aesthetic/personal blog where I reblog a lot of pictures of flowers and I came across one that was a ball room covered in flowers and I thought - yep, Wes and Tsu would be married here. As for Soul and Maka's wedding, I LOVE being out at night, and I love soft lighting and would like a night wedding if I ever get married, so yeah. Aesthetic, haha.

Q: How did you manage to capture a canon-like Soul in an AU?

redphlox: Ahhh I just... plot out the fic centered with feelings first and go from there.

Q: I wanna know more about this fantastic partnership. it sounds like you guys were a great team and worked so well together - any tips on communication for anyone out there who may have felt shy? Also, give us the beta comments >:)

redphlox: Okay I LOVED working with Mak! Even though we're like, what, twelve hrs time difference??? we still managed to be online at the same time and work on our projects together. She'd draw line art and show me and I'd write a scene and show her and we'd keysmash at each other. It was soooo rewarding and fun!

Mak (mrsashketchum): I would like to say that Julie and I are the Angst Twins actually. I love working with Julie too???? Like everything just really worked out.

redphlox: It wasn't even planned tbh, I would see her online and go like :eyes: and she'd be like "im working on the collage!" or vice versa. It really felt like it was OUR resbang and not just MINE y’know? Tip wise, I'd say find a platform you really enjoy being on/are available on the most and communicate through there, that really worked for Mak and I.

redphlox: Since this was a srs fic most beta comments were of surprise and like, offended bc I did something Bad.

Jaded [@jaded-envy​] made a lot of silly comments! She is amazing. Like when Maka is at the bookstore and looking up self help books for looooove, jaded titled them after some fics i've written.

Q: Question for both Mak and Julie; your partnership sounded like it flowed like a dream. Did you guys ever feel like you were overpowering one another? I know alot of partnerships struggle with the "am I bugging them too much" or "what if i'm doing it wrong" mindsets, so how did you guys get past that, for anyone who suffered from those feelings.

Mak (mrsashketchum): Oh that's actually an interesting question!  I never thought of me overpowering Julie or her overpowering over me? It's more like I want to be able to do as much work as she does? Since we're partners we must work hand-in-hand and not with one of us being the overpowering one? So to speak.

redphlox: SAME what Mak said, I always offered her to give suggestions for the fic and she always asked me for advice on colors and we listened to each other. Basically we were considerate of each other, it was/is amazing :' D

Mak (mrsashketchum): aaaaaaa true ;w; Since it is technically a partnership, we treated it as if it were like something we needed to work on together, and doing stuff at the same time really helped put it into perspective in a way?

Q: Where did the inspo from the bathtub scene came from? Did you draw from a specific experience/influence for that?

redphlox: Hmm... well, no specific experience influenced that, it just like, happened? I thought like, "ok where would Maka be if she were crying?" and it made sense to put her in the bathtub after she spilled the ink on herself, and she prob had no energy to leave, so there she stayed until Soul found her.

Q: Also Julie, I know you suffered from writers block I kicked your butt into gear once, lol. How did you overcome it? When I get to a sentence or idea that I can't exactly word or find a way to explain, I usually drop it for weeks and then come back to it. Can't do that with Resbang to an extent so how'd you get past it within a limited amount of time without rushing the pace, or glossing over an idea that was meant to be incorporated into the fic?

redphlox: ahhhh WELL, I wrote 40kish between Jan 1st and Jan 16th, so a deadline kicks me into high gear. A lot of the block was not knowing what happens in weddings and doing research tbh x) I died a little but it made me stronger.

Q: Okay you broke my heart a number of times, can you explain the thought process of why Maka never texted Soul?

redphlox: Maka was just too shook to think rationally :0 Have you ever been so anxious it feels like you're going to die? That's basically how it was for her, the emotion was too strong. She realizes later she could have done better and coming to terms that she makes mistakes is also a lesson she had to learn.

Q: How long did recording voices for the animatic take? And did you have any silly moments while doing so? haha

Mak (mrsashketchum): I actually had the weirdest time doing every voice, it's crazy. It took half an hour to be honest? It didn't need to be perfect, it just needed to have the right emotion. I had to channel every angsty fiber of my being for crying!Maka.

Q: For Mak: Do you feel like you grew in your art skills through this bang? If so, how?

Mak (mrsashketchum): I actually did grow a lot in my art skills with this bang! I felt that giving myself more challenges in backgrounds helped a lot in dealing with drawing perspective. And also with hair. I learned so much with color as well and how each shade and palette is definitely super important.

Q: What are you most proud of for the piece/pieces you did?

Mak (mrsashketchum): I’m really proud of all my pieces! But if i could only pick one then it would be the bathtub scene for sure! I spent most of my waking hours for it and I even made a 3d model for the perspective just for a reference.

Q: What are you working on next?

Mak (mrsashketchum): I’m definitely working on some more animatics and animations and my Vday art will be super late haha. Also SoMa Week is near and I'm planning really big things!

Q: Favorite/least favorite moment/scene to write?

redphlox: Mmm my fave scene to write was all of them, I felt like I looked forward to all of them now that I look back to it, if that makes sense?

Q: Hardest scene/part to write?

Redphlox: A difficult scene to write was the very end where Soul and Maka finally talk it out bc I felt that I had gotten them in SO MUCH TROUBLE that I was like "how the fffff do I fix this?" But luckily I had the best betas, jaded and proma, there as I wrote it and we were all on the doc at the same time and we were all just, live writing/betaing. I’m v happy to have explored Soul and Maka's friendships and family life. One of my favorite scenes was the scene where Liz talked Maka through some Hard Truths. I love Liz. I think there was a scene I had to delete bc it just wasn’t fitting, it was with Kim and Soul, but I ended up using bits of it later.

Q: Tell us about your writing process.

redphlox: My writing process was basically writing like a turtle at the beginning/struggling to find inspiring music to write to/plotting, and then the last bit was writing 7k daily and going !!!! internally. Lots of keysmashes to my betas.

Q: What are you most proud of this Resbang?

redphlox: Im really proud of writing and finishing this resbang tbh, I had an amazing partner and had fun with my betas, and I pushed my writing speed/abilities because I explored some feelings I hadn't ever experienced before (being left at the altar) I'm happy with the outcome!

Q: Was music important to your process at all, and if so, are there any songs/playlists that were relevant?

redphlox: Yesssss so jaded made a playlist! Lemme get it. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7rssdV2CkoNRl4-cPWuqm7ocC-QxP0Vn

Q: What are you working on next?

redphlox: Next, I'm working on plotting this year's Resbang, finishing Siren AU, writing and posting my longfic Sailor Moon AU, and aside from writing I'm working on being a better reviewer/commenter and beta :D

[icharchivist]

Ok so I know there's theorys that Dice is from a rich family or maybe Otome's? son due to how fling posse is connected to the government; what if Dice is part of the family from the previous government? Now I know there has been little to no info on the previous gov but Stella, especially with the stuff on Dice being a king from a fallen kingdom, has been giving me ideas haha. Also fling posse might hate the gov? Like Ramuda wants to kill Otome and Gentaro seems to not like it with the whole1/2

2/2twin theory thing. But anyways those are just some of my ramblings that I thought of while listening to Stella (again) haha. Sorry if this made no sensr

______________________________________________________

Oh no no don’t apologize it’s neat i’m glad you came and told me about it!!! Hi!! welcome here overthinking about our boys!! (and wow overthinking listening to Stella is such a mood nonny ily)

But by all account i think this theory could stand just as much as him being Otome’s son, especially if we take Stella to the word yeah! 

Like yeah, the Posse seems to be really against the government in some way or another, Ramuda had expressed wanting to tear it all down (and all of humanity with it which implies already some very dark history and resentment for the government for him to be this extreme about it)(and the fact he has little to no past outside the government, that his name means “Random Number” and that apparently in the TDD Drama Tracks (only something i’ve been told by a friend so sorry if it’s not entierely accurate) he becomes extremely evasive when they discover a plot of children trafficking to someone involved in the government- yeah there might be a lot of shady things there) and Gentaro at least has the government keeping a close eye on him for a reason or another, which seems at least to be that Gentaro has some knowledge over shady elements of the government whenever he experienced them or has reasons to at least be on a watchlist. (the twin theory ofc but twin or not it’s something that Gentaro knows about the child trafficking going on that we know happened as described by the TDD drama track-)

But then we have Dice and, pardon the pun, but he seems to be Ramuda’s trumpcard by all account, his joker dare i say. I have no doubt Ramuda picked them all for a reason and so he did for Dice, and obviously him being Otome’s son would be a sort of, like, keeping Otome at bay, like waving her son in front of her to somewhat have a control over her - if it’s not that, then Dice must be still a sight that must have that strong of a message against the government. 

Dice in particular has expressed absolutly no opinion over the government, so honesty god knows what he himself might be thinking about all of this. Stella is the only dive we have on that but since it was written by Gentaro and perhaps with forshadowing of the writters we don’t know how much is something Dice “I live 100% in the present” would think, how much of his own experience actually leaked into his verse.

NOW HOWEVER just like you said, if we take Stella for its word, Dice is presented as a Fugitive, a King that had fallen, with a throne far out of reach and even if i remember well, a mention of a closed door that was the result of all the war and desolation, and the system in power, which pretty much looks a lot like what we know of Chuukiuko and what Otome’s government has instored (the motif of door/gates is still used a lot to reference this specifically government controlled section of the country after all).

So while ofc it still gives some elements for the Otome’s son theory, there are perfect arguments to be made as of him being son of the previous’s minister for exemple. It would give complete different reasons for Dice to run away, one being really of a fugitive running for his safety and would give all sort of reasons on how he would burry this specific part of his life away and even more so his whole search on “why he was kept alive” (as by stella) and “him wanting to feel alive” (as for his motto)

Imo i think Dice is definitly associated with one of the Major Power In Place in the Government, either before or after Otome’s rise to power, and that’s exactly why Ramuda had reached out for him: Dice’s presence in his team possibly passing a message that Dice isn’t even aware he’s sending. 

Him being the son of the previous government would make more grim how he accepts what befall his way in a way, as in a way, he would already have lost everything and would have been in danger if he hadn’t given up everything - which, again as you point out, fits a LOT his verse in Stella. 

The Otome’s theory is still very compeeling to me though bc i do end up caring more giving a face to his potential parent ahah, and there would be implications of Dice distancing himself from his mother on his own terms, and there could still be still a conflict in Dice as well, his family is responsible for what happened now with the government. However it does make that you have to reach in his verse in Stella than the alternative that can work quite litteraly if he was the son of the opposition. 

All we really have about the opposition tbh is the brutal execution Otome did on live TV by killing the previous prime minister in the TDD’s manga, which again can feed this theory especially in regard to Stella (”the throne is behind a monochrome window” that Dice says, everytime i hear “monochrome” i think of a picture, or an image, a TV perhaps - quite litterally that could refer to this Coup d’Etat, but again there’s room for it to be about both Otome or the Opposition - it is just FAR grimmer if it is the Opposition bc it would imply seeing his parent being killed on live TV and oof. That said that would raise a whole tone of concerning questions as of how Dice was willing to bet his life for a hypmic if his father indeed died because of it and oof. So much angst fuels for headcanons there.)

The other thing that Stella could hint at as of Dice being son of the opposition would be the fact he was “driven away” rather than leaving on his own volion - so it depends again on how litteral we should take Stella on that regard, but there is definitly a subtext there. Ofc like i said we can reach for the other theory in say, “was driven away because his morals didn’t allign anymore with his family” which is also something echoed in Stella “ Is the ideal belief the poison that leads to death?” but there’s also nothing that contradicts him being the son of the Opposition with that either. (it depends if you think it’s “he always had those beliefs via his family and it became a danger when Otome got into power” or “he couldn’t even face his own mother anymore”. Honestly any takes bring to angst and i’m IN for it).

In the end what it changes is whenever Ramuda is using him as a reminder to Otome than she didn’t destroy the full previous government, or almost a threat/hostage by keeping her son (after all she doesn’t need to know the details of his alliance with Ramuda and Ramuda could use it all that much- and since he’s in friendly terms with Dice it’s not like Otome could do anything for/against Dice without Dice to be suspicious). Either way i do feel like Dice would much more likely be a Taunt against the Government, as far as Ramuda’s goal is concerned. 

I still feel strongly for him being Otome’s son bc the Drama™ but you’re entierely right that the subtext about him being perhaps the son of the opposition is there in Stella and can be supported by pieces of canon. The thing is that most of the elements we have mostly hint at “Dice is linked to a Powerful part of the Government” so every clues can be used as a double edged sword, but still there. And all of those clues still hints at a LOT of Drama.

And I love Drama. 

So yeah I really like both theories and tbh I didn’t even think much about the possibility of him being the opposition’s son before that so that was a cool exercice to try to think about it, and it does bring a very cool alternative storyline. I think i’d be content with both personally but i really dig them both.

So thank you so much for sharing :3c i truly appreciate and that’s a tons of fun! 

Thanks for the message ;O