#I don’t like creating sketch layers

[signed-sapphire]

Heyyyy darling @oh-shtars I have finished your DTIYS!

You are in luck because I likely would not have finished this if I had not been struck with a drawing fever at 3am today

(It is currently 3:33am… a lovely time to be on Tumblr)

But nevertheless! Here is my take on your Ashueño meet cute!

I actually coloured it! I used the reference colours for Sueño and sort of made the assumption that his hair was glowing. Bonus if you know what the other light source is

I tried to make Sueño as scared as possible, after all this is the third human he’s met, and the first two Mother Gothel’d him bad. He is terrified that she might do something to him. I just love brutally traumatized boys 😇

For Asha, I tried to make her expression more surprised and shocked than afraid. After all, she’s the servant to Magnifico and Amaya, and I’m sure she’s seen magic around. Plus… this weird, glowing young man was kind of cute. There’s no coloured sheet of her Act I outfit but I tried my best based off of the royal couple’s colours

Original image and timelapse below the cut!

Fun fact, this was the first finished art piece I signed with my new name! I quite like it :3

[tethered-heartstrings]

If Will dies first, it is obvious Hannibal would cannibalize Will’s flesh. Hannibal mourned Mischa by eating her, and he would do the same for Will; to consume and eat and incorporate is part of grieving. But what would Hannibal do with Will’s bones? He’d eat the marrow, maybe make soup from them, but what of the calcified parts that remain, the parts that can’t be eaten?

I don’t really see him just keeping them around or displaying them, something stagnant and to be ogled. Burying them in the family plot in Lithuania makes sense because Will is family, but it also requires Hannibal to go back to a place he can’t go. Hannibal could cremate the bones, but then what? Spreading the ashes doesn’t seem like something he would do; he can’t know what happens to them. Keeping Will in an urn on his desk or a shelf also feels out of character, a memory collecting dust.

What if Hannibal had Will’s ashes pressed into pencil lead? There are ways to compress ashes into something that could be written with or drawn. What if Hannibal draws Will with his own ashes, commemorating him in a completed cycle. Sketching the man with his own remains. Remembering Will as he saw him, recreating moments they shared from Hannibal’s mind palace. Having Will live forever in depictions of himself. Hannibal would never be truly left behind. And Hannibal would sharpen the pencils as he always had; he isn’t unfamiliar with taking a blade to Will. Shaving off a layer but keeping him sharp.

Displaying and keeping art made from Will’s ashes would mean so much more than a reconstructed skeleton or an urn on a shelf or a plot that would become overgrown with weeds. He could draw Will in motion, alive, as he wished to remember him, and create moments and memories they didn’t get to experience together.

[art]

Creator Spotlight: @jijidraws

Jiji Knight is a latina pinup illustrator. Her work is overall geared toward thick ladies and dedicated to fat positivity out of a purely selfish need to create art she wished she had seen growing up. She often features sexy and soft macabre themes on vibrant or sweet colours and takes great joy in making folx feel good about themselves with her work. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration and operates out of her very sunny hometown of Las Vegas.

Check out our interview with Jiji below!

Have you ever had an art block? If so, how did you overcome it?

Oh my gosh… I have art blocks all the time. My favorite way of overcoming it is by making fanart. Funnily enough, that’s something I don’t do in my own work anymore. But there are still IPs I return to that still bring joy to my heart. I love returning to drawing Sailor Moon like when I was in first grade. Or I’ll even look up the last fashion week and start drawing the fashion week outfits from the Paris or New York show. Stuff like that is what gets my creative juices flowing.

What medium have you always been intrigued by but would never use yourself?

Resin. Resin art is so stunning. People make the most amazing and beautiful sculptures using resin, and I don’t think I could ever bring myself to play with something so complicated. There are a lot of ways to cure it, and sometimes, it doesn’t cure properly…I already work with enough chaos as it is! I respect resin artists, but I don’t think I would ever touch it. I’ve admired it from a distance. There is an artist I follow who does these resin layer paintings. So they’ll paint a layer of resin, then cure it, and paint on top of the cured layer. They build up these amazing paintings using resin…I could never. Maybe one day!

What is one interaction you had with a fan of yours that has stuck with you over the years?

I still remember…It was my first and only Flame Con in New York. I had a fan come up to my booth. They didn’t say hello or that it was nice to meet me. They started to cry! They cried, and the first words out of their mouth were, “I’ve never seen myself in artwork before.” So, of course, I started to cry! So we were just crying across the table at each other. It was just one of the sweetest interactions, and it really sticks with me still to this day.

What is a recent creative project that you are proud of?

My latest collaboration with the artist Missupacey. We’ve been collaborating for two years now, and our last collaboration was for Midsummer Scream. It was two very cute clown girls, and I designed our T-shirt. It was one of the most fun projects we’ve done in a long time. We love doing collaborative work because it keeps working in the art industry fresh—being able to bounce ideas back and forth. So we do it where someone picks the color palette, and someone picks a theme. We’ll get references together, put them on a big board, and send each other sketches. It’s really nice to work with somebody else.

How has technology changed the way you approach your work?

Honestly, it changed everything. I mean, I used to draw for myself a lot. And while I still do that, I now predominantly draw for my Patrons. For a while, I was drawing for the internet. So I was drawing stuff people wanted to see in terms of plus-sized versions of characters—a plus-sized Poison Ivy or a plus-sized Sailor Moon. My Patrons have allowed me to start drawing for myself again. But technology, for a while, essentially dominated what direction I was taking with my art, so I’m grateful to take some of that power back.

If there is one thing that you want art enthusiasts to remember you by, what would it be?

Body positivity. I would love for them to remember that there is an artist making work that is making people feel good about themselves and about the way they look at themselves.

Top tips on setting up an Artist Alley booth?

Have a method of taking money, have a method of displaying your work, and have a way to take a break. I have a plastic picnic cover that costs like a dollar at any store. All I have to do is clip it to my display grates, and it covers up my entire display. I feel secure enough to take time for myself in a 10-hour workday to eat something, go to the restroom, or even take a moment to breathe and reorganize my inventory. So it’s so funny that this one-dollar piece of plastic is like the most life-saving item in my display of items.

Who on Tumblr inspires you and why?

@mayakern comes to mind. She is another body-positive artist who expanded into making body-positive clothing. She’s amazing, and just to see someone else out there promoting body positivity. Maya’s been doing it longer than I have, I believe. It feels good to know that I’m not alone. Her work is always stunning, and I love her body-positive DnD characters and the fact that she’s still plowing through the clothing industry. For example, she’s expanded from skirts to button-downs and even custom-wrap shirts. I love to see what she’s doing, and it inspires me to pursue different avenues with my own work.

Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing, Jiji! Be sure to check out their Tumblr blog over at @jijidraws.

[verkomy]

do you have any digital art advice?

pen stabilization is your friend!

experiment with different tools and brushes to find the ones that will suit your art style best

study different styles! it's a great way to improve and learn new techniques

remember to flip the canvas

don't be afraid to use references for poses and compositions

alpha lock on a layer will allow you to draw only inside what already exists on that layer, for example you can change the color of a lineart with it

clipping mask is also very useful

don’t use pure white as a background cause you’ll just strain your eyes

rgb mode is for screens, cmyk mode is for printing

blending modes are great to have fun with your drawing (you can use hard more/overlay to make your lineart/sketch layer blend in with the colors underneath, a layer with a color with soft mode on top of the drawing will add a nice tint to it and will help make the drawing more put together)

noise effect adds a nice texture to a drawing

you can also add paper textures!

REMEMBER to save your work regularly and make backup of your work so you won't lose it when program crashes

make mistakes and learn from them

don’t be afraid to redo something if it doesn’t feel right and start over

draw what YOU want and what makes YOU happy

and most importantly - have fun and experiment!

plus a general art advice if you decide to post any kind of art on the internet: try to not have any expectations so you won’t be disappointed. not sure if this is a good advice but the less you create something to do well with likes and shares the longer you stay away from artblock and constant burnout. it also helps with building the appreciation you have for your art from within you and not from the validation and approval of others (it's hard, I know, but it's worth working on)

[mayakern]

hi! i love your art, it's such an inspiration! if it's alright to ask, how many layers do you use + how do you sort them? it's something i struggle with to keep from becoming disorganized

thanks! i do not use layers in a normal/organized way 90% of the time so i do not think my methodology will be hugely useful, but here you go

basically i have a sketch layer and if i ink the piece i have an inking layer. whichever i use for my lines is put on multiply.

then i do underpainting on 1 or more layers depending on how complex the piece is and how much color variation/manipulation i want to do. in this case, i used 4 layers for the basic underpainting

and then i merged all the underpainting into a single layer and made various adjusted versions of that layer (using curves, hue+saturation, and color balance) and masked them to only show where i wanted them to

after that i merge everything into one layer and just paint. but that doesn’t mean i only have one layer after this. as i reach certain milestones (ie painting the armor) or approach something i think will be difficult/that i might struggle with, i duplicate my single merged layer as a way to preserve progress states. there are a LOT of things i completely repainted or redrew in this piece and having these progress states was invaluable.

as part of this reworking stage, i may create a new layer on top to re-sketch a part of the piece i wasn’t happy with, which i will then mask out the unnecessary parts of later.

after i’m happy with where my painting is at, i’ll do a similar thing i did to my underpainting: duplicating and making multiple single-layer versions of my art so i can fiddle around adjusting each one and masking them to just affect the areas i want them to. i also usually end up using a couple adjustment layers like overlay.

and that’s it! it’s a pretty disorganized process and is not the sort of file i would turn in for professional work, but i don’t do client work anymore so i can do whatever i want and the only person who has to deal with my files is me lol

[records-of-dirt]

Create Your Own Soil Profile!

A garden’s soil is the base of all its growth, and knowing how to properly  interact with your soil can make all the difference!

Step 1 Site Observations

Take a few photos of your site (project area)

Note down:

what vegetation is there?

is it near water?

the slope

approximate exposure to sun

Step 2 Take a soil profile

Set out a tarp or a garbage bag

Dig a hole about 3 feet deep (you may want a friend’s help!)

Place that soil in piles onto the tarp, sorted into different soil layers

Remember horizons! (O, A, E, B, C, R(bedrock))

Make a sketch of a soil profile, and measure the depth of each horizon

The top of the profile should start with 0 cm

Refill the hole, and try to return each type of soil in order!

Step 3 Build your profile

Describe each layer of soil, moisture/structure/color/smell

Use the “feel” method to take notes

Step 4 Drainage

Dig a hole 1 foot deep and 1 foot wide(ish)

Fill the hole with water and measure how long it takes to fully drain

An ideal time is around 10 to 30 minutes!

Note down the time

Keep in mind that even if the soil type would suit desert-like plants more, think of the weather. If it rains a good deal the drainage can matter less(or more!)

Step 5 Biological Activity

Bury a pair of cotton underwear(I know it’s silly)

Wait about 60 days

Unearth the undies, the more tattered they are the more activity there is!

Step 6 pH Testing

OSU Lab for Oregon, and many states have soil testing labs

Soil pH Meter

DIY Test

Step 7 Hardiness Zone

This just takes looking at a map!

Hardiness zones can tell you about the weather’s highs & lows in a particular area

USDA Plant Hardiness Map

And that 's it! It's a lot, and you don’t have to do everything. Each step can provide a better view of how to properly support your garden, and can be fun activities to do with friends and family!

I’ve included a template for a complete soil profile, but feel free to make them as fancy as y’all want!

Sincerely,

records of dirt

[bagel-bird-ainsor]

I wish writing programs had layers like drawing programs do. Like I need a sketch, refinement, and inking layer… but for writing.

I don’t want to have to create separate documents or rewrite something later on in the same doc. I want to be able to toggle these “layers” on and off and be able to quick reference the other versions of what I’m editing.

Then again I’ve mostly just used google docs so maybe this does exist somewhere.

Idk is this a desire anyone else has experienced? I don’t write that much so I guess it makes sense that I’d want writing software to be more like drawing software

[duckdodger]

this may be too much to ask but do you have a tut on how to draw turtles in the mm style?? (or just at all my ass is suffering. i need to draw tmnt but my brain doesnt know how :c)

Sure ! I’ll try my best to explain (I made one after the first tottmnt trailer came out it’s outdated so I’m remaking it)

If you’re talking abt mm movie style , I don’t think I’m skillful on them enough to make an art tutorial 😭💔they’re hard for me to draw too

Info on keep reading :D !!

- I take hundreds of screenshots + download promo art and a create collage of it , use it as a ref sheet. I study on the shapes , proportions , and style of each character.

- Then I pick an image from the pile to see if it’s a good pose (if not, I find poses from other resources to draw) or expression I want to use as reference for my drawing

- then I start sketching , adding the sharp details . Clean up on lineart and color later

Other Notes :

- Tales of the TMNT artstyle uses sharp sketchy lines to give it that sketchbook artstyle

- In some frames from the show, Their eyes are pentagon shaped & pupils are not fully colored in. Mask tails have different styles too

- Each turtle not only have different headshapes , they have different plastron shapes too (these are fugly examples I accidentally deleted the OG layer of this and had to redo it LMAO)

- Looking at Tales crew art also rlly helps! (There’s a lot of them on the #/talesofthetmnt tag on insta & twitter)

the Tales of the TMNT artstyle is easy to nail imo , it’s like more of a simpler version of the rise of the TMNT artstyle if that make sense ?? That’s how I personally feel lololol

If you never drawn TMNT before , just go slow on your art process , look at references, & take your time . Draw the characters in your own style first if you want :] just to feel more comfortable and less stress trying to replicate the iteration’s style . overall , have fun <3

I usually suckkk at these art tutorial stuff but hope this helps :D !!

[junorsky]

You use procreate right? I'm a beginner in coloring. And your lighting and color is always so good. If you had like steps/tutorial/tips on coloring/lighting in procreate. I would pay for it even. It's hard to find a good tutorial on YouTube for procreate users, and the style that you do which is similar to the coloring style I've been trying to self teach myself for a while and failing. Anyways sorry if this is a weird ask, but I would honestly really appreciate it

One speedpaint coming right up!

Nothing weird about this question. Honestly, I struggle a lot as well, but my problem is the shape, not the colors. I suppose I can "feel" colors, that's why impressionists are my favourite (classics always help!)

I don't know if I can help with using procreate, because I'm not really savvy with it, I always use photoshop for more complex work as it is perfect for twicking lighting, changing tint etc. I prefer to sketch in procreate, because, a) it has many great default brushes, b) my back hurts from sitting on my pc, c) I can go anywhere, draw and immediately post it.

I’ll try to summarise what I figured out with procreate, and maybe give a few tips. But I don’t know if that’s the best way to use this tool. I’m just… winging it, haha

First, if you struggle with colors, look up the color circle

It shows exactly which color goes best with which. For example, if you use Orange for your lighting, and Blue for your shadows, it’ll look nice. Perfect, even. I love that one. Avoid using pure black for shadows, otherwise you risk to make it too… burned? Like, dirty. Be careful with Black magic.

I’ll use Zevlor here to show how it works.

In addition, you can use the opposite color to make the character stand out. It’s really important. What’s more noticeable, red on brown or blue on brown?

Also, learn to use masks. Really, they may be scary, but it saves SO MUCH time. Specifically with procreate, I always use them now for everything because I haven’t found the better way to avoid fixing the stray lines. With that solution, you'll need to correct only one layer at the start, the main one. Clipping masks are great to help with that, but procreate is a little uncomfortable in that regard. I’ll show what I do, perhaps it’ll make things clearer

Those are the most useful things to know, I think. Masks can be used in photoshop in the same way, I have a bad habit of creating too many of them so it's crouded. And they rarely have a name. I'm too lazy to name them all

Anyway, I hope I managed to answer at least one of your questions... or not X) I tried. Good luck with exploring Procreate!

[hwajin]

#! — 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐞 | hh

genre: smut, fluff

pairing: fem!reader x hyunjin

wc: 1.1k

warnings/ contents: established relationship, unprotexted sex, coming inside, breeding kink, mention of pregnancy, very very soft tho enjoyy <3

req!

"No wait... let's try it- without it today."

Your voice had been desperate, whining almost as Hyunjin had pried above you, ready to glove over the condom he had ripped open impatiently prior. Sweat lacing your bodies, dripping to create a pool of mutual wetness on sheets beneath you. Eyes glowing light in the dark of the room, stars on nightly sky, and breath left your mouths in huffs of apprehension. You laid with your hair a mess on Hyunjin's pillow, supporting your head, his scent all around lulling you into depths nothing but alluring. His touch on your skin an addicting one, his kiss on your flesh as passionate as ever — you'd swear your life to had died the moment his lips had clashed yours, had come back when they'd travelled down a path from your shoulder to your navel.

And then he had bent his body over your own and towards the nightstand beside his bed, clattered with pencils and unfinished sketches of your body, and had opened the top drawer to fish for a remaining condom — and your thoughts had short circuited. You wanted to feel him closer, in absence of layers separating your bodies. With no need of protection if passion utterly great coursed your very veins, if adoration and love was the sole thing you felt — you needed to feel him nearer, and you weren’t shy to let him know of it.

Hyunjin’s eyes doubled in size, halting in his movements when you had uttered the words. Blinking at you for seconds in disbelief before cheeks painted pink and eyes became hurried, mouth opening like fish in wish to say something. Only after cocking his head and huffing out in amusement he seemed to be ready, though.

“What if you—… you’ll get pregnant baby.”

Hyunjin’s voice quiet, scared and shy almost, though within it laid anticipation. Excitement, maybe, something deeper, possibly — his pupils blown out like you’ve never seen before, body nearly trembling above your own. Breath scattered momentarily and lips quivering — his whole screamed lust if anything, need and desperation. It got to you in an instant, infected your own being and your body heated up, felt like fire burning beneath your skin. Fire ignited by him, ignited by his fervour.

“I don’t care if I do, just need to feel you.”

Words hushed, spat out in manners quick because you were growing impatient. Your hands explored the expanse of Hyunjin’s body, hot fingertips against hotter skin, playing with the dips and highs of tummy and thighs. His flesh growing bumps with every touch of you, his eyes searching for a sign of nervousness, of discomfort in your face — he couldn’t find one. His excitement mimicking your own, your longing for nearer contact, for your bodies to feel as flush as ever mirroring his. Your touch electrifying his every muscle, his every nerve, occasional squeezing of his arms or shoulders daring to take his very last breath.

He lined up with your slit, shaking hands against your core and you felt his bare tip brush against your wetness — a sensation by it’s own, and you anticipated what was to come. You felt his precum against your cunt, felt his preparing sliding, his every curve when he entered you in nature more intense — your head threw back against his pillows, your back arching to have him deeper. A feeling you wished to bask in for as long as humanly possible, discarding any other need if this was the exchange.

Hyunjin’s state not better than yours, the man panting and hips stuttering against your body, your warmth engulfing him intoxicatingly, your voice in whines and sighs pure music to his ear. His hands found their place on your body at all times, travelling around or fixating on your hips, to stabilize himself or to keep you down, he wasn’t too sure. And he couldn’t take off his eyes; not from you nor from the point where your bodies collided, where they merged into a body of one, eyes fixed on your cores or your distorted face in sheer painful desperation. Your own eyes were closed, struggling to keep them open though if you did, Hyunjin was the only sight before you — his scrunched nose and agape mouth collecting sweat, his dyed hair falling in locks and messes framing his face. His eyes travelling up and down to meet yours or to watch his ever moving hips meet yours in a dance addicting. Occasionally his head lowered in exhaustion, and he never missed the opportunity to leave wet kisses on the expanse of your neck, or to whisper affirmations of love against the lobe of your ear — antics that only drove you closer to where you needed the two of you to be, closer to a state of mere insanity.

Stuttering hips and increasing volume of skin against skin and pathetic voices indicated said state was in arms reach, ready to grab and bask in for the rest of the night. Your nails dug into the skin of Hyunjin’s shoulders, leaving traces of crescent moons on the pale canvas. Locking eyes and whining out in unison, and Hyunjin managed to pant a question.

“You sure? I’m gonna cum baby, tell me you’re sure.”

Heart melting at his care, stomach throbbing at the building tension and the raspiness of his voice, the depth and emotion it carried. His gaze fixating yours and holding until a word of confirmation left your lips, your eyes rolling back in purified ecstasy, your body trembling against his. Your walls fluttered against him and Hyunjin’s head hung low, big palm finding your lower tummy before he reached his own orgasm, broken voice and shut eyes, groping hands and wanting gaze revealing that he’s been dreaming of this moment for a long time. That he’d been waiting for you to make a first move because he wouldn’t dare have the confidence to utter such wishes, that the satisfaction of being good for you got his heart pump more blood, that the feeling of his relief within you, the way it oozed out against the sides of your cunt was everything he’d ever wanted — that the very thought of said relief would turn your belly round got Hyunjin lightheaded. You would tease him later on, when he had long pulled out to watch the white pool at your slit, when he had cleaned you up and laid beside for you to rest atop his chest — you would tease him knowing well of the look in his eyes, of the hidden wish for this one time to be enough, for his seed to put down roots. And maybe it was your unsaid wish, too.

@etherealeeknow @linoskitty @unexceptional-h @rseanne @es-kay-zee @urcracksisx @jeyelleohe @yunkiwii @etheralsung @nyrasneedy @seochhj @spidercomics @chans-starlight @angelwonie @lix-ables @yvniek4ng @ppiri-bahng @sstarryreads @svintsandghosts @bokjaz @llunapastell @sensitiveandhungry @minniesvenus

[ryuichirou]

can you pretty pretty please with extra sprinkles on top drop the speedpaint for your most recent rookvil art? i wanna see how you did vils pretty dress and everything else cause its all so beautiful

I am so happy you like how it looks!! I would love to make a speedpaint, but unfortunately, I didn’t record it + the base for the drawing was actually done traditionally with a pencil. A lot of my drawings are done this way, actually…

Even though I can’t drop the speedpaint, I’ll do the next best thing and explain my process for this specific drawing step-by-step. It’s actually not that complicated!

Here is how the sketch looked initially. As you can see, I shaded the dress very crudely; in fact I was kind of upset with how the dress looked at this stage. Ironically, I ended up not doing much to the pencil shading, and it still turned out okay somehow?? Anyways, the first thing I did was to prep the sketch for the colouring stage: I adjusted the contrast, fixed Vil’s face, and erased some dirt and imperfections.

Then I create a new layer, set it to Multiply (this way I can colour the sketch without disturbing it, as if I was just colouring a digitally done lineart) and do a base colour layer. There is a gradient in Vil’s hair and Rook’s belt buckle, but other than that, all the colours are flat at this stage.

Before doing all the shading needed for this sketch, I add details such as makeup and tights. If you want to know how I did these, let me know, but I basically looked at a tutorial once and then simplified it lol

Now, the dress.

To be completely honest, there isn’t any proper technique to what I did, everything is always just trial and error and an hour of me going “does that look good? NO IT DOESN’T >:(“ until both Katsu and I are satisfied. This time I was lucky, because it didn’t take very long, and the “solution” was pretty simple.

Starting with the base colour. I turned off the sketch layer to show that it is indeed completely purple. And it looks kind of bright at this point, almost too bright even, especially considering that the dress is supposed to be mostly black, or at least dark purple. But bear with me.

Next I added some highlights (new layer, set on Overlay or Screen, depending on what looks best). Usually I would add the shades first, but I wanted to make the fabric look more “shiny”, you know, the type of fabric that would reflect the floor and make this highlight under the boob lol.

And after that I just went ahead and added black gradient (on a new Layer) from the bottom of the dress to make it look darker, silkier and a little bit more interesting for the eye. I erased some parts of the gradients as you can see, because it looked too dark on the highlighted parts… could’ve just placed the black gradient layer under the highlights layer and saved myself a headache, but hey, where is the adventure in that.

Finally, it turned out looking like this. It looks better than it used to look like initially, but there is one more thing to do. We don’t get to do this one too often, so it always excited both Katsu and me: THE SPARKLES!! Somehow, making the dress sparkly makes everything much better.

How do I do the sparkles: I use the star brush… or was it a snow brush? I use this brush when I draw both of these things lol + when I draw anything sparkly. I would’ve given you this specific one, but I don’t really remember where I got it from, and I honestly think that any starry or snowy brush would work wonderfully as long as the specs are small enough.

After that is done, I just shade the rest of the drawing. Nnew layer set on Multiply, the shading is done with darker purple/red + darker blue, whatever looks better on any particular material: the skin really likes warmer colours, but Rook’s suit looked bad with red shades, so I adjusted it to blue.

And here is the post where I talk about how I colour hair! Good thing I already wrote that one, this post is getting long lol

And the last step is to add details. The original sketch was done in a rather small (smaller than A6) sketchbook, so I couldn’t draw all the details like Vil’s earrings and stuff properly. Basically I just paint on a separate layer on top of everything.

And there you have it! I hope it makes sense, please let me know if you have questions.

[yuutaguro]

hey, how are you? i love your art! i am just learning how to use procreate, and i was wondering what brushes or canvas do you use to get the paper effect when you’re drawing? sorry, i hope you don’t mind me asking. thank you. ☺️

hehe well i’m gonna do a basic comprehensive tutorial on my drawing process and general guidelines i follow when doing art (hope you dont mind im using ur ask), i’ll start with my process first

brushes i use:

lineart: “ink bleed” brush that comes preprogrammed in procreate

coloring/texture: maxpacks watercolor set (while in the pricy range, ive been using it for years and i think its a worthy investment, he also has sales occasionally)

for sketching: HB pencil that comes with procreate but you can use whatever

so my lineart, i typically duplicate my original layer, “color fill” the new layer with a dark red (or any dark color of ur choice), gaussian blur it @ 3% and set it to multiply and that just gives it some depth (for this piece i actually copied my dark red lineart and adjusted the opacity to make it a little darker so there’s 3 layers in total here)

now on to COLORING, i start off with a solid bright color (usually one that goes with the general palette you’d like to use, i wanted something warm so i went with a pink base)

create a new layer and thats where the colors come in, i typically do a rough estimate of the colors i want to use at this point, cause they can be adjusted later in the “color balance” setting under “adjustments” once you have your coloring done (this is all on one layer)

now my SECRET is i use the WASH GRAINY brush as an ERASER and lightly go over my color layer so the pink base comes through a little and unifies the colors and gives it that yummy texture. sometimes i erase the base color too for a little more texture but thats not necessary for every single drawing. once i erase enough, i go to “color balance” adjustment tool and mess with the hues till i get the result i want.

after that i create a multiply layer and with my WASH GRAINY brush i do shadows/face rendering. and with this piece specifically i did an add layer to simulate sunlight on them (i do extra layers at my own discretion, so have fun with it :)

as a final cherry on top i create another multiply layer, fill it with white and then set a noise filter on it @ 17% (dont ask why that number it just works for me lmao) and thats it!

if i need to clarify anything dont hesitate to ask! like i said we dont gatekeep here

and some general tips: dont over-articulate your drawing, cause i find the more i fuss with details the more stiff my drawings look, so i suggest being a little more loose with lineart/sketching and dont sweat the small stuff

same goes for coloring, the more simplistic your shapes are the more cohesive ur drawing will look

another coloring tip: if you’re having trouble with ur drawings looking “muddy” i recommend starting off with a black and white render so you can get a handle on your values before you worry about hue (i do this with my more rendered portraits but i find it helps you focus on the depth of your drawing)

[xxwelxx]

Can I request wxs at the beach!!

ANON I AM SO SO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG

I hope u can accept WxS Alien Beach Wear as an apology and fulfillment of this request ;_;

(More under cut)

At first I tried a normal WxS at the beach, but for the LIFE of me I couldn’t do it, I still don’t know why. Maybe it was art block or smth. Still I couldn’t do it. THEN a few days I don’t know what possessed me and I was like “what if I drew alien wxs at the beach hahahahaha how hard can that be” suddenly my whole world was refilled with color and I finally had a clear vision of something I could do for this request.

Unfortunately that meant I needed to not only create spacey beach wear, but also I HAD to think of how a beach in outer space would look like for jelly aliens. (No one but myself is holding me to this standard)

This is where I must regrettably come to you a little empty handed, as I still have not fully figured out the logistics of how I’d want a space beach to look and interact with any characters I choose to put in it, let alone something I am able to DRAW. LIKE WHAT DOES A PALM TREE LOOK LIKE IN SPACE ?!?

I have a few ideas of what I’m aiming for, but there’s truly so many sparkles you can add to something in attempt to fix it before realizing there’s a lot more thinking that needs to go into this 🥀🥀

To what I did finish.. I didn’t think it would take this long either. Coming up with all the outfit ideas took like an hour. Actually drawing them and adjusting them to my liking took a couple more days. I breached a hundred layers on this canvas when my usual is around 50 layers on the heavier side. Working with transparency is a little tough because of that. I also had so much trouble with the anatomy for some reason n I still feel like some of the designs looked better in the sketches, maybe coz I’m not used to making bases or smth but WHATEVER I did it and it’s done.

That being said, I spent a lot of brain power on this and idk if it’s likely I’ll revisit them for a whileee. So if anyone else sees this and is interested in drawing them in these outfits or writing or anything, you can do so without asking (but do show me please I would sob if you did it would make me so so happy)

This wasn’t a complete waste for me though, as I’ve been thinking of exploring what they’d be like as aliens so I could create smth either by drawing or dipping my toes into writing.

Whatever the case, I want to thank you for sending me a request, it meant a lot to me. I like feeling that the art I spend time on is being seen by someone. Much love 💖💖

[dumpsterfire-allavita]

Context- I had been commissioned for this piece. Being in a financial pickle I picked it up and immediately set to work on it. Since I’m in need of money I put my all into the request to make sure it checked every box they could need. It turned out amazing I think! However I just checked our chat where I put the almost finished piece to find their account deleted. What’s worse is I had given them an update without my signature on it since it was unfinished and all…so if you see it floating around please message me!

Without further adeu~ the piece!

╔══*.·:·✧ ☎️ ✧·:·.*══╗

Information

I was messaged by the user Freaky (later changed to Dust) for the commission of their two Characters Brimstone and Karma. Ecstatic we began consultation!!

They decided on a photo reference from the anime “Soul Eater”. They liked the old anime style and requested their piece would be similar. That meant a full body with simple background but a lot of technique put into the old anime style! Ofc I wouldn’t shy away from the challenge (since my bills won’t shy away from me- the apple did not work on the doctor….no matter how hard I threw it)

Upon requesting their budget they said between 130-200$ which worked fine with me. I always tend to under charge anyhow. Due to my needs this time was no different. I assured they would receive updates to let them know how the piece was going and that I would collect their input on any fixes needed. They agreed and without further wait I began.

『•🪱•✎•🪱•』

[ T o o l s ]

✦ Cheap sketchpad

✦ Mechanical Pencil 7.0 lead

✦ My Phone (to send to the iPad)

✦ Fathers IPad (Im broke don’t judge)

✦ Procreate

✦ Color Pencil procreate brush pack

✦ Lineart procreate brush pack

✦Paint procreate brush pack

*ੈ✩‧₊˚ˏˋ°⁀✎ 🫎 P R O C E S S 🫎 *ੈ✩‧₊˚ˏˋ°⁀✎

Once saving the many provided refs I began by creating character reference sheets. Due to the customer not being artistic they provided me with several other commissioned pieces of their characters. Not all…looked the same… so I created these sheets to compile the parts that fit the personalities portrayed. Then I checked in with the user to figure out which features looked most like what they imagined for the characters.

Then I continued with the base sketch of the pose. The original reference for the pose didn’t entirely fit the characters so I chose to tweak it. I think I like the way they interact on the piece. I even made them doing rock paper scissors if you pay close enough attention! Karma lost but well…Brimstone would get what was coming for it later lol.

After all that it was finally digital art time!!! So I put my color references sent to me before adding the anime ref and my character refs. On the iPad I started with adding the details of the characters and sketching the pieces in further.

When that looked good I shifted the background a little to see it all before doing the motorcycle. (This is the first one I’ve ever drawn too- I know it’s funky! Don’t look too close)

Once the sketch was confirmed I began lineart. The title was changed to say Brimstone in big and in Japanese it reads “Freak Karma” the user of the customer and their second character.

Following that was color blocking which absolutely murdered me! I simply started with a big blob and did Alpha lock. Then I continued to block out base colors. Probably the worst experience of my life…goodness..

After I did a big dark brown layer with the opacity lowered for the look of a darker environment. From there I lightly erased the spots for lighting.

Then it was additional coloring and shading to the color block layer followed by additional erasing on the shadow layer. Building it up until I was satisfied.

Finally I did two layers- a layer for specific color lighting such as the flames reflection and the color to their skulls and a layer for the black and white liner.

All that was left was adding noise, Bloom, and a little bit of halftones to achieve the desired look.

With everything done I added my signature into the mirror on the bike!

ALL THIS ON ONLY 4 LAYERS! Due to the sheer size of the canvas (6000 pixels by 5000 pixels (ish)) I was only able to have 4 MAX layers. So pain…

🪳✨ Time ✨🪳

//this is the longest I’ve ever spent on a piece btw! (These are timed and rounded down to the simplest form. So these are all slightly UNDER what I actually did.)

Ref sheets 🎨 45 min

Layout Sketch 🔆 24.3 min

Digital Sketch 🛏️ 1 hour 30 min

Lineart 🍿 8 hours

Color Blocking 🥲 23 hours

Lighting + Final touches 👍 1 hour 25 min

Total- WAY TO FREAKING LONG! This has 26,543 strokes on it!!!!

Anywho! I hope you enjoy the piece as I sure as heck have not due to my suffering and now lack of money that I now have to try and find elsewhere with bills gripping my now every thought.

If you’d like to commission me I’ll have to ask for a base payment upfront now due to this situation. I am unable to spend such time to provide my very best just to be left when I truly need the money.

Thank you for your time!

[firexima]

YOUR ART IS INCREDIBLE DO YOU HAVE ANY TIPS /nf

Thanks so much!! I’m so grateful to hear you like my work :)

And boy oh boy I could go oooon and on and on about tips, like genuinely pages upon pages or talking hours upon hours but I’ll share a few things!

1: Put your drawing in black and white to check the values

TLDR: It helps check that your drawings are clear and helps figure out what needs to be brighter/darker.

-> First if all, I want to explain what value is. Value is how bright or dark a color is. Every color has value even when fully saturated and those values change depending on the color. Red for example is naturally darker in value than yellow but naturally brighter in value than blue. You want to be aware and therefore deliberate with how you use value in your art.

Push your darks and push your lights— unless there’s a deliberate reason as to why you don’t want to, you want a fairly large range in values: that means that if you were to put your drawing in black and white only, you would be able to see a large range of greys going from very dark to very bright, black to mid/light grey, mid/dark grey to white depending on the mood of your drawing.

This helps to give your art more depth and volume and generally helps to read better and is nice to look at. When you’re creating art it can be difficult to keep track of everything, so by putting your art in black and white you are only focusing on value and it helps you see what’s getting lost and what you can push and pull more to make brighter or darker.

You can do this by either taking a picture of your drawing and editing it in your camera roll to remove the saturation or set it in one of the black and white filters or if you’re working digitally you can create a new layer above all the ones you already have, fill it with black/white/grey and set the layer to “color”. With your layer, you can turn it on and off whenever you want

2: Do multiple small thumbnails!

TLDR: It helps pushing yourself to brainstorm other options and it helps finding out if your composition works before you spend time on it.

-> Obviously not a complete necessity whatsoever and I don’t even do this with all my drawings especially if they’re just to have fun and de-stress but if you have an idea for a drawing and you really want it to get to its full potential, sitting down and forcing yourself to do more than one sketch can be really great! It doesn’t have to be good at all, just enough for you to know what it is supposed to be.

Often when I come up with an idea I’m excited about I already have a vision for how I want to do it but making myself brainstorm other ways I could draw the same idea and forcing myself to make them noticeably different has helped me come up with some of my proudest works! You are deliberately considering all options for how you can execute the same thing and realizing ways you could do it that you hadn’t initially thought of. In my experience by doing this I realize that the first idea I thought of isn’t always the best possible one or I merge it with another one and therefore end up making it better. (This can also be applied to other creative processes)

Another good thing about it though, is it helps focus on just the composition. Again, there’s a lot of things that go into making an art piece so isolating just the composition helps you figure out a plan and checking to see that it looks good before you spend hours and hours on it. It’s as if you were to build a house and spend days of work and loads of money on making it beautiful but it isn’t structurally sound and falls apart. You don’t want to spend so much of your time on all the details only to realize it just doesn’t feel right all because the composition itself is off.

3: Remember to have fun and don’t be discouraged!

-> I know it’s something nearly everyone says and at first I kind of always ignored it because it felt like it was something people just added to be nice but it is just as important as anything else. Art takes so much time, even just doing a single piece— let alone time to keep building up your skills over time. We don’t have unlimited time, and what you choose to spend your time on matters. Honing your craft and even wanting tips to help you improve means you care. The reason why is one of the most important things of all, don’t lose sight of that. Whether it’s to have fun, to decompress, to express yourself, to depict something you care about— whatever it may be: remember that and don’t beat yourself up or stress yourself out if you aren’t where you want to be or stressing yourself out to meet certain expectations. It really does impact both your art and your learning process whether you’re having a good time or not.

A few last quick tips:

- Don’t be afraid to start over or completely redo something that isn’t working!

- When drawing from reference, trust what you see and not what you know! Drawing what your eyes are telling you is there instead of what your brain thinks should be there will usually always give you better results.

- Step back from/Zoom out of a piece regularly! It also helps to squint your eyes.

- It’s great to make a folder of pieces/artists/pictures that inspire you!

- When studying other people’s art, be aware that they can also make mistakes so that you don’t repeat those.

- You don’t have to take every tip/rule by heart, as long as you understand why they’re there, you can also deliberately choose to go against it if it enhances what you want to do with your piece. Most rules artists teach can be broken, just make sure it’s a deliberate choice to not do those things and why you’re choosing to do that instead of just not knowing about it!

Hopefully these are helpful! I have way more but this is already long enough as is. I wish you the best! <3

[stormio2407]

Ello! ʕ⁠っ⁠•⁠ᴥ⁠•⁠ʔ⁠っ♥️ Im secretly a big fan of your art work and was wondering if you'll do a tutorial on how you make your art work, I love them all very much 💞

Oh, thank you. 🙇🙇 I’m so glad to hear that! And sure, I can make a tutorial real quick. :))

1.) Before I start doing any art, I do this to my canvas. Having a solid fill layer on color burn with low opacity gives a nice outline effect on your pen. As someone who sucks at putting lineweight at the right spots this is a life saver (or if you want to make your linework better, that works too.lol) All color bases and renderings stay above the lineart layer on multiply (I also use clipping mask a lot for rendering.)

2.) I give myself some time to research for poses on Pinterest. If I can’t find anything, I use Magic Poser on my iPad to make all of the poses.

This is a link for the web version.

Here is also the link to the brushes I always use for my drawings.

I’m going to use this old sketch of Ava with his hair short. For this example, I didn’t find a pose. I only referenced the hair style.

Generally I create the basic shapes for everything- the head, wings, body, etc (hair is kinda the exception to this). I don’t go too deep with adding line weight just yet.

3.) I add the base colors in this step. Sometimes I’ll stop here with my drawings, but with my personal art I continue. I tend to explore a lot of color schemes, so I like seeing how other artists approach this. I can take the longest on this cuz I get so indecisive of what I want. 😅😅

Sometimes if I don’t like my colors overall, I’ll add a solid color layer on Hue at around 30-40% opacity to harmonize every color. This layer stays above all other layers.

4.) Step 4 is a bit of a continuation from 3. Here I start adding more detail with the coloring, and putting those FX that I want. If I want to, like in this example, I also extend the drawing to show other elements, if I feel like the composition is a bit empty.

After this, I take a step back from my iPad and come back to my drawing the next day. Sometimes doing that helps me find obvious mistakes that I wouldn’t have noticed immediately.

5.) Sure enough, I saw the the mistakes on his face, so I fixed them. I prefer using the liquify over the transform tool when I need to retouch some things; it prevents the linework or coloring from looking “choppy” or torn apart with its resolution.

Once I got the final touches done, I send it off !

Don’t know if this is actually considered a tutorial but maybe seeing this process step by step can help a bit. 👏 good luck, and have fun with what you create!