#been trying to Not color pick and Not use layer modes

[cowboysuperhero]

3000th image of charlie doing nothing against a blank background my sins are innumerable and weigh on me every day (hes leaning on a table or something i just didnt feel like drawing it)

[gudgurkan]

Got any tips in shading stuff in black and white digitally?

Hi Anon!

You're in luck! I'm currently wrapping up a book which is shaded digitally, so I've been thinking a lot about this recently.

How I do this is by no means the only way, so take from these tips as much or little as you want! When I add grays and shadows to a line art drawing, I try to think about these things:

Preparing the image

I like to work with a file that has a white background and a layer with only line art on top of it. Between these two layers I add new layers where I use the pen tool and bucket to fill areas with black, then I lower the opacity for that layer to get a value that I want.

This method works well for me, and for simpler pieces I don't need more than 3 layers with different values - light, medium and dark grays.

I work in Clip Studio. Here's a picture of the layers of a recent drawing. Each layer is actually completely black but you can see the opacity percentages by each layer. Lower percentage -> brighter value. This makes it super duper easy to change the value of a layer, no need to repaint it, just change the opacity!

Value composition

For the best result, do a couple of value sketches with a limited set of values and find something that works well for the image. Getting the values right is what will improve the image the most! Here's a quick tutorial on muddycolors. Muddy Colors is a very nice art blog to check out. Looking at grayscale storyboard drawings or value sketches are great ways to pick up on this too.

I try to group values when working with grays. Take this image for example:

The character in the foreground has mainly dark grays, which separates her from the background, which has mostly light grays. Then the windows are white and the roof black.

Value composition is a huge and complex area and I recommend anyone wanting to learn to be more conscious about their values and to do value sketches. Analysing art you think has good values is great too.

Shadows

Not every piece needs shadows, but they can add a lot to an image! I use three kinds of shadows when I work in grayscale.

Inked shadows - these shadows are added during the inking stage and usually show areas where light would have almost no way of getting there, such as under this tent.

Gradient shadows - these shadows usually represent something getting further and further away from a light source or an area that would bounce light. This tree receives a tiny bit of light from a campfire on the ground and moonlight that bounces on the ground and up, fading as we get higher up in the tree. But mainly I add these gradients in ways that look cool and will help the overall composition.

Hard shadows - these shadows appear when a strong light casts shadows and can be used on a shape or to cover something. Here's a werewolf with shadows on its back, which gives it a better sense of mass and is interesting visually!

You can also cover an area in shadow like this, where the tree casts a shadow down on the archer and the cliff.

Texture

I like to add a layer of noise as a finishing touch. In Clip Studio you can create a noise layer with Filter->Render->Perlin noise... Find a balance of scale and amplitude that works for the image, then change the layer mode to "Vivid Light" and lower the opacity of the layer to around 30%. I like how this looks, it's not super visible usually but helps make the drawing feel less artificial and digital.

I hope that helps! Here are some nice links too:

Muddy Colors

Android Arts

Gurney Journey - Read his books!

Happy drawing!

[elinordash]

Thank you @cobbbvanth for asking me for this; I’ve never been more flattered! ☺️ I’ve only been making gifs for a little more than 2 years, so I’m really still only figuring Photoshop out, and my colouring owes everything to other people’s tutorials (some of which can be found here). To be honest, I was only asked some tips, but I have no clue what to include and what to leave out; so, here’s my complete (if random) colouring process.

NOTE: This is a colouring tutorial, not a gif-making one. The tutorial that taught me everything I know about that (and to which I am eternally grateful) is this one by @hayaosmiyazaki.

I. SHARPENING My standard sharpening settings are:

One Smart Sharpen filter set to Amount: 500 | Radius: 0,4

A second Smart Sharpen filter set to Amount: 10 | Radius: 10

One Gaussian Blur filter set to Radius: 1,0 and Opacity: 30%

One Add Noise filter set to Amount 0,5 | Distribution: Gaussian

II. BASIC COLOURING This is the part where I add most of the adjustment layers available and just play around with them. Obviously different settings work for different scenes, but I do have some standard ones.

Brightness/Contrast I usually up the Brightness to +10-30, and the Contrast to about +10.

Curves

For the first Curves layer I go to Auto Options > Enhance Brightness and Contrast, and then adjust the opacity until I’m happy.

I might repeat the above step if the gif still looks too dark to me.

I add another Curves layer, I go to Auto Options and this time I pick either Find Dark & Light Colors or Enhance Per Channel Contrast, and check or uncheck the Snap Neutral Midtones option, until I see something I like. I will then adjust the opacity.

Levels I add a Levels layer that usually looks something like this:

Exposure I add an Exposure layer, where I usually set the Offset to around -0,0010.

Selective Color To make the faces look okay, I create a Selective Color layer, select the Reds and usually add some Cyan (+10-20%) and play around a little (±5%) with Magenta and Yellow too. I might also add another layer, select the Yellows and make slight tweaks there too.

III. FUN COLOURING About colour manipulation: PiXimperfect just uploaded a tutorial that explains everything so much better than I ever could, so I highly recommend you go watch it. It’s made for static images though, and things are more complicated with moving images, so I also recommend @sabrinaacarpenters’s tutorial.

The reason I usually go for a softer colouring is that a more vivid one requires a lot of patience and precision, and I honestly can’t be bothered. Instead, I try to tweak the colous only a little, so that the edges can be a little rough without it looking too wrong.

One thing to remember is that each gif is different, and there isn’t one foolproof way to do this, so you will need to use a different technique depending on the gif you���re working with.

Okay, so, after I’ve decided what colour I want my background to be:

1. I create a Hue/Saturation layer and change the greens, cyans, blues and magentas to that colour. That’s easy enough, since it doesn’t mess with the face colour. I then set the blending mode to Color. If your background doesn’t include any yellow or red, you might be done here, like in the case bellow:

2. To change the yellows and reds, I create a new Hue/Saturation layer, select the yellows/reds, move Saturation to 100 (temporarily) and then play around with the sliders until the face colour isn’t affected. I then change it to whatever I’ve chosen and change the blending mode to Color.

3. If for whatever reason step 3 doesn’t work (the background is white or black for example, or just too red), I might create a Solid Color layer set to whatever colour I want, set the blending mode to Color and then select the layer mask and carefully paint with a soft, black brush over the people’s faces/bodies. I will then lower the Opacity, to whatever looks smooth enough. If there’s a lot of movement in your gif, you might have to use keyframes (see sabrinaacarpenters's tutorial linked above). However, my main goal is to avoid using those; that’s why I try my hardest to tweak around as many Hue/Saturation layers as needed and not have to create a solid color layer.

4. Once my background looks the colour I want it, I might add a Selective Color layer that matches my background color and then try to make it look more vibrant. For this Aziraphale gif below for example, I’ve selected the Cyans and then set Cyan to +100%, Yellow to -100% and Black to +60, then created another one, selected the Cyans again and then set Cyan to +20 and Black to +20.

5. If the gif has a white area, I create a Solid Color layer with a colour that matches the rest of the background and then set the Opacity low. I might also create a Selective Color layer, increase the Black and then play around with the colours.

IV. FINISHING TOUCHES

I create a Vibrance layer and set the Vibrance to around +30 and the Saturation to about +5.

I create a black and white Gradient Map layer (with black on the left end of the spectrum and white on the right), set the blending to Luminosity and the Opacity to about 20-30%.

AAAND that’s about it I think! This ended up way too long and perhaps a little incoherent. I tried to make it as general as possible, so you might have to mix and match for best results. Feel free to ask me for further explanations about any one of these steps, and please tell me if you want me to go through the colouring of a specific gifset (although, as I said, I'm by no means an expert). Happy gifmaking!

[dreemurr-skelememer]

May I ask on how you choose your colors when you color your art pieces? It is so pretty to look at the colors of your art, and I want to color like that, but color picking is very hard q-q

here's!! uh, the general areas in the color wheel where i try to pick depending on the vibe

highly inaccurate because tbh i just color pick directly or try to guess the colors from my references and just adjust them to be a little bit more pastel or to the atmosphere and if i have their colors memorized (such as ink or dream), i just pick by memory or by my modified colors LOL

color your scrunkly!

set your line work to multiply and lock opacity

i use warm tones for white ish colors so uhhh idk whatever warm color from here

color the line work!!!!! ofc, shift the hue depending on the undertones of the surrounding colors the skull color is a warm off-white, the undershirt is a blue-ish off-white, scarf is warm brown, so on and so on the multiply function rly helps just blend things into the palette a little more, but if ur confident enough, you dont have to set it to multiply at all for extra variation

minimal shading by just taking the surrounding colors n adjusting the hue slightly n its value n saturation gives it a very messy cel shaded look! been into it lately and stuff

and then i add a few overlays using the pin light layer mode! i usually use these two colors together, it gives the right amount of pastel colors that really appeals to me

if you have access to gradient maps, i recommend using them lots! it makes the pieces look a little more cohesive the pin light layer mode imitates it n is very versatile if u cant use them though (like me when im just doodling on sai)

that's it!!! that's the basic rundown of how i color i'm not very well versed in color theory so i can only do very basic color picking tips, but maybe next time i can offer ways on how to color more atmospherically!

have a nice time coloring your blorbos ✨

[possessedpasm]

Been absolutely obsessed with your vintage inspired designs, i have been staring at them for the past hour just trying to wrap my brain around how you are able to create something SO CONVINCING that im incapable of distinguishing your designs from legitimate works from 70’s indie zines(great work btw) so i have to ask, how do you do it, how long do you spend on an average piece? How the HECK do you make your color halftones identical to news print? I have so many questions!!!

Gee Willikers! Why, Thank you!!

I think the time I invest into submerging myself into the art of that time really helps! I accumulated a library of old print media that I study up and down-- I love it, I love seeing the process in the works, themselves 🥺

So, I tend to take what I learn from that and apply it to the processes that I use to make my art :D I layer the colors separate on different blend modes (which makes it look like printed ink!), shade the canvas like a piece of paper, bleed lines, desaturate and fade colors according to age and wear... And work with the idea that I'm not making digital art per se, but rather working with a digital medium while using traditional techniques!

And I spend about 3-5hrs give or take on single piece! But I've been doing this for abt 2 years now... dang.

This is how I started! ^

And one of my more recent pieces :3 there's a lot more going on, but you can still see similarities

It's super fun when you get into it! Next time you're at an antique store, pick up an old magazine or book. Look through the art and see if you can figure out how they made it (which colors they layered, if they printed it using riso, what tools were used: ink pen, brush, pencil...) I GO NUTS FOR IT IF IT'S NOT PLAIN TO SEE BY NOW LOL

And thanks for askin! :3

[gnawe]

hi can i ask what helped you to get so good at shapes and colours :o i love the atmosphere ur arts have

wow, thank you! that means a lot to me esp bc i've been trying to improve those areas in my art so i'm glad it comes across 🫶

i approach shape from a more graphic than painterly viewpoint (i can't escape graphic design even when i draw 🥲) so i think about shape in terms of functionality and readability. i really recommend looking into design theory, i liked sinix's videos about this when i was first learning about how to drawe.

my main strategy to create good shapes comes from working strictly in black and white. this makes you focus solely on trimming down the main values in your piece and creating more expressive and readable silhouettes. i love comic art, so when i do this i go heavy on shadows and sharp contrast but thats also just my taste. also when doing this i prefer lasso tool over brushes so you have no choice but to create shapes not lines. either way, limiting your drawing to a couple values will tell you right away what shapes are reading correctly and which need more work.

as for color, the main tips i have are to be aware of contrast and pick intuitively. once your values are in place you can pretty much do anything! i start by picking a main few colors i think overall represent the tone i want to portray in the piece (melancholy, joy, etc) these are totally up to personal interpretation. imo the majority of impactful color schemes are just variations on complementary duos. after i pick the colors i know i want to use for sure, i let the color wheel dictate the rest of my palette.

i also found being mindful of color vibration actually helped me pick better colors. its basically when colors next to each other are too similar in value and creates this haloing effect thats difficult to look at, you see it a lot with super saturated hues. when doing digital art, it happens more subtly and noticing when to up the contrast while picking colors has helped me understand color better.

also experiment with layer modes! if your values are right in your blocking stage you can gradient map that sucker and use it as an overlay to create more fun color combinations. when you work in rgb the world is your oyster

thanks for asking! heres a process gif that will probably explain this better than i have

[beffalumps]

hi there! recent art school grad here and i was wondering if u have any tips on learning color + approaching backgrounds? even though i learned a lot, i still find myself struggling with these focuses, especially colors as i never had a class that really taught me that. thanks so much 💗 your work is so lovely

First off, congrats on graduating!! Backgrounds and colors have always been the hardest for me lol tbh I still struggle a lot with colors especially, so please take everything I say with a grain of salt!

Using adjustment layers helps me a lot (especially color balance to make things more unified or complementary).

Another thing that I think has REALLY helped me with color overall is actually switching between color and grayscale.

In photoshop I set up a custom proof profile and then am able to switch back and forth by using the hotkey Ctrl + Y. This helps me check my values which, I've found if you have solid values, colors tend to work so much better even if you don't know much about what you're doing lol. Another way to do this is making a solid black layer on top of all your color layers and setting the blending mode to "Color". Then you can toggle that on and off to look at the values.

One last thing I've played with re: colors is finding a reference that has the colors I like and "crystalizing" it and color picking a palette from that.

This can be super helpful if you're having a hard time visualizing or coming up with a color palette!

As for backgrounds, they became a lot easier for me when I started looking at them like their own character. Thinking about the story I'm trying to tell, adding little details that I think would add to that or be fun and fun ways for the character to interact with it.

That and doing value sketches/just a bunch of really quick and sloppy experiments. 9 times out of 10, they don't work out, but sometimes they spark something that turns into something fun and workable!

This has gotten really long for someone that really just bs's their way through every piece, but I will say one thing that was a big game changer for me (in my personal opinion, who knows if other people think so lmao) and it's just incorporating aerial perspective. Making things a bit more blue tinted (or whatever the sky color is) and lighter as they recede into the background. Has made a huge difference for me when it comes to creating depth!

I really don't know if any of this is helpful because to be 100% honest, most of my illustrations are just product of trial and error lol. But practicing and making a lot of really bad scribbles have (I think) helped me the most, so yeah my biggest advice with anything is just look at lots of art, just draw and don't worry if it looks bad because tbh, it probably will at first. But you'll get better!

@tamberella Has a ton of amazing free resources and brushes, so if you haven't checked out their stuff, definitely do so!

@iniro also has some really nice tutorials on color (and other topics) available so I'd also recommend looking at those too!

But yeah, sorry for going on about my hair-brained process, I hope at least some of this was helpful!

[swollenbabyfat]

Hello! I saw you were taking asks about anything (with bonus pictures of Mr. Haku?? bless) so I was wondering if I could politely pick your brain about your illustrative process. I've been tearing my hair out over rendering practice lately and your studies always blow me away. I know you've had some training and I think we both use Procreate, so I'd love to hear about how you use layers and/or layer blend modes, but also general process, thoughts, tips, etc. hope you're well, have a nice day :-)

Thank you so much for the ask and kind words!

I don’t cross promote it as much as I should probably but I upload a lot of speedpaints to YouTube, such as this study that might be helpful. Depending on how complicated the piece is, I’ll either break it down by putting shapes down (typically darks first) or do a more formal sketch if I don’t think I can easily eyeball it. After the sketch, I do an under painting on a layer below the sketch, set the sketch to multiply and then I render everything on one layer. It really depends on the brushes you use, but I prefer to build opacity slowly with a brush that doesn’t blend, lowering and upping the brushes opacity as I see fit. This creates a more complicated, kind of glowy effect that I think works particularly well for skin rendering.

I’ve been exclusively using leatherwood under “artistic” in procreate recently. You have to use a pretty big canvas to make it work (I’m usually working on 8000px+ 300dpi) but I really enjoy some of the unpredictability of the brush, makes things feel more natural. Not sure if I altered the brush at all but if there was a multiply or stabilization on I turn those off always, basically.

As for layer modes, I don’t tend to use them a ton for paintings except maybe for maybe throwing a slight multiply layer to bring tones down if the key gets too high. I’m more likely to mess with curves and color balance to experiment with color. I do this especially for my lined illustrations, I use layer modes also for them too and just go to town trying a bunch of stuff. My tip for this is to duplicate your file, flatten everything, duplicate your flattened layer and just mess with it until it feels right. Color editing to this degree is kind of new to me, but since I’ve begun it’s really upped my game I think.

Before/after color editing. I know sometimes people think of this as a cheating tool in digital art but honestly that is a silly take to me.

I hope this answers some of your more specific questions. Thank you again!

This post is already long as shit so Mr. Haku under the cut

[xiaolanhua]

your icons are soooooo so cute honestly!!! i wanted to ask if there's any way you can make a tutorial on how to make them? of course if you want, if you don't want to, that's okay :)

Hi! I really appreciate that you like my icons, thank you so much! 💖💖💖🥹

It's been a long time since I've done a tutorial so I hope I can explain it well haha

So I will explain how i go from the original picture and the final icon below:

I'm using Adobe Photoshop 2024 but you can use other versions too!

First, I create a 250x250px document and apply a random color fill layer to be the background color of the icon, you can do it by going on Layer > New Layer Fill > Solid color (the color in this moment doesn't matter because I change them later according to the picture I choose to edit).

Then I place the picture I want, adjust the size to make the subject on the center and apply some smart sharpen:

I apply some adjustments to try to color correct if the original picture using Levels, Selective Color and Color Balance to get something like this:

If you want to know the exact adjustments settings I used on this picture you can download the psd here.

To remove the background, I do the hack where I go to the Properties panel (Window > Properties) and click on the "Remove background" option. It's not always that I will get a perfect result but I think it makes easier for me to adjust the little details such as hair and accessories, etc. And I do that using the Lasso tool (shortcut L).

Now, with the background removed I pick a color that I think will match the icon in the Color Fill layer that I created before. To make the background more "fun" I like to add a Gradient Fill layer (Layer > New Layer Fill > Gradient) with a color that might go well with the one I picked earlier to make a smooth and light gradient.

My result until now:

Now it comes the fun: adding textures! I like to add some textures to make the icon more lively and I usually download them on deviantart or on resources websites. You can download some cool textures here, here and here. On this part I really test a lot of textures with different Layer blending. There are a lot of different blending options so you can try as much as you want.

Other thing I like to do is add a clipping mask above the subject layer when I want to color something specific in my picture such as the hair, the clothes or even applying some "fake" blush on the cheeks. I do this adding a new layer, then using the shortcut option (or alt) + command (or ctrl) + g to make it a clipping mask and then using the Brush layer to color what I want. For the blending mode I usually use Soft Light and sometimes Color if I want the color to really stand out.

And in the end I will have something like this:

And my layer tab will be like this:

For using on the dashboard I usually resize it to 100x100 to make it look more sharper and defined but it's really a choice, you can already start making your icon using the size you want, I just prefer doing on 250x250px because i'm used to.

To save it I use the shortcut shift + option (alt) + command (ctrl) + s to save it for web with these settings:

And that's it! Sorry for not going to deep in each step but I guess you can get the feeling when you try making your own icons! Is really about trying different methods and things until you became satisfied with your result.

[tamelee]

Hi Tamelee. I’ve been a huge fan of your art for a long time. I love the way your paint, your choice of colors and overall expressions/vibes of the characters.

Do you rely on blending modes in your work?

if so, could you please share which ones you like best? And which ones you use the most and for what?

Thank you!

Hi @sasunaruxx that's so sweet thank you! ♡

I used to use blending modes in my older art. But, tbh, I personally used them mostly as compensation for my lack of understanding in color theory. Now, my art is less blended, so I don't feel like using them. However! I still occasionally use 'multiply' at the end if the contrast in darker area's isn't enough and I don't necessarily want to touch the colors. I don't use it for general shadows anymore because I like them more saturated. 

I'm not sure if you know what I mean, but I quickly sketched something:

The left is done with multiply, and on the right I picked my own color; it's a bit more vibrant, imo. 

Hm, I thought blending modes to check grayscale was pretty handy! It's easier to check a drawing's readability in black & white. 'Screen' can give a nice effect on the hairline, for example, if the character gets direct lighting. 'Glow Dodge' is good to fix some muddy area's, but I feel like it can overwhelm pretty quickly. 

If you duplicate the final result and make some color adjustments, try setting the layer on 'saturation', 'color' or 'hue' for some interesting stuff ^^ 

[wormtime123]

WORMY I AM NOT GOING TO BE NORMAL ABOUT YOUR DRAMATURGY ART how do you draw such heartstring twanging art??? There aren't even facial expressions but the body language is all there! How tight they are holding on, how they bury their heads in each other. And the colour and lighting choices! They are so warm and bright and right aaaaaaa please talk more about your process I love hearing how an artist makes a picture come together

CRYING this is such a kind message and i appreciate it and you sm. but also when i try to explain my process all i can think of are those tutorials that are like step 1. make a sketch step 2. Finish The Drawing bc i just make shit up as i go LMAO

i block in the ugliest mess of shapes + shading you've ever seen under the sketch and from there i mostly just pray. for color i probably rely way too heavily on layer blending modes but hey it's a tool and it's there! and more specifically my favorites are yellow-orange on overlay/glow dodge for lighting and blue-violet on multiply for shading. i've also been using them set to "color" recently bc i realized it helps a lot with cohesion for someone like me who sucks at color picking (such as purple and maroon for these two) then i just stack on layers and layers of detailing as i go on. i could technically leave it lineless but i personally like going back over everything with something close to black like in the final post!

a mess of an explanation but i hope seeing some of my chaos is fun 🫡

[ssalballoon]

Whats your art process and what would you reccomend for someone who would like to achieve a style similar to yours? i love this mix of cartoonism and realism. your work is such an inspiration >.<

oh gosh! thank you?! 💞 i'll do my best to explain it, but even I have a difficult time trying to understand my own art process/style because of how inconsistent it is;; (i still have a lot to learn!) this is gonna be a long reply so i'll place it under the cut

process:

I start loose with a more gesture type rough sketch. I mainly just do lineart in the same layer as my sketch and erase away parts I don't like. Sometimes I'll lower the sketch's opacity and on a new layer do my lineart (which is what i did for the drawing above). But regardless doing that loose gesture sketch helps keep my drawing dynamic even as I refine over top of it!

- I duplicate layers A LOT for safekeeping my previous progress, especially if I'm thinking of making a big change (ex. changing limb position)

If I wanna put colors down underneath it I set my lineart to Multiply. For coloring I'm very inconsistent with the process, but recently I've been using a more subjective coloring style, where I pick my own shadows and highlights to try relying less on blending modes (which is gonna be too long to get into here;;) Finally if I feel like it, I make a layer on top of my lineart layer where I render everything

Oh this is something that helps me a lot for colors! I have 2 layers that are a mid-gray tone placed above all my other layers. One I set to the Color mode (to make the drawing black and white), and the other I set to the Luminosity blending mode (to make the drawing's brightness the same..?not sure)

The Color layer helps me check if I have enough contrast in values, and the Luminosity layer helps me check if I have enough contrast in color hue and saturation!

style:

This is really difficult to answer because style encompasses so many different aspects of art, but I'll try to focus my answer on the mix of cartoonism and realism that you mentioned!

I struggled trying to explain what my style is like so I just broke down one of my drawings that exemplifies a lot of my stylizations! Hopefully these can give you some pointers about what I tend to think about when I draw (click for higher quality)

(+to add to this i use a brush with no size pressure, only opacity pressure)

What I recommend for stylizing a realistic character: The way I learned to stylize a more realistic character like this one was to import a reference of his face, then trace over it very deliberately, making sure to stick to big shapes and characterizing details I thought were important to achieve his likeness! Then I'd turn the reference layer off and freehand it over and over, comparing and redrawing until I managed to get the mix of accuracy and stylization I liked!

What I recommend to find a style: I basically ended up with my style subconsciously as an intersection between the things I like to see in art + the things I like to draw! Most of my inspiration comes from anime (😔) and artists online. I'll see a very specific stylization I like in others' art, and try replicating it to see if I like how it fits with my style + if I enjoy drawing it in that way. I did this a lot over the years, accumulating into a big mosaic of inspiration from all the artists whose work I personally enjoy and learn from! I know this isn't exactly answering how to get a style like mine, but I think knowing this general process may help you out in the long run!

ahh i think that's it! i tried to be as comprehensive as i could without being too verbose (my bane). i hope this is the answer you were looking for and that it can help you! 💞 and thank u for the ask! it was a good exercise for myself to analyze my own art

[danielsarmand]

Heyy, do you have a tutorial on how you make your gifs? They’re so crisp and beautiful, I wanna start making gifs but idk where to begin

hello!! first of all, thank you kindly!!!! i'm always stunned when someone genuinely appreciates my gifs 😭

second of all, please do!! gifmaking is such a fun hobby, i wish it were a tad more rewarding but truly it's a great creative outlet for hyperfixations.

now, i personally don't have a tutorial but that's only because i myself have learned from a bunch of other ones during my years of trial and error and my technique has nothing that's original to it. i can, however, tell you which tutorials i turn to whenever i need a refresh + some tips i have started implementing on my own!!! i'll put everything below the cut.

the tutorials are this one and this one; the first one is a more general step-by-step one and the second one is for adding noise to gifs when they don't have it naturally, which imo greatly helps with making gifs look more hd.

as for the tips:

whenever possible, and if your pc can handle processing them, try and find files that are at least 1080p. 2160p isn't really necessary unless you're making close-up gifs (though i almost always use it if i can find it), but a 1080p file is only legitimate if the size of it is 1.5gb+. anything below that is not actually hd, no matter the claims.

with videogame footage, i generally record my own gameplay and take screencaps from there. when i want to gif youtube videos or anything i can't download by my usual means, i use 4k video downloader.

i used to take my screencaps with kmplayer, but i've been using mpv over the past few months and i find it works more smoothly. kmplayer did serve me well for years though, and the installation isn't as gimmicky, so go with that if you find it easier!

when it comes to resizing the gif (image > image size), i always leave the mode on bicubic automatic; for a time i used to pick bilinear, but i later learned it was the reason why my gifs didn't look how i wanted them to look.

i generally sharpen my gifs with the same action pack mentioned in the first tutorial i linked, but i do also add an unsharp mask layer to make it extra crisp and detailed. these are my settings for it:

whenever i'm giffing something that is not available in Real HD (like youtube videos), i add a step to my usual sharpening by using a set of plugins from topaz labs; now, i have absolutely no idea how i installed them when i did years ago, and i have no clue how to find them anymore, but i'm sure tumblr has answers somewhere. specifically i use topaz clean. i'm pretty sure you could achieve a similar enough result by adding a gaussian blur level to the sharpening, though; either way, my settings for topaz clean are:

when it comes to coloring, i never use .psds, i make the coloring from scratch for each scene, and most times i use multiple colorings per scene. it will take a little while to find your footing with color correction perhaps, but then again, each gifmaker has their own style and that's what's fun!!! one thing i've taken to doing most times, however, is adding an exposure layer towards the end of my coloring layers and upping both exposure and gamma correction based on how much or how little the gif can tolerate; i find it helps a ton with making gifs look hd on mobile, which is notoriously hard to achieve because mobile hates gifs. also, i have a pretty heavy hand when it comes to contrast and to darkening blacks, because in my experience that also helps with resolution.

when i go to save for web once i've finished making my gif, i tend to pick the combo adaptive+diffusion. very rarely i switch from adaptive to selective, but only if adaptive makes the gif look weird, which is usually not the case.

this should be all, i really always follow the same process and it's pretty automatic by now lmao. forgive me for yapping at length, but i hope this can be helpful to you or anyone who might want to try their hand at gifmaking! i'll update the post with my settings asap. thanks again for the love 💕

[firststrikerr]

treating this opportunity to learn more about marion like its an all you can eat, 2, 8, 11, 20, 22, 30, 34, and/or 51 for the otp asks? for both chen and daniel >:]

I CRACKED UP SO BAD SEEING THE NUMBER OF QUESTIONS thank you for letting me stack up the plate :)

2. What would they do if the other woke in a manic state after a nightmare?

Shared answer for both pairings for Marion. If they were awake or not asleep deeply, they would sense the nightmares and wake them up. They'd then ask them simple, random questions like "What's 2 times 7" or "What color is an orange" etc. It's a habit they acquired for getting down from their own nightmares. If Chen or Daniel want to talk about their nightmare, they sit and listen. If they don't, they talk about random people whose thoughts they picked up on. Once their partner falls back asleep, they stay up longer to make sure they don't fall into another nightmare.

Like Marion, Chen does what he does for himself after nightmares, which is giving them two numbers and asking them to recite the Fibonacci sequence for it for as long as they have to. He knows they don't like talking about their past if they can help it, so he follows after them out of the bedroom and lets them do whatever they have to (usually something like washing their face with cold water. Brushing their teeth. Hanging out with Spoon).

Daniel's presence alone is usually enough to calm Marion down from the worst of the nightmare. Dissuading the concern he projects is enough of a task for Marion to break out from feeling rattled. Sometimes, he has to deal with some overflow when the dream is particularly bad, but he takes it in stride pretty well. He prepared warm cinnamon milk for them once and it stuck as an effective remedy since then.

8. What happens if one of them gets sick?

Marion would go on lockdown and not let either of them do anything about it if they're sick, so...

Marion/Chen: Chen strikes me as the kind of guy who still comes to work while he's sick, he just... cancels meetings and goes on some kind of delirious paperwork frenzy. So if Marion does find out he's sick, it'd be because they find him half out of it in his office. They'd grab him some oolong tea (his favored kind), hover around him, and point out mistakes on his paperwork. It's a pretty lucrative intel-gathering session for Heartbreak, actually. As much as Chen doesn't want them seeing all this confidential information, he's on autopilot mode and he can't deny the fact that Marion's feedback is helpful.

Marion/Daniel: Honestly, Marion is used to just toughing out their own bouts of sickness and didn't let anyone else take care of them, so they're kind of at a loss. It probably isn't a good idea to feed him the amount of painkillers they take, and he can only drink so much orange juice, so like... what's left... being on guard duty in case he starts floating and lets all the blankets drop?? I think Daniel would find it sad-funny that they don't really know what to do and just ask them to keep him company.

Omg this is going to be. Long. So into the readmore it goes

11. Do either try to hide their emotions if upset? Can the other still tell?

Marion/Chen: Hiding their displeasure towards each other has never been the norm between these two, but they also don't really get into heated arguments either. Just tense exchanges and pointed remarks. They're both good at hiding their feelings when they want to. The walls just doesn't last because the other is insistent on figuring out what's wrong as soon as they sense that something's up.

Marion/Daniel: As much as he wears his heart on his sleeve, the layers to Daniel's projections sometimes also obfuscate. Since he's so open, Marion lets their guard down around him and misses subtler signs that they usually would catch onto. On the other hand, if Marion is upset about something, Daniel will pick up on it. Unlike Chen, he doesn't always ask about it. Not even implicitly.

20. Choose one song that perfectly describes their relationship.

THE CULPRIT BEHIND THIS RESPONSE'S LATENESS. I had a playlist to choose from for Daniel, but Chen was so much harder to nail down. Like I had songs that were lyrically fitting but the Vibes were off. But I think we did it !

Marion/Chen: Time is Running Out by Muse. Honestly I'm just gonna let this one speak for itself

Marion/Daniel: Tonight You Are Mine by The Technicolors. The song that kickstarted their playlist, and also the inspiration alongside Ultraviolet (Obsession) by Friday Pilots Club for the title of their fic series. The imagery...... hehehe

22. What reminds each of their partner?

Round three with this question let's GO

Marion/Chen: When Marion first came over to Chen's apartment, they were aghast that he didn't have any sugar or honey at home. In his defense, he doesn't have a need either of those himself and he rarely has guests over. On their next visit, they brought a bag of their favored green tea, a jar of honey, and a can of condensed milk. They put in either sweetener depending on their mood. Since then, Chen's made sure to stay stocked up on those three things. Even puts some in Marion's shelf at HQ.

Marion felt that Chen's place could use some sprucing up. It couldn't be carpets, so they started getting him low-maintenance houseplants. The cast iron plant especially reminded them of him because of the name. They avoided cacti since Spoon could get himself hurt on it. Once, they even dissociated through Ortega's album reminiscing to get Chen a framed copy of an old Rangers picture. Sidestep excluded, of course. They couldn't tell if he liked or hated that gift, but he did put it on display.

Marion/Daniel: At home, Daniel wears his hair down or keeps it out of his face with one of those plain plastic headbands. Off topic but he absolutely has a sponsorship from a pomade brand. Okay anyways so Marion saw one of those plush spa headbands with a big bow on them and impulse bought it for him. It's a cherished gift that he definitely puts to use. He's contemplated on getting a matching one for them multiple times at this point but hasn't acted on it. Yet.

He did, however, give them a pack of glow-in-the-dark star stickers. The idea was prompted by their complaint that their night light makes it hard to fall asleep, but they hate the complete dark. They sparsely pasted some on their apartment ceiling and walls. Marion can't help but find the sight of them comforting, especially when they wake up in the middle of a nightmare. It's grounding and reminds them of him.

30. Your OTP gets to pick out each other's outfits; what is each wearing?

Marion/Chen: Marion would have so many ideas for Chen, none of them which they put to practice because they're well aware of how his mods make a lot of clothes difficult or uncomfortable to wear. They'd turn to making him try out a bunch of different glass frames, hats, and t-shirts that are anything but his usual colors, laugh fondly at whatever they end up with, and call it his stakeout look.

Chen doesn't really have a lot of ideas on this front, Marion's already creative enough with their own style as is. He does, however, derive mild amusement from how oversized his shirts are on them. Also that they seem to enjoy the softness of worn cotton. Seeing them get so comfortable in his clothes makes him feel some way.

Marion/Daniel: Marion would jump at this opportunity to get Daniel to try out clothes outside his repertoire. He knows his style and wears it well, but a little branching out didn't hurt anyone. Despite his initial embarrassment, they think he looks cute in the denim skirt and tights look they put together for him. To their own dismay, they accept the fact that he flies too much to wear an outfit like that without mishaps.

I can imagine Daniel taking them out to get something nice tailored, but I can also see him just letting them experiment with outfits in the comfort of his own apartment where they can show skin that they usually wouldn't. Tbh seeing them with a button or two open on a dress shirt or with the sleeves rolled up would be like seeing a Victorian maiden's ankle to him

34. Who's more likely to tell a dirty joke or story to make the other blush?

Marion/Chen: This just made me vividly picture Chen delivering a dirty joke when Marion least expected it with such nonchalance and I think that's beautiful. So Chen it is. It makes sense, he has more experience to use as basis for pulling the rug under their feet and it'd be easier for him to fluster them than the other way around.

Marion/Daniel: Marion would crack a dirty joke once just because they can and get far too amused by Daniel's reaction (and the fact that he's getting ideas from it??), so it's something they do on occasion to tease him. He's the one that follows up an unserious joke with something genuine and turns the tables on them though.

In general, Marion asks their partners about their past experience to gauge what they like (ignore the looming dysphoria in either direction) but it keeps boiling down to "I just want you as you are" and now they're lost because how could it be... that they're admired as they are... crazy concept I know

51. What’s a non verbal way they say I love you?

Marion/Chen: Though these two often find themselves at standstills in the form of staring/glaring contests, they also have this shared look of surrender that basically signals "I trust you" for when they let the other have their way. That willingness to relent in itself is a way of expressing love for both of them, since trust isn't something that either of them dish out easily.

Marion/Daniel: Marion tries (emphasis on tries) to hold back from being affectionate towards Daniel, at least pre-reveal, so they overthink any physical touch to hell and back. Even pats on his shoulder, which really shouldn't be a big deal, are gestures that they put a lot of deliberation and sentiment into. For Daniel, it isn't really deliberate or conscious, but his attentiveness speaks volumes—whether it's how intently he listens to what they say or the details he picks up about them.

tysm again for the ask these were a blast to chew on!! the questions are from here

answered: 1 2 3

[tubbytarchia]

Hi, I love your art. I wanted to know how you approach color? I'm a beginner artist, and you've blown my socks off with the last shiny duo piece you did.

(currently color is like witchcraft for me)

I'll be honest anon that color has been a witchcraft to me as well for like the past 15 years of doing art lol, I've only recently begun feeling better at it... I'm not sure the way I do it is the best way to do it haha but

it's a very yolo process, where I just grab whatever color I think might look nice and run with it. As I'm getting further along, if there's any colors that seem like they could use a different shade/brightness/etc then I color over them. But I almost always use stark or bright solid colors to overlay on top of my art with various degrees of opacity and blending options, usually "overlay" and "screen" (At least that's what they're called on FireAlpaca)

Here's an example where I started with very uninteresting colors and then just layered a bunch of colors on top (2nd image to showcase it more understandably)

And then I just applied those overlayed colors to the original layer how I saw fit and begun rendering, where everything flows together more nicely and the use of overlayed colors isn't as apparent, in some places changing the colors again or reapplying another layer of color splotches in certain areas

And then looking at the Gempearl art, it's really not much different lol

The original colors are not that bad, at least on Gem, imo, I've definitely improved in that aspect of being able to pick more appealing colors just by hand. And then I overlayed a bunch of purple tones (especially on Pearl since her colors were painfully gray), with the "overlay" blending mode in the 2nd image and then the "screen" blending mode in the 3rd. And then, again, I just started rendering to make everything flow better. I can pick highlight accent colors easily (eg the yellow in Gem's hair) but if you struggle with it, you can use white or very close to white colors and then apply the "overlay" blending mode. I did also make use of the "hue" blending mode in this - there are a lot of options in most art programs so play around with them to your heart's content!!

Also, for artwork that uses more of a limited color palette, I frequently look at other artwork I like for at least initial inspiration for what kinds of colors I think might approximately work for what I have in mind. Here's how one of my Pearl drawings looked as a sketch

and then with colors inspired from a few artworks I liked. Worth noting also that I never color pick, I try to imitate the colors by hand at best, and if I do pick then usually temporarily before changing them around in tone etc

I hope the terminology doesn't make this too god awful to read and that it's at least somewhat understandable haha, I tried my best...!! Again though I've sucked at colors for so long SO long so don't fret about it if it takes time to get a hang of it, it comes more naturally to some people than others

[meguchi512]

Your Mustsumi piece is really stylish! How did you do the backgrounds and come up with the composition?

Thank you so much! :-) I feel it's appropriate to respond to this ask on Mutsumi's birthday hehe. Forgive my weird wording btw (if it seeps in) as I am unfortunately strange like that (and feel free to ask away any questions!)

Summary: Modify already existing patterns, the darker your white is the better (trust), focus on the focal point, and Man I fucking love triangles.

First on the background (with a hint of color theory):

I took it from the Ibis Paint X image-archive-thing (???). It's actually a nice resource for stuff like this. If you use a different drawing platform try looking for your own in-app/in-program archive or consider searching online. In Ibis Paint X, not all patterns are available for non-premium users but personally it's not much of an issue (especially since non-premium versions of these textures tend to exist, with different colorings).

There are tons of these available by looking into the Japanese Texture (Color), Cloth Patterns (Color) and Patterns (Color) sections. Personally I prefer to alter the already colored ones as they are easier to work with, while the Gray/B&W ones require more retouching with blend mode layers. However, feel free to experiment and use whatever works best for you.

I was lucky to find one with a similar color palette to my drawing, but there's still some tweaking to be done to make it darker and warmer (as stated in the image). In this drawing it was relatively straightforward, though I've previously had to make more detailed modifications in other ones to make everything blend in naturally (mainly painting over different elements and particular shapes).

There's no rule for the specific blend modes –as in, they don't necessarily have to be multiply + darken, and there's no need to restrict yourself to solely 2 layers either. The same could be said about the opacity. It's merely situational. Instead, try playing around with them and/or learn how each one works to be able to pick them quicker.

For example, once I had applied the multiply layer something still felt off: there was a lack of ocre tones, which had been cancelled by the purple-ish color I painted it all over with. I especially wanted the darker colors to lean towards purple, while making the lighter ones lean towards green, so I applied a green darken layer which mainly affects the tones closer to white.

On a separate note: Color theory yay!! I freaking love color theory!!! As you can see in the bottom corner, I didn't use (and don't tend to ever use) pure white (#FFFFFF) or pure black (#000000). Actually, some artists will strongly advise against doing so, saying it looks beginner-like and muddy. I slightly disagree with this, or at least I think it's a bad way to put it (I mean, have you seen comic art? Pure black shading can look great when done well).

However, it's true that beginners won't be great at using pure black/white and it's greatly beneficial to experiment with off-white and such. Adding a slight tint to your neutrals makes a nice difference, and IMO the greater you can make it stray away from its original tone and still make it look convincing, the better!

By the way, notice how there's no "white" or "black" in the background? I reserved these contrasting tones for the figure. This is to draw your attention towards her, instead of adding more contrast to the background and making it all overwhelming.

Anyways, here are some other drawings in which I also used modified preset Ibis backgrounds:

• These KanaMafu drawings. It's the same pattern in both drawings, just flipped vertically and with inverted colors.

• This Kanade drawing.

Now, moving onto composition:

Not gonna lie, this was all a pretty subconscious process. I actively had to look for the principles I had applied, because honestly "figure in the center of a vertical canvas" seemed simple enough for a composition, but there's more to it!

I honestly feel like this is very self-explanatory as shown in the image, but if it isn't please ask me to elaborate B-).

Note: regarding the "airbrush work" mentioned, I meant I slightly painted over with a dark airbrush towards the bottom of the canvas and then lowered the opacity. Again, the whole thought process here was Closer to the focal point = lighter colors, smaller shapes and more detailed brush strokes.

But! There's more!!!:

Still on composition and color, something that is extremely useful and that I unfortunately forgot to do while working on this drawing is to check your values. This means translating the piece into B&W.

Due to the fact that I didn't check my values, the hair sort of blends in with the background. Upon noticing this, I added a highlight the same color as the angel wings (off-white). This was useful at making more of a distinction, but I could've definitely pushed it further had I followed this advice.

Onto (probably) my favorite art advice ever: TRIANGLES. Use triangles whenever you can. ESPECIALLY when there's negative space (space not occupied by the figure). This works so well to make your silhouettes more legible and dynamic. It's a life-saver.

Also, look up Sinix Design and Marco Bucci on YouTube for some great art advice.

I'm pretty sure that's all, sorry for becoming the yap monster. I really hope this was helpful! Thanks again for your ask and have a nice day/afternoon/night.