#I don't even have a green highlighter here I had to use blue and yellow

[arttsuka]

Quick doodle

[sanctus-ingenium]

I was wondering how achieve such a wonderful textured finish on your pieces? They are wonderful and I love their resemblance to aged photographs and the speckles of colors in the backgrounds. Your art is mesmerizing :)

you can see some of the texture brush sets i use in my #info_asks tag but i have some more (procreate) tips aside from just brushes

also hi i made this whole thing and then stupidly hit ctrl z to erase ONE word and i lost the entire bottom half of the post and all my image descriptions so fuck you tumblr i had to make this twice

to get a faded photo or old digital screen look, consider duplicating the canvas (once all the layers are merged) and using a gaussian blur tool on the new duplicated layer. then set that to low opacity to add a misty sort of look. looks nice in combination with some chromatic abberation and a small bloom effect. then a subtle noise filter on top:

for faded print effects, it's really worthwhile to learn how to use layer masks. you can use a layer mask to non-destructively 'weather' blocks of colour or lineart, without erasing the layer itself. the weathered ink/block print effect here was made using layer masks which means that if i just hide the mask, the lineart becomes solid black again and easy to alter or colour in:

for old paper effects you can just set a paper texture on multiply over the art sure, but you can also combine it with the blur & bloom thing, a really subtle drop shadow and canvas tilt, and highlights to make it look like an aged photograph of a card. this originally had a transparent bg but i'll post it here with a white bg so that the drop shadow is more obvious. the scuffed edges of the card (left) were hand drawn, simple white stucco brush. the bigger patch of scuffed ink (top right) was a texture stamp.

for block print looks you can move the colour layer out of alignment by a few pixels - but only after you're absolutely sure you're done with it, otherwise you'll get something like this -

i forgot to erase out her eye before i moved the red layer so now her eye defeats the 'look' of a misaligned print. the black lineart and red layer were also given the same layer mask treatment as described above to make them look faded or like the ink didn't stick down right to the paper

you can do this with multiple colour layers too. if the colour layers are separated and set to multiply (as in this cmyk example), it'll leave halos and edges around each shape which mimic old comic book print

just to show what you can do WITHOUT any special brushes, here's a piece of one of my mez tarot cards from before i got any extra brushsets at all. for this one, i added a green tint over everything to mimic a sun-bleached or faded print (my actual goal wasn't 'medieval illustration' but actually 'trading card from the 60s that got left on someone's windowsill for decades'). the background texture is the procreate noise brush. the texture under the green lion drawing is the procreate concrete brush (to make it look painted onto a wall). the lettering and lineart is procreate's 6B pencil. but to properly aim for The Look of it being a printed physical object, i also used a perspective blur so that the edges are out of focus, and metallic gold highlights which don't match the lighting of the actual illustration and appear to be catching some other external light. that texture was made from the procreate noise brush

it's pretty simple compared to my later stuff but i still really like the effect

in terms of colours, you need to keep them unified so that they all appear to be acting under the same external light source, like if someone is holding up a torch to a painting then the painting colours will be glazed with firelight even if there's no painted fire. a really easy way to do this is to slap a multiply layer over everything in one shade - grey-yellow for a weathered paper look, or greenish blue for sunbleached photos. this unifies all the colours of the drawing. or you can apply a gradient map at a low opacity so that there's only a subtle change. or just do it by hand - if you want everything to be slightly tinted yellow, just pick the colours you normally would, but move the colour wheel towards yellow to get a yellowfied version of the base colour. easy

it's really important to consider how fading and weathering can affect printed colour. white paper yellows, black fades. you will rarely see pure black or pure white. which means you can use pure black or pure white to add external effects like the white scuff marks on the hierophant card. if the whole drawing is yellowed from age but there's some white somewhere, it's an easy shorthand to show that the scuff mark or whatever was not originally part of the drawing (great way to add some nasty stains lol)

[spilledkaleidoscope]

I really like your DE portraits artstyle! Do you have any tips on how to replicate it?

I THINK I've written about it before, but since I am too lazy to look for it...

There is some variation between how the portraits are done - I tend to refer to the Smoker, Glen, Titus and Trant in terms of style.

I think the most characteristic things about these is

Sketchy lines with bold shadows (think nose, neck, eyes). I usually have a brush that responds to pressure (size of brush) and velocity (faster: more transparent; combined with texture this allows me to add a bit of "crunch" if I want to)

noticable difference in detail between face and the rest of the figure

more painterly, often geometric background

color variation! Make your primary painting brush a flat one that has color jitter enabled. I change the settings around as I draw for more variety. It helps if you have a setup where you can make the tip of the brush rotate with your pen (I've had this since december and its very nice).

This also goes for your palette in general. The DE Portraits tend to use lots of different colors even in things that read as grey or white. For example, if you look at the Hanged Man Portrait, his grey skin is actually desaturated purple, yellow, green and blue. There is little to no mixing going on here, so what I do is make a little mixing palette and then just eyedropper colors from there. ALSO don't be afraid of saturated colors and color contrasts! Liz' portrait is done a bit differently than a bunch of others, but the green highlights are notable.

Finish up by coloring some of your lineart or painting over it in places to make it more lively. I feel like the less put together a character is, the more abstract the portrait becomes (I'm thinking of Idiot Doom Spiral or Cuno's Father) (Harry is the exception I guess) (Unless you are like me and refused to look into the mirror LOL)

Hope this is helpful! I learned this by doing some studies, including the Disco Sapphic portraits that are rather slight variations of existing portraits.

buuuut I feel like my "freehand" portraits have become competent too:

[kahvilahuhut]

work at night

see the whole drawing here

summary: Someone might have ended up too deep in thought while doing work stuff *checks notes* at night 🙄 In fact, so deep that its wife ended up waking up and wondering where it is.

a little scene idea i've had for cynosure for a while hehe <3 will obviously change a bit once i actually get to it, but, well, here's version one i guess? definitely not written at night noooo why are you looking at me like that

"What's up?"

Tobias turned around at the sudden voice and noticed Klara leaning on the doorway. "I- uh-", it looked around, as if collecting its thoughts to formulate a proper answer.

"Is that my wool shirt?"

"Um. Yes. It's the first thing I found on the floor. It was dark and I didn't feel like switching the lights on to look for something else. Very comfy, especially now that the heating is glitching...again,"it replied, smiling, "Though the best part is that it smells like you."

"Well, it..." Klara's voice was closer this time, her hands gently touching it's shoulders, "...looks good on you..."

"Oh, stop it," it chuckled and leaned its head to kiss her fingers.

"Someone doesn't like compliments..."

"Mmh, or do I... As for the first question, well... I woke up. Realized I forgot my meds. Went here to take them," it started listing its steps, folding a finger on its hand on each step, "And then I- um. I got some kind of an idea, I think? Erin asked me to look at a specific part of the code, which she doesn't remember writing. No one does. So I wanted to see and take a look myself. Then I decided to just go look at the whole thing and. Um." It shrugged with a smile on its face. "I guess... Here I am?"

"Honey, that's- Do you know what time is it?"

Tobias froze for a moment, then glanced at the clock screen on the microwave.

3:37 am.

"Oh, fuck," it muttered.

"Thought so," Klara chuckled and gently wrapped her arms around it while softly kissing the top of it's head. "Aren't you tired, honey?"

"Maybe a little? I swear I didn't notice, I- Fuck, I forgot to switch the clock feature back on," it muttered and brought up the settings panel, "Switched it off at work because it felt like time was going soooo slow during the meeting, it felt a bit annoying. I know that sounds a bit childish, but, well..."

"No, I think that's a fun decision. As long as it makes you feel better..." she murmured in its ear and kissed its neck softly. "Meetings are like that sometimes... Nights are the opposite. You feel like it's taking very little time but in reality time flies so fast..."

It nodded, leaning its head somewhat lazily, smiling as Klara's lips moved down to its shoulder. "But, um, thing is, I found something, and didn't want to leave it for tomorrow. What if I forget about it or miss some specific thought I had tonight if I won't write it down, things like that," Tobias said quietly, gesturing at the hologram, "Really couldn't get up or anything."

"Please tell me you haven't been sitting on a kitchen counter looking through some work data for hours. During night."

"I won't tell. But, well..."

"God, Tobias, I can't even explain with words what I'm thinking right now."

"Mm... Well, um, mind if I finish going through this document? It's the last one, I promise."

"You can't be serious..." she sighed and leaned her head on its shoulder, "Fine. But I'm staying here."

"Ooh, won't hear me objecting or anything."

It scrolled through the file to find the part it was reading before being interrupted, and quickly typed a small note near the paragraph before it continued reading.

"Why do you use a grey highlighter?" Klara murmured.

"Um. I don't know, really. I usually pick whichever color looks nice," it opened the highlighter settings, "Really love using this warm yellow tone, you know, like dandelions. Or this light orange one. Or this one, reminds me of sand or something. Or the sky blue...And this fun matcha green."

"You're adorable..."

"Trying my best..." it said while adding another note, and smiled as she kissed its cheek.

"You know, looking at you doing all this makes me think if I should get the hologram thing too... It's pretty fun, watching you wave your hands around and typing on some not existing keyboard."

"Mmh... do you want the actual device or do you want to watch my hands?"

"Take a guess."

"It gets warm sometimes. A bit weird feeling, you know? Maybe I should've bought the newer model. But it's kinda nice."

"Honey, I meant-"

It stopped reading mid-paragraph and reached with its left hand to gently stroke Klara's cheek. "I know what you meant, dear, I'm just joking," it turned its head a little for a moment and smiled at her, before turning back to the hologram. After a moment of reading a few more paragraphs, it sighed and said, "I'm sorry, Klara, I know it's weird for me to care so much about some work stuff. Man, even saying it out loud feels odd, you know? But I just want to finish this thing, because someone else would have ended up doing this tomorrow. Along with other tasks as well. And, um... I don't know. I thought I should do it myself?"

"Oh, sunshine," she murmured against its shoulder, "You know you should put yourself first, sometimes, right?"

"Mmhmm... but why shouldn't I if I can and want to do it?"

Klara moved a little to kiss its cheek, "You're a good person. Maybe a bit too good. Definitely better than what this project deserves."

Tobias half smirked and half bit its lower lip, thinking about the last sentence, before continuing to read the last paragraph. It felt Klara's hands slowly move off its body, giving its shoulder a pat before she moved next to the sink. Half concentrated on the text, other half listening to the sound of water filling an empty glass, it highlighted a few words and tapped its wrist to close the interface.

It jumped down off the kitchen counter, only to go sit on its other side, facing Klara.

"Honey? You mentioned going to take meds, didn't you?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Did you take them?"

"Uhhh... um," it sat quietl, trying to remember what it was doing before. After a moment, it answered, "I don't remember," with the last word turning into a yawn.

Klara shook her head and picked up something near the sink. Turning around to face it, she gently handed it two pills and kissed its forehead. "You know, you should get one of those little pill boxes to put them near the bed."

Tobias chuckled and swallowed both pills, quietly refusing the glass of water. "Please, they won't all fit in there."

"I'll get you three of them tomorrow."

"Klara, please, don't be ridiculous," it murmured and leaned towards her, "The packages are somewhat visible here in the kitchen. Most of them. And besides, we don't always sleep on the bed anyway."

She cupped its face and smiled. "Fine, if you say so," she said, though Tobias could see that she was still going to go buy them. As it leaned into her right hand, while smiling as she gently stroked its cheek with her left thumb, Klara continued, "You sure you're okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, um, stress-wise, for example? It's been a while since you've had sleep problems this bad."

It looked at her, getting lost in own thoughts again for a moment, before realizing that it had lost control of its face, that was now showing a small frown. "I'll be fine, don't worry, honey," it smiled and gently kissed her hand, "You know I'll tell you if I'm not doing well."

"You better," she said, then added, "Please."

"I will."

"Mmh," Klara sighed and stroked its hair. "Now, how about we finally go back to sleep?"

"Oh, I thought you'd never ask."

[iffeelscouldkill]

Spray-Painted Spiders (A PunkFlower ficlet)

A/N: In my day job, I work not far from the Leake Street tunnel, a tunnel in London's Southbank totally covered in amazing graffiti. One day, I was walking through and couldn't help but imagine how Miles might react to the place, and this little fic started to write itself in my head...

Originally I was going to have Gwen and Pav join them, but I decided to keep it simple, just Miles and Hobie, and then it turned PunkFlower-ish ;) How to impress your artistic, graffiti-loving crush, by Hobie Brown: bring him to the Leake Street tunnel :D

Pics of the real tunnel after the fic!

---

Miles' whistle echoed around the walls of the tunnel, every inch of them covered in colourfully-painted portraits and landscapes and swirling abstract patterns.

"So people paint... this whole tunnel?" he asked, gaping at their surroundings. "Don't the cops stop them?"

Hobie shrugged fluidly. The two of them were in casual clothing, spider suits tucked away underneath, and the dim light illuminated the smirk on Hobie's face. "They try," he said. "But we're persistent. Besides, they don't like to come down here too much. It's considered an "unsavoury" area."

Miles was busy leaning back to marvel at the ceiling, which was covered in an intricate black and white design. "Woah, how did they get up there?"

The longer his eyes travelled over it, the more the geometric design started to resemble something... familiar. Something like a series of spiralling, interlocking spider webs. "Did you...?"

Hobie's smirk was decidedly wolfish now. Miles was glad that the dark concealed his pink cheeks. "It could use some flair, I think," he said. He unslung the backpack on his shoulder and took out a can of red spray paint, which he presented to Miles with a flourish. "You up for it?"

Miles reached out to accept the spray can, and their fingers brushed. He answered Hobie's grin with his own. "Yeah, man."

Under cover of darkness, masks pulled down to cover their faces, the two Spiders leapt lightly up the walls and clung to the ceiling. Miles stared at the black and white canvas that stretched out below him. It wasn't often that he built on someone else's work, but this design... Colour leapt into his mind's eye, weaving in and out of the spaces between the webs. He could see it so easily. Mesmerised, and not even aware of Hobie watching him, Miles shook the paint can and got to work.

Hours later, the faint glow of sunrise was creeping into the mouth of the tunnel as Miles and Hobie beheld their completed masterpiece. The webs seemed to glow, highlighted with bright shades of neon green and yellow, while in and around the strands crawled spiders in vivid blue and red. Down the walls, spiders crawled and hid in the crevices of the other artists' work, even scuttling across the floor.

Miles eyed his last strokes critically, adding some pale blue highlights to a hanging spider. It was Hobie's turn to give a low whistle, and Miles looked over to see him nodding slowly in approval.

"It looks good. It looks really good."

Miles thrilled inside, even as he tried his best to play it cool. "Not bad, right?"

He could no longer see Hobie's face beneath the mask, but there was a smile in the older Spider's voice as he answered, "Not bad at all."

Miles took a breath to say something more - and then a shout cut through the air.

"HEY!"

The two half-turned, muscles coiled to spring at the first sign of danger. A police officer stood at the entrance to the tunnel, mouth hanging open. "What the hell..."

Hobie reached out a hand, and Miles took it without a second thought. "Let's Scapa Flow," he said in an undertone, and though Miles had no idea what that meant, he got the message. He squeezed back, and Hobie pulled him along as they sprinted into the dark of the tunnel.

Footsteps sounded and a whistle blew, but the officer was no match for the two Spiders. As soon as they got far enough into the tunnel that they'd be hidden from view, Hobie fired a web and leapt into the air, and Miles followed him. Soon, they were out and swinging through the silvery grey London dawn.

There was no-one around to notice the two figures that alighted on top of the stationary Ferris wheel overlooking the river. Miles was panting a tiny bit from the sudden chase, and with a glance at Hobie, he raised his mask. Hobie followed suit a second later.

"So, d'you like it, then?" Hobie asked.

"Like it? It's amazing. Your world is amazing," Miles couldn't help but enthuse. Playing it cool had kind of gone out the window, but he was too suffused with adrenaline and the thrill of the moment to care. He saw Hobie smile, genuinely pleased.

"You know you can come here any time," Hobie said.

"You mean... like Gwen comes here any time?" Miles couldn't help cautiously checking. Hobie glanced over and raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe a bit different to that," he said. Miles looked at Hobie's profile, wondering if it was the pink glow of sunrise touching his face or something else. He thought he knew what Hobie meant, but he wasn't sure how to be sure. Looking back across the water, Miles was searching for the right words when he felt soft lips press against his cheek.

He turned, surprised, and Hobie drew back a tiny bit, but still so close, his dark eyes searching Miles' features. "Too much?" he checked.

Miles smiled, knowing that he didn't need to find the right words after all. "Just right," he said, and leaned in to kiss Hobie on the mouth.

---

A/N: Scapa Flow = go (Cockney Rhyming slang)

In the real Leake Street tunnel, graffiti is actually legal, and it's quite a tourist hotspot, but since this is Hobie's world I decided to make it a more underground, subversive spot. But I kept the London Eye so that they could have a romantic moment afterwards on top of the Ferris wheel ;)

The tunnel really does have artwork on the ceiling - probably not painted by Spider-people, but who knows :D Here are some photos from my recent visit (the artwork changes every time):

[alienssstufff]

i luv ur dr art recently @_@ if you don't mind me askin who are ur fav dr characters design wise (not personality/story?)

LOVE when people ask me stuff like this yes - i'd gladly <3

Only included DR, SDR2, NDRV3 - we'd be here forever if it was the entire franchise. Also only accounting for their ingame default outfits

The placements on each tier is deliberate, the closer the character is to the top of that tier, the higher they are. I judge them by: >Prominence of the Talent, its practicality >Relevance to the character's identity/personality >Colour and aesthetics :]

[ramblings undercut]

[S-TIERS]

Like Gundham for example is an S-Tier design as it ticks all above boxes whilst still in a school uniform. The Four Dark Devas are important to the design, they go with him everywhere and the 5 of them are a UNIT which shows his strong connection with animals. I love the bandages and the eye-scar as it has a double meaning that indicates yes he works with animals (they can be rowdy), but as a character Gundham builds onto this detail using these scars to create this dark angsty facade. Aesthetic-wise by his hair he has a unique character silhouette, and I like how his purple is made the focal point by the blacks and whites of his uniform... both reinforcing the villain-facade and highlighting the importance of the Four Dark Devas.

Similar reasonings for the other Top 2 of Souda and Miu this time toppled with the strong yellows and pinks in their design. It's eye-catching and easily conveys what their talent is. (I really wish they kept Miu's promo-art backpack into her regular sprites, imagine her emoting with 4 arms isn't that awesome >:] )

Honorable mention to Impostor (Twogami) as well. While the regular Togami design is... mid. I really appreciate how contrasting Impostor's colours and accessories are down to the necktie and poses! Like yes they are impersonating Togami, but their values and personality as a person are not the same. The deception of Togami's dark clothing vs honest white suit of the Impostor's. Impostor fucking CLEARS regular togami any day on all accounts I will die on that hill.

[GOOD CHARACTER DESIGN]

A lot of the talent indications on this tier are more subtle in compare to S-tier but they get the job done and they do it in a pleasing way (I like the colour palettes on Chiaki, Mikan and Ibuki for example). Like I loveeee Sonia's uniform especially for it's simplicity. And yet the design still alludes to the Princess talent by elegance in the bow, the brooch, her crowned braid and how the shape of her skirt resembles that of a puffy princess gown. I also think the reds in the design like Snow White are a cute touch!

To me, Sonia should be the standard in what a Danganronpa design SHOULD be in accordance to detail.

[BAD CHARACTER DESIGN]

[ie the Green and Blue tiers] Reasoning why I put them here mainly because of wasted potential, either too basic (in a sense it doesn't tell much about that character) or not practical in any way for their talent... I HATE Ryoma's stripe leggings ik he went to prison but the execution of the concept looks awful.

And I hate Akane's and Sakura's outfits particularly cuz you KNOW why they made those skirts so short and I hate that. We could have gotten awesome gymnast of martial artist outfits but no......

I added Kiibo in that bottom tier because structurally even as a robot he is a visual nightmare if you're an artist trying to draw him. Especially when most of his suit is different shades of black and complicated chest cavity. And I despise the way that it looks like these robo-plates are attached on top of what looks like fabric long sleeves and pants as if the designer was too scared to fully commit to him being a robot. He is NOT 3D-optimised and he is NOT animator-friendly I'd throw up if I ever had to deal with him.

[the-mother-of-lions]

for anonymous

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

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

This got super long i'm sorry

Basic Coloring

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

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

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

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

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

Black and White

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

Simple Recoloring

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

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

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

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

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

Adding Gradients

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

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

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

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

Hope this was helpful in some way anon!

[thesiblingsoftheblackandwhite]

A doll tumbles off a shelf as a song begins to play from nowhere. “ Disappointment takes us by surprise…Even though by now I think we should have realized, everyone is dumb.” The small toy, a strange combination of a pink princess animal and a pegasus, begins to walk on its plush legs towards the quintet of brothers. The la’s and dumbs play with each step.“There must be something in the corn flakes” As the song plays its eyes blink, and it reaches up into the air with its tiny fingerless hands. 

She grew, her fluffy plush arms lengthening. “Making it hard for us to think straight,” Hands came through the material and they transformed into sleeves. “Aaaahh” The colors go from soft pink to a sparkling silver with neon pink embroidery forming spirals along the sleeves, and soon a vibrant blue and highlighter yellow sets of thread join the pink. 

“I just wanna go from here!” Her eyes blink to the beat and transform with her face into human eyes that are a little too big, and a little too cartoonish to be normal. “Close my eyes and disappear”. They have heart pupils set against green eyes.

The legs flexed and narrowed and combined together into 2 stocky human legs, and bright red platform boots with green laces replaced her fabric hooves. They had some sort of magic shimmer to them as she tapped her feet to the song. “I just wanna be the comic relief,” She threw her arms in performed exasperation, mouthing along to the words and beginning to dance. “Making jokes, not taking any responsibilities!”

Her cute tail exploded into confetti which circled her body like a magical girl transformation. “It's waking up inside of the dream.” Once it rose to circle her head her new outfit was fully revealed, a glittery silver and rosy red party dress, completely with a ridiculously oversized bow on the back, more embroidered spirals trailing across her body, and lots of glitter.  Don't know what to believe-” She posed for the “woo!” And grinned. “Maybe that's why…”

“Disappointment takes us by surprise,” She met each of their eyes as she danced. “Even though by now I think we should have realized…”

Everyone is dumb- dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb…” 

The new being leaped into air, flipped twice, and landed inches from Blinky’s face, sending him sprawling backwards. The song faded into quiet background noise, but it wasn’t gone. Her hair was ginger and tied into cartoony heart shaped buns with purple ribbons. “I’m back! Your Mother says hello, and I say it’s been too long!” Her voice was clearly…Shadow’s??? She twirled around and revealed a childish plastic wand. “Abra Kadabra and Gobbledygook! I give you all a freebie off the book!” 

A flash of light shot out of the toy wand and their couch burst into a much larger and more comfortable pullout couch bed, complete with blankets. “You’re welcome! I can’t stay long but I wanted to give you something, since our connection to you has been interrupted so rudely by the asshole up there. Hopefully the rest of us can reunite! You can call me Shiney now.” 

The five stare at the figure, huddled together at some point during the transformation out of caution. Wiggog bares his teeth threateningly, wrapping Karaxis up protectively. He frantically tries to help Blinky up after he stumbles back with a confused expression. Pokotho and Nibblenephim have backed away together, clearly as frightened as the rest of their brothers. Nibbly audibly growls in an attempt to sound like an animal.

She poses as the song ends and says things. But they’re much too focused on the insanity that just happened to listen.

When the toy wand transforms the house’s old couch into a pullout, they marginally relax, but it’s not enough. The figure’s voice is oddly familiar, but they can’t think about that through their defensive positions.

Blinky shields his eyes, discomforted at the bright colors that contrast sharply against the dull reds and browns of the house. He squints, trying to piece together where this person came from. Tinky, for his part, is staring through his brother’s arms with a mixture of confusion, a twinge of fear, and awe. The bright colors attract him, but he can’t bring himself to move, either. She’s saying things about his father and…mother? He can’t really get it. She turned their couch into a bigger one, that looked a lot more comfortable, so he guessed she was nice…

Who the fuck are you?!?

[favvn]

Decided to make my own post about it rather than derail someone else's, but the thing about the Vulcan/Romulan make-up (if not the make-up of Star Trek: The Original Series in general, although I know it has been discussed to death) is twofold, in my opinion, regardless of the fun headcanons surrounding it all.

1. The production:

Spock's make-up changes as the series goes on. You can see it happen chronologically if you watch the episodes by the production order rather than the air date order. The Corbomite Maneuver was one of the earliest episodes to be produced outside of the two pilot episodes, so Spock's make-up is at its heaviest. This was the initial make-up that got the green-light for production of the actual series.

His brows are thinner and neater and his bangs are evenly cut. He's wearing blush here. His face has a slight sheen to it, either on purpose or because stage lights are notoriously hot and the idea that Vulcans don't sweat had not happened yet. I hesitate to say that he is wearing lipstick here because a lot of people have a naturally darker pigmentation to their lips. Leonard Nimoy has a pinker hue to his lips compared to William Shatner whose lips are closer to the tone of his face.

Later episodes will go without the blush and some give Spock more of a yellow tone as the make-up artists figured out what worked best both for the screen and in terms of the time it took to apply. Leonard Nimoy had to arrive to set at least 2 hours earlier than the Kelley and Shatner just for the Vulcan ears and brows:

The second stage was the creation of Spock’s characteristic Vulcan eyebrows. This required Phillips to shave the outside halves of Nimoy’s actual eyebrows during each makeup session. Phillips filled in the shape of the new eyebrows with an eyebrow pencil, then painted over those lines with spirit gum. The spirit gum was used to attach short lengths of yak belly hair, which Phillips cut from long stands, blending the small tufts into what remained of Nimoy’s own eyebrows. The final stage of the process involved applying base makeup and adding shading to ensure that shadow contours would be seen even under the bright lights of the shooting stage. (source) Given what else the article reveals about Vulcan/Romulan make-up, no wonder both were so under-utilized in the series. It is a time-consuming and painful process and Star Trek ran on a tight schedule. (And Nimoy's salary should've matched Shatner's from the start but that's not how it worked back in the day. Nimoy was unknown and a risk. Shatner was known and an investment.)

To signal an alien species in both color and black and white televisions, Spock was given a yellow hue to offset him. Remember, Star Trek was produced in color but not everyone sprung for the more expensive TV sets. Red make-up, as was the original plan, would make his skin tone render as dark as Uhura if not darker on black and white televisions, so that idea was ruled out, but yellow make-up was a safe in-between, hence Spock's skin tone in the second pilot episode.

On the left: Spock in Where No Man Has Gone Before, the second pilot episode before the series finally got the green-light. On the right: Spock in the original pilot episode The Cage.

In Where No Man Has Gone Before, his skin tone is far more yellow and his brows are bushier. There's no eye-shadow to be had, possibly because his eyebrows are thick enough to easily attract attention and create definition on the face. Again, the discrepancies are a result of trial and error and this appearance of Spock's matches how he appeared in the original pilot filmed in 1964, right down to the jagged bangs. The biggest change is his overall skin tone appears yellow.

The eye-shadow used in the series was done to create shadow or highlight on the face and especially to bring attention to the angular brow, hence why it is all done in neutral shades and not the color blue. T'Pring, T'Pau, and the Romulan Commander all wear silver-to-white shades. The men, be they an unnamed Romulan soldier, the Romulan centurion played by Mark Lenard who would later play Sarek, Kirk disguised as a Romulan, and Spock all wear a darker grey shade of eye-shadow. This means if it appears blue, it is due to the colored lighting used within the series (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, etc. take your pick, the lighting crew had fun. It is far easier and cheaper to create an atmosphere by colored lights on a plain, white backdrop than to pay for paint and painters to create a matte) and/or the brain connecting the shades when looking at the science/medical blue of Starfleet uniforms.

Yes, one could argue this picture is over-exposed in terms of flash (it's certainly catching the sheen of the pancake base make-up) but check out that pigment on the brush. It is grey not blue because again things had to be seen as intended on both color and black and white television. A grey shade yields more consistency than a blue, and it does its intended job: to create shadow and the illusion of depth, contour. This make-up was intended to be seen but not for its color. (Could you imagine what Star Trek's make-up would've looked like had the make-up artists had full reign to use the whole palette of colors? [Image of a beautiful, futuristic city against an unpolluted and pristine landscape here])

But wait, what about the other Vulcan men?

It is subtle, especially compared to the make-up used for Lenard's character in Balance of Terror, but there is a darker pigmentation under Sarek's brows compared to Stonn. Stonn, frankly, might be the outlier for all of this, yet it is worth noting that Sarek's eye-shadow is easily missed until the operation scene in Journey to Babel. In other words, either Stonn refrains from make-up (compared to all other named Vulcans we meet in the series) or it is so subtle one cannot see it until another angle is found. (Or it was better applied in a new take.)

But wait! There's more! Surak himself, the Vulcan who inadvertently led to the Vulcan-Romulan split, wears eye-shadow!

Live long and in style~

One could argue that Surak doesn't count as this isn't the real Surak but Spock's idea of him. Still, envisioning Surak with make-up rather than without is a choice that exists in the realm of Star Tek's production and its universe. It follows the production notes for how make-up is to be applied to Vulcan characters and falls in line with the pattern that continues to be established: both Vulcans and Romulans--regardless of gender--wear eye-shadow. (Yes these two points reinforce each other. What do you mean it's circular reasoning?)

The main point to keep in mind when discussing the production, however, is that in the 1960s, television was not broadcast in high-definition, so the fine details captured on film would be missed when aired. Television screens were also smaller and rounded and used a Catgode-ray tube to display the images, which would further alter the picture quality. If I may put it another way: 360p and 480p used to be what YouTube offered videos in as the highest quality. At the time, when that's what you're only able to see on television and home media like VHS and DVD, it looks as clear as ever. These days it looks terrible because 720p (if not 1080p) is the new standard and televisions are now flat-screened LCDs or OLEDs rather than the rounded CRT. On top of this, while color TV was growing more and more in popularity due to the number of shows produced in color, consumers were reportedly still not buying color TVs owing to their cost. A black and white TV set means a further loss of detail owing to how everything must be rendered in monochrome and how similar shades are easily confused.

In other words, we see the individual details of the make-up now thanks to technological advancements, but back then home audiences would not see it as explicit make-up for fashion and self-expression and instead see it as just another part of the wardrobe and costuming, hence why the Aggressive Kirk from The Enemy Within wears obvious mascara and eyeliner in addition to a shiny and sweaty face. It is an immediate visual signal that this Kirk is Different.

2. The 23rd century and alien societies

This is the part that goes into headcanon territory. If one accepts make-up as a natural part of the world in Star Trek rather than something from the production, then more Vulcans and Romulans are seen to wear make-up than not. Again, this would mean that Spock is not the outlier as a male Vulcan wearing make-up, but that Stonn may very well be the outlier for not wearing it.

Perhaps the point to be made here is that, again, if one accepts make-up as something that exists within the world of Star Trek, Star Trek envisions societies that have moved past our limiting gender roles and expectations. It is simply not a question of women versus men wearing make-up or someone looking towards a past as justification for forgoing social norms. Make-up in Star Trek simply exists as a neutral element, more neutral than clothing given the sharp gender divide of the Starfleet minidress. (Again, this is aided by it being a part of the production and the way to ensure an actor does not appear featureless under the studio lights, but hey, what serendipity.)

Kirk's room is shown to have what one assumes is a set of make-up on the shelf under his mirror. This was first seen in the first season's The Enemy Within when the Aggressive Kirk used some concealer to cover the scratches he got from Yeoman Rand, but they brought it back for season two's Journey to Babel as a part of his room once more. Does this mean Starfleet issues make-up to its people, regardless of gender or does Kirk enjoy wearing make-up from time to time? (Of course, the other thing is these boxes could hold anything such as a razor or a toothbrush.)

Even Yeoman Rand's room has something else entirely below her mirror:

Instead of the packages of assumed make-up, she has bottles on her shelf, presumably of perfume and oils if not hair products. (That beehive takes work.)

Granted, a lot of Kirk's make-up is subtle compared to Spock's, but he does at least wear mascara and dons eye-shadow for formal events such as a court appearance. (The first image is the Gentle Kirk from The Enemy Within. The second image is Kirk from Court Martial. The last image is Kirk from The Enterprise Incident.)

Kirk is not the only human male seen wearing make-up. Dr. McCoy has been seen wearing both winged eyeliner (The Menagerie Part I) and eye-shadow throughout the series, in addition to Commodore Stone (Court Martial) and Lieutenant Sulu (The City on the Edge of Forever, although given he was unconscious perhaps this doesn't count, yet what a choice: put make-up on a sleeping man lol).

Perhaps most importantly, out of all of this is my point: what if we don't have to apply our current human gender roles to alien societies, especially within the unknowns of the 23rd century, when even human men are wearing makeup on the daily and no one bats an eye about it? What if we accept these unspoken details of Star Trek as the indications of a more tolerant and open-minded society in the future? If we are to ever move past the gender binary and the limits it creates, we have to stop bringing it into the future with us. Rather than envisioning a future beyond gender roles and gender binaries, a lot of headcanons in this fandom keep on putting the 23rd century into that limiting box that people have been trying to escape for centuries. If we're gonna move past binaries, we've got to stop pulling a mindset that makes make-up on women normal and extraordinary when it is on men because to do so is to assign a value to it, even if it is only a matter of expected vs unexpected. That errs too closely to the idea of natural vs unnatural and right vs wrong. Are we boldly going or not?

[moxidi-fanarts-and-sketches]

Pumpkin picking

Sooo this is the fic ive been working on!! It's a silly lil huntlow/hexsquad fic that takes place the day before TTT!! Also it's my first fic posted here, so don't be too harsh pls

---------------------------------------------------

"So, are we there yet?"

"Hunter, this is your third time asking", Amity sighed. "However, are we there yet?"

"Yeah, it's right over this hill!" Luz said. "But i wanna do a dramatic reveal, so you have to climb up the hill first, and i'll show you and you all will gasp!"

"Whatever makes you happy", Amity said. She hasn't seen Luz smiling much in the past couple of weeks, but this brought her so much joy, so Amity didn't mind some theatrics.

Luz stood on the top of the hill, covering most of the field beside it with her arms and body. She was wearing a red shirt with some bats, a black denim jacket, a pair of black shorts, her usual white boots and unmatched striped socks. It was pretty warm for Gracefield that autumn, so she took advantage of that. Luz watched her friends line up in front of her and took a good look at them - they all decide to wear halloweeny outfits for the ocasion.

Amity was wearing and orange turtleneck, a black skirt with buttons and black heeless shoes. She tucked her hair back with a headband, Sabrina Spellman-style, and looked determined(and extremely beautiful). Gus stood next to her, and he was practically shaking with excitement. He dressed up in an orange sweatshirt with a pumpkin face drawn on it, a pair of black jeans and black converse shoes. Hunter slightly calmed Gus by putting his hand on his shoulder. Hunter himself was wearing an orange shirt with another white long-sleeved shirt under it, light blue jeans and a pair of red crocks, which looked horrendous, but Luz was happy that Hunter was discovering his fashion sence(even if it's awful). Willow, who was standing beside him, was rocking a long black dress with many layers. She tied her hair into a small ponytail, and, for some reason, her footwear of choice was a pair of yellow rubber boots. Luz perfectly knew the energy that was sparking between Willow and Hunter - these two, for sure, wanted to hold hands, but couldn't bring themselves to do it. Vee was absent - she said something about dishes to wash, but Luz was pretty sure it was her strange secret fear of pumpkins.

"A-a-and, you can look!", Luz put her hands down, and the gang saw a field of pumpkins.

"This is not as exciting as i expected..." Hunter said.

"This is just as exciting as i expected!", Gus yelled.

"Okay, first we need to split! I'm going with Amity and Gus," Luz said with a sly smile. "And Hunter is going with Willow! Okaythatsitthelastonetogettothefieldisaloser!"

After blurting it out, she grabbed Amity's and Gus' hands and ran down the hill. Hunter and Willow rushed after them. They gave up almost immediately and decided to walk slowly and take their time.

The first minutes alone with Willow were awkward. Her eyes were so green, full of confusion and wonder. She had a beautiful smile on her face. All the orange around them highlighted her black dress. All Hunter could think about is how much he wanted to hold her hand. And all he did was trying to stare at pumpkins, not at her.

But then she said:

"Look, this pumpkin looks exactly like our abomination teacher did after we beat their team at flyer derby!"

That just made Hunter burst out laughing and broke the tension.

"Can we not choose this one then? That guy creeped me out. Maybe we should take that one that looks like a coffee cup."

"A cup of pumpkin spice latte!"

"Exactly!"

"I love pumpkin spice," Willow said, hiding her eyes away. "Maybe we should get some someday. Like, um, just the two of us..."

Hunter knew what that meant - Luz watched all those crappy romcoms all the time, and when one character wanted to date another character, this is exactly what they said. This meant a lot.

Willow wanted to date him.

Willow wanted to date him!

This thought filled Hunter's entire mind and heart. His face was so red he was sure it's actually on fire. Panic overtook him, and the best he could do is say:

"Yea...um...i need to go to...wash my flowers and...sorry..."

He walked away, slowly at first, but then just started running.

What was he running from? A girl he really, really likes liked him back... Maybe that actually was the reason. No one's ever looked at him like Willow. No one talked to him like her - like she knew everything about him, and accepted all of him. And that novelty was scary, even though Hunter knew that-

He tripped and fell on his face. Great. Absolutely what he needed right now.

"Oh my titan, dude, you found the best one!"

It was Gus' voice. Hunter turned around and saw Luz, Amity and Gus. The latter was holding the pumpkin Hunter tripped on.

"I totally agree!" Amity said. "It's big, and tough, and just the right color!"

Willow reached the group. "Does anyone want to ask Hunter if he's okay, guys?"

"I'm fine", Hunter replied. He looked at Willow, who was so worried about him, and still cared deeply about him even after he ran from her, and added: "And yes. I'd love to go with you very much."

"Go...Where?" Luz said, confused.

"It's a long story," Hunter said. He stood up. "Let's grap this pumpkin and head home."

Him and Willow were holding hands the entire trip back.

[diezmil10000]

Hi hi, hope you're doing well!! Wanted to ask if you could explain how you pick colours! They're always so appealing to look at... (If you could also explain how you pick blush colours it'd be great! I never manage to pick good ones, no matter how hard I try :'))

hi anon, i'm doing fine!! it's summer right now where i live and that's healing all my problems (⁠◡⁠ ⁠ω⁠ ⁠◡⁠)

i have recorded the process of some of my drawings and everything is posted in my youtube channel (in twitter too), so i'll drop the link here and try my best to explain the coloring part to you. the short answer is that none of the colors you see in my drawings are similar to those i initially picked.

i try to keep my lineart loose but i pay attention to the outlines so i can quickly select the outer parts, invert the selection and fill it with the bucket tool. my base colors are all 100% opaque and i don't use any fancy brushes here.

as to how i pick colors, i never use the color picker tool, i eyeball everything. that's important for me because i tend to make all of them warmer: the greens are dark yellows, the pinks are light reds, and everything that's close to blue is very desaturated. i do this even for drawings that turn out much different later, unless i have a very specific vibe in mind from the beginning. i also never use pure whites for anything, and if something is black i make it part of the lineart.

then i always color my lineart!! there's no trick to that, the layer is in normal mode and i just paint it with a darker color than what's below it. i usually add the shadows and highlights at this stage of the drawing too. you're going to kill me for this but shade with gray set in color burn or linear burn (never multiply). i just don't want to think about color variety at this stage because it makes things more difficult for later. sometimes i add textures and some basic color correction here (curves, color balance, layers set in overlay, etc.) but i mostly leave that for the next part.

as to how i choose blush colors, i usually pick the base color and move it towards the saturated end of the color wheel, and a bit more pink. sometimes i add a multiply layer and airbrush hot red over the base colors at low opacity. coloring the lineart with hot colors surrounding the blush areas helps a lot too :)

i also almost always duplicate the lineart, blur it and set it in linear burn (i paint this layer in a light gray). this adds a lot of depth to the drawing, especially if later combined with the bloom effect.

the key to why the colors in my art pop so much is that i don't enjoy drawing as much as i enjoy postprocessing pictures 😂🤣😅👌✌️👍 once i'm satisfied with the "base" colors i merge everything except the background, open a new canvas and go crazy with filters and textures. that's why i use ibispaint X even if i do the lineart elsewhere (krita), and even if it works a bit wonky with big canvases.

i do something different for each drawing here, so first i'm going to explain my reasoning so that you understand my process: i used to have a problem of using very strong colors that overshadowed my beloved lineart into which i had put a lot of effort, so my goal nowadays is to make everything look less contrasted without losing the visual impact of saturated colors. that way the lineart remains a strong point and not just a way to separate one color from another.

what i usually do is duplicate the new merged layer, set it to exclusion mode, add a gradient map and play with the opacity. then i duplicate that and do the same thing with another gradient or another blending mode. i tend to add like 3-6 layers of bullshit over my drawings, including textures and other filters like "bloom" or "sharpen". i understand everything that's going on there but i don't think too deeply about it, i just pick whatever looks best.

for the final touches i always pull up the saturation and contrast (since a lot of it gets lost in the process), and i usually have to manually change some colors (ibispaint X has a filter to do that) or tweak the curves. then i add chromatic aberration, noise set to overlay and little polka dots set to linear dodge.

here are some comparisons of the before and after of recent drawings. the 1st one is very subtle, but you can clearly see how much warmth and depth it gains it gets after all the postprocessing. the 2nd one is so different that i understand why you're curious about how i pick colors. i don't think i can replicate that look just from picking nice colors, there's a lot more going on!! the 3rd one personally feels like it had potential lost (i liked the yellow highlights), but the colors were too strong and all over the place, so the finished result looks more intimate and calm and i like it a lot more.

thank you for the interest anon, i'm very happy that you like the way i color things and i hope i have explained myself. good luck with your own journey!!

[shaunabah]

Theater kids.

A bunch of students sat in an empty classroom as a teacher started talking.

"Aight kids, I guess you're all here for the theater club?" The teacher, Mr. B, asks.

There are around seven students in the class, all of them nodding at the same time. Some knew each other, some didn't, but they all had something in common: they saw the 'THEATER CLASS' flyer in the school and decided to join.

The teacher, Peter B Parker, was a biology teacher who also had a special interest in scenery art, and after some years he was able to open his own club. Even if there were only seven students, it was more than enough for him.

"Let's start with taking attendance to see if everyone who signed up is here." Mr. B says while looking at the paper that was on the table, "Hobie Brown?"

The mentioned raises his hand, his clothing style drawing everyone's attention. He was dressed in a black leather jacket that had spikes on it, a blue shirt below it. He wore a collar similar to the jacket and tall boots, even if he already looked tall. His hair was incredibly well treated, it was amazing.

"Great! Miles Morales?"

The boy raises his hand. His appearance is more normal, a plain shirt with soft blue jeans and sneakers. His afro hair and brown eyes made him look cute, in somes opinion.

"Peni Parker?"

A girl raises her hand, and her big eyes draw everyone's attention to her. Her short black hair and uniform-like clothing helped her brown eyes highlight more. She seems to be sketching something in a notebook, clearly concentrated.

"Peter Benjamin Parker?— Oh look we share name and last name."

A boy raises his hand, his clothing also drawing people's attention. It wasn't wild like Hobie's, but it was colourless, all black, grey and white, which shocked people. "Please call me Noir to avoid any confusion." He says calmly, avoiding eye contact.

"Nice, okay— Peter... Porker?"

A boy with curly pink hair and black eyes raises his hand, his clothes being also basic. Just a red shirt and blue pants, nothing our of the ordinary. "Call me Ham!" He says while laughing a bit.

"Sure thing, uh next is..." Mr. B takes a breath, "Sorry if I pronounce this wrong... Pav—Pavitr... Prabjakar?"

"Call me Pav, it's easier!" A boy says while smiling brightly. His hair is really shiny and looks like he takes a good care of it. His clothes consist of a plain white shirts with soft gray jeans and gold-like bracelets.

"Yeah, sounds good. Finally, Gwen Stacy?"

A girl slowly raises her hand. Her unusual haircut is what draws the attention towards her, as well as the rainbow bracelet that she's wearing. The rest of her clothes are a white shirt with a black jacket and soft blue jeans. She's sitting a bit farther away from the rest, which weirded out the teacher.

"Amazing, we're all here! So, just in case you don't know me, I'm Mr. B, but here you can just call me Peter—if the other Peter's don't mind—and I'll be your mentorteacherwhatever thing." The teacher introduces himself while standing up, going to the back of the class. "Now... Let's make a little play, okay? No script, just that by pairs you have to find out which is the right wire to cut. Easy, right?"

Peni stares as everyone already has a partner, feeling left out once more. She wants to make friends, that's why she joined the club, but she feels invisible most of the time. Maybe if she was better, more noti—

"Hey, wanna pair with us?" The curly haired boy—Ham, if she remembers well—asks Peni, apparently he noticed how she was alone. He was paired with the monochromatic boy, which seemed ironic looking at how many colors Ham wore.

"Sure!!" She says, going with them.

"Are the pairs done?" Everyone nods, "Okay then, you three can start." The teacher says as he puts down the box with wires.

The three of them crouch down to the floor to see four wires: yellow, green, red and blue.

"Oh wait, we don't get any hints?" Peni asks while turning around to see the teacher, who shakes his head, "Oh great."

"Which one do you think it is, Noir?" She asks the older, who is sitting and looks confused.

"Uhhhhh... the gray one?" He replies while looking at the box, eyebrows frowned and everything.

"There's not a gray one! Oh great, we paired up with the colorblind dude!" Ham exclaims, cutting a random wire.

"That was... the right one, impressive." Mr. B says, taking the box in his hands, "Also, are you seriously colorblind?" He asks Noir, who sinply nods. "That explains so much." Everyone laughs at that.

"Okay, next, Gwen Stacy and whoever teamed up with her." The teacher says and both Gwen and Miles step forward, looking at the box that now has an orange wire instead of a red one.

"Which is it?" Miles asks Gwen as she takes the box in her hands.

"Judging by how they are connected, and the fact that this is so badly done I can see which one isn't attached to the end, it's the green one." She says after two seconds of analyzing the box, and cuts the wire. Turns out she was right, and they both won.

"Incredible, such a way of quick analyzing!" Mr. B says, changing the green wire with a white one, "Yes this is terribly built." He sets the box on the floor. "Finally, Hobie and Pav."

Everyone looks at them weirdly when Hobie takes the box in his hands, not even looking at it. He proceeds to smash it in the floor, breaking the box and the wires.

"That is not how you had to do it." Mr. B says while picking up the pieces left on the floor.

"You said it wasn't scripted!" Hobie exclaims, looking at him directly.

"Maybe you shouldn't take it as a 'I can destroy it because you didn't say otherwise'!"

And they started fighting. In the meantime, Peni is able to sneak up on the both of them and steal the box, completely disassembling it to keep the nails for herself. Pavitr starts talking with Miles and Gwen and they end up being friends. Both Ham and Noir sit on the floor while they talk, only to end up being joined by everyone else.

[kithpendragon]

This post is part of a series in which I help my friend upgrade her copy of the board game "Scythe" by painting some of the game pieces. It's all being tagged #KP2023SCY to make it easy to find!

Base Coat

After playing around with the paint a bit, we decided to work on the yellow faction first. These guys look a bit like tractors, so we found a few reference photos. We settled on this one for its ability to give us most of the colors we wanted in one shot.

Here we have yellow paint in an outdoor setting, and the machine has even been courteous enough to rust up so that we can see where and how that happens.

Now, yellow is the weakest color you can get paint in. I'm not sure why that is, but you usually need to add lots of yellow paint to a mix before you come close to the same coloring power you get from most other colors. "One wierd trick" to get more vibrant yellows is to underpaint - paint a helper layer below the color you want to see - with magenta.

Why magenta? I ask myself that every time. But it works, and I haven't taken the time to sort through all the "I know what underpainting is" posts to look up if anybody's figured it out. If you find a good reason, by all means let me know.

Anyway, with the magenta underpainting and a coat of yellow, we achieved a lovely saturated dark yellow more commonly called "orange", which is a great mid tone for yellow objects.

Next we focused on the legs and wheels, adding a thin coat of gray to unify the existing lighting cues. Finally, we used a reddish buddy brown on the base and added some splotches of green to suggest plant life.

Highlighting and Shading

With the mid tones established, we added a couple highlighting steps to the model - first with another layer of pure yellow, then by adding progressively more of a yellowish off-white to the mix. On the legs, we added the off-white to the gray for the brighter areas. Finally, we added a tiny bit of blue and black to the yellow for the shadowed underside.

The shading does appear somewhat green because bluey yellow does that. This is fine, and it doesn't even register at arms length on the table because shadows really are blue like that. It would also be valid to darken with chromatic gray, or to glaze black over the orange base coat. Leaving the shadows more saturated like this allows the eye to see more details in the final paint job.

The location of highlights and shadows was chosen simply by shining a bright light on the mini and noting the bright and dark spots. That technique doesn't always work, but it's an easy way to begin to learn how shadows and highlights work.

After we had the top bright and the bottom dark, we painted an additional strong highlight on the sharp edges with the off-white. This is called "edge highlighting", and it helps the eye to understand the shapes even from across the table. You can also take your shadow color and run it into any deep recesses for even more definition.

Rimming

Somehow, people have very strong feelings about what color the edge of the base - the rim - should be. Paint that rim whatever color makes sense to you and don't let anybody tell you otherwise!

For display or competition painting, a very dark color or black would look most "professional" (if you want that vibe). For board games, I find it useful to try to match the original color of the plastic, especially if I didn't stick too closely to that color with the rest of the piece.

We rimmed the tractors with a coat of magenta followed by two coats of yellow and got close enough to the original color that there won't be any ambiguity.

We let the paint get good and dry for about two weeks before sealing with a clear coat to make the paint job much more durable. You don't have to wait that long - it was cold and raining, and spray paint is an outdoor activity for me. This is one of those things where you could probably get away with sealing in a couple hours, overnight would be better, and a week is probably overcautious. You just want all the existing paint to be fully dry.

Once the clear coat is fully dry (read: doesn't have a smell anymore) you can add some matte varnish or buff with some 000 steel wool to knock the shine back if you like.

Once again, every step is optional! Do the things you want to do, that you feel are worth your time. And then enjoy playing your game, or put those beautiful upgraded minis on display for everybody in your game room to admire!

[rjalker]

Character from the earlier part of my dream.

I thought she was gonna die for sure until she threw the cloak off and revealed the metal wings which she used to deflect the weapon (bullet?? throwing knife??? IDK)

Green themed with a pink-red eye.

Don't know what her name is.

The plot was one of her friends in the Resistance had just died and the mission the friend was supposed to be on got called off, so she went to do it instead in secret because it was important but everyone else was too upset.

[ID: A collection of simple black and white drawings. From left to right and top to bottom, they show: A character's face, with a single eye on the right and nothing on the left, with no mouth or nose, wearing a short crown, with hair that is short or pulled back, with some bangs hanging down under the crown, between two short, stubby horns. Text labels parts, "little horns - juvenile???" "One eye, no mouth??? no nose???" with three questionmarks for emphasis. After this is a scribbled drawing of a person in a cloak with the hood up, labeled, "cloak 4 disguise", which points below the first drawing, showing the hood down and the cloak pulled to the sides, but the middle where clothes would go labeled, "IDK". Last is a stick figure drawing of the same character, with large wings emerging from around her middle, labeled, "metal wings at waist height - no tail?" End ID.]

adding color on my laptop since my phone doesn't show them correctly.

Edit: Here's the color version:

[ID: The same art as above, now with digital color added, mostly going outside the lines. The character's skin is grey-pink, with pearly white horns, and a magenta eye. She has light green hair and a yellow crown. Her cloak is lighter green, with a white collar. Her wings are a gradient of dark green, to blue, to dark blue, to sudden bronze at the tips, with lighter highlights and darker shadows to show they reflect light like metal. End ID.]

the later part of my dream was we had an attic with a window with a tiny ledge outside it and a random cat somehow got stuck on the ledge, and I was trying to rescue it, but a fucking tiny little OWL came and decided to investigate and was just hopping around the ledge staring in at me, not even paying attention to the cat. And then the owl must have been sentient or something because it figured out that the attic had a ventilation flap of some kind and GOT INSIDE and then just immediately ran down the hall and downstairs to cause further chaos with our cats. And yes ran. Scampered. So then I had to pull the window open for the cat that was outside so it could come inside and not fall to its death and then sprinted downstairs trying to figure out where the hell the butterfly nets had gone so I could now rescue the owl from our cats.

Oh also, this character art, concept, and design is public domain because I'm probably never going to do anything with her. have fun. she doesn't even have a name so you'll have to come up with one yourselves.

[stormyoceans]

Mon mon mon your top 5 vice versa quotes/ top 5 visually pleasing vv scenes

ISMAY THESE ARE SUCH INTERESTING QUESTIONS BUT I HOPE YOU KNOW THEY MADE ME GO THROUGH AN EXISTENTIAL CRISIS ESPECIALLY THE SECOND ONE (hence the really late reply SORRY!!!!!!!) SO HERE GOES NOTHING I GUESS

TOP 5 VICE VERSA QUOTES

1. “even though there’s only a little pink, jigsaw completed his drawing with other colors, just like our story. we might focus less on our love one day, but i’ll still understand you, care for you, and want the best for you.” “are you trying to say that one day we’ll love each other less?” “that’s not what i mean. im saying, even if one day you have to devote yourself to what’s really important to your life, rather than spend your time thinking about me, i’ll understand and give you my full support.” – puen in our skyy episode 2 [just for this dialogue alone i had to accept the fact that i will never love a pairing this completely in my life ever again literally no one compares to puentalay]

2. “and he paints my life pink forever.” – talay in episode 12 [QUITE POSSIBLY THEE MOST LINE OF ALL TIME]

3. “if this can be used to wipe away dust, i should use it with your heart. i think your heart hasn’t been used in a long time.” – puen in episode 3 [LIFE ALTERING TRANSCENDENTAL MOMENT IN HERSTORY IM SORRY BUT THIS IS SIMPLY HIGH ROMANCE TO ME]

4. “we all have our own pain that we are enduring. you can’t compare your life to theirs and judge them on what they should do.” – kita in episode 9 [KITA THE UNSUNG HERO OF THIS SHOW I LOVE HIM SO MUCH]

5. “whoever puen is seeing is his personal business. im his fan, not the master of his life.” – gyo in episode 12 [print this line, project it on a wall, make a powerpoint out of it, tape it everywhere, put it in a billboard, spread it]

TOP 5 VISUALLY PLEASING VICE VERSA SCENES

(i ended up going with a mix of colors and framing and cinematography to pick these and IM STILL NOT FULLY CONVINCED)

1. the bucket hat reveal in episode 10. not only this is one of the most scenes in television history (second only to puentalay reuniting in episode 11), but it also takes the crown as the most visually stunning. the pink/red contrasting the black/blue is simply beautiful.

2. the glasshouse kiss in episode 4. I SWEAR IM NOT JUST FINDING EXCUSES TO KEEP POSTING THIS SCENE IT'S NOT MY FAULT IF IT'S PERFECT IN EVERY SINGLE WAY. one may ask, 'why didn't you pick one of the two other glasshouse scenes then', to which i say ONCE AGAIN NOT MY FAULT IF THE OTHER SCENES DON'T HAVE PUENTALAY DRESSED IN CONTRASTING COLORS AND PUEN HALF HIDDEN BY THE GREENERY BEING SLOWLY REVEALED.

3. talay drowning in episode 1. I KINDA FEEL BAD PICKING THIS SCENE SINCE IT’S TALAY DYING BUT. look at how pretty it is. when i see all these gorgeous shades of blue (with a hint of pink in some shots!!!!) i can understand talay saying “let me appreciate these beautiful colors a little longer.”

4. the secret island in episode 10. at first i didn’t want to put the same episode twice, however i just can’t leave out this scene if we’re talking about visual elements. color wise it may not be as remarkable as other moments (although the touch of green against the neutral tones of the sand and the sky and the water is [chef’s kiss]), but the cinematography here is honestly breathtaking.

5. friend credits reuniting in episode 6. this is a shorter scene compared to the others but i absolutely love the way they were able to highlight the yellow in such a clever way, not only with the lights but also with the sparklers and the curtains against the black and the white/light blue.

[saunne]

10 Self-Love Things

because it's sunny outside, I feel happy and self-love is good sometimes

I love my eyes. Even when dysphoria was hitting me like a truck, my eyes were the part of me I was never able to hate. They have a really clear and piercing green-blue color and when you look up really close, they have a bit of brown-yellow-orange (?) around the pupil. I'm starting to learn a little bit of makeup to highlight them even more.

I love my ability to be introspective. A lot of things are somewhat difficult to grasp for me, especially my emotions and those of others. This capacity for deep introspection and just deconstructing/analyzing myself and the world around is what helped me the most to stay in tune with the people around me growing up. I don't know where I would be if not for that.

I love my legs. I never thought I would be a "leg person" cause I had a lot of problem with that while growing up but, I do love my legs. I like their shape, the curve of my calves, the thickness of my thighs, my knees scarred from falling on them so much as a child, the few scattered moles there. I love that these legs allow me to walk because I like walking more than I like taking public transportation, and how they ache slightly at the end of a long walk in the woods. I love how they look long and graceful when I'm wearing heels but still chunky and androgynous when I'm wearing flats.

I love my fashion style. It was a long way to get where I am now, but it was worth it ! I'm still slowly hauling my whole wardrobe, donating what I don't wear anymore to the queer center's free shop and 95% of what I buy now is from second hand, thrift or clearance stores. I like neutral tones, like beige, cream and brown, associated with either pastel or jewel tones. I like flowy and comfy clothes, culotte pants and light blouses. I like tight but soft sweaters, even more if they have shoulders or back openings.

I love my beard. It's quite funny cause before starting testosterone, I was never that fond of facial hair and all, until I got my very own beard and gain what seemed to be 5 points in charisma. Also, having facial hair is a great help for my whole genderfuckery thing, since it breaks the usual feminine style I have with something more commonly "masculine". I need to get more informations on how to trim it and take care of it correctly however 🤔

I love my writing style. It's something I worked a lot on and I think I deserve to be proud of it. English isn't my native language and writing in English was a real challenge at first, but I'm now at almost 3 years of practice and things are going well ! I'm always happy when I receive comment on my style, like my use of metaphors, the more or less subtle poetic feelings I try to weave through the text or that my pacing is good. It always makes me really happy.

I love my imagination. "Damn your BRAIN" has to be one of my favorite things to hear when I share my brain vomit about characters, situations or general ideas about something. I love making people full of awe with how my brain work and produce things, particularly when it comes to my OCs, since I really love dearly all of my OCs... despite having quite a lot of them.

I love my scars. This is quite recent since I'm talking about my top surgery scars but damn it's so beautiful. I'm literally obsessed with it and I don't count the number of time mom walked on me admiring my torso in the bathroom's mirror. I love how they feel under my fingertips, slightly bumpy and gnarled like vines where where they thickened. I love seeing the change in color, how they were so brightly red and how it's now fading in a soft dust rose and in one year or two, how it will be white and less noticeable but still here, always here. There is something really comforting in the simple gesture of oiling it morning and evening, massaging it tenderly, seeing them and think "this is my chest".

I love my singing voice. Which can be quite surprising cause I can't sing for shit, like, I'm incapable of not sounding false (not for lack of trying). But I like humming little little melodies and songs, humming under my breath along to songs I love even though I only know half the words. I love my singing voice, because it always sounds more emotional than I usually do.

I love my hair. It was a bit hard for me to start losing so much of it when I started testosterone and when I got my burnout but I'm making them grow again and they're now a lot more healthy. I have really thick and heavy hair, and a lot of it. I hope I'll be able to reach my growth goal this year cause after that, I'll dye them again. I want to make an underlight, tho I still don't know if I should try platinum at least once or stay on the either wine red or caramel gradient 🤔.

Won't tag anyone but please, feel free to reblobs with things you love about yourselves ! I love seeing people happy 😊

Since I feel a little vain, here is a pic of said eyes I guess 😂