#(true grit texture supply sample stuff)

[rad-roche]

picked up some textured paper/brush psds and am very, very happy with the quality. the brush especially, since it lets me automate in that scrubbing in effect i like so much. test doodles

a hellboy and some gabbys

[elfdyke]

your art is fine dining i eat it with a glass of wine. Pray tell what brushes do you use

haii sorry for the long ass wait for a reply </3 i draw on procreate and i use true grit texture supply’s free sample pack’s “jittery inker” mainly!! link

thats what i use to draw stuff like this ^_^ i used to use crispy inker before but i reaaaally like the more obvious texture of the jittery inker so i switched to that… <3 and i toggle between using it at size ten and size three (art below is 10 vs 3 <3)

[spiderziege]

hi!! hello!!!!!! for the ask game:

whats your favourite dessert(or food)? do you read fics? if so, whats one you really like? and how do you texture your drawings? theyre so beautiful <3

favorite dessert is probably brownies? im not actually a huge fan of chocolate unless its used in baking tbh. also baklava, i love baklava

i read fics sometimes, but not super often tbh. i usually prefer character study stuff, or generally more canon compliant fics. i think my favorite is still Realisa Onum. i would also recommend the newest traffic zine, all the fics in there are incredible (my personal favs are Mightier than the Sword (p118), Before the Screaming Starts (p64) and Enter: the End? (p137))

i use two things to texture, on is the grain brush (also from the True Grit Texture Supply sample pack), the other is a paper texture overlay (i have multiple different ones there, you can find a bunch that are free to use on google :) i usually darken it a bit and then put the layer to linear light and 10-20% opacity

[tapefish]

hey i absolutely love your art style. it's soo cute. but i wonder how you make it look so comic-ey (like how you do the halftone thingies that make it look like an actual printed comic)

keep it up, you're awesome

- 🌌 Magic Mayhem

thank you!! This is all set for krita btw :)

For the effect above, I saved the right image as a pattern, and then filled the canvas with it (edit >fill with pattern). Then I change the effect to “hard mix (photoshop)” and change the opacity to whatever looks good (usually 5-15%)

This effect is a little more complicated, so I'll put it under the cut

I'll explain the background because I think it's the best example :)

So there are 3 main parts for this effect. The effect, the color, and the base layer. Here I put them in a folder (background). The effect layer (comic book texture) goes on the very top and has the same settings as above (hard mix photoshop). The color layers (paint layers) are the individual colors for the art. Each color should have it’s own layer, and each layer should be set to “multiply”. All of the layers above the base layer should be set to alpha-inheritance (the symbol on the right that looks cross between an "a" and "x") so the comic book overlay doesn't show up where there is no color. The base layer is set to "normal" and determines where the above layers are able to be seen.

After that, you can move around the individual paint layers a bit to get the poor registration look like below. Because the layers are set to multiply, it will show where they overlap!

To make the black look gritty like above I do something similar over the lineart. I put the pattern "default paper effect" over the inks/lineart and set it to "grain merge" or "grain extract" (doesn't make much of a difference). Set it to alpha-inheritance so it only shows up on the lineart.

To get the paper effect, I put the following texture over the whole piece and set it to multiply.

and thats it! hope this was helpful :)

[mjulmjul]

brush sets! that i actually use

if you download even part of these you'll have a great selection of brushes to start out with without having to pay anything upfront, because they’re all free (!)

Georgw concept art brushes - GREAT textured brushes for painting & illustration, they're very responsive - you'll like these if you're used to traditional art. I recommend checking the instructions for the color tilt function! & Georgw ink brushes - all the ink and lineart brushes you need tbh seriously these are SO good i use them a lot. this guy has LOTS more free stuff

True Grit Texture Supply - free sample available on their website, v suitable for a more comic book style and adding grit (u guessed it) to your stuff. their inkers and grain shaders are great imo

RetroSupply Co - free sampler has a good selection of their stuff, includes some beat tones (dot shaders, like in old comics) so you can play around with whether you like those for your art. I enjoy the pencil and gouache brush in this too

Katrima digital painting set - variety of textured brushes, I mainly use these for adding some more texture at the end of rendering

Devin L Kurtz's brushes (tamberella on tumblr) - various sets with foliage, skyscrapers, etc - once you get the hang of these you can create (impressions of) whole forests, cities etc very quickly

MattyB brushsets - various ones, I have the foliage+splash ones to add some textures to paintings. ink one isn't bad either!

[mandimormon-blog]

Door-No-More

Once upon a time in a village named Covington.  A vibrant, young housewife polished her floors to reduce pathogens transmitted by bodily fluids (primarily vomit).  She scrubbed and scrubbed the tiles with a brush assuring each square was meticulously cleansed and free of germs.  She mopped the entire home, freshly.  Just then, the smaller, younger, less feisty girl on this given day, entered the bathroom, and in a blink of an eye explosive diarrhea splattered across the bathroom, covering the girl’s clothing, the bathtub rug and virtually every square of tile in the entire room. 

We’ll call this story Monday. (In case you were wondering, I repeated the process of sanitation.  Names of persons have been protected.  If you don’t have children and you find this story gross or inappropriate, good luck in your future.) Since the morning routine had been unusual, getting just two kids ready for school, while trying to separate them from the illness occurring in the same little cottage, when my son arrived home after school, and had been hanging out for over an hour, Remi realized he'd worn his pants backwards, all day long, and the zipper was unzipped in the back, displaying the perfect view of his Big Hero 6 undies.  Wow.

On Tuesday morning, my oldest daughter said to me, “Mom, I want to make a unicorn for my Valentine’s Day box.”  Admittingly, I was up for the challenge but a part of me thought back to simpler times, when I was an elementary-aged child and Pinterest didn’t exist.   We didn’t get samples of the best of the best Valentine boxes ever made in the history of crafting.  

Here came the moment I’d been waiting to happen for months.  Which ‘recycled’ or ‘repurposed’ boxes from my storage closet would be utilized and which ones would be truly “recycled”?  If you missed it, several weeks ago, I wall-posted a friend of mine who happens to be the blogger behind “Save Time, Make Time”.   My predicament was – I long to be a minimalist.  I dislike clutter and too much “stuff”. But I’m not a true minimalist, because I will occasionally buy paper products for convenience and drink out of a plastic water bottle.  I have my shortcomings, as we discovered in ‘Purgeney 2017’.  Regardless, Lamora wrote a spot-on-topic blog focusing on how to organize these items that seem to get tossed into my utility closet into an unruly heap.  Things like plastic bags, used gift bags, grocery sacks (ALDI shoppers unite!), and cardboard boxes.  

After her inspiration, I organized this closet.   I even put a couple of nails into a board 1) to hang my grocery sacks on and 2) to manage clothes to be donated < #organized  - I give a half laugh at that because of the current status of my closet upstairs, it’s better.  After recycling two ginormous bags full of paperwork, but FAR from perfect.  Another side bar, I hate staples.  I broke two nails in the process from ripping staples out of schoolwork.  After I was finished with hours of sorting, organizing, and recycling, there were probably 57 (no joke) staples I had to clean up.  

Did you know you could create a unicorn out of two empty cereal boxes, an empty oatmeal box, and a square kettle box?  You can. Magical crafting supplies include duct tape, a white roll of paper, a variety of colorful crepe paper, and a Sharpie.

I’d done extensive Pinterest research on choice Valentine’s Day boxes.  I had even found a few unicorns but Reis wasn’t impressed she wanted a very specific head-shape, like the unicorn emoji.  So, on her handy, dandy Chromebook (I wonder if modern-day Steve from Blue’s Clues would have a Chromebook?), she pulled up Google Images and showed me.  Maybe I’m not remembering accurately, because it was a few days ago now, but I think at that point there was the sound of dramatic scissor chopping, duct tape tearing, and my eyebrow lifted slightly higher on one side, as I glanced back and forth at my cardboard and at the screen of the “perfect unicorn representation”.

As did my thing, Reis did hers.  She chopped three strips of crepe paper, out of each piece of approximately 18 inches, in each of her desired colors.  She was very particular over this.  She also chopped hearts out of the glitter duct tape, printed her name, and cut small pieces of “frayed” white crepe to add texture on a couple of the sides of the box.  Very clever.

It only took a couple of hours, start-to-finish, and a Dollar General Run for tape, glitter duct tape, and more crepe paper, and it was done.  Voila!  Presto!  

The crown of the unicorn head, (I’m guessing it’s the crown - like a human head), there’s a flap we taped, and double taped, and triple taped  - in every direction – maybe 22 times – to allow entry for Valentines!  

Too much detail?  I apologize.   Let me briefly explain Remi’s Valentine Box (which is actually a bucket).  Sure, this isn’t in chronological order, Remi went with me to the Dollar Store a couple of days before unicorn crafting, to select her supplies.  She, too, had found a great example of a cupcake on Pinterest. She loved it!  The thing is, this pinner somehow had access to a rounded piece of foam and was able to shove all of her pieces of tissue paper into that to secure it.  We had no such luck with a rounded piece of foam.  But while shopping Remi came up with the idea we could probably use a bowl. Best suggestion ever.  We found a cheap plastic bowl, a plastic bucket, tissue paper (ripped into strips), a red bouncy ball, cardstock for the cupcake liner, and about 24 glue sticks to secure the tissue paper to the plastic bowl. Thanks to my husband’s handy work, he cut the perfect circle in the bowl for the “cherry” or the red ball to fit on top. Kids insert their cards and candy through that, and it falls into the “cupcake”.  

This project, too, was a little bit time consuming.  I had a meeting on Monday night so after getting about ¼ of the way through it with Miss Remi, I had a short recess but came right back to hot gluing the night away, when I returned.  Remi helped by gathering a couple of strips of tissue paper in the color she wanted (she wanted a pattern, friends), and folding those, using a small elastic to tie around each piece and fluffing it.  Then I’d place glue and she’d carefully stick it down to the bowl.  She was happy to be able to take it to school the next morning.  

A piano lesson, a basketball practice, a choral performance of the Star-spangled Banner, a basketball game, a trip to the Temple, an afternoon enjoying PERFECT weather, and The Lego Batman Movie.

This was just the latter-half of the week.  A few time slots in our schedule were double-booked.  For example, baseball camp.  Oh, baseball camp.  

I will never be prepared when unexpected tantrums arise.  I have two examples from this weekend.  

This first concerning baseball camp – we arrived on Saturday morning a few minutes later than our goal. There was much scurrying around the house, beforehand, it didn’t help I, personally, was running behind after running. So much so that I didn’t shower… yeah, that happens, a lot.  I sometimes have to blow the sweat dry in my hair, because that’s the only option I have. Saturday mornings seem to be notorious for my children turning off their listening ears.  I only said, “Please get your shoes on.”  or “Get your shoes on.”  or “GET YOUR SHOES ON NOW!” – only like 18x.   I asked my oldest daughter and her friend to straighten up her bedroom and get into real clothes, as opposed to pajamas, because the day was expected to be glorious, as my two youngest and I shuffled out the door, to my younger daughter’s first basketball game of the season.  

Back to where I deviated from when beginning that last paragraph, we had to round up a jersey, go change into it, and by that point, the bleachers were almost full, so Jude and I opted to sit on the floor.  At this moment, Jude realized it was Saturday.  He realized Baseball Camp is on Saturdays.  Then he got really frustrated because he was upset I was prioritizing Remi’s first game over Baseball Camp.  He began to sob stating in between gasps, “I want to go to BASEBALL CAMP!”  Then he began to hit me every 15 seconds or so, out of anger.  He was clearly throwing a tantrum, which I hadn’t seen in months, not even in the privacy of our own home.  Being a child you always pick the most in-opportune moments to breakdown and give the illusion your parents suck and you don’t have to obey rules. There were only like 100+ other parents, grandparents, siblings, and kids, there, witnessing my child’s tantrum.

I didn’t speak under my breath, while gritting my teeth, (although I’ve used that method before, come on, we all have), I just ignored him.  I told him we couldn’t make it this week, we will try to make it next week. I didn’t threaten him (I’ve done that before, too).  I didn’t bribe him (this is my favorite choice while in public).  I just patiently waited until my husband arrived. Usually, I vocalize, “Your dad will be here in five seconds, cut it out.”  But I refrained.  He naturally quit when my husband arrived and said the exact same thing I said to him. “We couldn’t make it this week, we will make it next week.”  

Why does it work for him and not me?  The world may never know, but this is how the dynamics are.  I’ve been told I lack a follow-through.  I threaten but it’s white noise, because my kids know I become soft and don’t follow through with punishment.  It’s honestly because I start considering how my children really are good kids, the choices they’re making are just because they’re independent. Should they respect their parents? Absolutely.  There’s a fine line, friends.  

Remi did great at her first game.  She was a little nervous but she made a couple of baskets and did a good job of listening to instruction.  She loves sports and physical fitness.  

When we returned home, I went to check on the oldest girls and guess what?  They were in their jammies, the room was a disaster, and they were watching a video on the Chromebook.  I reminded them 7x more (give or take), the room needed straightened up and they needed to get out and get some fresh air, but it was like I was speaking a foreign language.  

I bobbed and weaved around the house as I picked up shoes, and random items, wiped down counters, and threw laundry in.  I was trying to expedite the cleaning process so I, too, could get outside and enjoy the beautiful day.  My personality type will not allow me to “enjoy” anything until my tasks are done, otherwise, my stress levels rise.  I don’t think I’m the only one.  

I reminded my oldest, again, and again.  So, I sent my husband a text and said, I’d like for her to get outside but not until her room is cleaned up and she’s ignoring me, Ignoring me while I beat on the door over and over, again, because it’s locked.

A few minutes later, he walked through the door with a drill.  Without saying anything, he unlocked the door, and took the door down, as in removing it.  That was the moment crap it the fan.  This was the most ultimate punishment in the entire world, friends.  You would think that we grounded her for all eternity. Nope, just removed the door.  She had a complete and total meltdown.  The reason I’m saying this isn’t because it’s funny, (it’s a little funny because as an adult human, we know this is minor in an eternal perspective) but to shed light for other parents, sometimes something seemingly subtle can make the biggest different in obedience.  Through the complete meltdown, my husband told her if she changed her behavior he would put the door back on that night, but not until she changed.  

It worked!  It worked!  If you have a tween or an 11 going on 25 year-old, this could help you, too. You’re welcome.

Let me back all the way up to last Sunday, because I finally posted the last blog on Saturday.  Last Sunday, we had our Second Annual Sabbath Bowl!

What is Sabbath Bowl? It’s exactly as it sounds.  We prepped some amazing superbowl-inspired appetizers, quite the spread.  We turned our dining room table into a football field and created two teams. This year it was the Lumpers v. Jedos. A set of Elders (or boy missionaries, as Jude calls them, usually 18+), and a set of Sister Missionaries (girls 19+) that are serving our Ward currently, or the church  building we attend, participated.  My mother attended this year, too.  She has vast knowledge of the Bible and that is our basis, a bible trivia game.  We began with our mini football on the 50 yard-line.  Coin toss gave possession to our starting team who answers questions until they can’t answer or answer incorrectly, gaining 10 yards with each correct answer.  If the question isn’t complete, the other team can intercept the ball.  Gram was on fire.  She carried her team to the lead and maintained a tie.  In fact, they were more than generous during a question for the other team (consisting of all males), or else the girls would’ve clinched the victory.  When the score was tied up the final question was a written question to see how many of the original apostles they could name, accurately.  The Jedos ended up with the win on this one, but Gram was still our Sabbath Bowl MVP for her biblical accuracy.  

This is such a great time that we feel like adding in an Olympic Games or Final Four version of this would be super great.  As soon as it was over I was ready for the Third Annual Sabbath Bowl, next year.  Is this how football fans feel about the Superbowl?  I wonder if next year we should add in some gospel-related commercials, like a mix between Taboo and Charades?  I enjoy doing the sports announcing for this activity.  It’s great to witness this game going down, so much passion! 

Here we are to Sunday, again.  The sun is shining gloriously outside.  I love the sun.  In my mind I wanted to take a family walk, but the wind is crazy out there.  I’m on a gluten-free cake pop kick, not for myself, I can’t eat that on AIP, but for anyone else.  I’m been making them like they’re going out of style.  Also, I found this yummy snack mix recipe that my children enjoy and I gave to our Young Women, at church, today, as a Valentine gift.  It’s super easy to make and it’s gluten-free!  Win-win.

Do you remember that mantra kick I was on a couple of years ago?  Yeah, I think it was right after Time Out for Women, which is coming up, woot-woot! 

Anyway, in my head, I create mantras all of time like self-talk.  Sometimes it’s something like, “You can do hard things” or  “Just breathe.” or “Brussel Sprouts are good. You should like them.”  To be brutally honest, I was on a Brussel Sprout kick and now to think of them makes me want to gag.  Everything in moderation, even Brussel Sprouts.

There is a point, I promise.  The point or quote I recently have discovered and felt impressed to focus on is, “Nothing changes until YOU change.  Everything changes once YOU change.”   Apply that to everything.  To give you a visual or more personal example, consider these areas: Fitness, Health, Diet, Occupation, Education, Church Experience, Work Relationships, Marriage, Personal Relationships, Parenting, Budgeting - I could go on but those encompass a lot.  There’s a video circulating about how blaming lack of motivation is complete crap, as in it doesn’t exist.  This isn’t my advice to you, this is my advice to me.  I just wanted to remind everyone life isn’t perfect, my life definitely isn’t perfect and change is what’s going to make a true difference.  I don’t want to have a perfect life that’s not what I’m striving for, but I am trying to be better than I am, now (note: not better than anyone else but myself).  Progress is important - it’s growth.   Choices are what determine destiny.