#I found an overlay that lets me change the color of ear tips and it looks so nice im probably gonna go back and edit all the older ones

[dawns-beauty]

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[baconcolacan]

Since I’m still stuck at work and cant do anything, I thought it would be fun to post my drawing process for my semi-serious style, using the latest fanart I did with Edd and Edu but only featuring Edd :3c Maybe one day I’ll make a speedpaint but thats not today. If you’re curious, one by one below the line + me talking about the process (as best I can)

1. Preliminary sketch. These are my roughs, this is the start after I had my brainstorm and planning phase. I’ve found all my references and did the pose myself as well so I know what it feels like and if its bodily possible. 2. Clean sketch. This is where I loosely put in all the nitty-gritty, where the folds are, details of the hair, etc etc. I change the pencil colour so I can differentiate certain parts. 3. Line art. Like it says on the tin, but for my semi-serious style I tend to avoid lining folds because I prefer to paint them in this style. 4. Grey out. I need this layer so that I don’t get blinded/confused when I lay down the colours,

5. Flats. So all the colours needed, usually when I draw backgrounds they would also depend on the lighting, so I would colorize them if needed, but for standalones I just put in the basic colours. 6. Soft shadows. I tend to use multiply layers for this step, but sometimes I also do normal layers, in case I feel as though the colour should be more relative to its surroundings since multiply wont let me do that. It all depends on how I want the shadows to feel on the piece, but when I’m lazy I just do multiply (lol). Soft shadows also include the colour on the planes of the face, so = yellow for forehead, red for middle, blue for the lower part aka jaw area. Of course also the reds on the skin in other areas like elbows and knees, but since Edd is fully clothed, its just the tip and inner part of his ear, and the tips of his fingers. 7. Hard shadows and minor highlights. For my style, I gear more towards a watercolour style kind of shading, so I follow that principle when I decide where to put and how to render my shadows. Typically I have at minimum 4 layers for this type of hard shadow shading. The minor highlights here are just the lights in the pupil, and a soft large airbrush going over the spaces where shadows cant reach. 8. Missing details and overlay highlights. Near the end I put in all the little details I missed, so in here its Edd’s 5 o’clock shadow, and some scuffs and scrapes on his clothing and shoes. The overlay highlights are super subtle but make the drawing feel a bit more alive, for me at least, these highlights are the ones on the “bumps” of the clothing folds, and the hair highlights.

9. Hard highlights and atmospheric lights. The finale! This is where I just put in the brighter, harder, highlights in places they should be, and then clip a Luminosity/Overlay layer on top of the entire drawing, using a large soft brush I go over the drawing to put a bit more brightness into it. And there! Thats how I render in my semi-serious artstyle. But...eh, dont be fooled, I know this step by step makes it look like I would jump around all the parts of the drawing and render things equally, sadly thats far from the truth. My perfectionism flares up badly and it often leads to me obsessing over a singular part before moving on, so the process would look more like this:

yeah......

[riseandshinelittleblossom]

Hoping for Home Ch 5(Part 1) ~ “Rise Up”

Summary: Sixteen years ago Libby Scott was supposed to become Queen of Cordonia, but Fate had other plans. Catch up here (ya know ya wanna). Big thanks to @ritachacha and @ao719 for helping me out with this one.

Song for this chapter: “Rise Up” - Andra Day

Disclaimer: I don’t own the TRR characters, they own me

Tags: @fullbeaumonty @ritachacha@speedyoperarascalparty@cocomaxley@leelee10898@itsstillnotwhatyouthink@choiceswreckedme @indiacater@drakesensworld @carabeth@daniv2278 @cosigottahavefaith @gibbles82 @innerpostmentality @blackcoffee85@perfectprofessorherokid @darley1101 @jovialyouthmusic@liamxs-world@thequeenofcronuts @blznbaby@stopforamoment @zilch3382@wannabemc2 @jlouise88  @lodberg

     “This would look stunning on you.” Hana mused, plucking a dress from the boutique rack to show to Emma. It was a white chiffon, a-line dress; floor length with a lace overlay and long,lace sleeves.

     “They're all so beautiful. I never imagined I'd have so many to choose from.” Emma beamed. She took the hanger from her surrogate aunt and disappeared into the dressing stall.

    “You're going to need one too, Mack.” The countess said softly.

   “I know, but I want Emma to choose hers first. I don't wanna pick something to clash with hers on her big debut.”

    Just then Libby stepped out of her stall wearing the signature Duchess's dress. It had been almost seventeen years since she'd worn the frock, but the local dressmaker had done a little bit of fitting a few days prior and the work was exquisite.

   “It fits you like a glove.” Hana told her grinning from ear to ear.

   “You look fabulous! I've always wanted to see the Valtorian Duchess's house dress. I love the bold colors.” McKenzie lamented taking in the bright red and orange garment. There was gold trimming everywhere and elaborate gold embroidery along the bodice. Just below that was a blue ombre pattern that complimented the vibrant colors surrounding it perfectly. The gown boasted a sweetheart bust with a sheer illusion neckline, a shimmery Phoenix emblazoned across it.

   “The matching cape is very lovely, your Grace.” the young brunette said sincerely.

    Libby gave her a brief curtsy just as Emma stepped back into the room.

   The Duchess's lips parted to remark, but no words escaped her. Instead she reached up and covered her mouth with her hands, in awe of the young lady that had taken the place of her little girl.

    “Em! You look amazing!!” McKenzie squealed launching herself towards her new friend and grasping her hands. The two teens bounced with excitement.

   Wordlessly Libby crossed the room to the accessory counter reaching into one of the drawers and then another. She stepped over to her daughter and held up a long, wide crimson ribbon, adding it as a sash just below the breast of Emma's dress.

  “Crimson is our house color.” she explained, her voice all but broken. “And our sigil is the Phoenix. A mighty bird that is always reborn, no matter what happens to it.”

   She wrapped a gold chain with a jeweled phoenix charm around her daughter's neck and clasped it.

   “'Ever rising,’ right?” Emma asked as she fingered the trinket.

    “You’ve got it, kiddo.” Libby said with a sigh, placing her hands on Emma's shoulder and turning her to face the mirror. “You are a vision, Emmy-Lou.”

      After McKenzie had changed, the women headed to Will's estate room.

    “We're just about done here.” Mark said as he opened the door. He placed a hand at Hana's hip, kissing her gently before he stepped aside to let the ladies in.

   In the center of the room stood the young Lord of Valtoria in a black tailored suit. He cast his eyes over his shoulder to look at his mother who was once again stunned into silence.

   “Drake and Uncle Mark said I had to wear the red. What do you think?” He asked smoothing his hands over the deep crimson vest he wore.

    “I think...Will you are the most handsome young man I have ever seen.” Libby told him reaching out to adjust his tie.

    “Well, are you two ready?” Abel asked his eyes darting between the twins.

    Will buttoned his blazer and grabbed his sister's hand, giving it a squeeze which she returned.

    “I am now.” he smiled at her.

     Just outside the ballroom doors Libby turned to Drake, brushing off his suit jacket.

    “I wanted to ask you if you would escort me in. After all these years, I'm a little embarrassed to be announced alone in my own estate.”  she admitted without meeting his eyes. She was still brushing imaginary lint from his suit, so Drake reached down capturing her nervous hands in his, holding them still as he caught her gaze.

   “I've stood by you so far, you think I'd let you do the hardest part alone?”

  She shook her head with a smile.

  “You know Maxwell and Li are-”

   “Inside.” She exhaled slowly. “I know.”

    Drake nodded, placing one of her hands in the crook of his arm. “Let's knock em dead then.”

  Libby squared her shoulders and held her head high offering a gentle nod to the herald as she and Drake stepped through the doors.

     “Elizabeth Scott, Duchess of Valtoria, escorted by Sir Drake Walker, Guardian of the Realm.”

     Liam whipped his head around, his jaw dropping as he watched his best friend enter the room with Libby on his arm.

    “I guess Libby has more than one secret up her sleeve, doesn't she?” Olivia remarked leaning into her husband.

    “I, I don't understand. Drake is escorting her? How did he…?Why wouldn't he tell me he'd been in contact with her?” The King tried and Liv patted his arm.

   “Darling I'm sure Drake had his reasons. Let's not jump the gun.” She ran her polished nails against his fists that he hadn't even realized were tightening.

        “They're all staring.” Libby whispered through her toothy grin.

     “Uh huh, so just wave.” Drake told her.

  The room began to spin. Even back when balls like this were a more normal occurrence in her life, Libby had never quite gotten used to having all eyes on her.

   She and her friend made their way to the dais, Drake taking her hand and guiding her as she stepped onto the raised platform. The room was a sea of people and the duchess felt as if she were drowning, her heart racing in her chest; but she never faltered, her head was still raised high and outwardly she was grace personified.

   The waters of the room seemed to part as she stared out into them and there, across the room, she saw him.

    Maxwell stood near the back with one hand jammed in the pocket of his heather gray trousers, the other held a champagne flute. Libby couldn't tear her gaze from him, though she tried. As if by some sort of prompting he looked up at her, and even at such a distance she could see the spark behind his eyes, the one she'd fallen in love with over a decade ago. Solemnly, he raised his glass to her, bowing his head before tipping the fine crystal to his lips.

    Libby's breath caught, but she managed to return the gesture, the room continuing to spin as all eyes focused once again on the doors.

         “Lady Emma Louise Scott and Lord William James Scott, heirs to Valtoria.” the herald announced.

     The double doors swung open once more revealing Emma and Will as they strode, arm in arm, into the room.

    Liam's jaw hit the floor as he immediately began scanning the room. He finally found Maxwell and they locked eyes, both men in a state of perplexity.

   “Well they aren't babies at all. They're-.”

   “Not now, Liv.” Liam interrupted. He watched Maxwell swallow the rest of his champagne and slam the flute down so hard he could scarcely believe it didn't shatter. Maxwell turned quickly and in no more than two long strides he exited the ballroom.

   “Excuse me, dear. I need to find Max.” He told his wife, who nodded still trying to hide her own shock.

    Liam found Maxwell in the hallway, headed for the front door.

   “Maxwell, wait. Stop! Let's talk about this.” He set his pace to a slow jog until he caught up to his old friend, grabbing the man by his elbow.

    “What is there to talk about, Liam? Clearly they're your kids! That's the only way their age can make any sense. They're teenagers. Not babies. Libby was your girl all those years ago, so unless they're younger than they appear…. Congratulations, Your Majesty. Looks like you finally have your heir...and a spare.”

   “You don't know that. It only takes one time, Maxwell. One night in a hotel in Las Vegas. Don't you think we owe her a chance to explain?” Liam tried to reason.

  “Owe her?! I'm sorry, Li, but neither of us owe her shit. That's the way I feel about it. I'm sorry but I can't be here.” He ripped his arm from the King's grasp still headed for the door. His steps were slower this time and Liam knew he had planted the seeds of doubt.

   “Wait just a goddamned minute, Beaumont. Both of you should really hear her out.” Drake's voice came, as smooth and as even as ever. Liam's eyes narrowed and both he and Maxwell whirled around to face him.

“HA!” Maxwell exclaimed. “Oh yeah. That's rich coming from you, Walker. You disappear to the States for two years and come home with Libby on your arm! Are you screwing her now too?”

   “That's outta line, Max, and you know it.” Drake barked.

   “Actually, he makes a good point, Drake. Sex lives aside, you knew about this. Whatever is going on here, you knew.” Liam piped up.

   “Look, I found Libby totally by happenstance. I walked into a coffee shop a month and a half ago and there she was. I was just as surprised as you two are now when I saw her twins.”

   “Definitely not something that Liam or Olivia or I would want to know.” Maxwell seethed.

   “Indeed. Did the idea of calling any of us to let us know you'd found her even occur to you? Drake, why would you keep this hidden from us?” Liam asked.

    Drake looked Maxwell square in the eye as he repeated words the Lord of Ramsford had once said to him.

   “It wasn't my secret to tell.”

    Maxwell ran a hand down his face.

   “Yeah, fuck you, Walker.” He spat.

   “Maxwell, please. I know you must be reeling right now, but try and calm down.”

   “It isn't what you guys think, okay? She was...she was scared. She didn't wanna end up like one of those women on the Maury show.” Drake explained.

   “The Maury show?” Liam inquired and Drake sighed.

   “It's an American talk sh- look it's not important. She was worried about making you two jackasses look bad, alright? She didn't know what else to do so she just….stayed gone.”

  Liam crossed his arms, his brow furrowed in thought.

  “Well it's my belief that gone is where she should have stayed. I'm out of here.”

   Once more Maxwell turned towards the door, and again Liam grabbed him.

   “Let's not barrel out of here without thinking. Max, I know how you must feel but-.”

   “Stop saying that to me! You keep saying you know how I feel but you're full of shit, Liam! I was IN  love with her, alright? You were in love with the idea of her. Of what she represented.” Maxwell shouted, every vein in his next poking out as his face reddened to a shade that neither of the other men present had ever seen on him before. There were tears welled in the corners of his eyes, although Liam wasn't sure if they were from anger or sadness.

    Drake closed the distance between himself and his friends, pulling Maxwell into a tight embrace. The broken man tried to resist the gesture at first, but Drake held fast and finally Maxwell relented. He wrapped his arms around Drake and allowed his heart rate to slow down, matching his friend's steady rhythm.

   “I can't. I just can't. After everything…”

    “You won't be alone, brother. Drake and I will be with you.” Liam reassured him.

    Maxwell pulled away from Drake and licked his lips, reluctantly nodding as his friends ushered him back into the ballroom.

       Liam scanned the room for his wife while Drake and Maxwell wandered towards the bar.  Finally his eyes landed on the queen, his heart stopping when he found her engrossed in conversation with the Duke and Duchess of Ramsford and Libby. He swallowed hard and made his way over to them.

    “Your Majesty.” Libby greeted him dipping into a low, graceful curtsey.

    “Oh I'm so glad you've found us, My King.” Olivia smirked, noticing Liam's clandestinely sweaty palms right away.   

    “I was just reminding the Duchess that it is tradition that the Head of the house share the opening waltz with her monarch.”

    He knew she was playing games now. Olivia loved to press buttons and her hand resting on her now popped hip told him that she was enjoying the idea of he and Libby being forced together just a little too much.

  “Of course, My Queen. Duchess, may I have this dance?”

     Libby took Liam's outstretched hand and let him lead her to the dance floor. The musicians took notice that the Lady of the House was on the floor and began to play.

   “It's so nice to see you in good health, Libby.” He said through slightly gritted teeth.

  “And you as well my King.”

    He could tell that she was beyond nervous, her voice cracking slightly just as it had when she had first come to court for his social season. However Liam wanted answers so he cut straight to the point.

   “Your children are beautiful, by the way. They're how old exactly?”

   Libby beamed, unable to hide the pride she felt for her children despite the circumstances.

  “They will be sixteen next week.” She tucked her bottom lip between her teeth as she finished.

  “I see. Tell me, do you think that Maxwell and I do not know how to calculate birth dates? Or were you simply hoping we wouldn't show up?”

   “You need to talk to her!” Bertrand whispered harshly his lips barely moving so as not to cause a scene.

  “You don't think I know that, B? I'm... I'm trying.” Maxwell told his brother.

  “If you were trying you would be over there waiting for their waltz to finish. How is she to know from across the room that you wish to speak with her?”

   Maxwell rolled his eyes. He knew that Bertrand was right, as usual, but he couldn't get his feet to move from the spot in which he'd planted them. He knocked back the bottom of the whiskey Drake had gotten him, then reached for the older Beaumont's gin and tonic which sat on the table beside them. He finished that too, sucking his teeth as he winced at the harsh taste.

   “That was mine.” Bertrand said, as if that meant anything at all to Maxwell.

   “Take one for the team, B.” He said clapping his brother on the shoulder and walking towards Libby and Liam.

   He pushed past other dancers with little to no regard, finally coming to the perfect place beside the couple he was looking for.

   As the music swelled Liam twirled his partner, but instead of finding the arms of a waiting dancer Libby crashed into Maxwell's broad chest.

  “Oh, I'm sorry! Forgive me it's been a long time since I've-Maxwell?”

  He raised his brows at her rocking on his feet, hands jammed into his pockets. They stood awkwardly a moment, Libby gawking at the man as if he were a Martian. Finally, Maxwell grabbed her hand, his other arm finding its place at her hip and he began the waltz.

   They danced in silence for a few measures. He lifted his arm and twirled her elegantly beneath it and when she returned to him, he leaned into her ear.

   “Mighty brave of you to show back up here like this.”

   “Maxwell, I'm so sorry….”

   He threw his head back as he let out a hollow laugh.

  “You're sorry? Oh, well that makes up for everything! Why didn't you lead with that, Little Blossom?”

   Libby looked up into Maxwell's eyes as she tucked her lips into her mouth, her cheeks flushing. Her mind was racing, stomach in her throat. Even after all the years that had passed she was still finding it hard to breathe standing so close to him.

  “This is the part where I ask you if they're mine or not, right? Ask you if they're Liam's? Maybe they belong to some other guy completely.-the one you ran to when you left?”

   “There was no other guy.” Libby's face contorted in a mix of shock and confusion. “Maxwell, come on. You know me better than that. I would nev-.”

   “If there's one thing I am certain of, it's that I don't know you at all, Libby.”

    Maxwell stepped back, turning away from her and disappearing back into the crowd.

   Libby twisted her fingers together as she watched him walk away, biting her bottom lip to stop it from quivering.

[semi-sketchy]

This is for both of you! I am SO NEW to digital artwork and I have no idea what I’m doing. I’m using FireAlpca and I was wondering if you could give me some tips and how to make my art better! Thank yo7~

Forgive me for taking so long to get to this, just asks like this take a lot of time to put answers together for.

Seeing as you’re using FireAlpaca, this’ll be somewhat easier. So, I’m going to assume you’ve got a drawing tablet and have it set up in a way you like. If you’re using a mouse, then godspeed.

I also went into a lot more than I thought I would with many pictures, so I’m going to put this below a read more.

First, let’s go over a few basics.

Canvas size. I’ve seen it and done it myself, so let me tell you, you want a large canvas. That’s the resolution I use, I like to have something that’s 16:9, but the aspect ratio is up to you. Extra large canvases can also cause FireAlpaca to lag, so keep that in mind before you do a 10,000x10,000 canvas. Find something that’s at least over 1,500x1,000 that your computer can handle. It’s a lot easier to shrink something down than to blow it up and you can always crop out extra space at the end. If you noticed you drew the sketch small, I recommend blowing it up some before lining so you have more room for details and so if you upgrade your monitor in the next few years, your old artwork won’t look pixelated.

Correction/stabilization. You’ve probably heard many people talk about this already and are using it, so I’ll keep it brief. It uses some digital tech to make your pen movements seem more fluid and flow better. Find the number that feels right to you and adjust it as need be. As you can see I keep mine pretty high, so here’s a quick example of the same drawing with different stabilization settings.

…I somehow got progressively worse each time. Well, the important thing is you can see the smoothness of the lines and how they flow better, so that’s what matters. Now onto the next topic.

The brush tab. FireAlpaca is widely used and that means it has a huge community that makes custom brushes. Some people find this confusing, so I’ll try my best to walk you through installing custom brushes.

First, you want the actual brush. I recommend looking through DragonLoreStudios’ brush packs as most of the ones I use are from them. Some cost points, but there are a few free packs. (Pack 6 has a water texture which I freaking love.) You’ll need to keep those files, so I recommend making a folder on your computer where you keep all the custom brush textures.

It’ll be in a zipped folder, so you’ll need to extract it. Just right click and select “extract all” to a folder that is NOT the zipped folder (done this a few times). Now the hard part.

Click that icon, “Add Brush (Bitmap)” and select the image from your computer.

It’ll pull this up. This is the tricky part. Some brushes come with what the presets should be to make it look like it does in the preview, however not all do. You can do some tweaking if you change your mind about something or it didn’t work like you wanted it to by double-clicking on the brush in the brush tab. However, since this one is from DragonLoreStudios, there’s a preset panel I can match this to.

And that’s the end result. They update that panel once in awhile and it is time consuming to put in a bunch of brushes, but they carry over from version to version, so no need to worry about losing your custom brushes when you update.

Lastly, if you’re like me and want to organize your brushes, I introduce to you folders. I had some people ask me about this on my last stream, so it’s as simple as layers and folders. Just click the folder icon, name it, drag ‘n’ drop. Nice and easy way to keep your brushes organized.

So far, haven’t said a whole lot you didn’t know, huh? Alright, let me get into some stuff that I jumped for joy when I found out.

FireAlpaca doesn’t have a multi-select….or does it?

Yup! I didn’t find this out for a long time. If you hold shift with the wand, you can select as many areas as you want. It seems like a silly thing to get excited over and you may have already known about it, but I figured I’d point it out since my friends and I took forever to learn about it.

The blur sucks. We all know. No matter what computer you have, when you turn it up over 120 it gets so laggy you can’t hardly use it. But, those big canvases, you can’t use a dinky little 100 size blur on it. Welcome to filters.

I’ll admit, I don’t quite know what everything on that list does. HOWEVER, I do know what gaussian blur does and with the select tool, it’s amazing.

Let’s say you drew this awesome background, but you want those dots blurred however you don’t wanna sit here for 10 minutes with the manual blur tool.

It’s amazing, really. Only want one side blurred? Just use the select tool and blur that side. I wish I knew about this a year ago whenever my airbrush shading wasn’t smooth enough.

Now, the hue is also something that has saved my shading life more than once. It works just like you’d expect. Don’t like that background color? Think it needs more pop?

Simple. The other two options that I know on the filter tab are also great! Sand and cloud. Depending on how big your canvas is, it might take the computer a second to put it out, but it’s a texture that’s randomized every time you do it and here’s what they look like with black and white.

Not very interesting, huh? Well, put a color below them and turn that layer to overlay…

Wow! It adds some texture! I personally like to turn those down to about 15% opacity so it doesn’t overpower the image, but it’s nice for adding texture to your plain, otherwise straightforward, backgrounds.

So, time we take that knowledge and move to the miracle that is clipping.

Clipping is your go-to tool for shading and colored lines. I can’t believe how often I have to tell my friends “no, don’t grab the paint bucket use clipping” because clipping looks better. Always. Alright, for an example I’m gonna grab a newer piece that I already finished since I still have the project file.

Notice the clipping? I actually used more, but had to merge some layers because a clipping layer can’t clip onto another clipping layer. I’m gonna go backwards a little here and show you how helpful clipping can be.

This is without clipping. Not very nice looking, is it? I shaded with black as a base color, the lineart sticks out like a sore thumb and it lost its soft look. I actually use black a lot to shade, but only as a base color (unless I’m shading a really deep color, then black is basically my only option). After I got all the shading, I made a new layer and turned on clipping.

Now with this layer, I’m free to put color into the shading. If I did this with say a paint bucket, I would end up with spots that didn’t quite reach because of the antialising or it would expand if I turned on that on and I’d have to go over it again to clean it up. With clipping, I get clean lines and am free to change the color with ease.

The ears are a gradient, which means it’s time for some clipping ex machina mixed with the hue tab.

I made a copy of the top half of the color layer that covers the part I’m shading.

Now we got it pasted in with clipping on the ears. It matches up perfectly, of course, but there’s no shading. Time for the hue tab!

Look at that. Was able to keep the shading even with the gradient while adding a bit of hue shift to the purplish side. THAT is the power of clipping. Of course, use clipping for the lineart mixed with a bit of airbrush for the ear gradient (since the color layer ain’t on the lineart, have to color that by hand) and remembering to darken the lineart around the shaded areas, and we get this.

Sounds complicated, but it’s really simple and the result doesn’t look half bad. I’ve used clipping + hue on so many drawings and it’s saved my life.

Now, another little nifty trick is that white boarder. You don’t have to trace all the way around your piece, that would take forever. Let’s go back to our little grumpy Tara piece.

I added some color to help the boarder stick out. Now, first we wanna make a layer above the background layers, just below the color layer, and turn off the background.

Should be looking like this.

Next, we’re gonna use the wand to select outside and under the select tab, click “inverse”.

Now, it’s time to expand! It’s the button right under inverse, you can see it in the last image. How big or small you want it all depends on you and the canvas size, so play around until you’re happy with it. For this example, I’m using 7 because this is a pretty tiny canvas.

Next, we want the fill tool. Honestly this thing is so much more useful than people give it credit for.

Get the whole area and boom! That’s it. Deselect, turn your background back on and take a look!

Beautiful. The reason you don’t want to use the paint bucket is it wouldn’t get every spot. If you drew a tuft of fur or a little corner, it wouldn’t reach. This way makes it so every inch is covered. However, with fur and all, there’s a bit of a draw back and something you’ll have to fix manually.

Look how it squared those spots out, yikes. You’ll have to take your pen and round them as I did in that earlier piece with Miles.

I think this’ll be the last thing I cover and I myself am not very good at this, but I want to show you comics in FireAlpaca.

Step one: do NOT USE THE SNAP FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE. THERE’S A BETTER WAY.

For real though, don’t do that. Make a new canvas (I wouldn’t use the comic tab, I just find it screws with all the knowledge I have and all it does is make a new canvas anyways).

Great. Next step.

We’re going to go to the layer tab and click “add panel material”.

That’ll bring this little box up. Whatever you pick is up to you and remember the undo button does exist, so choose whatever you want and click “OK”.

We got it started! That’s the easiest part done. It’ll automatically set you to the “panel divide” tool so you can get working. Drag that tool across and it’ll cut lines and if you hold shift, you can do diagonal lines.

Here’s a quick example. If you adjust the kerning and leading, you know, this stuff:

You can change how close it’ll cut the panels.

However, for some odd reason, you can’t do completely diagonal. Like if you take a square and cut from one corner to the other, it won’t work. I don’t know why, maybe they’ll change it in an update, but that’s how it is right now.It also takes a little getting used to, so mess around with it.

The great thing about doing this instead of using the snap (besides it looking better) is nothing will go above it. Even if it’s the bottom layer, you can’t go over it or erase it. However, sometimes you want a little panel overlay and this doesn’t give you many options, does it? Maybe you’d like to transform it, but you can’t because it’s a comic layer. You wanna convert it.

Under the layer tab, just click “rasterize material” and it’ll turn it into a normal layer you can use your select tool and transform stuff on. Now if only they had a way to create text boxes my life would be complete…

Oh, one last thing I wanna mention: ALWAYS save your project file. When you finish a piece, don’t just save it as a PNG and be done, save it as a MDP (FireAlpaca file) too. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve drawn something, uploaded it then realized I forgot one minor detail I wanna fix. Without the project file that contains all my layers, I’d be so screwed. Just keep the file around for maybe a week or two, at least until you know you won’t go back and edit it any time soon. Also be careful you don’t save a file as a PNG to show it to a friend, make progress, then just aimlessly click “save” because it’ll be in the format you last saved it as. I’ve had a friend do that several times and it’s terrible when that happens.

Okay this went from some help to a sales pitch. Still, when I found out about this stuff I thought it was a godsend. I might’ve just rambled on about stuff you already knew about, but I tried to cover some more obscure things you won’t find in basic YouTube tutorials. Anyways, hope this was of use to you!

-Sassy