#(like a gradient from blue to white basically)

[yuriyuruandyuraart]

YOU'RE GREAT!!!!

You're right, I forgot that ask.

But it's even better to discover it now!

GORGEOUS! I LIKE THE HAIR, THE EYES, THE SHINE OF HER SKIN AND HOW THE VITILIGO LOOKS LIKE THE TEARS/STRINGS MARKS UNDER THE EYES

Thank you for this beautiful sight.

-anon

ANONNNN!!!!!

man i did not expect to see you so soon again :'D buddy how are you doing??

and waaa THANK YOU!!! your words mean a lot >:')c <333

[alfheimr]

My Favorite Cheap Art Trick: Gradient Maps and Blending Modes

i get questions on occasion regarding my coloring process, so i thought i would do a bit of a write up on my "secret technique." i don't think it really is that much of a secret, but i hope it can be helpful to someone. to that end:

this is one of my favorite tags ive ever gotten on my art. i think of it often. the pieces in question are all monochrome - sort of.

the left version is the final version, the right version is technically the original. in the final version, to me, the blues are pretty stark, while the greens and magentas are less so. there is some color theory thing going on here that i dont have a good cerebral understanding of and i wont pretend otherwise. i think i watched a youtube video on it once but it went in one ear and out the other. i just pick whatever colors look nicest based on whatever vibe im going for.

this one is more subtle, i think. can you tell the difference? there's nothing wrong with 100% greyscale art, but i like the depth that adding just a hint of color can bring.

i'll note that the examples i'll be using in this post all began as purely greyscale, but this is a process i use for just about every piece of art i make, including the full color ones. i'll use the recent mithrun art i made to demonstrate. additionally, i use clip studio paint, but the general concept should be transferable to other art programs.

for fun let's just start with Making The Picture. i've been thinking of making this writeup for a while and had it in mind while drawing this piece. beyond that, i didn't really have much of a plan for this outside of "mithrun looks down and hair goes woosh." i also really like all of the vertical lines in the canary uniform so i wanted to include those too but like. gone a little hog wild. that is the extent of my "concept." i do not remember why i had the thought of integrating a shattered mirror type of theme. i think i wanted to distract a bit from the awkward pose and cover it up some LOL but anyway. this lack of planning or thought will come into play later.

note 1: the textured marker brush i specifically use is the "bordered light marker" from daub. it is one of my favorite brushes in the history of forever and the daub mega brush pack is one of the best purchases ive ever made. highly recommend!!!

note 2: "what do you mean by exclusion and difference?" they are layer blending modes and not important to the overall lesson of this post but for transparency i wanted to say how i got these "effects." anyway!

with the background figured out, this is the point at which i generally merge all of my layers, duplicate said merged layer, and Then i begin experimenting with gradient maps. what are gradient maps?

the basic gist is that gradient maps replace the colors of an image based on their value.

so, with this particular gradient map, black will be replaced with that orangey red tone, white will be replaced with the seafoamy green tone, etc. this particular gradient map i'm using as an example is very bright and saturated, but the colors can be literally anything.

these two sets are the ones i use most. they can be downloaded for free here and here if you have csp. there are many gradient map sets out there. and you can make your own!

you can apply a gradient map directly onto a specific layer in csp by going to edit>tonal correction>gradient map. to apply one indirectly, you can use a correction layer through layer>new correction layer>gradient map. honestly, correction layers are probably the better way to go, because you can adjust your gradient map whenever you want after creating the layer, whereas if you directly apply a gradient map to a layer thats like. it. it's done. if you want to make changes to the applied gradient map, you have to undo it and then reapply it. i don't use correction layers because i am old and stuck in my ways, but it's good to know what your options are.

this is what a correction layer looks like. it sits on top and applies the gradient map to the layers underneath it, so you can also change the layers beneath however and whenever you want. you can adjust the gradient map by double clicking the layer. there are also correction layers for tone curves, brightness/contrast, etc. many such useful things in this program.

let's see how mithrun looks when we apply that first gradient map we looked at.

gadzooks. apologies for eyestrain. we have turned mithrun into a neon hellscape, which might work for some pieces, but not this one. we can fix that by changing the layer blending mode, aka this laundry list of words:

some of them are self explanatory, like darken and lighten, while some of them i genuinely don't understand how they are meant to work and couldn't explain them to you, even if i do use them. i'm sure someone out there has written out an explanation for each and every one of them, but i've learned primarily by clicking on them to see what they do.

for the topic of this post, the blending mode of interest is soft light. so let's take hotline miamithrun and change the layer blending mode to soft light.

here it is at 100% opacity. this is the point at which i'd like to explain why i like using textured brushes so much - it makes it very easy to get subtle color variation when i use this Secret Technique. look at the striation in the upper right background! so tasty. however, to me, these colors are still a bit "much." so let's lower the opacity.

i think thats a lot nicer to look at, personally, but i dont really like these colors together. how about we try some other ones?

i like both of these a lot more. the palettes give the piece different vibes, at which point i have to ask myself: What Are The Vibes, Actually? well, to be honest i didn't really have a great answer because again, i didn't plan this out very much at all. however. i knew in my heart that there was too much color contrast going on and it was detracting from the two other contrasts in here: the light and dark values and the sharp and soft shapes. i wanted mithrun's head to be the main focal point. for a different illustration, colors like this might work great, but this is not that hypothetical illustration, so let's bring the opacity down again.

yippee!! that's getting closer to what my heart wants. for fun, let's see what this looks like if we change the blending mode to color.

i do like how these look but in the end they do not align with my heart. oh well. fun to experiment with though! good to keep in mind for a different piece, maybe! i often change blending modes just to see what happens, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. i very much cannot stress enough that much of my artistic process is clicking buttons i only sort of understand. for fun.

i ended up choosing the gradient map on the right because i liked that it was close to the actual canary uniform colors (sorta). it's at an even lower opacity though because there was Still too much color for my dear heart.

the actual process for this looks like me setting my merged layer to soft light at around 20% opacity and then clicking every single gradient map in my collection and seeing which one Works. sometimes i will do this multiple times and have multiple soft light and/or color layers combined.

typically at this point i merge everything again and do minor contrast adjustments using tone curves, which is another tool i find very fun to play around with. then for this piece in particular i did some finishing touches and decided that the white border was distracting so i cropped it. and then it's done!!! yay!!!!!

this process is a very simple and "fast" way to add more depth and visual interest to a piece without being overbearing. well, it's fast if you aren't indecisive like me, or if you are better at planning.

let's do another comparison. personally i feel that the hint of color on the left version makes mithrun look just a bit more unwell (this is a positive thing) and it makes the contrast on his arm a lot more pleasing to look at. someone who understands color theory better than i do might have more to say on the specifics, but that's honestly all i got.

just dont look at my layers too hard. ok?

[userpeggycarter]

hi! someone requested me to do a tutorial based on this gifset!

this tutorial requires an intermediate knowledge of gifmaking. i won’t teach you how to do gifs from scratch, there are other tutorials for that out there.

[tutorial under the cut]

THE BASICS

AN INTRODUCTION

first off, the gifset in question is based on this gifset by @/eddiediaaz and i got permission from them to explain the process. i won’t be sharing the template because it’s a near replica of theirs (that isn’t shared to the public) and i don’t feel comfortable doing so, but you can recreate it by yourself just like i did!

also, ESL, so please pardon any mistakes.

THE FONT

Circular ST (Medium & Black). download it here & here.

CLIPPING MASKS

clipping masks are the way i put images and gifs inside of shapes. i used that method in the first and second gif of the Spotify gifset as you can see here. what does a clipping mask do? basically, it links two or more layers together in a way it follows the “shape” of your base layer. ie, everything that is shown follows the “shape” of your main layer and nothing more. your base layer can be anything: a shape, an image, a gif, a text, an adjustment layer, really everything. let’s see an example:

CLIPPING MASKS & SHAPES

the original image (Gun 'n' Roses logo) is intact, as in, it’s not cut like a circle, something that cannot be undone. instead, everything outside the limits of the blue circle is just hidden. if i delete the base layer (the circle layer), the original image will appear as it originally is, as an rectangle. talking about layers, let’s see my layers panel (some things are in Portuguese, but i think you can understand):

notice the little arrow pointing downwards to the “circle” layer. that is the clipping mask symbol. the base layer always needs to be below what is being clipped. if the base layer is deleted, the chain is broken and every layer clipped will now act independently and have its original shape. you can have as many clipped layers as you want. you can also have multiple chains going on in a .psd, each one with its own base layer. to clip a layer, you just need to press ctrl+alt+G or cmd+option+G while having the layer you want to clip selected (NOT your base layer). or, you can go to LAYER > CREATE CLIPPING MASK.

CLIPPING MASKS & TEXT

let’s see the same example, but with text instead:

A TIP

because adjustment layers are clippable, you can completely gif by using clipping masks. this is very useful when you have more than one gif inside a canvas and don’t want an adjustment layer to affect everything besides a certain layer/element.

let’s take my first gif of the Spotify gifset as an example.

the circle is the base layer. the “Carol smiling” layer is my gif converted to a smart filter. above that “Carol smiling” layer, there is a black and white gradient map and two color fills of white so i can achieve the coloring you see. all those layers are clipping onto the circle layer, making my now b&w gif have the shape of a small circle as well. those layers are in a folder in the .psd of my first gif, so i don’t have multiple files sitting on my PC to assemble just one gif. i could have giffed that small gif separately and pasted it onto my canvas as well, but i like to do this way so i can adjust everything i want in real time instead of redoing a gif over and over every time i want to change something.

HOW TO MAKE EACH GIF

all gifs are 540x540px.

THE FIRST GIF

the first gif has 6 elements. the elements are: a big gif serving as a background (a close-up of Carol), a smaller gif inside a circle (a b&w gif of Carol smiling) as a profile picture and four static images for the featured artists. i giffed as i normally do (loaded screencaps, resized the gif, sharpened the gif, etc) for my background gif. to achieve the coloring, i’ve added a gradient map (layer > new adjustment layer > gradient map) purple to pink. to the profile picture, i made a 160x160px circle in the top left corner. the color of it doesn’t matter. the next step is a matter of taste: i giffed the smaller gif in the same .psd thanks to clipping masks that i explained earlier, but you can do it in a separate canvas too. for the featured artists, i made four circles with 98x98px each. for the images, i had to check Spotify for their selected PFPs. after that, i googled “[band/artist] spotify” to find the images. the PFP of bands and artists in the Spotify app are displayed in black and white, so you might have to make them b&w if you happen to find them only in color. to make the artists PFPs pop a bit more, i transformed them into smart filters and added a bit of sharpening to them (intensity 10 x radius 10). you can adjust the colors and the brightness if you want, too. the sizes of the texts in the gif are: 58px (username), 20px (top artists of the month), 15px (name of the artists), 12px (only visible to you + show all + profile) and 11px (following and follower numbers).

SECOND GIF

for the chart, i created a black rectangle (490x308px) that i set its blending mode to lighten (thus making it transparent) and i added an internal white stroke. i added the text and the little squares next to the top 6 numbers. the font sizes are: 17px (top tracks this month), 11px (only visible to you), 14px (song title, show all, top 6 numbers), 13px (artist/band, album title, length of the song). i added the album covers — that i made b&w — by clipping images onto 32x32px squares. for the coloring, i added a gradient map (dark purple > light purple).

THIRD GIF

there are three types of playlists in this gif: a Spotify original playlist, a playlist made by a user and a Mix. you don’t have to follow this formula if you don’t want to, but in the case you do, here’s how i did it: browse Spotify for an original playlist of theirs. chances are, if you google the playlist’s name, you can find its cover on Google Images. at least, i found the “All Out 80s” cover that i used in my gifset. you can also create your own. for the user playlist, just pick four songs and find their (album) covers, also on Google. create a square canvas on Photoshop and make four squares, each in one quadrant of the canvas. paste your images onto your canvas and clip the images to each square. then, add a gradient map (black + whatever color you want) to all those images and title your playlist (font size: ). save that collage as a PNG and load to your gif canvas or merge all the layers+transform into a smart filter and drag the smart filter layer onto your gif canvas. now, the trickiest one. while you can invent your own Mix, i wanted to use a real one, but i had no idea on how to find them. thanks to reddit, i discovered that, if you search “made for you” on Spotify, you will find their Mixes! some of them are very whacky and specific! i just picked the Mix that made the most sense for Carol from that (gigantic) list. before doing the next step, i would advise you to google the name of the Mix you picked to see if you are able to find the cover of it with good quality. i wasn’t able to find mine (Karaoke  Mix), so i just screenshotted my Spotify app, pasted that screenshot into Photoshop and cut the Mix cover and pasted that onto my canvas. the quality wasn’t great, so i transformed the cover into a smart filter, added a bit of gaussian blur and then sharpened it (intensity 10 x radius 10). the color wasn’t what i wanted either, so i used Hue/Saturation to change the hue. because the original image for the Mix was smaller than i wanted and i stretched it to make it bigger, the quality of the text and the Spotify logo was botched. i painted over the Mix cover and created a text with the font i linked earlier to replace its now pixelated title. i also painted over the little Spotify logo, found a logo in the internet and pasted over the Mix cover about the same size of the original logo. to achieve the “3D effect” of the gif, i made my b&w gif, the base. then, i duplicated all layers and added a gradient map (black > pink) and merged all the layers of that duplicate. i made a second replica of my gif, now with a different gradient map (black > blue). i set both replicas to the ligthen blending mode. you will notice that the replicas will "disappear" and only the original b&w gif will remain. if you move the replicas a bit, that colored border will appear. this doesn't work much in very bright gifs without a lot of dark areas, btw.

FOURTH GIF

this gif used an altered (by me) version of this template. (i changed the fonts to match the rest of the gifset, too.) for the color text effect, you will have to gif with the timeline bar. take your gif’s length and do the math to find how many frames are ⅓ of it. take your lyrics’ layer and cut it into three equal parts or close to it by using the scissors icon in the timeline panel. in each third, change the color of just one line, line by line. when you play your gif, the colors of the lyrics will change like in Karaoke. you can do the same thing with frames iirc, though. i explained the timeline method because that’s the one i used in this gifset and use in general gif making. for the coloring, i added a gradient map. to make the colors pop a bit more, i add two gradient maps: the first one is in black and white, the other is in color. that adds depth to the blacks and darker colors of the gif.

FIFTH GIF

like in the Top Playlists gif, i wanted for my Daylist to be real as well. to achieve that, i listened to my Carol Danvers companion playlist (that you can listen here) for a long time until my Daylist refreshed itself. (Daylists refresh in certain times of the day — don't worry, Spotify will tell you when.) then, i just copied what it told me — the title and the genres i listened to generate such a Daylist, plus the genres i should check it out. you can invent your own Daylist if you want, but because it is generated by AI, i find very difficult to mimic its crazy titles, but you can try! you can also search in the web for other people’s Daylists if you want, but usually people don’t tell you what they listened to to get those playlists and nor what was recommended for them to listen to and i, at least, find that information important for the gifset. be aware that Daylists aren't available for every country yet (like in mine), but i found a way to work around that. the browser Opera GX offers a free "VPN" — not exactly a VPN, but it works close enough — so you can set your location to the US and listen to in-browser Spotify. i recommend not log into Tumblr while using Opera's VPN as there is a myth (that could easily be true!) that Tumblr terminates people's accounts that use a VPN. font sizes: 43px (daylist title), 13px (text), 12px ("daylist" & "made for"). for the flare effect, i searched for flare overlays on YouTube and downloaded one of those videos with 4K Video Downloader, a free software. i loaded the overlay into Photoshop and added a gradient map (purple > pink) over it, thus changing its color. i pasted the overlay onto my b&w gif and set its blending mode to screen. voila!

that's it! i hope you liked it and that i was able to express myself well. if you have any questions, feel free to contact me, i love helping people about their gifmaking questions! 💖

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

cumulus / nephos / “cloud” / ☁️

[plain text: cumulus / nephos / “cloud” / ☁️ cloud emoji]

[id: pastel fem looking person in pastel manual wheelchair looking down to slug in lap. there also slug on head n slug slide down skirt (don’t ask how). (all color pastel). person hair pink bangs, purple side hair, & blue low loose pigtails go below hips. purple eyes & medium-light ish skin. wearing bright turquoise ish color shirt collar with pink ruffles, & white shirt body with blue ruffles decorate, n green long sleeve cardigan over it also with ruffles. rainbow midi above knee skirt with white ruffles overflow from side of wheelchair. wear mismatch stockings, person’s left side rainbow stripes, n person right side turquoise blue with clouds on it. person not wearing shoes.

their wheelchair has yellow headrest, teal stroller push handle, green contoured backrest with supportive panels on two side lateral, teal to blue transition arm rest, orange big wheels with rainbow windmill candy swirl as cover & red push rim. frame is turquoise blue gradient to pink, has dump/slant, with yellow slug on one side’s turning point. purple fat caster wheels. attach to backrest is big white angel wings, & above arm rest has glowing yellow halo. their AAC device floating by them, has turquoise blue case with white cloud patterns. is saying “slug” icon. border of art lined with rainbow gradient lace. end id]

☁️.

(otherwise known as hate names terrible at decision)

VERY pastel n rainbow overload >:)

they level 3 autistic (“requiring very substantial support”) with high support needs—meaning they cannot independently do most adaptive functioning skills, needing other people physical help to do/do for them. they also need 24/7 supervision & physical help for all iADLs & bADLs.

they nonverbal & use AAC full time. their AAC is symbol based speech generating device.

their (most likely [<haven’t decided] partner who act as their) disability caretaker is hyacinthos shinya🪻🌌.

they also full time non-ambulatory wheelchair user with very specific posture & seating positioning needs so not out of it for long or really much at all.

angel wing on back of wheelchair is power assist! is magically powered by hyacinthos (who angel) & can be powered even remotely / far away. way control wheelchair & power assist part by intuitive / hand motions & gestures / etc, part by halo hover above armrest that act as joystick. can use it like traditional joystick or wear as bracelet n control that way! (gimme it i want one) (if you recognize this setting it may be because previous version)

they do mix of self propel, power assist, & caregiver push. their wheelchair have stroller style push handle instead traditional push handle for easier caregiver push, especially one handed.

is set in magical world & they do some magic (< haven’t decided]!

character not slug obsessed, artist the slug obsessed one

character sheet below cut!!

artfight character profile (VERY wip)

please do feel free draw them (with credit) n tag me!!!!!!

reblog welcome but please don’t repost

will fight you if debate about autism levels & support needs

.

hi under cut

[character sheet. functionally described below]

top left is full character clothing (with wheelchair translucent in background) because in original there some key parts blocked by wheelchair especially arm rest.

skirt around waist have purple band with blue small ruffles. center have rainbow bow with rainbow star on top.

n also have front n back of AAC device. what drawn here is 5x7 grid with various colored squares showing different parts of speech but grid size more so because like. is how much could fit comfortably. so even when redraw n isn’t exact 5x7 with colors exactly right where is right now, is okay. colors & where they are based on own AAC device >:) because of course

design of aac device case basically same as above. back side just have bigger clouds. oh also device has handles. tho it float around so handles get used less. float around so don’t have worry about how to carry it how to mount on wheelchair etc etc etc it follows you it automatic come to your hand when you wanna say something (kinda also acting as prompting bc sometimes think about say something but don’t actually say in device) it get out way when you don’t want it. if only like this irl lol

bottom left is info about character already said

bottom right is wheelchair design

parts covered up by person: rainbow gradient side guard, blue contoured cushion.

n also drawing of back of backrest: when not in use, wings power assist shrink to small decoration on back. not big there all time.

also have stickers! sticker of nessie, banana slug, sheep, cloud, star, rainbow, & an AAC symbol of “AAC”

wheelchair may also have magical tilt & recline & elevate. how? don’t know!!! why not just make full powerchair? uhhhh like manual chair look better

n picture of irl windmill candy

border of art also rainbow gradient lace.

yea that all please draw them 🥲

praise me put lots work into them

pls be nice to them

[licollisa]

Im so so so so sorry for the dm but I gotta do, how did you do the lighting for these two??

https://twitter.com/Licollis_a/status/1657703869068234754 https://twitter.com/Licollis_a/status/1657631596198125569

(dm wouldnt send on twitter so I'll send it here!)

Be not afraid, for I will reveal my secrets in rendering step by step.

1. After I'm finished with lineart, I added the base color. It's faint, but putting in gradient will make it pop.

2. In order for the whole thing to look harmonious with each other, on top of the base color I added a multiply and overlay layer. The color I use for multiply is usually desaturated, kinda pastel-y. The overlay one is more saturated (see alternative colors below).

3. The result should be kind of dark. Which is what I'm after, because what you're seeing is already shadowed. So instead of adding the shadow to the base color, I'm adding the light.

On top of the multiply layer, I added an overlay layer. I keep in mind where the light source is coming from (see the blue arrows). The color of the overlay can be whatever -- it depends on the vibe you're trying to make (e.g if they're in waterfall, I'd use light cyan).

Also, see that normal layer clipped onto my overlay? It's how I added my "fringe" (aka subsurface scattering). I often use pink. Just line it on the edges of the light.

4. Now I added a multiply layer again, just to give the piece more depth and details (like the skin)

5. Now I'm adding what's called reflective light (google to see examples irl). Basically, I covered the darkest parts of the drawing with something lighter. For this one I just added pastel purple in the normal layer, but there are other layer types to lighten it up!

6. Now, I colored the lineart through clipping. I usually just matched the surrounding colors by adding a darker one (e.g dark red for skin).

Optional: I like to make 2 copies of the lineart, make one red and another cyan, and respectively slide it to left and to right. Sometimes it doesn't even look good tho....

7. Highlights time! To do this I disable the background so it's transparent, click right and choose 'merge visible to new layer'. Which flattens the visible image onto a new layer. Now I can add in these white lights by clipping on top of it!

(It's a lil tricky to do this right with a brush, so I used the lasso fill tool.)

To top it off, I add some sparkes. My simp art is done <33

Edit: I forgot!! By the end of it all you can add a texture by setting said texture into overlay with low opacity (on top of the finished art). In CSP you can add a perlin noise, one of these:

You can use other kinds of textures for ur artwork, like watercolor etc.

[dreemurr-skelememer]

May I ask on how you choose your colors when you color your art pieces? It is so pretty to look at the colors of your art, and I want to color like that, but color picking is very hard q-q

here's!! uh, the general areas in the color wheel where i try to pick depending on the vibe

highly inaccurate because tbh i just color pick directly or try to guess the colors from my references and just adjust them to be a little bit more pastel or to the atmosphere and if i have their colors memorized (such as ink or dream), i just pick by memory or by my modified colors LOL

color your scrunkly!

set your line work to multiply and lock opacity

i use warm tones for white ish colors so uhhh idk whatever warm color from here

color the line work!!!!! ofc, shift the hue depending on the undertones of the surrounding colors the skull color is a warm off-white, the undershirt is a blue-ish off-white, scarf is warm brown, so on and so on the multiply function rly helps just blend things into the palette a little more, but if ur confident enough, you dont have to set it to multiply at all for extra variation

minimal shading by just taking the surrounding colors n adjusting the hue slightly n its value n saturation gives it a very messy cel shaded look! been into it lately and stuff

and then i add a few overlays using the pin light layer mode! i usually use these two colors together, it gives the right amount of pastel colors that really appeals to me

if you have access to gradient maps, i recommend using them lots! it makes the pieces look a little more cohesive the pin light layer mode imitates it n is very versatile if u cant use them though (like me when im just doodling on sai)

that's it!!! that's the basic rundown of how i color i'm not very well versed in color theory so i can only do very basic color picking tips, but maybe next time i can offer ways on how to color more atmospherically!

have a nice time coloring your blorbos ✨

[noemintshine]

meet my ponysona Mintshine! :] she’s a toothpaste inspired pony ❄️ I made this updated version of her design.

❄️Things I added❄️

-A really soft darker blue gradient on her back, neck and part of her face, a white gradient on her paws, 2 snowflakes on her right paw, darker and thinner highlights on her mane & tail and some snowflakes on her cutie mark. She’s not a crystal pony anymore, she’s more like an ice pony…? Ik that’s not a real thing in mlp but I like the idea of it (she basically can become really cold and “frosty”, like an ice statue). She smells like light blue from dolce & gabbana and mint.

I also made a more specific ref about the design itself, it has no shading and I specified all the things needed about her design.

You can find more info about her on my Toyhouse (check my carrd

[tartiflvtte]

First Encounter | Homelander

hello! here's the very first one shot i've ever written for Homelander (and hopefully the first of many). This is based off the first time Homelander meets Qilin. Even though this is based off of my OC it's can also be read as Homelander x Fem Asian!Reader as no physical description occurs in this except powers/shapeshifting descriptions.

Summary: Homelander meets the path of something, or someone? That will change the course of his life. Timeline: Pre-Canon (2014) Words count: 1,1k Warnings: None!

It was a sunny day, with a few clouds in the sky, and a usual boring patrol. Fucking annoying, Homelander thought. The only thing that kept him from missing them was the cheers he was getting when he was a bit too close to regular people. Honestly, it was a bit nice, just a bit though. He was flying so fast, soaring through the city clouds, he was only checking if someone needed any help. But to be honest? He didn’t care. Nothing thrilling was happening today. Homelander debated whether he preferred patrolling or shooting the most random ad for a useless Vought product. 

Ugh, he thought, either way, that day was as basic as usual, an ad or not wouldn’t change how bored Homelander was. Not enough spectacular saves, not enough cheers, not enough praises. Can we get this over with, he thought. He wanted to get back to the Vought Tower and just have a break. Until he smelled something unusual, well, more like, unknown. It was the first time he smelled something like this. He rushed towards it, not even questioning anything.

And that was when he saw it, for the first time. The Cloud Beast, people called it. He always found the name ridiculous because he wasn’t able to visualize how massive The Beast was. It was… probably bigger than an elephant. Homelander couldn’t process the information, because The Beast saw him. It approached him, leaving a trail of clouds behind it, and made a long eye contact with Homelander. 

The Beast was impressive. It looked like a horse… Or a deer, maybe a bit of both. But with scales, oh a lot of scales, a large tail that fades with the clouds, and a mane… a mane that moved as if it had a will. Its fur was a sort of blue canary, and the scales were darker. The mane was white but with a black gradient on the end. Oh and did I mention the long almost ethereal gold mustache that Asian dragons also have? Yeah, Homelander was struggling to process what he saw.

The Beast was still staring down at Homelander, not moving. It looked almost like it was amused by the Supe. The Supe couldn't draw his eyes away, until he heard his heart beating faster, and felt some sweat on his neck and forehead. Oh dear, was he scared? The Beast felt it. Homelander was scared, so The Beast just approached him a bit closer. But it drew Homelander to the edge, and he fled as fast as he could.

Oh shit, Holy fucking fucking shit! He thought. He fled to the Seven Tower roof and stayed on for a few minutes. It felt like hours. Homelander knew that this… beast existed, but he never saw it from his own eyes. And now what? He was supposed to be the greatest American Superhero, and he fucking fled because that… thing scared him! He felt ridiculous. He ran his gloved hand into his hair, sighing. Compound V did incredible things, yes, but its range was so unpredictable. He knew that there was a person behind the Beast, the question was, did it talk? Did it even have a human form? It should have one because you can’t fucking hide a monster that big! 

But wait, was it really a monster? For Homelander, it was one for sure, but he was curious. Too curious. He quickly made his way into the Vought Tower and called for Madelyn. He stormed into The Seven’s Room and quickly took a seat, fidgeting with whatever he could find. Madelyn came a bit after, obviously in a rush. 

“I have work to do. I hope it’s important Homelander.”

He took a moment before answering.

“You wouldn’t leave your office If you knew it was not serious. I’m going to be straightforward, do you know anything about « The Cloud Beast »?” 

She froze. And Homelander saw it very clearly. He raised an eyebrow at her and waited for her to answer.

“We…” She cleared her throat. “We have barely any information on it. We just know that they call themselves «Qilin», Cloud Beast is just a name that people gave them because they’re scared each time it flies in the sky.” She paused, feeling the intense gaze of Homelander on her. 

“From what we know it’s a Supe that can shapeshift into this creature. Apparently, it’s a creature from Chinese mythology, that’s why they want to be called Qilin. Not a lot of people saw their actual human form but it seems that some sources describe them as a masked woman in a Chinese-inspired hero suit.”

The Supe clenched his fist, the more he listened, the more he was curious. He wanted to know who was behind this enormous creature. He wanted to know if it was powerful, he wanted to know everything. Homelander wasn’t the curious type, oh no, but this moment when Qilin and he were staring at each other made him feel so many different emotions.

He wouldn’t admit it to anyone, but he felt weak, and powerless, in front of the Beast. It was the main reason why he ran away, but at the same time, he was drawn to the creature, he wanted to stay, observe it, follow its path. It was so conflicting for him, he never felt so… confused. Madelyn was still talking but he was lost in his thoughts.

He clenched his jaw, then looked back at Madelyn. His expression was unreadable and it threw Madelyn off. 

“Thank you for all of this important information.” He didn’t seem sincere, as usual, but it seemed he was thinking of doing something he shouldn’t do. He stood up pretty abruptly, which made Madelyn jump a bit. 

“Homelander, I hope you’re not thinking of doing anything irresponsible?” He snorted.

“I’m serious. We barely know anything about this woman, let the other supes and the Crime Analytics take care of this.”

He sighed as he headed towards the door. “Fine. But I’ll need reports! Every little thing, whatever saves or little apparition she makes I want to know.” His voice was firm. Madelyn didn’t feel like questioning any of his decisions when he was as stubborn as he was. So she just agreed without complaining.

He then left without saying a word, directing himself to his penthouse. He was tense, and a bit frustrated. The sun was already setting down. As he made his way inside his penthouse, he took off his gloves and let himself fall on the couch while running a hand into his blonde hair. Little did he know that this day was about to change his life. Little did he know that he would think of this first encounter every day until he would see her again. Little did he know that The Beast was so much more than just a mythical creature and that he would be the one that we call a Monster.

taglist: @sunshinetomioka

[tgcg]

randy gradient tests & findings

hey guys ive been experimencing with new gradient techniques to get phun-nu-FX (fun new effects) and i have some pretty cooll stuff to share

i explained how 2 make a gradient >>>here in this post<<< so employ that tek here

spray can haze

this is something that looks fuckt when you set it up but really delivers. using spraycan to "blur out" the gradient gives it this layered, grainy FX. you can put lines of other colurs in with the spray brush to add interesting tints to the haze. i used this on my recent snow drawin for the sky with white+light blue.

crayon sunset

usin the crayon for this gives a softer effect w less scanline-y a texture. its very soft and pretty. i personally prefer this over using the paintbrushes for gradience because i literally just dont like mspaints "paintbrushes". do what you want tho

i realy encourage messin around with this and seeing what you can make

width makes columns

so the standard 4 the gradient method is to reduce the width to 1px then resize to orignal. well, its also pretty fun to mess with diff widths cus you can get some interesting abstract shit.

this is what happens if you set the width as 5px instead of 1px. you get 5 equal-size columns that kinda deconstruct ur image. its very interesting

here is the last gradient design if i also did 5px width to it. you can get a bunch of gradients from one gradient basically

i thought this was worth sharing because well its fun to look at & think about

rainbow art +

rainbow art is cool as fuck. rainbow art is what icall it when you make a fun gradient and shift+drag it to use it as its own brush

you can make really cool+nasty backgrounds using rainbow art over itself like this kinda ocean-y pattern. i included what my "rainbow art brush" looked like to make it

well i hope this helps you to think about fun ways to use mspaint to its full potention. its a very fun thing to do. take care

[olderthannetfic]

What I dislike about the pride flags is honestly how deep people try to make the meaning colors over aesthetics. Guess that comes from the OG rainbow flag getting some meanings? Or maybe it was always a thing about artistic color analysis, either way it always felt a bit tryhard. Especially since people seemingly don't even agree on what the colors mean. Only thing people seem to agree on is that anything not-pink/blue is up for the NBs. And it also really isn't apparent what the meaning even is, considering how deep people try to make it, and how apparently important the meaning of them is.

Bi? Blue is man, pink is woman, purple is because you're not het. But I've also seen it means pink same gender blue is any gender not your own, and purple is the fluidity/gradient of bisexuality. But I've also seen that purple is bisexuality, and blue and pink is het and homo respectively. Yadda yadda.

Trans flag UwU it's a girl-pink, it's a boy-blue, and it's the rest I mean, it's white-NB! Or girl:pink boy:blue, but white means the transition between/the transition period where you're between woman and man.

Aro and Aces: You get black, gray, and white because you're the boring (not-)fucks, you're only one color removed from the (sarcastic) cishet straight flag. How do you feel about that? Huh? The only difference between you and the cissy-hetties on the flag pole is purple, which maybe means something, or green which also only just maybe means something. -Seriously though, unless you're aro/ace, have you actually even just a single inkling as to what the purple and/or green means? Do you? Maybe purple is another one of those "UwU blue is boy pink is girl, combine them, purple is neither." -Or maybe it's supposed to be violet, which is a color that doesn't actually exist, and it's supposed to be super deep and tell us that "Just like the color violet doesn't exist, just like that sexual attraction doesn't exist for aces." Yeah would work great if it was violent, but it factually is just purple. Maybe green is another one of those, "it's not a mix of blue:boy and pink:girl, so that's enough to tell us it's not about romantic attraction.)

The progress pride flag has a nice sentiment, but looks ugly as all sin, and is honestly an insult to anyone who understands basic color theory. It's also a bit ridiculous how the triangle is slowly taking over all of the flag, and I'm just waiting for the bi flag to get included because of the historic rampantness of biphobia. Maybe the ace flag after that. Why not just make the triangle as it's own thing and leave it at that.

--

[imogens-temult]

Hi!

I sent this ask to the UserGif blog and they directed me to you. I was wondering how you created this black widow layout set:

https://www.tumblr.com/usergif/709701351905624064/black-widow-2021-dir-cate-shortland-insp

The layout is so cool and creative, I love it so much.

Thanks in advance!

hey! first off, thank you so much i really appreciate it.

now i will attempt to explain it, but i am never the best at these things so if you have any questions, feel free to ask! (all this is assuming everyone has a basic knowledge of gifmaking etc.) we're going to recreate a gif from my original set here.

FIRSTLY, you need your basic layout, now i used the rectangle shape tool to create the space for the big gif, and the little palette boxes, and fill them black so you can see them easily and move them around until i'm happy with the layout. and then move onto my text, the posters i was originally inspired by on etsy no longer seem to be there but the font i used which i *think* is what was used on those (as i wanted to get as close to my insp source as possible) is Nimbus Sans L for the title in bold, and Nimbus Sans Rounded for the rest (semi bold for the director and the genre/date and italic for the starring actors) and once i perfected the layout, and added a white layer for the background i saved that as a psd for future use. (make sure you're in timeline mode, and that the frame rate of this canvas is 23.976 fps - as that'll stop any issues when creating the whole gif.)

from here, you're free to gif make your first gif as normal, colouring it and putting it all together in a smart object so then you're ready to just paste it into this canvas, clipping it over the big rectangle, resizing as needed and then sharpening. (if you're unsure about clipping masks - this gifset relies on them - there's a handy tutorial here!)

so, here's how it looks with the main gif in place, and i've filled in my movie details for the film i've picked (i try to keep my layers as organised as possible so i recommend labelling things so you know exactly which text layer is which) i put all the text layers in a folder, and make a folder for all the palette rectangle boxes too.

next is the fun bit, or at least it is for me (personally i like to zoom in for this bit) but it's time to colour pick for the palette. before you do this make a new layer for each palette and clip one to each of the palette boxes like below.

like i said, i like to zoom in for this, but select the eyedropper tool, and start picking your colours, i try to do it in a gradient, usually starting with either the brightest or darkest colour etc. for this gif i want to go from browny red to blue. once you pick your first colour, go to the layer clipped to the rectangle you want that colour and fill it with your colour. keep repeating this process until all your colours are picked and you're happy with your palette.

and here is what you're left with. so now, just do what you'd usually do when saving your gifs, i personally put everything back into frames, so i can save with a timing of 0.05. and then repeat for each gif until you've got a beautiful gifset that you love!

i hope this made sense, and is easy enough to follow! sorry if it's a bit rambling and ridiculous, me and explaining things are not compatible.

[quibbs126]

Can Black pearl and timekeeper fanchild? :0

Ah, we finally get to her. Well, this is Tuna Melt Cookie

So basically, her character is that she runs a game show. I think at the time I was watching someone talk about Total Drama, so she's something like Chris from that show. Including being a sociopath who doesn't really care that about the well being of her contestants and thinks it makes good entertainment. And considering she's got two gods for parents, her show is probably even more extreme. She's not as bad as someone like Shadow Milk though, and she probably has some actual friends

She probably also has a mermaid form, but she generally likes staying on land since there's more Cookies there to watch struggle

Also fun fact, her covered eye has black eye lines instead of white like her other one. Which would have been more cool and unique if Shadow Milk didn't already do that (also fun fact, I actually knew someone in one class in high school who actually had different colored eyelashes and eyebrows. One side was blonde and the other brown, apparently she was just born with it. I've wanted to mention it since Shadow Milk but never found the right time to say)

Anyways, on to her name. So Tuna Melt isn't exactly a name that fits with the likes of Black Pearl and Timekeeper, but I like it anyways. And my canon explanation is that Timekeeper picked it because it was funny

Anyways, so the name comes from the fact that is has fish in it, like Black Pearl sort of is, it's a sandwich that involves bread because I keep thinking croissants are bread, and the cheese fits with Timekeeper's color scheme

Tuna melt:

So Tuna Melt's generally red and yellow color scheme comes from the food. I think I was originally planning on making the red blue, but I experimented with red and asked a Discord group which looks better and they said the red. Also it somewhat sets her apart

The thick yellow lines in her hair are supposed to be a reference to the very thick slices of cheese that I kept finding when I looked up tuna melt, not to mention it fits with Timekeeper's color scheme. The rest of her hair I guess is the tuna

The white sparkles are supposed to be a reference to Black Pearl since she has those in her hair and bottom of her tail, as well as the bottom of her legs having the gradient. Also, it works with her flashy game show host aesthetic

Her little jabot (I think that's the right word) is another reference to BP, with the frills being like an upside down version of Black Pearl's shell and the brooch being like her gem

The coattails on her outfit were also supposed to be a reference to tuna fish tails, since I thought the design just needed a little bit more pizzazz. That's also why she has the gold leg thing

But yeah overall, she's another banger design to me, and I hope you enjoy her too

[the-mother-of-lions]

for anonymous

Program: Photoshop 2020 Required Knowledge: How to make a gif, general familiarity with PS

tbh anon i think this tutorial will be a little disappointing! i don't really do anything special to my gifs. I'm not sure if you're wanting just a general coloring or something more in depth, so I'll do a little mix of everything.

This got super long i'm sorry

Basic Coloring

Relighting the Gif: As you may have noticed, a lot of tv nowadays is dark asf, and even if it isn't too dark, the lighting is just off. So I usually fix this with a Curves Layer. It offers me the most noticeable lighting change than any other method I've tried thus far. So after sharpening and cropping to suit your tastes, add a Curves adjustment layer. Clicking on the White Eyedropper, I then pick a spot on the gif that is the brightest. Sometimes I have to zoom in reallllly close to find a singular pixel thats lighter than all the others. And sometimes the lightest spot is too white and doesn't change anything, and if thats the case then I'll click around a little to see if any other spots offer a change in lighting that I like. I'll repeat this step with the Black Eyedropper but for the darker parts of the gif.

Hue/Saturation: This changes depending on what I'm giffing. For Live Action, I never do more than 10 on the Saturation line. For Anime, I usually do 20 but sometimes I'll do less depending on how the 20 looked. For Live Action with POC, I will do 10 and then open another H/S layer and adjust the red/yellow parts on the H/S.

Vibrance: I start with a Vibrance layer of 30. If I had to take out a lot of red/yellow, I usually duplicate this layer at least once.

Levels: Once I get the main adjustments out of the way, I go back to the Curves layer and add a Levels layer directly above it. On the Levels layer, I use the drop down to go through each color (Red, Green, Blue) and adjust the levels of those colors individually. I personally prefer cool toned gifs, so I usually add quite a bit of blue and red and take out green, but adjust as necessary.

Selective Color: Optional I don't always do this, it depends on the scene and how it already looks after the other four layers. But I do like a strong contrast so I will often Add a Selective Color layer above the Levels layer, choose Black from the drop down, and on the Black slider I increase it to 100. But sometimes thats wayyy too much and I'll do less as needed.

Black and White

For B&W recoloring, I'll do a Curves layer like above and then a H/S layer. On the H/S I'll lower the saturation completely.

Simple Recoloring

Simple as in I'm adjusting a few colors to bring them out more.

To start with and to get a basic grasp of what colors are in your gif, I'll open a Hue/Sat layer and crank the Saturation allll the way up. This will show you the main colors that make up your gif and which ones you need to change to reach your desired outcome.

After muting or deleting the H/S layer, I'll do small adjustments inside a new H/S layer focusing on the colors I want to change, then I'll add a Color Balance layer. Usually I only adjust the midtones and highlights, but it all depends on where the colors are that you're changing. Again, I like cool tone gifs so I'll take out a lot of yellow/green.

From here you can go to Selective Color and adjust the colors up or down as you need.

It's also helpful to add a Gradient Map. With Gradient maps one end should be white or black and the other end the color you want to bring out. Set the gradient maps blend to Overlay and lower the opacity to about 10-25%. Put this layer underneath your recolor layers.

Adding Gradients

On some gifs, it's helpful to add a Gradient layer to achieve a certain look.

Clicking on the Gradient layer, set your gradient and then change the blending layer to Color or Hue. Both of these will give different effects, but it's also a good idea to play with other blending modes to find what you like. From there, I usually lower the Opacity to 30-50%, duplicate the layer and change it to Screen and lower the Opacity on that to 30.

Honestly I don't do a ton of drastic recolors and I always feel kind of insecure about it? I'm very unconfident in my drastic recoloring skills. But if you have any further questions please feel free to ask!

Even if I don't know the answer, I'm sure I know someone who does.

Hope this was helpful in some way anon!

[twiceasfrustrating]

A New Look

Rating: Teen and Up Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: M/M Fandom: Shall We Date?: Obey Me! Relationship: Diavolo x Simeon Characters: Diavolo, Simeon Additional Tags: Fluff, mentions of nudity as a part of daily life Summary: Diavolo tries on some clothing from the Celestial Realm and wants Simeon's opinion  A/N: How long has it been since I posted something to this blog? Jeez. All my fandoms lately are strictly on the nsfw side so this blog has been suffering a lot. I also haven’t written for OM in so long since I stopped playing the game. Ooops. Have to remember who these characters really are. It may be a bit rough with their characterization. Word Count: 1151

“How do I look?” Diavolo asks, purposefully posing and twirling as dynamically as he can to show off the outfit he asked Simeon to borrow from the Celestial Realm on his behalf.

The outfit, like most Celestial clothing, is white from chest to ankle. In Diavolo’s case, he is wearing a simple ensemble that consists of a top that starts at his neck and only goes down low enough to modestly cover his chest and upper back. There is a light gold streak running down his right side to act as a simple accent. The blue-white gradient pants start just below his navel and stretch down to his calves. They look tight on him, which is common for Celestial clothing, but Simeon worries about Diavolo’s mobility all the same.

The majority of the outfit’s shape doesn’t come from the top or pants, however. The sheer overcoat – similar to the grandeur of a bride’s veil on her wedding day – that hangs over Diavolo is far more bulky than anything else. It sits around his upper arms, the long sleeves stretching past his hands and flowing freely with each movement. The overcoat stretches all the way to his ankles like a skirt.

Simeon claps politely. “You look nice.”

It feels strange to say anything else. It would be dishonest to say the clothing – white and loose against his skin, flowing freely as if it was blown by an immaterial wind – did not suit him, but it would also feel blasphemous to say that the prince of the Devildom looked good in the ensemble. Still, Simeon has a brief thought that, as much as he enjoys the sight of Diavolo in his home fashion, he looks better in his usual attire.

“Nice is good.” Diavolo laughs, satisfied enough with Simeon's answer. “I didn't think Celestial clothes would fit me so well or that they would be so cool.”

“It's the magic woven into the fabric. Many angels have to deal with a variety of temperatures and environments, so it's important to make clothing suited to any given situation. The magic acts like insulation, keeping the temperature of the wearer stable. Additionally, angels that choose a human charge need extra durability and flexibility so-”

Diavolo listens intently, placing a hand over his mouth to hide the silly smile crawling across his face as Simeon speaks. He is charming as he speaks about the clothing of his home realm, listing all matter of facts and small minutiae.

“You know a lot about fashion.”

Simeon stops mid-sentence. 

His eyes dart to the side, then downward. “Not particularly.”

Diavolo's smile never falters as he continues. “But you were just talking all about what makes Celestial Realm clothing special and why it's designed that way. That seems like passion to me.”

“I’m not actually passionate about the current state of fashion. If you want someone who understands trends, it would be better to speak to Asmodeus. Celestial Realm fashion hasn’t changed in some few thousand years, so he should still know about it better than I do.”

“But you seem to know so much.”

“That’s because-” Simeon pauses, trying to find the exact words that won’t make a fool out of him. Eventually, he decides that the truth is nothing to be ashamed of, even if it is mildly embarrassing. “I knew you would have questions, so I tried to learn the basics.”

“Oh…” 

Diavolo’s reaction is outwardly reserved, but he is fighting the rising heat in his face that feels as if it will melt him from the inside out. It was one thing to ask Simeon for a favor so that he could better understand a small part of the Celestial Realm’s culture – for the clothing of a people tells you a lot about them and their way of life – but it is another to know that Simeon went out of his way for his sake. It feels far more intimate than such a small kindness should have.

And, when he glances at Simeon’s face, it is clear that he is not the only one that understands the implications in their exchange.

Diavolo has to get the discussion back on topic.

“Can I ask why Celestial fashion hasn’t changed in thousands of years?”

Humans changed fashion trends every few decades at least. Demons, though not as often, also frequently changed the clothing they wore. He found it strange that the angels did not switch out their clothing at least once every few centuries.

“That’s because most angels don’t actually care for fashion in the first place, so there is no reason to stay on top of evolving trends. Most of us would actually prefer not to wear clothing at all. We only do it for foreign relation reasons because the other realms seem to consider it unsightly to walk around without them. At best, there is a race for the functionality of the magic woven into the fabric, but that’s more akin to being the first to discover it and share your findings with others than it is to claim a new magic for your own benefit.”

Somehow, Simeon misses the implication that angels are nudists.

“I guess that explains why all of your clothing lacks fabric,” Diavolo says without any malicious intent, but Simeon furrows his brows in disapproval regardless.

“That’s an insensitive way to put it, but I suppose that is technically correct.”

“Sorry.” Even as he apologizes, Diavolo is laughing. “But I think it’s your turn now.”

“Hm?” Simeon hums in confusion.

“We’re exchanging clothing today, aren’t we?” Diavolo grabs the outer bottom of the overcoat and lifts it high so that it won’t tangle around his ankles. He begins to march toward the large clothing bag that he had placed to the side much earlier. Up until now, Simeon had assumed it was simply another outfit Diavolo would need to change into later. “I have something for you too.”

Simeon raises both of his hands and turns his face away as he refuses to see what Diavolo could possibly have brought. “It’d rather not. Devildom clothing is very hot.”

That made Diavolo pause for a moment.

He seems to think before smiling and answering Simeon’s concern. “We’ll cut off some of the fabric so you’re more comfortable.”

“That’s not-”

“I promise,” Diavolo says as he picks up the large black clothing bag and holds it toward Simeon so he can take it, “it’ll be fun.”

His smile is bright and beaming as he stares at Simeon with mischief and wonder in his eyes. Framed in white and looking so pleased, it would be easy for an onlooker to mistake Diavolo for an angel, but Simeon only sees the demon that he truly is.

Simeon signs as he resigns himself to Diavolo’s whims, already feeling heat building inside of his stomach and twisting it into knots as he takes the outfit from his hands.

[aptericia]

aptericia might you have the wherewithal to answer a burning question that has been on my mind for months. months I tell you

what the fuck is a gradient map

that is an excellent question, my esteemed eifie! So excellent, in fact, that I don’t totally know the answer myself!

I have literally never used them in a drawing, but here’s the idea. Basically, a gradient map changes the values in a picture to match one of the values in a specified gradient. If you think of a black-and-white or “grayscale” picture, for example, all the values fall on a gradient from pure black to pure white. A gradient map is the same principle, but it follows the gradient you specify.

For instance, the first set of circles are values on a range from black to white. The second set are values on a range from very deep blue to purple to bright turquoise to lime green. (I used this default procreate gradient map:

to create the second set.)

Here’s the same gradient map applied to this handsome picture of van zieks I have saved in my camera roll

it changed all the darkest values on him to dark blue, all the mid-dark values to purple, all the mid-light values to turquoise, and all the lightest ones to lime.

Like most effects, gradient maps look best when used at low opacity. For example, this picture of him uses the same gradient at 30% opacity, and it looks like he’s under some harsh blue lighting.

that’s about all I know, since I don’t actually use them myself. They can be handy for creating cohesive color schemes or lighting effects.

[dimespin]

How and when do you use gradient maps for things? (I find your usage of them fairly interesting :) )

Pretty much all my uses of gradient maps involve copying the entire image and then making a new layer to then do the gradient map to (I'm using procreate these days so this is the only real way to use a gradient map as a layer style)

The most basic thing I'll do is make an otherwise black and white image a little more interesting color-wise by setting a gradient map to overlay or color or whatever gives me the best contrast, or sometimes just normal, and tweak the opacity until I'm happy with it

Sometimes even on those I'll tweak what turned out what color with additional layers, so for example let's say the gradient map says light colors = pink and dark colors = blue, but I think it'll pop more if the light area in one area is blue as well so I'll just color it that way

Sometimes I will use the gradient map as a base layer to then add colors on top using layer types like multiply

Sometimes I make a gradient map from the entire image but clip it to the shadows only

Sometimes I'll use a gradient map that matches a character's colors and then manually re-color everything else using the same palette (often I purposefully don't do it perfectly to preserve texture)

And finally sometimes I will lay down flat colors, then create a new layer with exaggerated shading, make the copy-paste gradient map layer from this shading, and then set the gradient map to a layer style like multiply or overlay but turn the shading layer off so the gradient map layer is the only remaining shading, or create new lighter shading under it to support it

I do a lot of different things, I'm often experimenting and just trying stuff until I like the results