#I'm always finding new ways to NOT use his actual color palette

[maverickmongrel]

anime eyes

[assassyart]

What are your favorite outfits for Ratchet from the games?

Good question!

As far as the armors go, I usually never actually use them in the majority of the games I play (unless they're forced onto me, like Deadlocked's or 2016's). But I do have my favorites.

Holoflux

Shocking probably no one, Holoflux is the best. People often say it's their favorite, and that's for good reason— it looks incredibly good on Ratchet. I definitely don't enjoy drawing this armor that much, but I still will do it from time to time because I like it that much, and Ratchet gets pretty privilege.

It's also cool that this armor matches Azimuth pretty well, and I like that it has the "powered down" version in cutscenes. It makes the finale hit that much harder. This is the only armor where I know it's my favorite. The others are in no particular order.

Quest

Quest for Booty's armor was always rather charming to me, but it got even better once I recognized it had the Apogee insignia on the belt. I am a Talwyn and Ratchet stan at heart, so this pulled this armor above some others just because of that detail. But putting that aside, it also really fits the game it's in and makes Ratchet look like an explorer. He matches Talwyn quite nicely, too, which fits since she's his companion in this game.

Rebel

Oh my god this armor stole my HEART for so long. I am begging Insomniac to give us more casual fits in the next entry because this armor spoiled me so much. I love the graffiti Clank on the left hand, I love the little jacket, I love how the full gear doesn't cover his face... it's just adorable. Such a good fit that suits Ratchet so much and it's definitely my favorite new armor in Rift Apart.

Infernox

As far as armors that cover Ratchet's face go, Infernox was always one of my favorites as a kid. Something about its color palette and overall "flame" vibe just screamed early-Ratchet to me. I really like this one, and I definitely prefer it over the more popular Carbonox armor. Then again, I'm also a sucker for Up Your Arsenal. :P

2002

Not an armor but an absolute classic look. Of all the ones here, it's my favorite to draw since it lets me draw more of Ratchet's fur. It broke my heart to know that IG really wanted to put it in to Rift Apart, but was unable to find a way. I hope they try to do it for the next game, but I'll understand even if they can't. It's just one of the best looks for Ratchet. So iconic.

Marauder

Listen. This armor is really cool looking, and I like it, and I especially like that Deadlocked lets me take off the helmet too... but boy, this bitch is painful to draw. Simplifying it almost feels heinous to do, since it's just so cool looking but GAH!!!! If you ever wonder why I never update the Deadlocked Together AU, it's because of this!!! This painful armor!!!!!!

That aside, this armor fits the tone of the game so well. It's edgy, it's brooding, it's dark. I love it. The only thing I don't like is the fact they hide his tail :(

Tuxedo

Despite always playing Going Commando and Up Your Arsenal exclusively without armor when I play, you would never be able to tell because I love wearing the tuxedo Ratchet skins. Somethin about formal Ratchet makes me have heart eyes. Very kissable.

Robot Pirate

While I obviously prefer rebel, this was one of the only other armors in Rift Apart that I found myself using for Ratchet. The scarf really looks good on him, and I'm very fond of the chest plate. If it weren't for Quest armor's inclusion, I would always wear this armor when going to Ardolis.

Comics

Last but not least (because tumblr says I should stop adding images)... the comic outfits. Once again, the casual Ratchet outfits are always going to score higher for me. I loveeeee seeing my boy look more casual. And while the left image looks a lot like his normal outfit, I prefer it more for keeping it loose. That, and something about that blue chest piece never sat right with me. In a perfect world, I think it would have stayed green to keep his earthy tones in tact even after Tools of Destruction.

And the overalls are just. Mwah. Chef's kiss. What a dork. He's so cute. I love him.

Thanks for the ask!

[38sr]

Hi! I really love the way you color, and I was wondering If you could make a tutorial about it, I of course completely understand if you Can't/don't want to do it thanks in advance If you decided to do it and have a good day/night.

Hello hello! Ooooh, a color tutorial! I've never done one before so I'm not sure if I'll be any good at it haha. But I don't mind sharing my thinking process when it comes to coloring my works. So when it comes to color, I very much have a traditional painter's approach since that's how I learned color in art college. My painting professor never allowed us to use black or white paint, we could only use other colors to create darker colors or new colors altogether. And you're probably thinking, "What the hell? That's insane." And I wouldn't blame you haha. But this approach helped me a lot to not rely on tints (colors mixed with white) and shades (colors mixed with black) when I color. For the most part, I purely thinking about value and hues when I'm coloring.

Finding the right values:

So for this drawing, I did two different takes (one with direct harsh lighting and one without). The reason why I'm showing this is because when it comes to color it's very important that your values aren't clashing with each other. When I started out, all my coloring felt flat because I was using colors with the same values so there was little to no depth. A lot of people don't realize this but color does have value!

If we put the primary colors on greyscale, you notice how each color has its own value. Blue tends to be a dark value, red has a mid to dark value , and yellow is a much lighter value. This is why if you ever look at my work, the color I use for shadows lean into blue/purple tones. You can also have warm shadows since red does have a deeper value compared to yellow. But these values are when the primary colors are at the highest saturation. What would happen if we knocked down the saturation levels?

The values start to become more similar. Since we're not always using the most saturated colors, it's important to understand the values behind the colors you'll use. Once you unlock that, you can pretty much do whatever you want with color haha. That's why I hardly ever use black or white in my digital art when mixing (also I don't mix color with a brush, I just pick from the color wheel which might be insane).

While it's not wrong to use white or black to create darker/lighter colors, color in real life doesn't always act that way. Shadows and highlights can have color. For myself, letting go of white and black has opened a world of color combinations that I didn't think of before taking my first ever traditional painting class. Now, I can freely pick colors and experiment with palettes since I've blocked out what values I need (like the image below).

Even if I'm using blending modes like in the next image, I'm always thinking about making clear value separations. If I can't understand the image in black and white, then I'll have a hard time seeing it in color.

And when you get very comfortable, you can start placing characters in different color environments and match them (which essentially is the job of a color designer in TV animation).

The right image is the official color palette for my character which already uses a lot of blue/purple for the shadows. But on the left side, she's in a night-time environment so I leaned even more into the cool colors to the point that the white T-shirt is actually a very very light purple/pink color haha.

Or like this example where the left drawing gives a more sunset/golden hour lighting while the right one is more blue hour/night time lighting. But you can read the colors clearly 'cause the values are clear to begin with. While that wasn't really a tutorial this is pretty much my thought process when I'm coloring my digital works. ^^; I very much do follow an academic approach to color theory but even then I think it's okay to break the rules. As long as you have understanding of colors' value, I think you'll be able to unlock any color style you want! I hope that answered your question and was helpful!

[verbosebabbler]

Made a mockup of a theoretical Zampaniosim gameboy game. @jadedresearcher

This was really satisfying to make, just seeing all the parts, the character sprites, the background, the UI, all come together to form a cohesive whole. I love mockups and concept art and creating something of my own that has that affect on me was great.

I have ideas on how the game would play. Basically, it's a position based combat system that will have some looping system of preserving experience points and levels. I'm not going to make it real though, I don't have the game making experience to try that. But I liked having the mechanics in mind for if I want to make more screenshots from this fake game.

As for why I chose these characters to focus on, I just see a lot of potential in how their motivations can clash. Just, the pathos of it all. I'll explain more below the cut

Peewee, after enduring several lifetimes of watching the world around him, everyone he knows, and even his own body be corrupted by forces outside of his control, gets some semblance of hope with the forming of the new universe, the :hatched_chick:, that he may be free from this torment. Only for a heinous echidna universe to sprout into existence, siphoning and slowly killing this new universe. Then, after being thrusted into this corrupted world, finds himself even less in control, being directly puppeted by beings beyond his understanding: the Observers... us.

While he was initially forced into being the adopted father of these kids through both the Observers and the nebulous concept of relevancy that kept these kids around (unlock other lamia), Peewee does end up actually developing parental feelings towards these three lamia kids.

But his sole purpose for being here is to destroy this universe from the inside. To maybe make things go back to the way they used to be.

But for Rebel, Rod, and Melon, unlike most of the other characters in this series, this is their world. It's the only world they've ever known, and each have their own motivations for protecting it.

Melon's is most obvious, and what got me started thinking about this storyline in depth. Melon is an eco terrorist, destroying business with harmful business practices towards the planet and nature.

Then there's Rod, who seems to have a connection to the echidna of the echidna universe itself, always carrying around an echidna doll. And Rod is the most externally compassionate of the three, so he'd likely be the one to rally the others to work together.

Finally there's Rebel. Less obvious with his thorny exterior, but Rebel is the one of three that's most connected to the people of the outside world, making friends with some of the mall characters. And the little peace symbol on his pocket betrays his true feelings.

And with all this it turns out that their father figure wishes to destroy it and everyone in it, including them.

So each has to fight between their own feelings of familial care for each other, and their own goals to either protect the world or destroy it. There's just so much drama here worth exploring.

And for sticking around, here's some alternate color palette versions.

[shima-draws]

Hiya!! I saw you were having a hard time, so I'm here to distract you from the things!! >7<)/

Who was your first OC? What did they look like, mayhaps try to redesign/redraw them side by side!

I hope things get better for you soon!!

Aw thank you!!! 🥰

My first OC was either Shima or Riku, I can't remember for sure who came first but they've been with me the longest

And yeah I've redesigned them both lots of times already! I have a habit of redesigning OCs once every few years lol

First art I EVER posted of them? I had to dig into my old DeviantART account to find this, this is from 2011 holy SHIT?? Have I really been on the internet for that long? Anyway old art jumpscare warning

Aww. Baby Shima art <3

This was before Riku actually got a human form, he actually started out as a Pokemon OC that was like. A weird genetic mutation of Pikachu? Uncreative little me called him Rare Pikachu LMAO or RP for short. Neat bit of lore, when I eventually repurposed him to become Riku I kept those same initials. Riku Promethera = RP :") Just a callback to his origins <3 He's always been Shima's partner tho since the beginning which makes me really emo honestly

Anyway here have 10+ years of Shima and Riku art

Shima's hair has gotten noticeably pinker but her actual hair style has stayed relatively the same after the very first redesign. God it used to be so DARK and way browner but I think the pink fits the palette very well :"D

And Riku...I used to strictly adhere to the black color scheme but I think the new one with the earthy tones suits him perfectly since he's a land elemental!

Also I need to draw him pathetic and covered in blood again. Tbh.

[weirdestcornelius]

I'm glad this blog exists cause I can finally bitch to someone about Sparklecare lmao.

I hate how Barry's color palette turned to shit overtime. I get there's a lore reason for it but he just looks ugly now. Also, the old artstyle is way better than the new one. It has more character and just overall looks better. Literally compare Orange U Glad's new ref and their old and you'll see what I mean

Sorry for this yap session

I like the saturation rules when they're used correctly, but honestly they don't make ANY sense now! How does light green go to neon yellow?? Wouldn't it be like. Bright light green. How does Funfetti's spots go from pink, yellow and blue to just blue. And why did their LIMBS change color? If Eve is so traumatized, why isn't SHE neon?

Also the v5 style is. Very ugly to me. Orange quite literally got skinnier and now their head looks like a dorito (they/them for orange here please. They'll always be enby they/them in my heart) and their eyes are. EWW their eyes. And their fluff is gone! I think one of the only main ref sheets I like is Funfetti's and Barry's, besides his uranium color scheme I like that he's actually fat now.

It just feels like it's getting very mainstream. I understand simpling designs so they can be easier to draw, trust me. I'm an artist, I do it all the time. But this is very excessive. Uni's wings aren't drawn rarely at all anymore!

I Also don't like the pronoun changes if you couldn't tell. I hate the erasure of masc presenting enbies that also so happen to have male parts (not saying the word because I don't want THOSE bots to find my profile. I'm also not a big fan of AFAB and AMAB so I won't use it unless I completely need to). I don't think that this fandom understands that not every non binary person has female parts.

With Party I don't really care considering they have always been masc enby to me and I'm a they/he Party truther, and because his pronouns didn't change because the fandom was misgendering them and Kc just gave in and allowed it. That's what happened with Orange and Jay.

"well people were calling jay he anyways so why not" it's blatant erasure. There's no they/them main characters anymore, only than side patients and side staff.

[gaviicreates]

Sky Blanket 2024 - Q1

Hi crafty friends! I am incredibly overdue on sharing an update on my sky blanket for 2024. If you are new to this project, some things to know:

This is my version of the temperature blanket this year - one row a day. Except instead of temperature, I am using "what is the sky doing today?" as my scale. The palette is all blues and greys based on how sunny or cloudy it is, going all the way from turquoise blue for the sunniest of sunnies to a dark grey for thunderstorms.

It's based on the year between two dates, not the start of the year. So my Q1 actually begins mid-October '23 and ends mid-January '24. So I am only a month behind sharing. I blame it on the weaving in of ends.

I am actually staying decently caught up! I don't always do the rows right away, but they are fairly quick to work up so I'm finding I can bring myself to current just within a single Sunday if I need to. The harder part has been making sure I record the weather, and there have been more days than I'd like to admit where I barely had a chance to go outside at all. I've been using timeanddate.com if I need to check dates I might have missed to make my best guess for cloud cover.

In Q1 - 92 days total:

Sunny - 30%, 28 days Partly Cloudy - 27%, 25 days Mostly Cloudy - 15%, 14 days Overcast - 12%, 11 days Rain - 13%, 12 days Snow/Ice- 2%, 2 days

I have not yet had a chance to use my granite colorway for thunderstorms. Meanwhile, the cream border will always be around every square. Admittedly in different number so I can get the month to the same consistent 33 rows.

Pattern: Toni Lipsey's/TLYarnCraft's linen square stitch pattern The Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK

The pattern The yarn

(yes I still love the colors of the sky... even though it forces me to weave in too many ends to count)

[musashden]

Oliver's Option

Okay so... still in X-men brainrot. I'm sorry if you followed me for some other fandom - at the moment this is all I can think about. I imagine it'll go away once X-men '97s season ends in May. But in the mean time I'm back reading X-men comics and thinking about my long time OC Oliver Croix. Back in 2017 I rewrote his story and it's super long and detailed and if you want to read it it's over here

So what is this? Well this is just something that's been rolling around in my head for a bit now. When I talk about Oliver's origin's I alway cite that he used to be a girl named Drake that looked like a panther but somewhere along the way I made him a boy that resembles a Siamese cat (for some reason). And I looked it up and it turns out that's not true. He doesn't have the coloring of a Siamese cat AT ALL! The only thing I got sort of right were his eyes. Siamese cat's actually have dark faces and ash blond bodies - so I tried the correct color palette on him... I'm not crazy about it. Which is probably what happened 20 years ago when I picked his 'basic' palette.

Next we have what he would've looked like if he kept 'Drake's' colors. Trying to find anything about who she was on my drives was... a task. Her story is disjointed to say the least. I wrote it when I was 18 and was surprised to find it was an 'enemies to lovers' plot. Drake and Nightcrawler did not like each other at all when they first met. They nearly come to blows several times over basically nothing burgers and I could slap 18 year old me for ever thinking Kurt would fight a woman over petty shit. In the comics he never actively fights a woman - just disarms them and evades, occasionally he'll find away to knock them out but I don't think I ever seen a panel of Kurt just straight up decking a woman in the face. If you find one let me know. ANYWAY Drake was a pain in the ass, just like her dad and no one ever gave her boundaries except Nightcrawler and that's why she fell for him. She proceeds to make his life more difficult until they have a heart-to-heart blah blah blah - it's all very stupid. My best guess as to why she looks like a panther, because her father is Sabertooth. I wanted to keep in the animal scheme and or some reason didn't pick a lynx or lion. Drake's color were legit black hair and black skin. That's it. Oh and she could shoot fire from her hands for some reason. Current Oliver uses magic to do that so I guess I did keep something from her.

The combo is just me goofing off BUT I really like it! Looking at regular Oliver the word 'basic' is perfect for it. It's very blah isn't it? I'm seriously considering making 'combo' his new look. Well his 'newer' look. I just finished a comic featuring his basic look - it's not too late to go in and give him an update. The dark ears really pop and I actually like having his forehead and eye area being dark like the Siamese version. Not sure about the green eyes (his third eye is green so I think I'll keep his blue on blue eyes) For a cat-boy he doesn't really have any stripes or markings so he might get dark hands and feet or light hair on his chest. The lips are a winner. 

What do you think?

[mewos-box]

BSD Volume 23 Cover Analysis

Hello! Today I will analyze the book new cover.

!SPOILERS BELOW!

In the front, there's Atsushi, confidently raising his hand up. He looks decisive, and so he will try his best to save the world and to return people's trust to ADA. Behind him, there's a white sheet of paper ripped on its edge, which partly covers the face of another person. They look very similar to Kenji, and both of them have freckles. If the character actually is Kenji, then the page might symbolize him starting to rewrite his life entirely on a blank piece of paper after joining the Armed Detective Agency. Yet, if it is a new character, then it could mean that their story in the manga has just begun. The plants (I'm not sure exactly which plants they are) are white and are near those characters. They signify Atsushi and the other characters' hope for better.

On the very back of the drawing, there is paper used for writing. It indicates that everything shown in front of it is happening in the manga, and if the Book will be used again, its whole plot can change with a single blink. The light purple color of the sheet contrasts with the warm color palette for Atsushi and ?Kenji?.  Even though the world of the BSD can be cruel, the characters will stay on the bright side and will fight no matter what. Likewise, it might mean that in the story, the good will always defeat the evil.

Futhermore, there are petals on the book cover. When a flower is dying, its petals are falling down. Chuuya and Akutagawa are drawn on them, meaning that in the current moment they are not alive or are in a life-threatening situation. Near the red petals on the book cover, we can see blood splashes. Also, we can see that Chuuya is wiping blood from his face. Those parts of the illustration are implying that both Port Mafia members became vampires. 

The locations of the petals and ?Kenji's? face with shirt form a cross shape, as you can see on the image below. Atsushi's face is placed where both lines intersect each other. Hence, he might play an essential role in the upcoming chapters and might be able to find a way to stop Fukuchi.

[cleaning-has-its-benefits]

Some months ago I entertained the idea of writing a post-good ending multichaptered fic. It's tittle would have been "don't you think you've caused enough trouble?" and that would have been a recurring question Sunny asks himself. I had a couple of ideas and scenes, but besides the basic premise of "sunny's life after the game" I didn't have a plot in mind. I'm someone who focuses a lot in structure when writing, so without a clear idea of what was the point of the story, I eventualy decisted from writing this. and either way, I prefer single-chapter fi, but maybe one day I'l write a multichaptered one.

anyways, there was a scene I wrote for this. It's pretty stand alone.

___________

The colorful landscapes, the fantastical forests, the distant planets, the deep oceans, they’re all gone. In their place, there’s no more than a simple, small, but homely room. This room has a sliding glass door that leads nowhere. For now, at least, and for the foreseeable future. The dreamer had become afraid of dreaming. No, not afraid, just… concerned. He will limit himself to this. It’s a good start, he thinks. One day, there will be a world behind the glass door. There will be. Sunny has always been imaginative, an artist. Creating and imagining had been part of his life long before he turned them harmful, before he needed to be concerned about letting his imagination fly. Today, however, he’ll stay in the world in where he has loved and suffered, until he’s sure he won’t lost himself again.

There’s no way to get lost in this room. It’s a room to be, to reminisce. On it’s walls, there’s varied paintings. On the first wall, they’re in all sizes and colors, some a bit faded, others clear as day. They evoke different sentiments, some are of happy scenes, others are a bit sad (in truth, they all are a bit saddening, in their own way). There are a few ones, really few, that depict some specially tragic scenes. (Not the worst ones, those are in the black album laying on top of a nightstand, at one of the corners of the room. Closed, but always visible, always there.)

On the walls at the sides, the paintings are less varied. Many are recolors of some of the paintings at the other wall, making use of an unnatural palette. There are a few unique ones, but the ones that stand out more are the most abstract ones, and also the most horrifying.

The last wall is practically empty. Despise this, Sunny seemed much more interested in this wall, his back turned to the other ones. There are only two paintings. The first, depicts a scene taking place in a hospital room. The second is of a small house, in where people are unpacking boxes.

Sunny places his hand on the empty wall. Our new memories will be here.

Omori, sitting on the sofa in the middle of the room, simply blinks at him. An acknowledgment. He’s listening, although Sunny wonders if he can actually grasp the concept. New memories.

He turns towards Omori, who is still as a statue, looking at him, waiting for new instructions. Sunny doesn’t know what to tell him. Not that he needs to, these things sort out themselves, even if he isn’t sure of the process. How many people actually know how they function themselves? At the very least, he knows Omori will be a part of his life from now-on, just like that album at the corner of the room. Just another thing he has to work on. Consequences he has to learn to live with.

This seems like a good start, he thinks again. Omori has been completely calm, for now. He’s willing to listen, even if he’s skeptical of this next stage of his life. Sunny, for his own surprise, finds himself rather optimistic, even if he’s aware this sentiment won’t last forever. Nothing lasts forever.

Sunny didn’t set on this path searching after eternal happiness, however. He turns towards the empty wall again. He would like to have some happy paintings, but the idea still feels like a dream. So, he’ll strive for being at peace with himself, for now.

And in this moment, he has achieved that. It won’t always be the case, specially not so soon, but it is still a small victory. A good start, Sunny decides.

[humanmorph]

success : ) he added the songs. i also drew something and thought about brnine at 5am in lieu of listening to the new ep

This song makes me mostly sad about Phrygian but it's a good Brnine grief song generally. It's probably all the talk about listening to tapes of a person you love. "I'll hear what you say and you'll hear me too" specifically kind of gets me... Also "the way we used to fight" because Brnine HAS to still be thinking about the S.I. fight even of just subconsciously. It clicks.

I don't remember if its come up on the show but I don't really think Brnine watches/listens to the GurValence recordings?* I'm just having trouble imagining that when they won't even say their name. If that's true, (it is to me at the time I drew this and am thinking about it now) this probably feels like a moment of weakness or giving in. (It's late at night or very early and they can't sleep. Probably just recently moved from the hospital room to their own. The sound is a hum from the Asepsis terrarium and, quietly, the tape. The room is very messy.)

Though I guess here grief re: Valence is more direct since they're listening to one of those tapes (though they might not be like, /hearing/ it really) and re: Phrygian it's more like. A vague revulsion but also comfort? familarity? and not wanting to think about it at feeling the wires & cables on their skin (the shapes lying around are supposed to be gutted machine parts or whatever. You know. Things with wires and cables in them). I also drew this hand with a cord twirled around their fingers kind of gripping it, it just didn't fit in the picture.

I do think this is probably too emo for Brnine because they're so... Compartmentalizing with their grief specifically until it catches them off guard or/bc they stop moving (Which they won't now. They're on borrowed time! ). I just really liked this image I had in my head! This is what fanart is for. I love Brnine.

Lately I've really been wanting to play around with lineweight more, it's something I like a lot in art I look at... it kind of goes together with a fluidity I wish my lines had! (I think my lines usually end up looking kind of rigid because I always want them to be really clean.) I've been enjoying looking at beeelderly's art for that reason lately. You probably just get a feeling on where to put weight the more you do it, but currently it's guesswork for me, so I'm paying close attention. I wish I could remember the name of a webcomic I read recently that also used this... Anyways I have like 1 brush that does this well (luckily I like using it. I think it's the one I used to the animatic?), and I might look for more. I wanna get more bold with it too. Lining! I might grit my teeth about it a lot but it's fun! The color palette is kind of from the album cover... I didn't directly color pick or anything but I haven't drawn with a green like that in a while (PALISADE art keeps ending up being purple) & I like it. I'm also enjoying coloring in monotones. I'm still mostly bullshitting lighting, but it's a bit easier to wrap my head around this way... I should still practice coloring & actually look at color theory more, but I'm having fun with this, and it's a step up from leaving sketches black & white (which has it's merits too! I'm usually planning comics in b&w).

_______________

* When I thought about this the other day I was like woah... just like in Andor...!** I can't be assed to find this AMCA quote rn but there's a part where they talk about Cassian being afraid to take Nemiks manifesto. And then he just stores it in a box along with his most important possessions for x amount of time. And it's not really the same it's not but you could draw parallels if you wanted to. I believe..... (Thinking about rewatching Andor again. The AMCA coverage really was crazy good on that one. I also miss when I wasn't fully caught up on AMCA I might just start relistening to their Clone Wars eps.....)

** Well let's be clear. PARTIZAN was first.

this is the 2nd song that has lyrics in the episode desc but wasnt added to the palisade playlist so i might risk being kind of annoying and send an ask to austin about it. because what the fuck i love this

[mrs-mquve-cc]

Hi Fia! Absolutely love your hair retextures. I have a ton of your stuff on my DLs folder haha. Can't wait to see what new hairs you're going to share with that new hair palette. I'm just curious, in case this has not been answered before. How long does it take for you on average from start to finish to create a new batch of hair retextures and recolors? 33 hair colors (46 before, wow) sounds like a lot of time and work to me (which I greatly appreciate, btw!). I once did all the pooklet unnatural colors for a hair I retextured for personal use and it took me literal hours including renaming, binning, tooltipping, compressing... Ugh it gives me a headache when I think about it. Never again haha. Anyways I just wanted to know because you've always had a ton of recolors and I've been watching your workshop on the Sims 2 Shenanigans youtube channel where you cover part of that process. Taking notes on those tips!

Hi! I'm glad you enjoy my CC 😊 It used to take me over an hour to do all the recolors. However... I started using the DDS import method again instead of doing my recolors through Bodyshop like I did in the workshop.

I thought I had used it when I started doing hair and ran into problems so that's why I've been doing it in Bodyshop for so long. And I didn't notice a difference in the amount of time it took, because you still have to generate the package files in Bodyshop. But I remembered incorrectly about the texture issues - it was because I was using Build DXT with PNGs, not DDS format.

So now it takes less than an hour - granted I am using fewer colors but there are also fewer steps. Since you're generating empty packages in Bodyshop to replace the textures in SimPE, you can just use Bulk Rename Utility on the files, and CatOfEvilGenius's filenameTooltip program saves me the trouble of tooltipping manually.

I feel bad that I did that entire workshop and now I'm using a method I find more efficient. There are multiple ways of doing things in TS2, so maybe some people prefer the old way? The actual retexturing process isn't any different so hopefully people will find it useful for that. Maybe I could do another workshop covering this method. I don't want anyone to waste time if there's a faster way!

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

so after reading supergirl woman of tomorrow I’ve been really hungry for comics with really good art. comics that I’ve enjoyed (thanks to recs from friends) are cosmoknights and paper girls.

so I wanted to ask, do you have any recs (supergirl or not) for comics with great art?

OOOOoooh, I do indeed have some recommendations! (I too am always hungry for Really Good Comic Art, and I'll admit that I'm still working to go outside my comfort zone and try new creators/types of stories, so this list is not exhaustive! But hopefully some of these titles can act as springboards for further exploration--that's how I've been going about it!)

RIGHT, SO! In terms of 'cape comics' and superhero stuff:

Stuart Immonen's Superman: Secret Identity. Immonen is regarded as one of the best 'cape comics' artists out there. He's since moved on to self-published indie titles, but yeah. Not only is this a great 'Superman' story but also, like:

Russell Dauterman's Thor run with Jane Foster. Since Love and Thunder recently came out, I think they've collected this story in it's own trade, so it's maybe easier/cheaper to hunt down? Otherwise it's available in three hardcover omnibuses (omnibi???) and it's basically gorgeous:

Anything with Darwyn Cooke art. New Frontier is the big one but pretty much all of his work is phenomenal.

Elena Casagrande's Black Widow run. Eisner-winning book that Marvel decided to cancel at issue 15. *cue frustrated grumbling* The run has several fill in artists but when Casagrande's on? Beautiful double page spreads and, since it's a Kelly Thompson book, a whole lotta De Luca effect!

(Note: The book itself is not in black and white, I believe this was shared either by Casagrande or Thompson via a newsletter to show the process/bts stuff)

**Cliff Chiang's Catwoman Lonely City. The artist behind Papergirls doing a stellar 'Old Lady Selina' book. Great stuff.

**Greg Smallwood's Human Target. Tom King gets all the good artists, I tell ya! XD Really lovely homage to mid-century illustration, and a fairly compelling Noir-y murder mystery, told with superheroes!

Anything with Jamal Campbell art: I think the 'second season' of Naomi just wrapped (which is literally what they called the comic--not to be confused with the actual TV season ) and **Far Sector is also out as a completed trade. I *love* the way Campbell renders his figures. (And it's all him! Inks, colors, the whole deal!)

Dan Mora's Batman/Superman World's Finest. Everything Dan Mora draws is just flat-out awesome. Slick! Dynamic! Begging for an animated adaptation of some sort! Would also recommend checking out his Power Rangers stuff (he's got this very cool oneshot about like. Redemption Arc Alt-Universe Kimberly Hart/Pink Ranger. It's great.) and I've not read it myself but **Once and Future is coming to a close, so if you're into Arthurian Legends, that might be one to look in to.

Honorable Cape Comic Mentions: Anything and Everything by either Chris Samnee or Doc Shaner. (Daredevil and the current, ongoing Mary Marvel title especially.) For Samnee, beautiful use of spot blacks and a mastery of sequential storytelling; for Shaner, his color game is on point and his character acting/figure work is wonderful.

Cape Comic Anthologies:

Batman Black and White, Superman Red and Blue, Wonder Woman Black and Gold, Solo, and Wednesday Comics. Anthology books are usually a hard sell because there's no guarantee that you're going to enjoy all the stories, so I don't typically recommend them. However, these collections specifically focus on the art side of things--most of them feature a kind of artistic 'gimmick'. (I.e. limited color palettes, newspaper comic formatting, etc.) There's a ton of folks featured in these books--Batman Black and White especially, I think there's multiple volumes of that. A great way to find new artists to check out!

Non-Superhero Stuff:

Matías Bergara's Step by Bloody Step. The trade comes out soon; it's an entirely wordless comic, so the art literally carries the entire book. XD It's heckin' gorgeous, and OUR BOY MAT LOPES ON COLORRSSS

Jeff Smith's Bone. A classic in both black and white, and color!

Luke Pearson's Hilda. The series upon which the adorable Netflix show is based! Beautiful color design and fun panel construction throughout.

Jonathan Case's Little Monarchs. This one came out recent-ish I believe. Really compelling premise rooted in real-world science, and features in-universe 'field notes' and illustrations, all meticulously rendered.

**Elsa Charretier's Love Everlasting. Okay, you wanna know the WILD thing about Charretier??? She was an aspiring actress at one point, but she wasn't happy with it. Her partner at the time wanted to write comics, so he bluffed his way through a pitch with a pro without any pages. He asked her to draw some and BOOM, that's how she decided to teach herself how to draw comics!!! In 2012!!! Insanity. In the best way.

Tracy Butler's Lackadaisy. Easily one of the most beautiful and INCREDIBLY clever webcomics around. It's a bunch of rum-runner cats. I know Butler has a Patreon these days but I *think* the comic itself is still available for free.

Titles marked with a ** are Black Label/mature, so. Not appropriate for all ages. Just a heads up!

And there is the list! As mentioned, hopefully this is a good starting point for poking around into other corners of comic art; there's a TON of great indie titles out right now, and I gotta say, DC is doing a pretty great job with a lot of their Black Label stuff in terms of committing to artists in particular. Marvel is in a bit of a...not a slump, necessarily, but very tied to their 'house style' at the moment. (Alex Ross has a new Fantastic Four graphic novel coming out, though, so that should be interesting!)

If you have any other questions about these titles/further recs, feel free to send 'em my way!

[tteokggukk]

welcome to my youtube channel → kth

✳ pairing: idol!taehyung x youtuber!reader

✳ genre: fluff, taehyung scenario, stranger to lovers, reader is an artist who posts art videos on youtube

✳ warnings: none!

✳ words: 2.9k

✳ a/n: hello, this is my second bts oneshot/scenario. i just like to write for fun but if you’d like to let me know if there’s anything i can improve on please do so! i’d love to know how to improve. anyways, i hope you enjoy!

"Hey guys, welcome to my YouTube Channel."

You spoke in front of the camera. Sets of acrylic paint were spread out across the table next to a stand that held an 18x24 inch canvas. You were in the middle of making your seventeenth video, a highly requested one at that, and deep down you were ecstatic to start working on the painting.

Never in your life did you think you would ever start a YouTube account. You always considered yourself a very shy and private person, not one to go out of their way and broadcast themselves all over the internet. Your best friends, however, were two very well-known YouTubers and always found a way to include you in their videos and live streams. Somehow people liked seeing more of you, and so you were convinced by your best friends and the audience to start your own YouTube channel.

But you weren't very accustomed to bringing a camera everywhere with you to document and share whatever was happening in your daily life, you found it too awkward and you were still camera-shy, so you decided to create content in a way that would still keep you comfortable while doing something you loved.

An art channel.

Your channel blew up pretty fast. Requests started pouring in here and there. You became known for your very calm demeanor and artistic skills, so you took this as an opportunity to sell your works online as a way to earn some extra money for your future. Occasionally, you'd do lives to talk to your fans and you were happy at the support they showed you, which only encouraged you to keep making videos.

"This was a highly requested video, and I honestly can't wait to get started," you told the camera, mentally telling yourself to insert the comments and messages you got in your DMs to paint this Adonis-like human being. The requests started coming in after you had an Instagram live where you did some quick sketches while playing some of your favorite songs in the back, and people noticed one of the songs you played was by him.

"You guys also asked if I could sell this painting, but because of the "high demand"," you spoke, adding air quotes, "I'd like to keep it up for auction so the proceeds could go to different fundraisers."

You started mixing different colors in your palette and showed everyone the picture for your reference.

"So, without further ado, today I will be painting Kim Taehyung."

"Hey guys, welcome to my YouTube Channel."

Taehyung watched as you spoke in the video, looking behind you to see a bunch of art materials. The title of the video was left ambiguously, only being named most requested video, leaving him no clue on what it was you were going to create this time.

He's been watching your videos for quite some time now, ever since your channel started rising. Art was one of his major interests and he absolutely adored the way you made your videos with the calming, ASMR-like sound of mixing paint and how you skillfully glided the brush across the canvas. On days when he found himself tired and in need of a quick way to relax, he'd subconsciously find himself binge watching videos on your channel— even repeating several videos since you were only starting. He found it fascinating, but also because he found you interesting.

Because of your channel, he even created an anonymous YouTube account just to leave nice comments on your videos along with a private Instagram account to be able to watch your lives.

Needless to say, he didn't miss that one live where you played the song Winter Bear. It made his whole night, making him sleep with a smile on his face.

"This was a highly requested video, and I honestly can't wait to get started." 

He watched as a bunch of comments started appearing onscreen popping up one by one as they gradually got faster, eventually covering you. It took a moment before it sunk in that he was the highly requested person they wanted you to paint. He paused the video, wide-eyed, before shouting in excitement. Jimin had to come in and check what the whole commotion was about.

"Y/n's going to paint me!" Taehyung exclaimed, his mouth turning into his famous boxy smile. 

"Ah, the YouTuber you really like?" Jimin smiles before sitting down next to Taehyung who continued playing the video, "I wanna see."

"You guys also asked if I could sell this painting, but because of the "high demand", I'd like to keep it up for auction so the proceeds could go to different fundraisers."

"Wow, she seems really kind," Jimin says, while Taehyung only nods, his eyes glued to the screen.

"So, without further ado, today I will be painting Kim Taehyung."

He felt his heart beat fast when you mentioned his name, and without realizing it his ears have gone all red. 

On screen, you began sketching, "You guys have also been sending me a lot of questions lately, which is why I decided to tweet about doing a q&a."

"What questions did you ask?" Jimin asked Taehyung.

"I asked her if being an artist is something she'd like to pursue," Taehyung told him.

"Ooooh, trying to get to know her," Jimin teases, "Our little Taehyungie has a celebrity crush."

Taehyung rolls his eyes but breaks out into a grin anyway, "I just respect her artistry."

"Right, okay," Jimin snickers, obviously not buying it.

Taehyung knew he was telling the truth, though. It was impossible to have feelings for someone who you only knew through a screen. He found you attractive for sure, but he of all people would know that almost no one is completely one-hundred percent themselves on screen. Genuine as you may be, there are still things that are best kept to yourself. He couldn’t lie though, if given the chance to get to know you, he’d never pass up on that offer.

"Someone asked why I don't use that much ready-made paint," You spoke on screen, "It's ‘cause I learn a lot from mixing my own colors, and also I just really enjoy it."

The painting was beginning to come together halfway through the video and Taehyung's question finally made its way to you. "Kimyeontan95 asks, ‘is painting a career you want to pursue? I love your work, by the way’."

"That was basically I love you," Jimin holds back a laugh, earning him a light punch in the arm from Taehyung.

"Thank you so much, kimyeontan95, and no, painting is just a hobby of mine and a way to earn some future savings. I actually really want to be a novelist."

Taehyung smiled after hearing you answer his question. Later on, the video was over and his portrait was complete. He hurriedly redirected himself to the link that was provided for the auction.

Something in him wanted to have that painting no matter what, so he set himself as the highest bidder and eventually had it mailed to his home where he put your work up in his room to cherish.

A day after your video was posted, you woke up to a thousand notifications from your phone. Hundreds of people were mentioning you in tweets and you had numerous missed calls from your best friends and some texts telling you to check your online art shop. You groggily scroll through your feed, a bit confused as to what was happening.

I wanted to buy this painting and I had it in my list, but now it's unavailable!

Y'ALL WHAT RICH KID SET THE HIGHEST BID TO A MILLION DOLLARS IM CRYING

@yourtwittername are you planning to sell a new collection?

a million dollar bid wtf swownwowksodiowl

Someone just bought all of @yourtwitterusername's paintings. I'm crying in broke eye—

but like what if taehyung set that bid? @yourtwitterusername

What?

I just woke up and my mentions are pouring. What is going on? You tweeted.

Thousands of replies began coming in leaving you feeling overwhelmed and confused on where to start. Everyone was telling you to check your site, and so you did. You felt your heart almost stop beating when you saw that every single artwork you had up for sale were sold out. Nothing was left behind. You checked your emails, and the confirmations were there.

How could this have happened overnight?

ALL MY WORKS ARE SOLD OUT?!?!?!?? WHO COULDVE DONET THIS??? You tweeted, hands shaking.

You felt your heart race, a wide grin that could go even wider if possible was plastered on your face. You tried to stop yourself from screaming in excitement but couldn't so you ended up jumping up and down and doing happy dances before calming down to assess the situation. Finally, you sat down in front of your laptop to see where all your works were being shipped to.

Replies started coming in.

CONGRATS YOU FIGURED IT OUT

WILL U RESTOCK

AHSKWJOA CONGRATS BB

I'M SO HAPPY FOR U

BUT Y/N WHO BOUGHT THEM ALL

Checking your emails, you discover that your art works were all bought by one person. Anonymous. There was no name and someone requested to have their personal information redacted. 

Anonymous? Surely this wasn't a joke?

The person kept their name anonymous. You tweeted and muted the notifications just to allow yourself to focus on finding out who it was that bought everything.

At the bottom of all the removed personal information, there was one username that you were sure you've heard or seen somewhere.

@ Kimyeontan95. 

Underneath the username was a short but sincere message.

"Your videos have always helped me wind down after a long, busy day. I can't express how much you inspire me with your talent and how I wish someday you'd teach me to be half as good as you, as I'm not very gifted in the painting department. I admire how you put your gifts into good things, and I very much idolize you in one way or another. This is just a small way of showing my support for you, but also because all your works are amazing and I'd love to have a small room filled with my favorite art works. I look forward to reading works of yours soon, future novelist.”

Feeling the heat creeping up on your cheeks, you smiled to yourself. The letter was definitely heartfelt and you wanted so badly to thank the person who sent it.

Later that afternoon, you decided to go on live to personally thank the anonymous buyer for buying your works and for sending that wonderful note. You fixed yourself up a little bit and pressed live as thousands of your followers began to tune in.

"Hello, everyone," you greeted, smiling. Replies with greetings started coming in and you couldn't help but chuckle at the eager messages your followers were sending. They truly made you happy.

As expected, several questions began pouring in.

"Right, so, I wanted to do this live because of what happened. As you may have noticed, all my works were suddenly sold out which definitely took me by surprise," you started, "Unfortunately the buyer left everything anonymous. They only left what I assume is a username and a short letter, which I will keep to myself for personal reasons."

@follower1WHAT

@follower2 will you keep selling your works?

@follower3 THATS SUCH A SWEET GESTURE THO OMG/

@follower4 am I the only one who thinks a secret admirer bought it

@follower5 check my YouTube channel I made a theory on who bought her works

@follower6 i rlly think it's taehyung

@follower7 I’'m so proud of you :(((

"If the person who bought all of my paintings is watching this, I really want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. I appreciate the letter as well, you've honestly made me the happiest person on Earth," you smiled.

@follower8 AWWWWW

@follower9 ANON COME OUT

@follower10 i really wanna know what the letter says

@ Kimyeontan95 I'm glad :)

Your heart stopped at one of the replies. You took your phone immediately from its fixed position with wide eyes and began scrolling up fast because of the immediate replies coming in. Wasn't that the username?

@follower11 what's going on?

@follower12 y/n are you okay?

You could no longer find the reply so you set your phone down, fixing it back in place.

"For a second I thought the person who bought it was watching my live," you sighed and smiled nervously, "So anyways— I'd really love to express my gratitude so if they're watching, please contact me. I can't say thank you en—"

Suddenly the replies were frantic. People were sending keyboard smashes here and there. Only a few of them were actual coherent comments. "What is going on?" You asked as you began scrolling through.

@follower13 Y/N CHECK VLIVE

@follower14 TaEHYUNF IS ON LIVE

@follower15 I kNEW IT THOUGH???

@follower16 Y/N CHECK TAEHYUNGS LIVE

@follower5 Y'ALL I WAS RIGHT I SAID CHECK MY YT

Keeping your live on, you grabbed your laptop as fast as you could to check out the links being sent to your live. When it finally loaded, you could've sworn you'd have a heart attack. 

"Oh, I think she's watching me," Taehyung grinned through his live, holding his phone in front of the camera. He quickly shows the viewers his phone screen, which showed your live of you watching him through your laptop. Your eyes widened and you looked back at your phone camera that was broadcasting your live, then back at his live.

Taehyung started giggling, "I guess we're just watching each other, huh?" He smiled. Behind him were packed and unpacked parcels of paintings you recognized were yours. If it was even possible, your eyes grew even wider at this, "Oh my god," you breathed out.

"I should probably introduce myself," Taehyung spoke, "Hello everyone, I'm Kim Taehyung. How are you all doing? Today I’m planning on redecorating my room after our practice. What are the packages behind me? Oh, these are paintings I recently bought."

"Are those my paintings?" You asked out loud, though you knew the answer. 

"Are those my paintings?" Your voice echoed from Taehyung's broadcast as your live was streaming from his phone. He grinned sheepishly, "Yes, these are your works, I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all," You smiled, "You were the buyer?" 

You mentally slapped yourself for asking such obvious questions, but you just couldn't believe everything that was happening now.

"Yes," he chuckles, "I really love your paintings." Suddenly the sound of Jimin’s voice echoed from behind and Taehyung quickly stood up to lock the door, knowing he’d get the teasing of a lifetime if Jimin came and saw him talking to you.

"Thank you so much, I—" Your voice began to crack and your eyes welled with tears that you tried to fight back, "I really appreciate it. And the letter, that was really sweet."

"No, thank you. Wait, don't cry—" Taehyung spoke nervously.

"I'm just so happy," You laughed while wiping the tears off.

The replies from both ends were coming in like crazy. On one hand, majority of everyone watching found the whole scenario cute and started pairing you two out of nowhere, though there were a few haters on the other. It didn't really bother you, you were just so happy someone you idolized noticed your work.

"I'm glad," he was watching you with a fond smile through his phone, then the sound of the Jin’s voice began coming from outside Taehyung’s room, "Sorry for this sudden grand reveal. I really can't stay on live for too long but I'd love to keep talking to you." He spoke.

"Oh no, that's okay," You spoke fast.

"Do you mind if I send you a message? Assuming you already know the username," he asks.

"No not at all, I'd love to keep talking as well," your heart was beating erratically now. You didn't have to see your face to know how red it was becoming.

"Alright, great. Um, before I end this vlive I just wanna say you're a great artist and to all my viewers watching this, please support y/n's artworks and her channel! If I see any negative comments, I'll be taking responsibility and I'll unfortunately have my agency involved in taking those out," he spoke in a commercial tone kind of voice, "And to y/n, I'll be keeping in touch.” The door from behind him suddenly bursts open and Jin, Jimin, and Jungkook rush inside.

“You were talking to her!” Jimin shouts excitedly.

“Finally!” Jungkook claps.

“Is that why you kept the door locked?” Jin teases.

“Bye, everyone!" Taehyung quickly waves goodbye to the camera and smiles before turning the broadcast off. 

You sat there stunned, almost forgetting you were also on live. You turned to your phone which was still recording you, "That was unexpected."

Suddenly, a notification in your DMs popped up. "I'll go ahead and process everything that just happened now, bye guys! See you in my next video." You ended the live with a wave and smile.

You quickly went into your direct messages and found the same username, Kimyeontan95. You opened it and found a picture of Taehyung holding one of your paintings with a peace sign on his other hand, the other members behind him posing with your other works, making you laugh.

Your heart fluttered at the message below the picture.

I hope this isn't too sudden, but would you like to go out with me sometime?

a/n: hello! if you finished it, thank you so much for reading! i hope you liked it hehe. i think i’m gonna keep posting the stuff i write bc i have so many ideas for the other members as well. also this is fun hehe. if you wanna read my other work, let’s fall in love for the night, ← here’s a link! thanks again for reading and please look forward to my future writing/edits.

[neechees]

hi!! i was legit just wondering how long you’ve been doing digital art. i’ve been doing digital art for ~1.5yrs now but the longer i’ve worked at it the more frustrated i’ve become. i mainly do painting so i’ve been TRYING to translate that into my digital art but i just. cannot. did you have any similar frustrations by chance, or just any in general w digital art, and how did you get past them? im finally trying to dedicate some time to practicing over the summer. v frustrating tho 😔

Oh god, I got my first actual drawing tablet back in high school, I thiiiink in grade 10 or 11? So that would've been 2012-2013ish. But i had attempted (very badly) to do digital art on MS paint and Deviantart since Junior High. I was pretty new to the internet and most of my time was spent searching up digital art and printing them out to hang in my room, and I remember wanting to, but feeling like I'd never be as good as the digital artists I saw. But even when I got my first drawing tablet it took me a long time to even get used to! I know the feeling you're talking about. Its taken me multiple attempts at different things to realize what I like in digital art before I got better at it.

I still sometimes have doubts I'm even improving digitally now, but believe me when I say that even if it doesn't feel like it, you're always improving! I think for me, learning to draw better digitally can be improved by a number of things, namely by your tablet, the program you use, the brushes you use, the techniques you use to draw digitally, and then working at it to find what best works for you & keep working towards improving. My first tablet was a $50 one from amazon & I drew using FireAlpaca, and now I use a 5 year old Wacom tablet on Photoshop 2018. For your tablet, I think you just gotta get comfortable with the works of how to sit with it, hold it, finetune it, etc and it should be good! A more expensive tablet doesn't necessarily mean it'll perform better. Even my coloring/drawing style is different! I found that the way I do it now is better and easier for me, whereas before my art would take DAYS and HOURS for some unfinished, simple looking pieces, whereas now I can do much more detailed stuff more quickly. So I guess here's a few tips of what I personally did that made things easier for me:

Watch other digital artists do speedpaints, look at different tutorials, and try copy their process. You might find something that unexpectedly works for you, makes things less frustrating, and speeds things up while simultaneously making you a better artist! And experimenting with different techniques is just always a good idea

Find different brushes you like, download them, and experiment with them. You might find a brush that's supposed to be used one way, and is useful for another. Additionally, testing the brushes with lowered opacity or flow & different things could help! I used to take FOREVER shading things, lowering the opacity, etc, and then I started trying different brushes. Instead of using the hard round brush with lowered opacity, now I use a cloud brush, a pencil brush, a charcoal brush, a chalk brush, and the soft round brush for blending and shading almost seamlessly. I discovered they work well together by testing them out and watching how OTHER artists used them. There's actually some brush packs that are meant to mimic oil/watercolor/acrylic/etc painting strokes/brushes or palette knives, maybe trying these out could help!

Try different art programs if you can, watch youtube speedpaints of artists using them, watch tutorials on how to navigate said programs, and then try it out yourself. There's links hanging around to get photoshop & other programs for f/r/ee, or you can do the free trials, but there's also always free art programs available too! One artist who greatly influenced my art style uses Paint Tool Sai, but I found that this program just wasn't for me when I tried the techniques she employed on the program she used, and discovered photoshop was most to my liking once I knew how to use it

Set up your digital art workspace the way YOU like it. Usually on most programs there's the ability to switch around or resize or even temporarily switch off/disable the different windows of your workspace within the program, so if you don't like something somewhere, change it! I actually don't like having the color palette window visible in photoshop, so instead I shut it off and just use the HUD color picker & color selection tool when needed. Doing this gives you a more cozy space to work in, think of it as setting up your painting area and adjusting your easel to your liking

So once you've been kinda testing the waters with some or maybe all these things, you start to get more comfortable with digital art, and you'll see yourself getting faster, better, and generally just improving. Also, and I know you know this already & its pretty obvious (otherwise you wouldn't be here lol) that digital art is MUCH different than irl painting. I have a hard time thinking of which is harder or takes longer for me because they both come with benefits and downsides! However, if you WANT to try emulating irl painting with brushes and how you use your layers, you can try that too. Experiment!! A lot of improvement and getting comfortable with digital art is testing different things, seeing what you think works for you, and then keeping at it. But also remember you can switch things up at any time, you might need to do things a few times before you realize you're actually pretty good at it or that you like it, and that you don't need to test all these things at once! Things'll get less frustrating and translate from your imagination better once you've set up a space digitally that you can navigate freely, and become more comfortable with how to use the tools & techniques available

And never give up, I promise you're always improving. I hope this is helpful!