#I also changed light shading techniques between them

[squonkinaswamp]

colour palette challenge

[eaudera]

eaudera's detailed tutorial for skin rendering

okay loves i've put together a tutorial in text form detailing my step by step process of shading darker skin + the brushes and techniques I use and why I use them. you will be following along as we shade a piece together, you can find the lineart to the piece here. *turn off your true tone and night shift displays for the most objective viewing.

i wrote a lot on the preview pictures, if you find spelling errors (which you def will) or are unable to read my handwriting, you'll find the typed out version of the writing in the alt text feature.

disclaimer: i'm not an art professor nor am i academically/classically trained in art. a lot of the verbiage and techniques i'm using to teach you all here are from my current self taught and observed understanding of art, light, and anatomy

support me: kofi / ig / twt / commissions

firstly, here are my two staple brushes. you can find the second brush here, i modified it by making it larger.

the lineart brush is very good for easy sketching and simultaneously cleaning up that sketch to produce the final lineart you'll be using in your piece. the diffusion from the erased parts/the diffusion created by lowering the pressure of your pen creates a light graphite effect which i enjoy! give it a shot.

you'll notice quickly that there are lighter strokes throughout this lineart, these are simply acting as rendering guides for me in order to remember certain placements. i erase/draw over these lines a lot.

i initially learned to shade skin on a completely grey background with very slight orange undertones, and for a while this was very helpful in providing the most objective view of the base colors you're using (objective as in free of being effected by colors of different values). as you might know, using a white background for dark skin will seemingly darken the value and dim the vibrancy of your base colors, and using a black background will do the opposite. if you're using a darker skin tone, you want your canvas shade to be of a value that is proportional to your skin tone to avoid the same problems created by colors with too light or dark of a value. now if you're using a screened device to draw, you have the extra burden of screen reflections/wavering color output on different screens, so you're never really sure if the exact color you're using will be consistent across the board. priming your canvas with neutral colors will help with that. whereas priming with more vibrant colors will slightly change the undertone of your skintone (especially if you're using a low opacity brush), but it makes for a funner canvas and more creativity with your color palette imo. if you're a beginner i recommend you stay below the wavy line to avoid too light of a canvas shade.

for these same reasons i avoid keeping my lineart jet black. when you lay down the base colors under a black lineart it can look very unfavorable.

here are some skin tone variants that i tend to use the most, peep how i never wander off too far to the left of the spectrum where the reds are. i definitely favor red-oranges as compared to green-oranges for my skin tones, however, because i stay primarily on the left side of the color spectrum for my rendering, red can quickly become too much too fast. so i make sure to use a skin tone that can work very well with green-orange shadows. for this specific piece i will use the third shade (#2d1606).

heres where the gouache brush comes in handy. i use it very loosely to "prime" the canvas almost. if you've ever done oil painting you'll realize very few artists draw directly onto a completely white canvas, though i've already primed my canvas essentially by changing the background color, i loosely shade over it with the skin tone color using the gouache brush. i find this gives me a better grasp on the composition of the piece due to increased harmony between the canvas and the skin color. it also looks really cool to me and resembles a real canvas almost.

as stated before, priming your canvas with neutral colors (grey) can help give you a more consistent view of your base colors, when you get the hang of understanding the colors you most often use (i.e, how they interact with other colors), you can start using more vibrant and fun colors to color your canvas with! the gouache brush changes opacity depending on the pressure exerted by the pen, if you zoom in you'll notice patchy areas where the canvas color bleeds through the layer more prominently than it does in other areas. for some people this might throw off the consistency of the shadows, but you should be fine as long as you're using a consistently opaque brush (which we will be doing)

i know i recommended beginners use a grey canvas like i did, but since this tutorial is using my techniques i figured i'd also teach you guys how to use variantly opaque brushes to your advantage. we will be drawing on the pink canvas from here on out.

a reference is so helpful, i still rely on references to guide my shadows/lights. i'm past the point of relying on references for exact coordinates for rendering or lineart, but they are still incredibly helpful. in most references of darker skintones you come across, color dropping directly from the picture will give you very grey colors! we want to prioritize vibrancy in this case, so attempt to formulate your own colors or colordrop and increase the vibrancy :)! keep in mind i'm now using the lineart brush to shade. the diffuse/soft corners of this brush allows fewer pixels to be scattered wherever you lessen the pressure, this is perfect for color dropping medium colors to blend two colors together. you'll see how i blend colors later on.

as mentioned previously, red can become too much too fast- so i avoid monochrome rendering as much as possible by using shadows of different undertones. my most frequent combination is using a red-orange skin tone and then using a green-orange shadow.

the value spectrum will be your best friend in mixing values and undertones, i use it all the time to formulate the best less saturated darker shadow that is proportional (not too dark, not too grey) to my skintone value. if the shadow is too green simply increase the magenta, if you're looking for a "reflective" shadow, increase the blue.

when i begin shading, i always slide the curser to a truer orange color on the spectrum and increase the saturation (slide towards the right) while i decrease the brightness (slide down). heres how it looks when i'm jumping between shadows and highlights while trying to keep my colors proportional (but not identical) to whats happening in the reference ^. i most often times will rely on the value tool, however.

you will notice that a lot of darker skin tones have patches of orange vibrancy, these areas are most common on the nose and cheeks. this is only a detail to pay attention to if you're going for more of a realism rendering style :)

now onto how i prefer to bridge/blend colors together by utilizing the blend tool.

i do not like simply blurring colors in order to blend colors together, it can lead to overblending which can make your portrait look heavily gaussian blurred (think 2010 deviantart art... yea that). the brilliant thing about procreate is you can utilize brushes really efficiently, which include changing the brushes you use for blending. so in reality, artists who use the blending tool on its own can still have portraits that don't look it! there also exists plenty of brushes that have properties allowing it to blend into its surrounding colors are you draw. but in my case, the above photo is 99% of the times how i will bridge two colors together. doing this allows me to keep pretty consistent brushstrokes across the whole portrait, which i enjoy. it also gives me better control of the shapes i use in my rendering, an aspect that is pretty easy to lose when you're using the blending tool directly and solely.

in case the blending process is a bit hard too see, heres that same process recreated with different more visible colors:

now once you've placed your shadows where they generally tend to be (according to the reference photo), let's make those shapes a bit more specific and pick up on smaller details to make your rendering look more complete.

your base colors will never be as dark or as light as you need them to be when you begin rendering, making sure you have a decent contrast between your lightsource highlights and the shadows is key to capturing the essence of a light being cast on your character. it's much easier to keep building upon your shadows before rendering the highlights, i laid down the highlights only to create a guide/help me map my shadows better. do not darken the entirety of the areas affected by shadow, you'll find that shadows are rarely ever the same value, it's a gradual process affected by things like position, height, etc. so make sure the darkest of your shadow colors are preserved only in areas where the shadows are the or should be the darkest.

you'll notice i labeled some areas as "detail", adding very specific shadow placements is a detail. in the reference, the model has a pretty prominent brow bone, creating a shadow over where his eyelid creases just above his lash line, paying attention to feature details like this help enhance the rendering and its realism.

now that i've mapped my shadows i'm going to move onto to rendering my highlights and the region of the face where the lightsource is most prominent.

i described shadows as a gradual process earlier, this is because of the lightsource. light tends to spread when its further from the affected surface, creating a larger area affected by the light. of course, this varies depending on how intense and how close/far the light source is. in this case, the light is being casted above him further to the other side of his face, but again, remember that the face is not 2d and more prominent areas are affected more by light. it's due to this that there still exists a, albeit very minimal, shadow beneath his cheekbone. i exaggerate the shadow here for stylistic purposes, but it also helps in keeping me uphold that contrast between the highlight and shadow once again. so i refrain from blending the light into this area like i did in other areas.

midtones are the areas most unaffected by the light source, they're neither shadows nor highlights. and because light spreads, it is brighter in certain areas and darker in others. it is most easiest to blend the darker ends of the highights into the midtones of your portrait. you can emulate this by once again using your blend tool. blend the outer areas of the light and colordrop this color and use it as the darker light more proportional to the midtones. note that before i add even lighter shades to the areas where light is most concentrated, i blend what highlight placements i currently have there.

we're going to switch gears now and focus on the reflective shadow occurring on the darker half of his face.

this shadow is a reflection from the lighter background the model is up against, the light being casted above him is allowing for some bounce back from his surroundings, leading to very faint light visible in areas primarily affected by shadows. hence why i'm referring to these colors as "reflective shadows".

in this case, the reflective shadows are blue, or appear to our eyes as blue. on darker skin, "true" blues (blue-purple) are not often times present. what is present rather, is a very grey tone with cool undertones/a grey tone on the blue side of the spectrum, which creates a blue that is much more proportional to the value of the skintone than a true blue. in this case i used a deeper grey on the pink color spectrum, which is more purple. this was intentional, and was done in order to create some sort of color harmony between the contrasted deep oranges im using for the bordering shadows and the blue-grey i'm attempting to emulate.

while i utilize this blue-grey, out've a purely stylistic choice, i still introduce true blues to my rendering. in fact i love using blue/purple reflective shadows in my art, it creates a stunning and colorful render. in this case, i used the blue-grey as a stepping stool to introduce that trueer blue more naturally. you'll see this happening in the second picture above, where i used a slightly more vibrant and slightly more brighter blue, and used it on areas where this reflection was more prominent (and therefore brighter).

you'll notice how the shadows that border on these reflective colors are less saturated and darker than the shadows on his chin. introduce a darker and less saturated (more green) shadow to that area on his cheek and the darkest shadow of this photo, the sunken area near his nose bridge and inner eye corner. i emphasize this line in the lineart so you can follow this shadow more accurately:

this is also a detail in my opinion and can make your portrait more realistic if you include.

we're going to pivot to his neck area before continuing. you'll find the area of his neck with the most light is also the least vibrant, i laid down a grey base color to emphasize this detail in the portrait. afterwards i added key details. i wanted to stay at least somewhat true to the color dynamics occurring in the reference hence why i used the grey, but i'm not a very big fan of using blatant grey directly on the skin, so i made it more blue.

moving forward, the outer eye and the nose can be some of the most "detail focused" areas of the face when it comes to rendering. due to their more "bulbous" anatomy, light tends to curve around them in more complex ways than the flatter parameters of the face.

when it comes to the many creases that surround the eye, the skin folding over itself creates a very thin shadow from between the folds. the key to rendering this crease is to concentrate the blending to a very small scale, do not overblend the area because the hill created by the crease very easily captures light, creating an area where the shadow and highlight meet in very close proximity. slight blending is needed for this area, you can deepen the shadows in both horizontal corners of the eye for more accuracy. the midsection of the total eye area (eyeball and socket) tends to capture the most light, remember this is due to how bulbous rounder shapes tend to capture light from whichever direction its coming from.

this is of course the case for the nose as well. highlights are typically placed as a dot on the outermost part of the nose by artists, but highlights also spread on either side of the tip of the nose. the nose tends to collect a lot of oil, creating a sort of sheen on the upper parts of the nostril. when rendering a portrait where the position of the head is more cast to the side, the highlight of the nose changes from the bulb of the nose, to the upper nostril. in this case, the highlight spreads, causing a "half tone", or the remnants of the light on the bulb of the nose. this is the easiest place to blend highlights and shadows together. now for the shadow detailing on the nose, i'm actually drawing on top of the lineart on a separate layer. which i'll go into detail about in the next part. you want to focus the shadow on where your lineart is, the outermost part of the nose.

now were going to really detail your portrait by introducing a new layer, the detail layer! this isn't technically apart of the skin rendering, so i'm gonna keep it very brief. this is the layer you're going to render the lips, eyeballs, and eyebrows. more specifically, the purpose of this layer is to reduce the reliance on lineart. in terms of order, it goes above the lineart layer. we're going to soften and even erase the lineart in certain aspects. i use bolder/thicker lines when creating my lineart, but this can become a nuisance/hinderance when rendering.

starting out with the lips:

people w brown skin tend to have two toned lips, with the top lip resembling the same skin tone as the face and the bottom lip being redder/pinker and lighter than the upper lip. in my case, i prefer a more vibrant red for the bottom lip. once i lay down these base colors, i begin shading on the second layer.

i personally enjoy the look of a poutier lip shape, this includes emphasizing the middles of the lips as opposed to the ends. i've highlighted the shapes that this lip shape often entails. the small circles on the corner of the lip line are just pockets that occur when the mouth is closed and become emphasized by the fat around the mouth. the parameters of the lip lines do not often meet these round corners, theres often times a "double lip line", that exists around these areas. i love including that in the art, its very easy to emphasize by simply drawing a highlight from the corner of the lips along the curvature of the bottom lip towards the middle.

shadow mapping on the lips tend to go: highlight, shadow, highlight, shadow. the top lip going inward creates a highlight on the most outward part: the top of the lip. and the bottom lip curving outward thus creates a shadow on the bottom of the lip.

when it comes to the eyeball, i don't draw the white parts as solid white, nor do i make them too bright most of the time. they're most often times an orange grey, i also dont spread this color out if you can notice the uncolored white part of the eye. i do this intentionally to keep some of the shadows that are naturally present on the eye. very specifically right where the upper eyelid sits on the eyeball, it tends to create a small shadow that follows the curvature of the eye. this shadow is crucial, if you can see the first and second picture do not have this shadow, making the iris look more exposed and the eye appears to be held wider.

when it comes to the iris, i do very little. if i'm drawing a dark colored eye i will cover the entire iris brown, before darkening it with an almost black color. i leave the brown sides of the iris exposed to aid in bridging the values between the whiter parts of the eye and the very dark iris. this blended ring also appears on all eyes in real life. lastly, dark eyes tend to show light reflections much easier than lighter eyes. these reflections can be any color in art, in this case i kept it blue-green. i bend these reflections around where the pupil would most likely be depending on the drawing.

next, the eyebrow. i find it tedious to draw individual eyebrow strands when it comes to rendering, i actually prefer to blend the parameters of the eyebrows to create cohesiveness. sparse and fine eyebrow hairs are penetrated by light and shadows more than what you'd find on the scalp. it's harder to see light on someones scalp due to the bulk of hair crowding the scalp, whereas as its easier to see such light on the eyebrow. to introduce this concept to my art, i will initially draw the entire shape of the brow. then when rendering, i erase the parameters, leaving the darkest part of the brow. then i blend. the lower brow bone will be blended the least, whereas the area of the eyebrow connected to the T zone will be the most blended thanks to the shadow following the nose bridge. the far end of the brow by the hairline tends to be the lightest given the light source.

and lastly, i loosely draw a white border around the portrait for stylistic purposes. then i combine the layers (group together your layers, then duplicate and compress the duplicate group so that you still retain your individual layers) to edit. i typically add noise and play with the curve setting. and heres the finished image:

i hope you enjoyed!!

[brighter-by-the-daly]

Millie Bright x Reader

Part Four: Lover’s Auction

“Hey pretty girl” Millie’s soft morning voice awoke you from your slumber, prying your eyes open to see the beautiful woman peering down at you made your face light up. “What’s that cheeky smile for, aih?” she said tucking the duvet around your feet that had become uncovered in the night. “I like waking up to you” the smile was still plastered on your face as you sat up to take the cup of tea she’d made you out of her hands. Millie sat down on the edge of bed, draping an arm across your body, “big day today princess, how you feeling?” she asked laying her head down in your lap. You hadn’t been awake long enough to register your feelings about today and longed for a few more minutes of blissful ignorance before you had to acknowledge them. Today was the day you watch a live football game for the first time since mum passed 20 years ago. Football was your thing together and although you know that she’d love to see you go again, you felt guilty for going without her. It may not seem like a big deal but it was like a huge black cloud hanging over you. You’d recently started watching Millie’s Chelsea and England games on TV with your dad and the prospect of football as a whole certainly wasn’t as daunting as it once was but there was still an awful feeling in your stomach - the feeling of betrayal and guilt mixed into one huge cauldron about to boil over in your tummy.

Dad loved watching football with you again, for years he’d go to his friend’s house or the pub to watch Tottenham just so he wouldn’t upset you but now he gets to watch his beloved Spurs at home, without the fear of his baby girl having a complete meltdown. Every week he makes sure he’s home in time to watch Millie’s games with you, he’s filled you in on the new offside rule (one that’s changed many times since you last played), he always bought mountains of snacks home with him and even teases you about wearing the shirt of a rival team of his.

“The sun’s shining, it’s a lovely day” Millie pulled the curtains and interrupted your thoughts, she’d noticed you still hadn’t answered her question and went for the distraction technique instead. “Are you more of a pie or hot dog kinda person?” her question sparked the glint in your eyes to come back, “I’m more of a chips and hot chocolate kinda girl” you smiled, the rumble in your belly already tasting the overly salty chips you’ll get in the stadium. “Oooh, mayo or ketchup?” the blonde asked, busy getting herself ready for the day and determined to keep the conversation going so you didn’t slip back into overthinking. “Ketchup. Unless I’m drunk, then mayo” you laughed at her silly question, “I can work with that!” Millie replied as she tugged on her socks and trainers then told you that Rachel had already left to meet her team.

Throughout the morning Millie kept checking in, conscious not to push you into going if you weren’t 100% ready but also encouraging and reassuring you. She wanted you to do this just as much as you wanted to do it for yourself and her gentle and caring nature showed that. It was a lovely summers day so no coats were needed but you tied a hoodie around you in case it got chilly in the shade. Leaning over the sink to spit out the toothpaste and wipe your mouth Millie’s arms found their way around your waist, her chin nuzzled between your shoulder and neck as you looked at yourselves in the mirror. “We make a cute couple if I do say so myself” you laughed, turning your head to kiss her as she hummed in agreement. “How are you feeling gorgeous, you haven’t answered yet?” she said in an almost whisper, squeezing you a little tighter to make you feel safe. “Anxious, apprehensive, a teeny bit excited but that might be just because I get to spend the entire day with you” spinning around inside her arms to face her, interlocking your fingers behind her neck you stood together as one for a second. “I got you, okay?” she lingered a kiss on your forehead and waiting for your acknowledgement of her statement - Millie makes you feel safe, there’s no doubt about that and her pet names made you feel increasingly soppy. She didn’t want to rush you but it was time to leave, taking a deep breath before leaving the bathroom she lead you out to the car and drove to Bescott Stadium.

Walking towards the stadium there was a buzz in the air, an atmosphere that felt familiar as excitement started to build among fans. You watched families pass by with children in tow which made you smile, they had women’s names on the back of their shirts and everyone walked together with no fuss. Not like men’s games where they have to be separated, it made you feel happy to see how big women’s football had grown since you left it, they’re a big deal now! “Oh! Can I get a programme?” tugging on Millie’s arm to drag her towards the person selling them. Millie was wearing a cap with her hair tucked underneath to try and go as unrecognisable as possible – she could have easily snuck you in through the VIP entrance but wanted you to soak up the atmosphere from outside. “You can have whatever you want doll” she chuckled to herself, watching you become more and more excited with every step. Flicking through the programme Millie’s arm wrapped around your shoulders, peering over to look at the glossy pages too. “Shall I get you one of those?” chuckling as she pointed out the merch stall you were passing selling scarves with players faces on; she was joking but you were running with it! Your eyes lit up as you pulled her over to the stand and paid for two scarves with Rachel’s face on, “this is so funny!” holding up the face next to yours so Millie could take a photo of you in front of the stadium to send to your dad. You couldn’t believe what was happening, it all felt so huge! You never dreamed that the game you played as a child could lead to a professional career but here you were dating someone that proves you could of and should have!

As fans trickled through the turnstiles Millie took you through the main entrance and once safely inside took of her off her hat letting her blonde hair drop past her shoulders. You were lead to the bar where you had a few drinks to settle your nerves before making your way out onto the balcony to find your seats. The roar of the fans as the whistle blew took your breath away, you’d been prepped by Rachel the night before that it was big game and one that they should win but Villa’s form had been quite unpredictable lately. Millie pointed out her best friend on the pitch to you and talked you through the line up, giving you all the information you needed to enjoy the game, she gave a special nod to Jordan Nobbs who moved to Villa after 12 years at Arsenal last season and Kenza Dali who plays for France. Millie held your hand throughout and at half time you went to collect the chips and hot chocolates for you both, Millie insisted on paying but you beat her to it. It’s only fair seeing as she drove you halfway up the country! She doesn’t see it that way though and isn’t used to having someone pay for her, you said that if she continues to date you then it’s something she’ll have to get used to – it’s just chips after all! By the second half you got so into the game that you were shouting and clapping along with the crowd. Millie enjoyed watching you stand up and sit down every two minutes of the second half shouting support at the team, it was like watching a completely different person come alive! When Rachel scored twice in the space of five minutes you launched yourself into the air, noticing her point up to the sky then towards you and Millie in the stands. Your girl nudged into your shoulder, “that was for her dad.. and your mum” she smiled with glassy eyes at your confused face. “She said this morning that if she scores she’ll dedicate it to your mum, she always dedicates her goals to her dad” taking you in for a big bear hug. You didn’t know Rachel had lost a parent too and somehow felt more connected to her than before, it was cute that she dedicated a goal to your mum on your first game back and was very thoughtful of her. Villa won 5-0 which was a huge win for them being close to the bottom of the league apparently, the crowd went wild and you were in awe! You hadn’t seen a spectacle like that since your home team avoided relegation on the last game of the season way back when.

You had a great weekend in Birmingham and arriving home made you feel a little sad that it was over. Just like always dad was home to greet you as soon as you walked through the door, keen to hear all about your adventures and how the game went. He couldn’t wait to come with you when Chelsea play Tottenham in the future! “While you were gone I found this out the attic” he said handing you a large glitter covered cardboard box. “Is this..?” you asked getting a little choked up when he nodded. “The memory box mum made you, yeah. I thought you might like it now that you’ve got back into football?” Carefully lifting the dusty lid uncovered brightly coloured joy – your old kit, newsletters, signed England programmes, sticker books and posters, a shirt signed by your entire home team, your first pair of boots, game tickets, photos of you playing – there was so much inside you’d forgotten about! Tears fell from both of your eyes as you carefully admired every piece of memorabilia, each one bringing another memory to the forefront of your mind.

The next time you hung out with Millie you took the box with you, keen to show off your footballing past. You spoke about how mum took you to some of the England games when you were little and meeting the likes of Fara Williams, Alex Scott and Carly Telford, there was even photos of you with them after your last game with mum at a 2003 friendly. Millie smiled and admired the photos just as much as you did then scrolled through the contacts in her phone, pointing those same names out. Your mouth dropped at the blasé way she said it, these women you idolised growing up are actually in Millie’s phone, she knows them! “Who knows where you would have been if you didn’t stop (y/n/n)” a weak smile etched onto your face, you wondered if you would have been playing in the WSL against Millie if you carried on playing football, if mum was still alive… “she would be so proud of you, I bet she was right there with us this weekend” noticing sadness taking over, she didn’t mean for her comment to upset you and realised that what she said probably wasn’t the right thing to say in this moment. “It’s a good job you found me, aih?” squeezing you so tight you couldn’t help but laugh, “well it was my dad that found you actually!” Millie had this very unique quality to notice very quickly when your emotions change to negative and was very good at snapping you out of it which is something you admired about her. For so many years your anxiety had gone unnoticed by many yet here is a person that has only known you a few months and able to sense when you were overthinking. Millie carried on talking about your memories and asked if you planned on coming to her game at the weekend, looking at her holding your tiny pair of boots you couldn’t help but feel truly happy and finally felt ready enough to say yes! You couldn’t imagine the feeling you’d get watching your girl play live when watching Rachel gave you such a thrill. “Yeah, dad can’t wait!” you nudged into her side with a cheeky grin, “Rach and Sarah are gonna come down to sit with you too, I’ve already spoken to them” she assured. You thought that was lovely gesture, she’s pretty perfect like that.

Millie had arranged for you all to be in a box, her game was being played at the much bigger Stamford Bridge meaning there were a lot more people at this one. You arrived outside with your dad where they were giving out free flags at the entrance, you both grabbed one then bought a programme and a scarf with Millie’s face on. Dad took a photo of you just like you did at Villa’s game and sent it to her, the photo made you laugh so much your ribs hurt! You made your way to your seats and shortly after you arrived so did Rachel and Sarah. You were introduced to her girlfriend and dad was quick to introduce himself and handed out business cards before you told him off. “This isn’t a PR event” you hissed at him, slightly embarrassed that he couldn’t hold back from the opportunity.

Watching the game with dad felt nostalgic, he was smiling throughout watching you enjoy yourself again and couldn’t help imagine what your mum would have thought. His master plan had worked! Well.. he only thought he’d get you back into watching the game, he didn’t expect you to start dating a footballer! He could tell what a massive difference meeting Millie had made to your mood and outlook on life and hoped you’d make it official soon. He’s never liked any of your partners but this one he can certainly get on board with!

Part Five

[dom1re]

Hi 👋🏽 I so admire your arts too!! If it’s ok, I’d love to know more about your approach to shading and rendering. I always find your use of colour so calming and complementary. 💖💖

Whereas I tend to be over saturated and why I often draw in greyscale

When I read that you liked my arts too I died. I was down on the floor. Crying tears of joy. Then I realized I have a response to draft so I got up.

So here ya go!! I hope you find something interesting here. I organized it into 3 parts for easier reading:

Rendering Overview

Picking Colors

Shading (or winging it and hoping for the best)

Also if anyone has any tips I'm all ears!! I’m always trying to optimize my process, make it quicker + cleaner

Rendering Overview

My current rendering process on Procreate (click and swipe):

1. Rough sketches

This is where I try to get the anatomy and pose right. I can get up to 3 reps in here depending on how refined I want it to be. Yep I care a lot about my lines...

2. Clean line

... coz it's my favorite part!! I get such a dopamine rush seeing the sketches come together into a clean line lol. Here I use the Selection Tool and Liquify to resize and adjust the forms (gotta move away from doing this too much tho)

3. Color

First I create a flat base layer and color over it using Clipping Mask (pretty standard I think). Then I divvy my drawing into as many layers as possible - one each for skin, hair, shirt, waistcoat, trousers, etc - as I color them all. More on this below.

4. Shade

ewww shading... my least favorite part. I use Multiply layers and gray colors, again pretty standard. I usually have 1-3 layers here, stacked on one another, depending on the desired depth. More on this below.

5. Finishing touches

This stage involves a lot of small (but important imo) things, which vary depending on the drawing:

Tinting lines (Because shading makes the colors darker, lines need to get darker too)

Highlights on hair, face, clothes, eyes, etc. I can never make up my mind between Overlay/Hard Light/Soft Light layers for this

Little wisps of hair or lighting effects 

and voila I have something to share with the world. wooo

Picking Colors

Ok about my colors… I wish I had some fancy technique to show but tbh I just eyeball them and try them out a bunch. Now if I’m using a reference I could use the color picker, but I don't like to coz the results are way off for whatever reasons (ex. lighting in the img). Anyways it doesn’t have to be the same color as the reference; as long as the colors “make sense” to me I'm happy.

But what if the colors I chose are too saturated or too dark? I use the Adjustment Tools for this. I can just select the layer (or an area using the Selection Tool) and edit its darkness and saturation. I found this way easier than painting over or color-dropping repeatedly.

This is why I leverage as many layers as possible. It allows a modular control on my rendering - I can change the color of my character’s skin, eyes, or waistcoat patterns and keep all other components unaffected and clean. Sometimes I have like 100+ layers and it drives me batshit crazy but the pros still outweigh the cons. Or so I tell myself

( + I would love to understand grayscale and use it as freely as u do. I watched bunch of vids on it but something about it just hasn’t stuck with me yet 😔)

Shading I guess

Similar to coloring, I create several Multiply layers and stack them together for depth. For example:

This is again for that modular control but honestly I wouldn't be doing this if I was good at shading... I feel so lost every time, I just don't know how it works. But one ‘hack’ I’ve come up with is shading skins and clothes differently. I use reddish gray for skin (and brown/red hair), and just gray for everything else.

The character feels more lively and natural with a bit of red undertones in their skin. I don't think this is the best way to render skins though. Just a little shortcut til I get to study the topic more.

Something else I do to get over my fear of shading is using good references. I’m always lurking on Pinterest for them but alas, I can’t always find that perfect image with perfect lighting and poses. It’s kinda sad funny how the quality of my rendering depends so much on the reference:

(it's not a 'bad' reference per se - I chose it really for the pose, not for shading)

At the end of the day tho I’m just a learning artist so I try not to be too harsh on myself. Someday I'll render shiny shoes and shirt creases without refs. I yearn for that day 

Well on that cheerful note thanks for coming to my Ted Talk your interest in my rendering approach! I’ve been wanting to document it for my own records so this was great.

I picked up digital illustration just last year and self-learning it has been a fun but lonely process. If you have any tips or more questions talk to me ANYONE PLEASE I’m dying to talk about it if you can't tell by the sheer length of this post. For which I'm sorry but hopefully it wasn’t too dense a read ok I’m really done now bye!! 

[sygni]

colouring tutorial from sygni aka sima

DISCLAIMER 1. eng is not my native language 2. i am using techniques of a realistic art so it's not for everyone! but you may find some tips interesting tho

big text screamer

so obv 1. making our sketch (and after lineart if you're using it bc im not) 2. filling up background, then character. think about what atmosphere you want to create in result, try to use different background colours for your characters for diff effects in result. i've had a small post with a little explaining for choosing colours, you can use that too! i suppose i can make a post about emotional effects of different colours if someone interested bc that's really a HUGE part of final effect on viever. actually i can tell and explain in art so much feel free to send questions <:D so like that! (tbx i changed it like 3 times so it's okay to change your colouring desigions mid-drawing if you're feeling something feels off)

3. time to get some basic shading going! don't skip that step i swear to god you can think bruh sima for what do you they added overlays that i can use after i finish the art? are you a caveman or what please just trust me it'll add so much charm in your art so how to do it: 1. choose where your light sourse is. on my art it's in front of griande 2. use a CONTRASTING colour for each big part of a character (hair, clothes, face etc) and make shades with that. REMEMBER dark colours going next to light ones, light to dark. please don't use black for shades for god's sake. also shades are cold coloured most of the time thats important too ig 3. if you're confused where you shall place shades then find a ref or make a photo of yourself OR use a mirror (preferable!) and this things can help you understand face shading better too \/

don't feel not good enough that you need to study sth or use refs it's fully okay every good artist using that!

so i know this looks like mess BUT what did i do (guys trust the process): 1. desided i want a face to be a centre of viewer's attention so made everything else darker 2. put a light on a face, the most light shade on the parts which are closer to light sourse - at my art it's nose and a bit of forehead. and exact same thing but backwards with eyes remember face isn't flat! so even if forehead is in the light, it slowly goes back, so it won't be light all the way (you can see it on previous photo of the gypseous head)

then the longest part goes: we're using semitones (colour which are simmilar to base shade) to connect shades to light parts, to add volume to the art make sure your brush moves according to .. ehh.. face shape? just take someone and weirdly touch their face to understand how it goes and with your brush cope that example (look closely to the strokes):

so i've did something

i know this looks like "let's add some details" type of thing but: i've added semitones to the shadows to correct their forms -> to suit the relief of the face added a contrasting (to pink of the base) orange as blush, a dark blue to show the farthest spots from light added a basic reflects on the sides of the noce (orange spots), chin (peach). reflections on things are sooo important and add so much life in your art! yet it's easily done: you just create a little light blended line on the bottom of your shade. if next to thing you're making a reflection on is the diff-coloured thing, then pick a colour from it and mix them. example \/

made an edge on a forehead (dark-red line) yet i'd make it more accurate later, and will add it on the chin and sides of the nose to highlight them and separate from other parts of the face. actually this edges are just the darkest spots between the light of the item and reflection on the bottom of it. i like to make it noticible, yet someone tend to blend shades in. if you're just studying how to shade i'd reccomend starting without using blending yet you can notice how colours going more dull from forehead to chin to make her look like she's angling her head forward, i guess i'll make it more noticible later

AND i'm going to sleep but i have more to tell + i need to finish the work later anyway so put some feedback for part 2

[ask-meowscarada]

i would ABSOLUTELY love to hear more about how you use colours for this blog i love your art

(( omg i missed this one when i was answering all those munday posts, so i'm sorry about that--but, THANK YOU SO MUCH!! <3

it's kind of hard to describe i think without going into full tutorial mode, but i can try and walk through my process!! i WILL say i got a lot of my methodology from other artists and guides throughout the years, which is the most important part of any art process! (i wish i had links to specific tutorials, but alas, social media sucks for archiving)

now, before i go any further, i'm in no way a professional. this isn't the "right" way to do things, and i certainly don't think i'm better than anyone else at this!! this is just how i do it, and my method makes me happy, so! that's what matters most!

i'm putting the rest beneath a cut, but i've documented my process for designing the palette for a new group of pokemon characters i'm working on! ))

with regards to colour palettes, the two most important things to me are contrast and unity. i'll explain both as i go!

when working on palettes i'll do a fairly quick doodle of the characters together, and then fill in their colours and markings on separate layers. i try not to put much thought into the actual swatches right now--they just need to be distinguishable!

Pesky and Baron already had their colours tweaked to match each other, but Lily and Frog (not their actual name i just haven't come up with one yet LOL) have not been. as a group, their colours look fine together, but we can bring them even closer.

i'll start with Frog (who i got as an adopt from @psychicduo <3)--i LOVE their palette, but it's darker than i normally work with, so i'm gonna brighten them up a bit.

in order to bring some colours closer together (unity!), i changed the hue value on the dark teal so it matched the hue on Baron's light blue. i don't want to change Frog's colours too much, but i applied similar changes to every other colour except the beige and the off-white (which are the same).

here's where contrast comes into play. i will say, i'm extremely anal about this in my own work, but having low contrast is not necessarily a bad thing! it's easy to visualize contrast in hue, but it's important to consider how your values and saturation may look to other people, especially for accessibility reasons. an easy way to do this is to view the colours in greyscale.

as you can see, the values of these two colours are too close, and therefore difficult to distinguish. i can fix this by making one of the colours a little lighter or darker. for now, though, i'm going to move on to the other characters.

this one's straightforward! instead of having multiple, very similar shades of yellow, i'm going to change Lily's body colour to be the same swatch as the yellow on Pesky (which is also the same one on Baron).

now, i feel as though Pesky's blue, being closer to purple, doesn't really look right next to Frog's blue-greens. i'm going to employ a trick i frequently use--the hue/saturation/luminosity sliders.

a bit more tweaking, and i have a colour that looks MUCH nicer next to the others!

at this stage, i'll admit that i'm not sure if i'm totally happy with that colour for Pesky; there are times i'll spend hours tweaking colours for one character. but, for the sake of this post i'll move along.

so here i have a choice to make: the darkest colours on all four characters can be unified better, and i have many options for how i can do that (and i should try all of them, to see what looks best to me). i can make Pesky's navy the same colour as Frog's, or vice versa; i can make Lily's purple the same colour as Baron's (in order to make the contrast between Pesky and Lily's purple better); but there's one more trick i like to do that i haven't shown yet.

do you have two similar colours, but you don't want to make one lighter or darker? blend them together!

so, using the techniques above--bringing the colours closer together, and checking the contrast between them--i'll keep tweaking all four characters, until i have a result i'm happy with. (note: most of the time, i'll make exceptions for the insides of their mouths and their eye colours--those can be whatever!)

one more thing! i love having an art program that lets me compare my current colour with my new one, especially if i have a particular swatch i do not want to change! photoshop does this, clip does this, procreate does this... not sure what others, but i'm using clip.

some additional tweaking, and here's the newest draft!

it's very likely i'll go back and make more changes, but for now, it's good to take a break so i can come back to this with fresh eyes later. :D

unfortunately i can't go back and show the exact process for picking the palettes for ask-meowscarada, but i can show you how some of these techniques were applied!

here's an example of a set of characters from my WIP project, without any notes (the designs are outdated but the colours are basically the same):

these rules don't just apply to character palettes, either--here's a commission i did last year, complete with the palette i used for both the character and the background!

WHEW... if you read through this entire post, thank you for sticking with me!! there are MILLIONS of ways to apply colour and i don't think any way is necessarily correct, but these techniques have helped me stay satisfied with the colour in my artwork for a very long time! thanks for the asking, anon, because i can go on about this for a REALLY long time... if this wasn't evidence enough LOL

[artblock-tm]

RIGHT BACK AT YOU. ART GAME NUMBERS 1, 17, AND 22

(And mayyyybe 20 if you'd like to ;))

YIPPEE

How would you describe your style?

Hm. That's always a hard question for me. Mine is a bit more cartoony and certainly takes liberties when it comes to how realistic it is, but at the same time I try to get things close to accurate (such with anatomy and detail and whatnot).

I can't find words that pinpoint what my style looks like, but I can certainly find the inspirations that got it to where it is now. (Anime and various animations!)

Since we're speaking of my style though, fun fact: I CAN'T for the life of me imitate other people's art styles. It'll always look really similar to my regular art style, just changed up a bit. I see challenges were people imitate different art styles and realize, "Wow! That's cool! How the HELL did they do that!!"

17. What do you love getting compliments about?

When it comes to art? Anything, to be honest. Hell, I'm happy if people reblog my art without any tags. (Although, once or twice, I've gotten an "inspo" or a keysmash or a slight ramble and that really made my day.)

What I like most though is feedback on my OCs. I'm honestly rather bad at character design, and I love knowing what people think about them. Alas, people hardly see my OC art...when I do post it. </3

22. What inspires you?

MANY THINGS, my friend. Some things have made lifelong shifts on my art style (ex: the shading under the chin technique I use is derived from the anime Black Clover!), but most often, I get inspired to draw a specific thing.

Music often inspires me- especially vocaloid, and especially if there's art featured in the video. One of my favorite vocaloid songs is Reckless Battery Burns and I'm obsessed with the MV in it.

TV and movies inspire me, too. I adore the Owl House and have noticed some completely unintentional similarities between Hunter and one of my own characters! Also, bringing back Black Clover, there's a lot of worldbuilding from Masked inspired from that anime.

Books inspire me too! A good example of that is my Shapeshifter/Badgeseller 1984 comic. Another series that gives me inspiration is the Giver series by Lois Lowry (not just the first book, the entire thing, all four books). Ooh, and also the Pandava series (or the Aru Shah series, I don't fully know what to call it). Writing is cool! :)

Secret question: 20. A piece from this year that you're really proud of!

Most of my art this year is Shadow Rift, haha...let me see what I can find.

^ This one is a good starting point! This one was me playing around with lighting. I found a new technique to use with my art program, and was just messing around with it. So I paid less attention to the background and colors to do so. Here's a fraction of a screenshot I took when I realized just how good it was!

I was going to compare it to another one of Shadow Rift's pieces, but I realized that discussion would be too long. And would ruin the magic of the piece I was comparing. Whatever.

Next one has bright colors!

I was mostly playing around with colors and proportions on this one, and I really like the turnout. This is the rare piece of Doodle OC art. Her name is Krystll, and YES I will infodump about her if asked.

And, for the final thing I'm super proud of, that Shapeshifter/Badgeseller 1984 comic. Go look at it again, if you want to. :)

That's it for now! Thank you so much for asking! I'm willing to answer any follow up questions anywhere you like! (Tumblr, Discord, etc.)

[sepdet]

All very good points!

Also, while AI and digital tools are pretty darn good at imitating traditional media, there should be more interaction of the brush with the canvas, at least until the 20th century when artists start using all kinds of media.

Online reproductions of traditional paintings aren't always detailed, and some painters smooth out their strokes and edges or pile on enough paint to hide the weave of the canvas, but I still feel like digital tools attempting to recreate oil painting are too uniform, missing subtle irregularities of line and hue since one keeps having to mix more colors unless you buy a gazillion different tubes.

Look at my boy Cézanne, varying stroke thickness, paint opacity, obviousness of his brushwork, leaving irregular little flecks. He wasn't focused on drawing, but color — he realized that a dress could look yellow and blue to our eyes, so he used warm and cool modulations of the same color, a technique most painters after him adopted more or less.

The AI generated image tries to mimic some of these methods, like the varying thickness of brush strokes, but it's random. Why do some edges get dark outlines but others not? Why are most of the highlights the same brush size? Why is the painting blank between the central man's legs? Why is there so little shading or color variation to suggest the 3 dimensional forms of the body?

Some more examples of real paintings from the Art Authority app vs AI...

Renoir, "Charles and Georges Durand-Ruel," 1882. Renoir picked up Cézanne's warm and cool colorplay, turned up the lights and added lots of quick feathery brushstrokes, so you get all these flecks of color. Cigarettes and pipes are also really common before the 1970s.

Okay, not everybody uses texture and highly visible brushstrokes. Even so, hue variations are nearly impossible to avoid when mixing pigments manually, and any decent painter will indicate certain highlights and edges/details with single brushtrokes to capture a shape. Note close strokes almost like crosshatching along edges of some shadows to keep them from being too sharp (the back of the older man's outstretched hand and part of his sleeve, eg)

Caillebotte, "The Floor,Scrapers."

Jumping ahead, way past the impressionists, below is a 20th century oil painter softening edges to hide brushwork, opting for a formal, almost photographic style with no background, and favoring realism instead of impressionism.

At first glance, it's hard to find the human touch in the style of painting, apart from the fact that the woman's personality comes through in a way that AI just can't pull off. But again, you've got those subtle warm and cold variations in the background, a finely-observed use of dusty rust, crimson and dark burgundy to capture the texture of velvet, and careful modeling of shadows and brighter areas to suggest the forms of her body coming towards you.

Paxton, portrait of Mrs Charles Tappan, 1935.

Notice her skin tones are a rich medley of greens and yellows and pinks that the AI generators can't model as skillfully because they don't understand the landscape of the individual's features or the way skin shows a hint of what's underneath. Also, when you look closely, there are distinct brushstrokes to indicate her crimped hair, to pick out highlights on jewelry and chair, and to define a few edges.

And how about Leyendecker, since there's a lot of AI-generated imitations?

I had to look up and make sure he was really using oil paint. Yes, but he mixes it with thinner and stand oil so it flows like watercolor/ink. And he's a master of the art deco/sign painter's craft of precise, clean lines and curves. His bold, angular brushstrokes are amazingly regular and parallel; and he loves cross hatching. (I bet he did phenomenal ink drawings.) But if you start squinting at the pinstripes — see the gent at far right — you'll see how he interrupts them, changes their color, alters their direction to follow folds and form with precise imprecision, if that makes any sense.

The AI versions of Leyendecker jump out like a sore thumb.

Where did those curves from come from? Where's the contour line pinstripes? The jaunty single line to indicate eyelashes? Where's the arrow collar? Where's his boyfriend's round button chin? Why are the wrinkles of his shirt continued into his suspenders?

Note: I should be careful, since digital artists don't mix traditional pigments to select their colors or have physical hair brushes, so some of the things I mentioned above (subtle color variations, irregular brushstrokes) may not show up. They are still painting, they're just using different tools to do it. So the OP's method of checking to see if the painter was born yesterday, so to speak, is probably safer than playing art critic.

But I think it's worth taking a closer look and searching for the human hand behind the art: the irregularities, the deliberate choices, the understanding of reality that AI doesn't have. If nothing else, it'll reward you with a greater appreciation for someone's work, and you'll probably spot things you missed! And the imperfections... the signs of our common humanity... are part of the fun.

this is your periodic reminder that for all the artifacts and errors and "tells" one could possibly list, the only reliable way to actually determine if an image is ai generated is to investigate the source. it is becoming increasingly common for "fake classical paintings" to circulate around curative aesthetic blogs, and everyone should be using this as an opportunity to not only exercise their investigative skills but also appreciate art more in general. you're all checking out the artists you reblog, right? 🫣

so what are some signs to look for? let's use this very good example.

what a lovely late-impressionist piece blended with evocative leyendecker-esque themes! why haven't you ever heard of this artist before? surely tumblr would be all over an artist like this. who is justin brown?

your two options from here are to do a search for the name, or a reverse image search. i prefer reverse image searching, particularly when it comes to a common name like "justin brown". so what does that net?

Immediately, without looking at any text, something is wrong: it barely exists. an actual historical piece would turn up numerous results from websites individually discussing the piece, but no such discussions are taking place. Looking at the text, though, does show the source-- and at least in this case, the creator was honest about their medium.

But let's also look at the "exact matches", in case a source doesn't make itself apparent in the initial sidebar results like this.

This section will often tell you post dates of images, and here it can be seen that the very first iteration of the image was posted 15 days ago. It did not exist online prior to that.

Seeing how long an unsourced image has been floating around is a skill applicable to more than just generative images! See a cool image of an artifact or other intriguing item with a vivid caption? Reverse search it! If all the results are paired with that caption and only go back a few months, you might just have viral facebook spam.

Sometimes generative creators are dishonest about their medium and do not tag it like in the example, so that's when establishing "jpeg provenance" becomes important. While it can be a little trickier to determine if someone is using generative images and not admitting to it if they aren't trying to pass it off as a classic, something to consider is the age of their account and the frequency with which they post. Here are some account red flags:

-Did they only start posting art after 2022, or if they did before, did their style/skill level WILDLY change? Not gradual improvement-- I'm talking amateur graphite portraits straight into complex digital renders. Everyone starts somewhere, newness is not a red flag alone; it's newness combined with existing in a vacuum away from any community.

-Do they post fully-finished paintings several times a week? -Do many of these paintings seem iterative of a similar theme or subject matter ("three well-dressed young men face each other under shade and dappled sunlight")?

-Does their style change in inconsistent ways? An artist that can swap between painting like Drew Struzan and Hokusai should be pretty well known, right? Why is no one hyping this guy?!

-Do they have social media besides the source instagram? If so, what are they posting about? Are there any WIPs? Doodles? Interactions with other artists? Gallery dates? 3am self-doubt posts? Or is it all self-promo? Crypto? Seemingly nothing art-related at all for someone pushing out 3 weekly paintings?

Basically, if it's important to you to omit this stuff when you curate, please don't just smash reblog if the source doesn't seem to be the OP themselves. Seeking out sources was important even before this became an issue, now it is more than ever.

peace n love

[songs-about-girls-like-me]

chapter 19: an almost deleted scene (2)

(a/n: alternative title for the chapter: Feisty)

"Okay, take out your lipgloss" Poppy scattered her collection of BeautyRush on the school desk.

I had two lip smackers that my sister had gifted me. One was skittles, the other one was sprite. I also had a roll-on straberry gloss I had bought myself (my parents' money) at "Todo Moda" during the weekend. The five of us put them in the middle of our school desks making a considerable collection that looked so cool in their plasticky colorful glory and, idk why, we put them into a light green plastic pencil holder that Poppy had brought from home.

"This way we can share while we're in class!" It was a cool shiny display in the middle of our school supplies. Our gloss obsession was a bit deluded and silly but the bond between us sharing them felt so real. We were doing geography or math and we had taken over the desks at back of the classroom. Mr. G hadn't scolded anyone for completely disregarding the sitting chart and changing places, so my friends and I were all together in one "school team", rolling with it. We all went in to take one, I chose the most true-pink gloss, almost like a magenta shade that looked just clear on the lips. It smelled like pure sugar. I was happy that MJ took my Skittles lipsmacker.

"1, 2, 3, lipgloss"

"That one is so dumb, guys" called out Liv. Maybe it was, but we just laughed.

"This is awesome"

We nodded in agreement with Ella, I flipped my front pieces of hair off my face so it didn't stick to my lips, the now familiar thick texture of petroleum jelly making me smell berries under my nose.

"Oh, wait. Careful with the cherry gloss!" Said Poppy pausing the silly bliss of the moment.

"This one??" I asked showing her mine.

"No, it's red. The 'cherry bomb' one isn't clear gloss, it's so so red."

"Which one?" we all were moving the glosses around on emergency mode all over the desks but it wasn't there. Then I smelled cherry. We all darted our eyes to the head of the table.

"Wait, this one?" Ella's lips were dripping red like a vampire frozen in spot with the lipgloss still pressed to her bottom lip, squeezing more product out. It was definitely THAT one and we all cracked up laughing. It smelled really fucking good, I could smell it from 1.5 metters apart, holding on to my chair while laughing so much I could've fallen to the ground. Ella bursted out a laugh still confused, not knowing how funny she looked but having an idea by how much we couldn't stop laughing. Her lips were red, the gloss making a line down the left corner just like blood, and MJ didn't miss the moment to call her sexy. Elizabeth sent each one of us a flying kiss, playing along to the dumb sexy vampire jokes. I wiped my tears away to keep writing down whaterver we were copying from the blackboard, still carrying a giggle in my chest.

That afternoon we were messing around still at school before Jazz. We all had been perfecting a walking technique, a model stride that made your hair move in the wind, even with zero breeze needed. My friends and I would line up and practice before dance class or recess or whenever we could in the hallways, each starting with the right foot on the count of 3 to be coordinated. By this moment, it was a nonchalant reflex to go everywhere chatting while walking like that. So we walked the length of the running track at least three Times just to enjoy ourselves while discussing TV shows, probably talking about Shake it Up's latest aired episode.

"I almost cried with 'Add it up', it was so good." MJ held Ella by the shoulder while still strutting with us.

"Yeah!! I liked it better than 'Meatball it up'" She agreed. I was wondering how in the hell they knew the episodes' names.

"Rees? Did you catch 'Add it up'?"

"Mhh... I don't think so..." I had watched the first episode and the Olive Garden one like five Times now, but apparently I was missing more. Sometimes my mom would be late to pick me and my sister up from school and I couldn't catch it before America's Next Top Model started.

"O.M.G. You'll love it" MJ would spell out OMG when talking. "It's about Cece!" A smile grew on my lips.

"Lame, Rees! Keep up with the episodes!" Ella and I had the most savage friendship at Times, so I pushed her by the shoulders, making her laugh and starting a quick physical fight between us. After being stopped by MJ who was giggling and Poppy who finally snapped out of counting the petals of a pink geranium from The Flowerbed, we reached the basketball court. The four of us found a bech facing the basketball court to chill at before having to change out of our school uniforms. The boys before jazz were still annoying, but today we were hanging around them even while they were having basketball practice. Everyone was in for the banter, which some days could actually be just innocent enough to make us more friends and less enemies. MJ and Poppy were bickering with the boys warming up for practice. Ella and I were once again quoting Disney Channel not paying too much attention to the dudes doing shoulder rolls and neck stretches wearing baggy basketball shorts and tanktops.

"I tipped over the canoe, I cut my lip... and my top came off." I was even copying Cece's voice and closing the imaginary olive green jacket over my flat chest. We would do this scene all the Time, unprovoked.

"Cece, you were 10. Nobody even knew you were a girl." Ella was my Rocky, pretending to sit back on a bench in the Chicago subway. (The irony in this, I was currently actually 10 loll).

"I knew!!" our cadence was exact, and in the end we would burst in laughter and repeat it all. The rhythm between us was the best thing, like a quick witted game of cards we had perfected.

"Go Joe!" Poppy was being her extra cutesy self, while the team did some laps around the court. Joe winked at her, still running.

"Get out of the way, girls" Max came up to us, pretending she was about to throw a ball to our face and retrieving it at the very last second before it hit us. We were so used to it by now, we barely even flinched.

"Stop that!" Poppy whined in complaint of the aggressive game.

"Let me try" Ella jumped up and quickly took it out of her hands.

"No. Let go" MJ, Poppy and I were now laughing at the scene. Both girls fighting over it, Ella hunching over the ball hidding it from her reach, her curly hair falling over her face.

"It's mine now, Max" she stated with a laugh.

"Noo, Elizabeth, let go." Max was trying to use her elbow to make the dirty synthetic ball fall from my friend's grip. Max lets out a laugh too. "Ella."

"Ohhh, Max can be nice. Did you just call her "Ella"? I loved pissing her off like this. She looked me in the eye with half a laugh and her basketball back in her hands.

"Watch it, Rees" She did the trick again, only this Time the ball actually hit me straight in the face by accident. "Omg, sorry" She was laughing but sounded genuinely surprised by the slip. We were laughing too, cause it was one of those good days. She rubbed my forehead a bit, holding back a giggle.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, thanks" I acted just a bit pissed keeping her hands away, but finding it funny too.

"You girls are distracting" Mick yelled wearing that crush he had on both Poppy and MJ on his sleeve.

"So focus" asked MJ. I could laugh so much when my friends acted like this. Some of the guys were finishing their laps now, panting from the running, while forming a group in one corner of the court.

"What are those? The cheerleaders?" Their coach was paying attention now, shading his eyes with one hand to be able to see us better. He was so deeply annoying.

"Yea, they're our cheerleaders" Joe agreed, he seemed very okay with the idea and I fucking hated his coach.

"In your dreams" Poppy blew her boyfriend a sarcastic kiss, while she walked her way closer to them. The rest of us following behind to back her up.

"Oh, we'd never be cheerleaders for you." MJ was being real now, sniggering.

"You should! Isn't that what you do?" This was getting my blood heated.

"Oh, they're your friends who do dance" their coach didn't speak directly to any of us.

"Yes. So you could cheer if you're going to be here watching us"

"We dance. It's so not even similar" Ella corrected Rick, her arms crossed. We nod our heads, as if all of us had said the thing.

"What's the difference, again?" Max was back to being annoying, and the boys were too, laughing.

"You just twirl around in mini skirts" They all broke into a laugh at Rick's joke. I didn't know the word "misogyny" at the Time, but these dudes were constantly making me discover the concept from firsthand experience.

"Cool, as opposed to what?" I had been quiet but my voice appeared harsh and hostile. "Running like graceless deadbeat horses after one single lap? The team is terrible ?" I said bluntly making them silent. I wasn't used to talking back like this, even worse cause it sounded like my insult went out to an adult too. But what the fuck?!

"Yea... you guys always lose your games" Poppy added, her eyebrows furrowed. And it was true.

"Girls, we're in the middle of practice. You can't even be here to start with." The adult who started this decided to speak again. "Imma ask you to leave"

"Yea, kick them out coach!" our classmates encouraged him finding their laughter again, booing.

"Yea, let's go girls." Said MJ. That was the cue for our hair flips but this was too serious for that. "Enjoy your stupid class" She murmurs, starting to walk away. I know most of them caught her words.

"It was a joke, girls!" Despite de half-apology, Joe was partially still laughing.

"You are a joke!" Ella had to scream it from the other side of the courtyard and I knew it was a good retort to exit with. I flipped my hair subtly over my shoulder to feel less shaken up as we walked lined up, all four pairs of legs matching the beat.

"Damn! Graceless deadbeat horses was insane, Rees" says Ella as a compliment. I hear the naughty snigger on her voice and we all break in a bit of a laugh at what I said, hopefully they'd hear us giggling. I wanted them to know it had no effect on us.

"'Enjoy your stupid class' was crazier" I break from the line to jump a bit and look at them. "And Ella, just now?"

"It was good" says Poppy in deep recognition of the scene. We strode taking the short hallway to get completely away from their sight. The running track was more populated yet chill as always. It felt funny, even if we had to take some punches, I was so fixated on the good parts. Did I really have those harsh comebacks in me? We kept walking,four different shades of medium to dark brunette hair moving in a made-up breeze of our own.

"I really hate the boys, though. And Max." MJ was setting the pace for our coordinated walking.

"Yea... we should stop talking to them. And the school should get a cheer team, maybe that would show them how hard that also is." I state, feeling a bit amused. They conversation gets cut short cause we see a girl a year below ours was approaching us, directly to Poppy. I couldn't tell right away, but then I recognized her brother's hazel eyes.

"Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?" Joe's sister was asking for a word with her.

"Sure, Sienna. I'll see you in a minute, guys"

"Catch us at the bathroom" Poppy nodded at Ella's words while picking up her pace to match Sienna's. It was not the first nor the second Time this happenned. She was good looking, prettier than Joe and she had a cunning look in her eyes he didn't have. Poppy had already told us how Sienna was a big cause of drama and arguments between Joe and herself. She had even cried to us about it a couple days back, so I didn't understand how she would still have these private conversations with her but... I think she was trying to get on her good side, so she stopped talking shit about her to her brother, making them fight.

"Hmm... Sienna is a bit..." MJ started.

"Yea, I don't like her either." stated Ella. I sighed. I mean, I didn't even fully liked Joe to begin with, so. "Anyway. Let's get changed?"

[lindsayschrctrillstrion]

i first began with a silhouette to get the idea down, it was originally just a flow line for sketching the character but it turned into this. the main pose i was inspiring from was my previous drawing and a sprite of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure's Dio in his signature pose.

with assistance from the silhouette drawing and using the reference above., i put together the basic shapes to make up the body and head of my character. in regards to the ears, i changed them to fit better to be recognised better as a lynx cat rather than generally inspiring from any large cat in wildlife.

i then added more details along the feet, hands, added the fluffy around aredite's neck, redesigned his shoulder armor and his cape. at this point i was struggling with how to shape the shoulder armor like a angular point look without having the perspective and the form off. making the hands were a struggle in terms of what size i was going to make them and whether to add long sharp claws

i then began with the line art while along the way readjusting proportions and refining shapes and objects of aredite's appearance

i continued to add the shoulder armor, tail, torso and legs. the perspective and rotation for the chest was a slight challenge as i wanted to reference from the pose of dio above while staying close enough to my characters physique.

i then added some small details to the mouth, put together the arms and hands using basic cubic shapes to break down the complex parts of the body, added more corners along the cape using reference, reshaped the shoulder armor and finished off the legs down to the claws. at this point, i was still sharpening the edges of lines strokes and still wished to fix the line work until i was satisfied

i resized the fluff underneither the characters head to make the shoulder armor more apparent and began to add details to the face to give it a far more fierce and rageful expression to reflect how i imagined the character to appear like. along the way i cleaned up and connected lines together such as the ankles of the feet and the chest of the torso.

i decided on adding details to the body and rest of the character to make the details such as muscles, bones, fur, ripples in the cape and tendons of the feet more apparent. also thinned out some lines to create depth and almost shadow

i made the ears thicker to match more similarity to lynx cats in real life. i also removed and fixed the left arm as i had gotten the anatomy incorrect as i was treating the bicep as the forearm before this point. i also made the mouth detail more open so it was better to see in the silhouette

i made another silhouette of the character and didnt feel satisfied so i went and made the adjustments of the ears, hand and mouth as seen above

i then resized the head as i felt it too large for the body and hands. i fixed the hand to the left using a technique of breaking down the shapes of the hand and fingers and also made the claw of the hand more apparent to be shown in the silhouette.

i felt satisfied with my line work and enlarged the character to have higher stroke line resolution. i achieved this by hitting cmd t and enlarging the drawing and using the sharpen and sharpen more filter in order for the lines to not appear as blurry.

i then filled in each section of the character (fluff, body, mouth, shoulder armor and cape) using the magic wand selection tool and hitting select, modify, expand and expanded the selection to a few more pixels and separated the fills into individual layers so i could then change the lightness.

while adjusting each layers lightness, i added extra details on the shoulder armor and made parts of the character's body fur a more pale shade of gray.

i then made the colour palette all along and between red and yellow and achieved this by changing the hue and saturation of the layer segments. the rest of the palette. were shades of gray. i added a symbol to the shoulder plate to be one of the focal points to the viewer alongside the face and upper body.

i created the shading by creating a layer on top of the rest of the colours but below the line work layer. using a brown swatch and applying darken and 50% on the shading layer. my aim for my shading was for the light to hit where you can see the arrow where some parts are in the light and some are not.

this was the colour used in question. i however had to use pure black in order to achieve shading for the shoulder.

this is the final product. to reflect, i am far more happy with how the design and form of this redesign of my character, aredite, turned out compared to the previous design of him. this new design far more reflects how i imagined the character in my head put into illustration. the most difficult part of this process was certainly the hands and proportions of the character. i wasnt sure whether i wanted to make his design more buff but when i attempted to enlarge the torso, it just didnt look right. while the design is similar, there are still elements that set themselves off from each other, including the claws, ear shape, shoulder plates shape, colour and detail and a slight change to the colours.

[molsons112000]

So, if somebody wants to improve their ability to distinguish between colors or as a hard time distinguishing colors, then there is an ability and I believe if the child is colorblind. Initially, you can work on it and help grow capability. Yes, by mixing shades of Gray. Then eventually mixing in colors that are closest to that gray or black or white. As they grow their ability to recognize different shades of black white and Gray, you can start mixing in other colors. And eventually they will be able to see color.. Why cells can adapt.

Color Mixing and SortingThe practice of mixing colors, either digitally or with pigments, is a good way to train the eye. One method is to find natural forms and match their colors using both paint and Photoshop.

https://alvalyn.com › 6-apps-to-hel...

6 Apps To Help Improve Your Color Vision - Alvalyn Creative

So places that sell glasses can also do vision training. Yes, Doctor's offices. Can you come in and this is a part of rehabilitation or Giving ability 🤔. 🤔 So all these places have to do.To stay in business is to adapt and they can do different types of medical treatments that include these physical training..... So doctor's offices can have people come in to do different types of physical training.... And they work with nurses. And this gives them abilities. So if you can't see color now, giving them an ability to see color.

Here are some exercises that can help improve your vision:

Toothpick and straw method

This exercise uses a straw and two toothpicks to help you become more aware of your side vision.

Eyeball movements

Rolling your eyes in circles and moving them in other directions can help improve the flexibility of your eye muscles.

Transitioning between central and peripheral vision

Training your eyes to transition between central and peripheral vision can improve your overall visual competence. 

Reflexion

How To Improve Peripheral Vision With Simple Exercises - Reflexion

Jun 1, 2020 — The Toothpick And Straw Method. There's no shortage of techniques to improve your peripheral vision. Humans have been doing this for centuries! One of the easiest and most accessible techniques out there utilizes nothing more than a simple straw and two toothpicks. This exercise is designed to make you more aware of what's going on in your side vision. Your central vision, also known as foveal vision, is incredibly sharp and focused. That's because there are more rods and cones in the center of your retina. Plus, those ocular rods and cones are far more sensitive to light.

zoomax.com

Vision Exercises for Your Peripheral Vision - Zoomax

By training your eyes to transition between central and peripheral vision, you can elevate your overall visual competence. Eyeball Movement: Engage in eye exercises that involve moving your eyeballs in various directions, such as rolling them in circles. This enhances the flexibility and agility of your eye muscles.

You can also try these tips to improve your vision in different situations:

Driving at night

Avoid looking directly at high beams and instead look at the lines in the road. Let your eyes adjust naturally, or you can try closing your eyes and covering them for a while before entering a dark area.

Viewing night-sky objects

Try looking to one side of the object you're trying to see, about 8–16° away from the center of your eye. This can be difficult at first, but it will improve with practice. 

Read the book Who Moved My Cheese and similar books. This tells you either you adapt or you're gone. So adapting means if you need to get more education, you get more education. Adapting means how you do business. If things are changed and you need to do business differently then you adapt and change. It's adapt, change, and overcome.

Goodreads

https://www.goodreads.com › book

Readers who enjoyed Who Moved My Cheese?

"Who Moved My Cheese?" is a simple parable that reveals profound truths. It is an amusing and enlightening story of four characters who live in a "Maze" and ..

So I have already read. Lots of these books on talking about adapting and changing and overcoming. So it is not my fault.It is on you to adapt the change and overcome your deficiencies.... And if you don't you won't be put to waste....

Shepherd - Explore, discover, read!

https://shepherd.com › books-like

100 books like Who Moved My Cheese? An A-Mazing Way to ...

100 books like Who Moved My Cheese? An A-Mazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life ; The Power of Now · Eckhart Tolle ·

Yes, God is watching if you're doing the sniff test meaning high awareness.

What does sniff represent in Who Moved My Cheese?

The four who moved my cheese characters provide examples of how people might respond: Sniffs - High awareness. They can sense change quickly and identify possible opportunities. Scurrys - Embrace change and quickly look to put it into action.Oct 3, 2020

https://www.tobysinclair.com › post

Who Moved My Cheese Summary - Dr. Spencer Johnson - Toby Sinclair

Watching Bloomberg television as I put this together.

[nikitafiber]

Studio Project 1 Progress

2/23/23

Ok so, I purchased some green yarns, a light and a dark. I was initially thinking about the frog idea, but I decided I was not a huge fan of that theme and I think I will create the basket using the green color scheme since that is my favorite color, this way it is a motivating factor for me to follow through and actually use the basket to keep my things together.

I began making the base circle for the main compartment:

I finally figured out how the yarn was tangled and fixed the situation so I could finally start. I had pulled the wrong end of the yarn, since both ends were placed on the exterior side, I was not sure which one was the correct piece. I now know to check for this on certain yarns.

Despite all of this chaos, I think this circle is the best, most even circle I have ever made. This will serve as the base of the basket. I will then create an equally sized circle with the darker yarn and connect them together will some stuffing in between to create a stronger structure for the basket since I need it to be free standing.

While I was crocheting, Max came and sat ontop of the yarn.

Then, he fell asleep by the time I had finished the circle.

In terms of presentation, I think this will sit on the table, but I think I want to do a "demo" almost and place all of my important items inside of it. I think this way will accurately describe the meaning and purpose of this basket as it relates to neurodivergence.

2/24/23

I finished this today ! This is going to be the other side of the basket base.

I am continuing to make more circles for the other compartments, these will be smaller than those pictured above to account for smaller items.

Wednesday 3/1/23

I have completed the bases for all 3 of the baskets and I am working on building up the side walls for them. After this, I will attach them together, I am not sure how I will be able to attach them yet. The circles were made using the magic circle technique.

This is the side view of the stuffed base, as I build up the side walls. So I used the method taught in class to attach each circle to its counterpart and filled it with fiber fill to create a base with volume. In this process, I learnt that the darker green circle fares better on top of the lighter green circle for some reason. By this, I mean that it is able to cover the light green circle, more efficiently when I stitch them together.

Here, I am building up the walls on the medium basket.

Top view at this stage.

This is what the bottom looks like so far.

This is the medium sized basket finished. I used the half double stitch for almost the whole basket, except for the row in the middle, here I used the double stitch to efficiently build height for the basket.

As I was making the sides, I thought that the basket would benefit from the color change to add variety to this construction.

This is the smallest basket.

For the walls of this basket, I decided to use both the light and dark greens for increased stability. This was difficult since my stitches are dense, so it took a lot of arm power to get through the construction. I also used the half double stitch here, with the exception, once again, of the center row where I did a double stitch to add greater height.

This the main compartment. For this base, since I wanted the light green circle to be on top, I needed to make the darker green circle smaller before stitching them together. I then used the half double stitch for the entirety of this basket. I also wanted to switch colors for the walls of the basket on this one.

These are the bottoms of the baskets. I do not know why, but I think they look really cute here!!

Here, they are all attached together. I used a third green color, a very swampy shade of green to attach these together, once again, using the technique leant in class.

Here is the basket in use!!

Here is the close up of the items. These are my daily use things that I have found to be detrimental if lost or misplaced. The most obvious are the keys and phone, as these are things that everyone needs, but they are items that I easily misplace, especially as I am in a rush to leave my apartment. The pen and the sticky notes are highly valuable to my daily organization, as I cannot operate using a planner or journal due to these being overwhelming for me. When I write my tasks, to dos, or upcoming events on a sticky note, I can see them as I need to, to be reminded of things, but also it seems to simplify tasks to be seemingly more manageable. This reduces the executive dysfunction caused by ADHD. The last compartment, houses my airpods, chapstick, and medication. Chapstick seems like a very simple item, but it is very important to me. When I forget it, it is very uncomfortable through the day because my skin is very dry (part of this is due to the side effects of the medication), therefore I prefer to never have to be without. My airpods, like many college students, are important and are very useful to be able to wirelessly listen to audio. Beyond this, they are very helpful for me to be able to listen to "brown noise" which creates a calming environment that is able to effectively minimize the "external stimulus", therefore increasing focus on a specific task. Lastly, and most importantly, is my ADHD medication. Mental health medications have been long stigmatized, and especially those categorized as stimulants, due to the high chance of abuse. However, for those who truly need it, it can be a life saver. For me, it has helped me deal with the wide range of symptoms that are associated with ADHD, such as: executive dysfunction, sensory overload, impulse control, forgetfulness, disorganization, and the overall chaotic nature of the ADHD brain. Medication can only do so much and only lasts for so long through the day, therefore it is important to supplement this with tools such as: sticky notes, headphones with brown noise, and a "dumping basket".

[lemondropdancer]

Grounding Techniques

Mental Distraction Techniques

Pick a category of objects and try to think of as many objects as possible that fit within that category (e.g., types of dogs, cities, types of trees, crayon colors, sports)

Pick a letter and think of emotionally positive or neutral words that begin with that letter

Pick a color and look for things of that color. Notice differences in their exact shades

Say or think the alphabet backwards or alternate letters and numbers (A1, B2, C3, D4, etc)

Count backwards from 100 by 3s, 6s, or 7s or count up by prime numbers or perfect squares

Play "fizz-buzz" with yourself. Begin counting to 100 (or over!), but replace any number that contains the number 5 or is a multiple of 5 with the word "fizz" and any number that contains the number 7 or is a multiple of 7 with the word "buzz." For example, 1-15 would be "1, 2, 3, 4, fizz, 6, buzz, 8, 9, fizz, 11, 12, 13, buzz, fizz." When you mess up, compliment yourself and start over

Think of the words to your favorite song or poem or think of facts related to a specific theme

Pick a word or your name and see how many other words you can make from the letters in it

Describe an every day event or process in great detail, listing all of the steps in order and as thoroughly as possible (e.g., how to cook a meal, how to get from your house to your place of work or school, how to do your favorite dance)

Read something technical or meant for children or read words backwards to focus on the process of reading and not the words

Watch a children's television show or movie or watch cute or funny videos on Youtube; it might help to have a playlist already prepared for this

Look at a current news article that is not likely to be upsetting or distressing

Distract yourself with Tetris, Solitaire, Sudoku, word searches, or other puzzle games

Reorientation Techniques

Say or think to yourself: "My name is _________. I am safe right now. I am _____ years old. I am currently at _____________. The date is _____________. If I need help, I am with ________/can call _________. Everything is going to be alright."

List reaffirming statements ("I am fine. Everything is going to be okay. I am strong. I can handle this.")

Ask yourself where you are, what day of the week it is, what day of the month it is, what month it is, what year it is, what season it is, how old you are, and other present-focused questions

Notice things in your surroundings that indicate to you that you're safe or that you're in the present (e.g., locks on your door, electronics that didn't exist when you were younger, the presence of trusted people, a phone so that you can call for help if you need it)

Describe your surroundings in detail, including sights (objects, textures, shapes, colors), sounds, smells, and temperature

Name five things that you see, four that you feel, three that you hear, and two that you smell or taste, and then name one good thing that you like about yourself

Pick four or five brightly colored objects that are easily visible and move your focus between them. Be sure to vary the order of your gaze and concentrate briefly on each one before moving to the next

Think about a fun time that you recently had with a friend or call that friend and ask them to talk about it with you

Sensory-Based Grounding Techniques

Run cool or warm (but not too cold or hot) water over your hands or take a cool or warm bath or shower

Spritz your face (with eyes closed), neck, arms, and hands with a fine water mist

Spray yourself with your favorite perfume and focus on the scent

Feel the weight of your body in your chair or on the floor and the weight of your clothing on your skin

Touch and hold objects around you. Compare the feel, weight, temperature, textures, colors, and materials

Keep a small object with you to touch or play with when you get triggered. Good examples include a smooth stone, a fidget toy, jewelry, or a tiny plushy

Bite into a lemon, orange, or lime, suck on a sour or minty candy or an ice cube, chew cinnamon-flavored gum, or put a few drops of Tabasco sauce on your tongue. Notice the flavor, scent, and texture

Eat something or drink warm tea, coffee, or hot chocolate, and describe to yourself the taste and texture in great detail

Place a cool wash cloth on your face or hold something cold like a can of soda

Listen to soothing or familiar music. If possible, dance to it

Hum, sing, recite poetry, or make up a silly poem or story as you go

Pick up a book and read the first paragraph out loud

Hug another person (if interpersonal touch isn't a trigger). Pay attention to your own pressure and the physical sensations of doing so

Hug a tree! Register the smells of being outside, the wind, and the sights around you

Movement-Based Grounding Techniques

Breathe deeply and slowly and count your breaths

Grab tightly onto your chair or press your feet against the ground as firmly as you can

Rub your palms and clap your hands or wiggle your toes within your socks. Pay attention to the physical sensation of doing so

Stretch out your arms or legs, roll your head on your neck, or clench and unclench your fists

Stomp your feet, walk around, run, jump, ride a bike, do jumping jacks, or do yoga

While walking, notice each footstep and say to yourself "right" and "left" to correspond with the foot currently moving

Squeeze a pillow, stuffed animal, or ball

If you have a soft pet (dog or cat), brush its fur and stroke it. If you don't, brush your own hair slowly and without pulling too much

Color in an adult coloring book, finger paint, or draw anything that comes to mind without worrying about quality

Write whatever comes to mind even if it's nonsense. Try not to write about whatever is upsetting you until you're more capable of doing so without increasing the upset

Write a list of things that make you happy or look for cheerful pictures to make into a collage

Pop bubble wrap or blow and pop actual bubbles

Dig in the dirt or garden, jump on a pile of leaves, or splash around in puddles or mud

Rip up paper or stomp on aluminum cans to crush them

Imagery Techniques

Picture yourself breathing in relaxation, calm, positive feelings, or strength. Picture yourself breathing out whatever is upsetting you. It may help to pair this with imagery of breathing in soothing colors (usually blue, purple, or green) and out more intense colors (usually red or black)

If you need to relax, envision a soothing white or golden light slowly moving up your body, warming and relaxing every part of you that it touches. You can also think of it as protecting you from negativity or from harm

If the problem is intense or uncomfortable emotions, physical sensations, or memories, picture them being surrounded and neutralized by a bright and healing light, temporarily placed in a mental box to be stored for later, or dialed back by an internal controller of intensity

If you have a clear mental picture of what's upsetting you, mentally change it to something silly or harmless. If you're a fan of Harry Potter, cast a mental "riddikulus" to banish the negativity

Picture yourself calm, focused, and able to tackle whatever problems you're facing. Focus on how that would feel in the moment. What would your expression and posture be like? Make whatever changes you need to in order to make your reality reflect your goal

How to Make a Grounding Box

Get a box or basket

Personalize and decorate it with construction paper, wrapping paper, ribbon, stickers, drawings, paint, photographs, glitter, sequins, or anything else that you like

Keep within it:

A list of grounding techniques that you know work for you

A list of positive affirmations and happy memories

A list of the contact information of trusted friends or family who are willing to help and support you

Small sensory objects such as: scented candles, perfumes, or lotions; hard candies or gum; soft fabrics, a stress ball, a stuffed animal, or a fidget toy; happy pictures of you with friends; a CD with relaxing music or meditation tracks. Try to cover all of the senses

A list of possible distractions such as books to read or movies to watch

Small portable distractions such as a pack of playing cards, a small game, or a joke book

A list of comforting things to do such as taking a bubble bath, snuggling up in bed, or meditating

A small journal or notebook

In the Case of a Flashback

Tell yourself that you are having a flashback and are safe now

Remind yourself that the worst is over, and you survived it. What you're feeling now is just a reminder of that trauma and does not fit the present moment

Remind yourself of when and where you are, who you're currently with, and who you can contact if you need help (use the reorientation-focused grounding techniques)

Breathe deeply and slowly. Count your breathes and make sure that you're getting enough air

Use other mental, sensory, movement, and imagery techniques in order to distract yourself, calm yourself, and reorient yourself within the present

If possible or necessary, go somewhere where you can be alone or with a close friend, where you will feel safe, or where you feel protected or shielded

If there is anyone who you can trust or who will support you, reach out to them, let them know what happened, and let them know what you need, what would be best for you, or what they could do to help

Be gentle with yourself and take the time to really recover. If what helps you to recover is to color, take a bubble bath, hug a stuffed animal, or watch a children's movie and if it would not be disruptive to do such things at that point in time, embrace those options whole-heartedly

If possible, note or write down what triggered the flashback, what techniques you tried to use to disrupt the flashback, and what techniques helped

[comicaurora]

How do you draw fire? (This is a question as well as a threat/lh)

Ah, the age-old question. Fire, a semi-transparent light source in constant motion, is a perfect combination of traits that make it an enormous pain in the ass to draw. As such, I have a few different methods I use depending on the individual scene - some versions work better in bright situations, others in dark ones, others when the fire is the center of attention and needs more detail and polish.

No matter what technique I'm using, some things don't change:

I build up a fire effect on several layers. All of these layers are set to the combine mode of Add (Glow).

I almost never use more than one color; for this explanation, unless specifically modified, I exclusively use a mid-range orange shade.

This is done in Clip Studio Paint EX. Most paint programs have parallels to the tools I bring up here, but I don't know the nomenclature, so you might need to do a little digging.

These properties don't change between effects, so if I don't say what layer combine mode or color I'm using, that's because they're always Add (Glow) and the same orange respectively.

I tend to do basic background fire the most vaguely, rather than using any hard-edged detailing. The process overall looks like this:

Starting with the Running Color Edge Watercolor brush, a rough-edged and semi-translucent brush effect that's good for fog, I lay down a base layer that's the most transparent and broad. We're basically not going to go outside the boundaries of this base layer except when we add the cinder effect.

I add a second layer and, using the same brush, brighten up the middle of the fire region a little.

On a new layer, I switch to the Paint And Apply brush, a rounded and more opaque option. I blob a bunch in the middle and add a few scattered smudges off the main light mass to produce the effect of curls of fire scattering away.

On a new layer, I switch to the Droplet brush, an airbrush tool that produces scattered and irregular dot patterns. It might not be super visible at the scale above. I use a small particle size and drop cinders over and around the mass of the flame.

I duplicate the cinder layer several times and blur each copy, starting with a 200px blur and working down by rounded halving increments to 10px. Sometimes I duplicate it one more time for good measure to make sure the cinders pop.

The final result looks like this:

Good for a campfire or torch, but not for anything that needs hard edges. When I want a more defined look but don't need much internal definition in the flame, like for Erin or Dainix's fire effects, I do this instead:

First I draw an outline for the flame using my standard pen tool. This is just eyeballed - real fire doesn't tend to look much like this, but in my experience these distorted claw-like formations tend to produce the right visual effect. I also make sure to add more wispy bits coiling off the main mass, as in my experience this is what makes the difference between fire that looks like a solid and fire that looks like it's actually moving.

I fill in that same layer. In some versions of this effect we might still use the outline layer, hence why I showed it as a step, but this is good for now.

I duplicate the now-filled fire layer and blur it 200px.

I fuzz out the blurred layer by painting on it with the Running Color Edge Watercolor brush more, just to make it look a little less overly smooth.

I duplicate the base fire layer again and blur it to 200px again. This one we'll leave alone.

I duplicate the base fire layer again and blur it 100px. Obviously these pixel values depend on the scale you're drawing at, but at the scale I work at I almost never need to blur them more than 200px, and for larger fire effects we probably want to use a technique with more definition anyway.

Finally I repeat the cinder effect described in step 5 of the previous technique.

The final result looks like this:

It gets the point across all right, but sometimes we want a fire effect that's got more internal definition - if it's going to be a large part of the shot, for instance, we probably don't want to just fill the frame with a mass of smooth glowing orange. More complex shapes of fire, like Dainix's hand or specific magical effects, also warrant more definition to avoid being visually confusing. For this, we need a defined outline layer and some internal variation in the brightness of the flame, like so:

This is where we start seeing one of the core difficulties of drawing fire: its own brightness can severely obscure the detailing.

I draw the outline of the fire with a standard pen tool.

On a new layer, I copy and fill in the step 1 outline.

I add a new layer and draw/fill a highlighting pattern in the core of the flame.

I repeat step 3 again, but fill much more of the flame this time, leaving only a few un-filled portions around the edges.

I take the base filled flame layer and do steps 3-6 from the previous solid-outline flame effect, blurring out the background glow. To avoid losing the definition in the center of the fire, I use a soft-edged eraser tool and erase some of the middle of the ambient glow layer until I can see the edges of the smallest, brightest part of the flame again. I also lighten the outline layer by overlaying a solid white layer at 50% opacity and masking it onto the outline, so the glow stands out against the rest of the bright mass.

I repeat the cinder effect from the first tutorial. This time I also lighten the base unblurred cinder layer by another 50%-opacity white layer so it matches the overall outline.

The final effect looks like this:

But we can also push it farther! If we take the highlighting layers and blur them, we can get an effect like this:

This isn't my favorite, tbh - it makes the interior of the fire look a little blobby and gassy for my tastes - but it's not too bad.

And if we want to make the center of the fire look even hotter, we can take the smallest highlight layer that forms the core of the glow and tint the shade up closer to white with another 50% opacity white layer, producing this glowing core:

I don't tend to do this, but if we wanted to and didn't mind losing the hard-edged definition, we could even blur our outline layer about 20px to get this more ethereal effect:

It also works with other colors.

Of course, there's a lot more to fire - this isn't touching on molten materials, burning/charring materials, explosions, smoke or anything. This is just pretty good for basic garden-variety fire.

[linaselandbasil]

Whitewashing in Eldarya: A man of science rant about beemoovs bullshit pt.1

What is whitewashing?: this word has a couple of different uses, but in this context I mean deliberately making things more 'white' and thus alienating and erasing POC.

For example, they try so hard to make Lance white. Bitch, just draw him like god intended and stop complaining!

Okay introduction over. Let's cover the less extensive topic I want to talk about.

Huang Huas character design:

She looks weird. I always hated her character design. I think what happened is they didn't know that darker skin has to be shaded different.

She looks grey (in retrospect, this may be coz she wears a lot of orange and yellow, despite having a pink undertone. Although, she should not have a pink undertone, when the skin is this dark, its more accurately described as having a red undertone), probably because the artist messed up and thought that simply lightening her complexion would make her face look less.... I dunno. The point is that it didn't work as intended.

Dark skin is more reflective compared to light skin. It might appear that the glow simply looks more prominent because of the contrast, but that's not all there is to it. Melanin absorbs UV to protect them from sun damage and it also reflects some of it. The absolute darkest skintones of sub Saharan Africans provide as much protection as SPF 25 sunscreen. (The minimum recommended by dermatologists for everyday wear is 50) So, my point is, you can't just use light skin techniques to draw Dark skin. You need to make the contrast between the lightest and the darkest colors more drastic.

Her undertone... It makes me want to just evaporate. I love good art and I love beautiful people, this is simply not it dear. If you look up a tutorial for drawing dark skin they might tell you that the darker you go, the redder to make it. This is because there's five different types of melanin, two of which I'll tell you about. Eumelanin is more prominent in dark skin, it has brown and black subtypes. I, for example have a warm undertone (yellow, not pink) so I have this. Pheomelanin is more prominent in lighter skin and this gives ginger hair and freckles it's red color. (I assume it's a recessive trait, since light skin is a recessive trait) So, in lighter skin, there's a lack of eumelanin, the pink color of the skin is mostly from the blood underneath and the yellow undertone (if you press on your flesh for a long time and release you will see it) is from subcutaneous fat. (which is not white like duckfat) The darker you go, the redder the undertone gets from the eumelanin covring the yellow fat. The blood doesn't get conealed because it's not as deep down as the fat.

Okay, I'm done talking about her skin. Let's get angry about something else: her facial features.

She has basically no afrocentric facial features, I accredit this to the artist not knowing how to draw them, so I'll try not to roast too much.

She has dark skin, which is a dominant trait, but a small nose, thin lips and straight (alright, wavy) hair, which are all recessive traits. This is a rare combination, but not impossible.

(They do have very simmilar face shapes, supporting my phoenix magic skin color change theory)

Her home is the land of the Ren Feng Huang, her people have been described by Erika as "dressed in Chinese style clothes". I feel like this is a microagression, please shut up Erika... She, so far is the only dark skinned Ren Feng Huang. So the case might just be that her Phoenix powers grant her dark skin to protect her from the sun's flames and she's just as white as Huang Chu (who has freckles, that's pheomelanin). Feng Zifu looks vaguely east Asian, but he also has a lot of European features like the sharpness of his cheekbones and his deepset eyes. (And his non-existent lips 💋)

The Feng Huangs are made out to be this holy Saint never did anything wrong ever totally crimeless nation, so they might just have good immigration policies, I dunno.

So anyway, her homeland looks like a very simplified view of 'china'. Bunch of bamboo, cliffs, terrace farming. I assume the climate is what we can expect from "china", humid summers and cold winters. (Although China is fucking huge. The country has more than one climate region.)

For breathing warm, humid air, wide noses are most adapted. For breathing cold, dry air, tall and long noses are adapted, for dry, hot air, hooked noses are most adapted. She appears to have a small, pointy nose with narrow nostrils, which is not well suited for any climate and is a recessive trait.

She has a little mouth ad well as moderately thin lips. Lip size is not that important for survival, but I should note that thin lips emit less heat, therefore they're better for cold environments. Big lips are a dominant gene, thin lips are recessive. If someone has one copy of the dominant gene (one copy comes from each parent) and one recessive, then the dominant gene will determine their appearance, but they can still pass on the recessive gene to their offspring. Some genes work together to make an in-between. Small lip gene+big lip gene makes something in between. (I don't know how recessiveness effects this phenomenon) Two toned lips (pigmentation on top, no pigmentation on the bottom or partial pigmentation on the bottom) are very appropriate in her case, kudos for that. (Im pissed that they forgot it when they drew Lance and Val. I demanded an apology) Also, some people with a lot of melanin often have yellow tinted scleras because there's some of it there too. This used to scare me because I thought they had liver failure. It's not something that every dark skinned person has, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Okay, now about hair. This has to be the most controversial topic for some fucking reason. Thick, dark and curly are dominant traits. Thin, light and straight are recessive. A gene combination of curly and straight work together to make a softer curl pattern or wavy hair. (Wavy hair is just very lose curls, I have wavy hair but it appears straight because it's silky and thick, causing gravity to straighten it. When i was a child it used to be a lot thinner and i had really nice 2A waves.) I don't know what benefits there are to having straight, thin hair, but apparently this weak recessive trait is so beloved by our one and only beemoov that they made nearly every single POC character without curls. Thick, curly hair is better at basically everything it's supposed to do. It shrinks into a dense protective layer, shielding the head from the sun like an afro helmet, it traps more air underneath to keep the skin warm when it's cold, it's straight out just harder to pull out. I don't know which dumbass, cousin banger ancestors of mine decided that straight hair is pretty enough to srlect for, but I digress. I can live with it. (At least I have green eyes, which is the only recessive trait that I find beautiful. It's still dominant over blue though)

Have a look at this handy chart:

Okay I'm done with Hua. Pt.2 is about Lance and Valkyon because I'm low-key obsessed with them. My bebes.

Have a great day! (I swear of this doesn't spark a conversation nothing will.)

[miss-m-winks]

after seeing a post from @bitchfitch about how they've known other artists to only draw specific body types because of the reference tools they use, I decided I might try to make a post about how you can in fact use a reference and totally alter the body type in your art.

So I've made a series of images showing my own process, though the final image here is still what I consider unfinished. this is the censored version, because tumblr is being rude about nude art. But I used a nude reference from posespace.com, benp030 if you want to find it yourself. pose space also has models of all sizes, and I do recommend studying all body types in art so you don't have to try adding fat to skinny references all the time. Studying fat bodies is exactly why I feel confident drawing fat characters from skinny references. The goal with references shouldn't be to copy them exactly, but to use them like the armature under a sculpture. References are only a tool to work with.

(image description: a rough sketch of a skinny man kneeling, with one arm over his head and one arm grabbing his thigh. The second image shows red lines that circle major areas to add body fat, such as the cheeks, neck, chest, belly, thighs, and upper arms. The notes on the image also specify that the lower arm and leg tend to have less fat gain. end description.)

(image description: Using the same pose as above, the figure now has added body fat in a rough sketch. The belly squishes where the torso bends, and there are no longer open gaps between the arms and body where the elbows bend. end description.)

(image description: three digital paintings using the rough sketch above as a base. They are in order from messy colors to more rendered colors. The color palette uses shades of purple, pink, and yellow. The final image has the most detail, using lighting to bring out the shape of the body, and adding body hair. end description.)

I could do a lot more to clean this up, but it would take several hours and I just wanted to make this quickly. There are some differences between the original reference and the final image besides just adding body fat, the pose has changed a little along the way. This is how references are meant to be used. There is value in being able to recreate something as close to the original as possible, through observational art techniques, but this is not the only way to use references. So hopefully this helps some people out, maybe you've learned something new. I think a lot of online discussions about the use of references in art tend to lean towards the idea that references are cheating, or stealing. They're not. They're just another tool in your box, and they take skill to use right. So go forth and build those skills, and don't be afraid to step outside your comfort zone.