#decided to experiment with a black and white color palette for this!

[keuwibloom]

Happy birthday Dreamtale twins!

Here's Artemis and Apollo celebrating with tea and cake (and indulging both of their massive sweet tooths)

Dream and Nightmare belong to Jokublog

Parallel Synthesis (the AU where these guys are from) belongs to me

[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!

[zal-cryptid]

I love the new "Play Date" pages! Question: is this chapter in color for aesthetic purposes unlike the first chapter to show the differences between people who are accustomed to Toyland vs Maria who just got here and wants to GET OUT?

About halfway through Welcome to Toyland, I entertained the possibility of switching to colour, but decided to wait until Play Date to do so.

My reasoning mostly was that I liked the feeling of dread that the black and white gave, which was a vibe I wanted for that chapter.

I wanted a vibrant 'Welcome Home'-like palette for Play Date to make it feel kinda like a nursery. Despite the heavy subject matter, it's a comedic light-hearted chapter, so I wanted palette to reflect that.

I'm not sure what sort of pallette to use yet for the Beach Episode, but it is gonna have beach summer vibes. Haunted Doll, I already have an idea for. If any of y'all have ever read Pepsiphobia, then you'll know what I mean. Reminiscent of the first chapter, but with a few spooky colours.

That's gonna be my little colour experiment, and hopefully, I can stick the landing on it.

[your-bigender-big-brother]

I wanted to challenge myself this week to put my own spin on existing flags. I decided to make them without using most colors from the originals while also using a different number of stripes. I'll make more another time but here are a few so far!

Maverique:

I wanted to try using some reds like what you'd find in the outherine flag, but softened. The minty green simply looked good, slightly borrowed from my nonbinary redesign below, and the white helps break it up in a unique way (being uncentered, which feels like it fits the maverique experience in a subtle way.) This flag feels like a piece of the outherine flag, which works well for an outherine identity.

Nonbinary:

I remember coming across an anodiean flag and really liking how the colors worked together, so I borrowed the earthy tones and the green from that (slightly. The colors aren't exact.) I wanted to keep the yellow because it's iconic in nonbinary flags and the gray helps the flag look a bit softer (because I think black would have too much contrast.)

Neutrois:

I wanted to emphasize the green from the original flag while incorporating some yellow. When I think neutral, I think yellow and green. Plus, yellow is abinary. I can't not have it! The green can also represent genderlessness, rather than going with the obvious and overused black.

Lately I've been inspired to experiment with new color palettes I don't normally dabble in, like reds, browns, yellows, and desaturated colors. I'm liking the results!

- 💙💚

[yoinkschief]

Me when I men

Dog Teeth AU Tom Character Reference Sheet

WARNING: Slight NSFW - Mild, Non-Explicit Nudity under the cut

My other husband I love him so much let me kiss you on the lips volatile ball of angst and anger

My poor boy was cursed with his father's hairline and sress he cannot carry,,, to be fair that last bit was his own doing

I sure hope he looks nautical enough,, I mean I want him to nautical INSPIRED, not a member of the marine court, y'know?

My lover said "very Garp of him" and I think that's that One Piece Marine DILF guy so that's a plus :)

I also wanted his outfit to be a direct contrast to Tord's - I mean red and blue are already contrasts on the color wheel but kinda so is green so I wanted a little more driving force: white against Tord's blacker color palette

While white is supposed to represent purity, I assure you, Tom is anything but

It's more a reflection of how the characters see themselves: Tord KNOWS he's a piece of shit and happily flaunts it because no one can do anything about, he holds it with pride even

But Tom doesn't believe he's being an ass, he thinks he's genuinely doing the right thing or at the very least the lesser of the two evils he was forced into, and than on it's own has some merit but this is just to say Tom isn't exactly the "savior" of the story despite what the white palette may suggest

It certainly is what he wants to portray to the public, however

Mmmmm mann

I'm apparently really into sharp contrasts or something cause I keep shading with very bright colors against very dark shadows,,,, it's really fun actually so whateva

Also that cape thing Tom wears ? Worst thing ever, it's like a texture issues but instead of the texture bothering him it's the uneven amount of weight, like he's painfully aware it's on his left shoulder and not his right and it irks him so badly but "it carries his rebellion's symbol so he has to wear it in public" or whatever

He's really only seen wearing it during important or public matters, when it counts

Otherwise that thing's in the bin

Back in his OG style but with the horrible hairline and salt in his hair

He got a day off

He snuck out of the lime light

"Ohh I drew him naked to show off his tattoos and to talk about them"

No I didn't

I'm a liar

I drew him naked cause I wanted to draw his tits so I did, simple

But I will talk about his tattoos some more :)

First of all: That scar on his left shoulder is from the house rubble, that cut we see on his arm at the end of The End pt. 2, yeah that's where that comes from

As for his tattoos,,

I know I've explained these somewhere but I'm explaining them again cause I dunno if I explained it someone's DMs or not lol

The Harpoon tattoos are pretty self explanatory, and I also just wanted to show off colored tattoos on darker skin complexions cause that's the stupidest argument I've ever heard and black/dark skinned people should be able to get colored tattoos

The rest are kind of important to Tom and the story line,,,ish?:

the Shark Teeth tattoo comes from the time he visited Hawaii to find out more about his father and his Father's side of the family and their customs, traditions, his heritage, etc. etc.

To make a long story short: there's a reason his father doesn't talk about his side of the family often, but it didn't ruin his experience while visiting some lesser hostile family members in Hawaii like his cousins, and he even got to surf with them - which was when they decided to convince him to get the Shark Teeth tattoo

On top of Tom just being really obsessed with sharks and having infinite knowledge on all things shark related, it's supposed to represent strength, guidance and protection which I think is very fitting for Tom

The "Wolf" tattoo kinda stands out because Tom's Irish, not Scottish or any sort of Norse. So why the Nordic rune?

Well :)

Back when Tom and Tord lived together, they weren't always at each other's throats

I think I mentioned this in my Strip Mafia AU reference sheet for Tord ignore how I forgot to flesh out Tom's,,, I have it I just haven't cleaned it up yet but I'm gonna rehash it here really quick:

Tord gave everyone in the house a tattoo he thought best represented them, including himself (which was the Ouroboros tattoo seen on his character sheet) and Tom's was the rune for "wolf" and I think there are very obvious reasons behind it

Tom stays around his friends a lot, he's got more bite than bark, very unfriendly to outsiders, the list goes on really

It's so odd seeing Tom in so much white if I'm being honest

I'm so used to him being in like angst blacks and greys and I don't think he's adjusting any better himself LOL

[declawedwildcat]

ok gonna ramble my actual thoughts about yesterday's new screencap just to get it all out of my head onto a plate

As unlikely as it is that this is anything more than the artists playing around with making fighting game alt palettes of the characters, I want to pretend that the red-eyed Kuras is a timeline where he drank from the seaspring. We learn from Mhin that Ais hasn't forced anyone to drink yet, but maybe when things start heating up towards faction warfare he takes any power he can get his hands on, even from those he considered friends. Or, conversely, Kuras is just tired of his whole cycle, this endless quest for redemption, the divinity and power and mistakes. His resentment outweighs his trepidation about the seaspring, and he decides to try and get rid of it the only way that seems powerful enough to finally free him.

Of course this then also comes with the insinuation that people who join the groupmind get a thematically recolored evil-twin version of their everyday outfit courtesy of Ais, which is pretty hilarious 😌

it's definitely a strange choice for a placeholder though imo, generally a placeholder should be something that's eye-catchingly obvious so that even someone who's not familiar with what's supposed to be there can immediately catch it at a glance if it gets left in and let whoever is in charge of changing it out know. That's why you often see that eye-searing shade of magenta on placeholder assets. I would think a simple in-engine color layer (like the accidental green Leander) would be more useful for that purpose since black and white would blend with the normal sprites when left on "skip", so this feels like either an inside joke the team put in for their own amusement, or it's just staged for the screenshot lol

But! all theoreticals and wishlists aside, what this actually shows us is two things:

Kuras has a short hair asset, so he could potentially get a haircut at some point in the story. Of course, as anon pointed out this could be just part of how the model is divided, but in my experience modular parts don't usually have covered-up lineart at their division points, they just extend past the point that should be covered to fill any seams. It's a tiny detail, but to me that says they intend to have both hair variations accessible for them to use on finished sprites (whether this is one or not). I haven't worked on a professionally-produced VN though, so maybe their pipeline is different and I'm completely wrong!

Assuming this is not MCR Kuras being introduced here, that means we're seeing a different character's introduction, one that warrants a sprite but doesn't have one yet. Someone's monster form could make sense for MC to vaguely recognize without being able to immediately place them, but having anyone wander around the middle of the Wick in that state seems fairly unlikely. A smaller side character who happens to get an appearance? Or perhaps meeting Elyon? 👀

[jccatstudios]

Six of Crows Character Design Notes

As promised, here are my character design notes for this! These are all Six of Crows era and not Crooked Kingdom. The grayscale versions have four distinct values to have a comic feel, which may not match up with the color designs. Also, I’m certain I’ll continue to change up these designs, give them new outfits, etc as I draw them more, so think of these as works in progress.

So, without further ado... let’s get to the designs!

Kaz

Monochrome color palette with hints of light purple, the color of kruge

Kaz never wears white, not even as a dress shirt. The merchants do wear white dress shirts, so this makes him distinct. Dark colors also make things easier to conceal.

They’re easier to see in this post, but he has two prominent facial scars and a few moles. A few other scars cut through the shortest part of his hair.

Each canon couple has an aspect that connects their designs. Kaz and Inej are connected through dark colors and vests

Inej

Black and blue-violet palette. I possibly see her theme color becoming a deep blue in CK (sea-related, symbol of trust, separates her identity and goals from Ketterdam purple)

Arm guards are double-layered to hold a knife each

Gold piercings contrast the blue-violet to show a difference between her old life and her life as The Wraith

Jesper

I imagine him wearing all sorts of colors, but I went with the yellow-green outfit described in a flashback. He wore more neutrals with hints of Jurda orange before joining the Dregs

Jesper’s concept was very cowboy-inspired to match his pistols. He wears boots instead of common dress shoes

Styled in Barrel Flash as seen from the three different patterns

Matching earrings with his family

Connected to Wylan through patterned pants

Nina

Red, cream, and brown palette to contrast the gray and black palettes of other characters

Heart motif seen through the pattern on her slip and the toes of her boots

Lots of Ravkan jewerly, especially bracelets to visually represent her powers

Connected to Matthias through brown boots

Matthias

Cool blue and warm brown colors (contrasting colors, a character at odds with himself)

Prepared for anything with lots of pockets and an extra scarf

Scarring from prison and a bite mark from Trassel

Like Inej, he’s in a grounded pose to show his unwavering nature

Wylan

Red and gold palette like the Van Eck family but more neutral (disillusioned by his father’s true nature)

Boots from a second-hand store. Laces tied around ankles to fit better

Dirt smudges from experiments, unable to buy many new clothes

Bag carries supplies, with certain chemicals stored on the outside for easier use (no, they’re not pokéballs)

Kuwei

Theme color is gray or white from his lab coat. Maybe he wears more teal in CK? Haven’t decided on that yet...

His shirt may seem anachronistic, but apparently t-shirts were around in the late 1800s, so it can still fit the setting.

And... that’s it! Thanks for reading. If you have any questions about these, feel free to send an ask or put it in the comments.

[cheesy-cryptid]

Hi Nik! Okay, So I've seen you and a few artists go from black and white (to see values) to color. How do you guys do that? Do you paint with colors first and then filter the image in black and white to see the value or do you paint in black and white first and then somehow add color? I don't get it. Anonymously Yours, - An artist who clearly knows nothing (I just make lines on paper I haven't studied)

I start painting in black and white first after I cleaned up the sketch. And then i experiment by using different gradient scale palettes as sort of an underpainting. And then on a separate layer i establish flat colors using different blending modes (i dont usually stick to one type of blending mode because it all depends on the look that im trying to achieve). Its easier for me to do black and white first because it lessens the amount of time i spend on deciding colors.

Most of the time its all about adjusting and experimenting with different contrasts and blending modes. Heres some of my process from different layers. I couldnt give you the flat colors layer because i have a habit of immediately merging them together and coloring over my sketches

Hope this helps! 🌷🌷🌷

[gattnk]

When the ambitious Miki and the conformist Gas cross paths, it's pretty much an "unstoppable force VS unmovable object" situation.

Last but not least, a couple of fan favorites! My redesign process was very different for each one: I did a quick sketch of Gas on day one, as soon as I was done with Raf and Sulfus, and I pretty much stuck to it. Meanwhile, I couldn't form a clear thought for Miki until my AFapril comic prompted me to do it! Now, about that creative process:

While Miki's canon designs are significantly different, Gas is pretty straightforward. Even then, I decided to work on unifying their respective color palettes first, and then focus on their redesigns proper.

I went with their Prisma Fly colors as their new main colors. To contrast the orange better, I switched Gas' purple for a washed-out blue, and included black and white for variety's sake. In Miki's case I went with three shades of forest green and included key lime green since it's closer to yellow and pops out nicely; I also included desaturated browns and off-whites to visually frame the key lime better.

Since Miki is characterized as somewhat non-conforming in the comics, I doubled down and updated her parka jacket to something more extreme-sports looking (thank you @haloheadhater for helping me figure that one out!), added thick denim jeans to the mix and the toughest pair of timber boots I could come up with.

Gas is the kind of character that tries to look tough (despite being the least intimidating devil ever), so I added a biker's denim vest to crank the Cool Factor™ to the max. There's little difference between his canon designs, so blending them together was easy enough. I tried to preserve his iconic Emo Frog shirt with a minimalist design, all derived from triangles to keep in line with the devil design philosophy I've been keeping so far.

I wanted to reflect Miki's dragonfly mascot in her overall design, so I gave her wings a peculiar shape. While adult angels may have multiple pairs, Miki's wings are a single pair: I took inspiration from pennant-winged nightjars for her wing design.

Officially, Gas has the smallest wing-to-body ratio of the entire cast. He can still fly just fine, no worries, but he took more naturally to phasing walls and floors around the school to get by. My biggest challenge was his horns and wings, specifically finding the right shade of orange so they would not blend with his ginger hair. I didn't want to use red for his hair, nor blue for his horns/wings like his original designs, so I had to put my eyes to the test there.

Mascot placement once again comes with meaning: Gas' tomato frog may have bright and intimidating colors, but it's actually cute, round and inoffensive; it rests right over his heart to represent his true nature. Miki's green darner dragonfly hangs at the end of her braid: braids are often associated with bravery, wisdom, patience or experience in character design, and dragonflies are renowned for their maneuverability; this way, Miki's core traits are in the end held together by her ability to adjust on the fly.

There it is! the entire main cast of Angel's Friends, redesigned :D I've also been working on the humans and teachers, but it'll be a while before I finish those. For now my attention is almost entirely on my AF rewrite fic. Shameless self-promotion aside, I'm really proud of my script and characters, and I really appreciate it when I get comments/kudos/hits. So far everyone's been really kind and excited and I definitely share on the enthusiasm!

I'll Fly With You (rewrite fic) Art masterpost

[uroboros-if]

Please please share some coding/designing wisdom. Your game is so damn pretty 😭😭😭 Could you tell us what template you used and how hard it was to make it look like it is today? I imagine so much work must have gone into it

😭😭 I am no expert, but these are just my rationale/methods behind the visual choices I made!

For the template I used—I used Vahnya's Template! However, this post by @/manonamora-if has a whole section for templates that I wish I saw or checked out before making my IF! In another lifetime, I might've just used nyehilism's template to achieve the bottom sidebar instead of torturing myself learning how to do it... ;;

Below, I go into detail the timeline of designing Uroboros, as well as advice through the process I went!

Design Timeline

I started designing the UI late October 2022, and kept fixing, changing, editing it well into February and maybe a little bit of March 2023.

October 2022 - Early iterations of the design. Looked for stock images and began implementing it to add a background to the sidebar and the actual passages. Swatched some color palettes and began implementing them into the IF. Later decided to make the sidebar on the bottom instead of on the side. Also, added a title screen.

November - Testing different backgrounds for the IF's sidebar. Added a textbox to the passages, also worked on the black fade transitions.

December - Finished working on the sidebar background for both light and dark theme, began work on the background of the IF instead.

January 2023 - Finished working on the dark and light theme backgrounds! Started work on drawing the skill icons for light and dark theme, and finished!

February - Changed the title screen to look better on mobile, created a circle logo, added a border to the textbox. Also, made further edits for light theme.

March - Just remade the "Uroboros" logo.

If you're wondering why it took approximately 5 months to get to the final version—don't worry! I wasn't working only on the design for 5 months. My partner helped make the edits for the design, while I worked on coding them in and writing.

I spent a lot of time trying to get a grasp on Javascript, SugarCube, and HTML all throughout this time as well, to know how to fluidly add these things. Meaning, while I was working on these visual elements, I was also figuring out how to do the "looking" mechanic, black and white transitions, figuring out how Tweego worked, radio buttons, and so on.

Do note I've been busy the entire time throughout, so perhaps you can do this much quicker than I can!

The "Secrets"

1. Please—look at IFs you love! What are some visual aspects of other IFs that you love and want to include in your story? I started by analyzing parts of other IFs that I love. I liked Wayfarer's textbox; I liked how the choices looked in When Twilight Strikes. I liked the textboxes in the beginning of Zorlok. Find the things that amaze you about other IFs, and implement it your own way!

This seems like super basic advice—but trust me, once you think, "How can I put this in my game?" you will not only be able to have it, but most likely, you'll also learn a LOT.

While seeing how I could make the radio buttons, for example, I started researching. I googled "How to live change text?" and then I found out about jQuery, how to use the replace macro, etc. etc. JUST from researching how to do exactly one (1) feature.

2. What is missing in other IFs? Think about your own reading experience. I didn't like the clunkiness of some, how the sidebar is on the side when space on a mobile-screen is severely limited length-wise. So, I put the sidebar on the bottom.

I didn't like how other choices look in IFs, so I wanted a way to do mine that's nice and elegant(though it's still a little hard to read, admittedly).

Again, researching how to do the things you want opens many doors for you. I learned how to style <li> and change how bullets look, learned how to style links in Twine in general, etc. etc. again with just this ONE thing I wanted to change/add.

3. Don't do the work all by yourself. I struggled so hard because I hate asking for help. I was happy to Google other people's problems, but I never thought to open up my own thread or ask anybody in the community for help. Please, not only ask, but also—your work doesn't have to be completely original.

Use templates. Look at manon's amazing masterlist of things you can implement. I also have a few macro's that you can use, like multipronouns for MC, that does the work for you, for free.

Rip people's codes—respectfully. I'm not saying from other IFs, but online in other places. If they appear on help forums or are publicly available through places like CodePen, chances are that they're open-source or licensed in such a way that anyone can use it (e.g. MIT license).

Again, here is Manon's masterlist, which includes custom macros you can use in your game (Chapel, HiEv and Cycy are my high recommendations)! Additionally, here's my code for multipronouns here and my code for setting RO genders here.

4. MAKE IT READABLE!! Even if you want your game to look pretty... please, I'm begging you, make it easy to read. This is the most important thing ever.

I have a short attention span, and so does my partner. We reviewed the game to make sure we are NOT compromising the reading experience with our design. As much as we want fantastical backgrounds, we wanted to make sure it was at least not distracting. As much as we want gaudy styles, we want the actual passage to be suited for the long haul.

The most, most important part is to enhance the reading experience--not by adding things on, but by making it simple and intuitive. As someone in the computer science field, the user experience is CRITICAL. Put yourself in their shoes, think about them first and foremost.

Twine is amazingly customizable, and its powers can be wielded for good and evil. Plenty of amazing writers but inexperienced UI designers, especially from CoG, get into Twine. CoG almost completely takes away the design element, so Twine is a whole new ballpark.

Uroboros has a lot of pomp, but the actual textbox is uncharacteristically simple in comparison. The simplicity against an otherwise fantastical, but non-distracting background helps give it elegance. The sidebar, in contrast, is very eye-catching—but, it's also out of view most of the time, and isn't built for long reading.

To add on, make sure it's readable on mobile. I guarantee 80% of your readers are going to be reading your IF on their phone, and probably at 3 AM, so you will want the mobile to look as good as PC, or even better.

Closing Thoughts

Anyway, as basic as this advice is, this is really what guided my entire thought process behind my visual choices! -- Picking and choosing what you like from IFs, figuring out how to do them through research, and making sure your IF is built to be read for a while.

Thanks so much for asking, thinking that I have wisdom to impart!! 😭🫶💕

[eldorr]

Some Aldernic terms

Row 1 (Pasentadernic): With symbol (left), symbol-less (right) Row 2 (Viventadernic): With symbol (left), symbol-less (right) Row 3 (Darentadernic): With symbol (left), symbol-less (right)

Pasentadernic: An aldernic term for when wants or has a body with a skin tone that can be described as pastel or light. Pasentadernic includes any color from white to light gray, and to any light non-vivid color.

Viventadernic: An aldernic term for when wants or has a body with a skin tone that can be described as neutral or vivid. Viventadernic includes any color from to any light gray to dark gray, and to any non-pastel and non-dark color.

Darentadernic: An aldernic term for when wants or has a body with a skin tone that can be described as dark or muted. Darentadernic includes any color from dark gray to black, and to any dark non-vivid color.

.

These terms do include colors already found naturally in human skin since human skin is naturally anywhere from very dark brown to pinkish (just as a generalization). One could choose to describe their current physical body with these terms if one wants, these terms were coined to be deliberately broad in their definitions.

These terms were mostly coined with alterhumans and system members in mind, provided one has skin or something that is basically the equivalent of skin. "Skin" here is a broad term. (Essentially anything that's not liquid, scales, feathers, fur, etc.)

There's no concrete line between what colors are defined as pastel, neutral or dark, so it really depends on one's own personal perception on what colors are what if one's trying to decide if the color is light or neutral.

.

I mostly coined these for myself since I'm a shapeshifter but two of my forms I can remember have pure white skin while the other has black skin. Well technically I don't have skin but it's the closest human word. One of my headmates also as brown skin and it'd be nice to have a term for her since her inner world body sure as hell doesn't match this flesh capsule.

I'll probably coin a term for being fluid between colors or these terms.

The flags include the gradients on the sides for nonhuman skin tones, the horizontal stripes are just colors I felt were important to note since these terms technically include human skin tones, and it's hard to blend brown and gray into a rainbow color palette, especially pastels. Hence why there's the small stripes for black and white as well for the light and dark versions. I just needed a good way to add a rainbow gradient without inducing eye strain due to the stripes being very similar tint/tone/shade-wise. This is just what I came up with. (The other alternatives would've just had way to many stripes and color variance for what I wanted to go for.)

.

Also! If you tag this as transx/transid I'm hard blocking you! Also if you try to argue with me saying these are basically trace or whatever because brown happens to be a human skin tone, I'm just going to ignore you.

These terms exist to describe a color one has or wants as the color of their skin or whatever equivalent of skin one has. Whether one is using the terms to describe their inner world body or outer world body or as a want/have is none of my business. I just coined these to fill a blank in my experience.

(Sorry for the long foot notes I just wanna cover the bases before posting, I just don't want to get back on after work to find like 20 people angry at me or something for not mentioning it and/or clarifying my intentions for these terms in the first place. /gen)

(I do not consent to these terms being used: to denote transition to another race, being used in diaracial/trace spaces, to fetishize BIPOC or anyone's physical meatspace forms. /srs)

[underpaid-paragon]

Your VTM comic book covers are simply GORGEOUS, I'm totally in awe! How did you get the super cool halftone/coloured dots effect? It looks super cool and realistic, I love it! Have a lovely day! :)

Thank you so much!

So to get the halftones, I use an old-ass tutorial I got off deviantArt literally....more than a decade ago? (Rosalarian's Golden Age Tutorial). The account appears to be deactivated, but I'll go through the steps here:

For reference, I bounce between Clip Studio Paint and a very old-ass copy of Photoshop, but if you're using other programs that have fun pixelate filters and you can change the color mode, you should be ok.

NOW...

Ink your drawing in straight black on its own layer

Block your colors on another layer (I hunted up some old comic color palettes thanks to madformidcentury dot com/2013/10/mid-century-color-palette-in-comics dot html)

Turn off any and all blackwork (this is INCREDIBLY important), and take your colorwork into Photoshop. (if there are any gaps in your color work, fill a separate layer with white and then merge the layers so it's all solid)

Set the mode to CMYK

Go to Artistic Filters >> Pixelate >> Color Halftone (the only thing I mess around with is the size of the dots; the default for my era of Photoshop is 8 and that's a lil big for my taste--all the VTM covers are between 4-6. It's up to your own best judgement, but I go by how "readable" things look--does the face still look like a face at a reasonable distance or is it just a smudge? If it's not readable, undo and change your dot size)

Add 3 new layers to your document and LABEL THEM: Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow

Then go to your channels panel and click on the Cyan layer to make a selection of it

Back to your Layers panel, make sure you're on your Cyan layer, and SELECT INVERSE

Then FILL the selection with the CMYK cyan that you've picked out

Deselect your selection, move to the next layer (and make sure you've got CMYK magenta in your bucket) and repeat steps 6-8 selecting Magenta and Yellow respectively

NOW you've got the beginnings of retro-feeling halftone. At this point, I import the halftone manipulation back into CSP and turn my blackwork back on.

For the ✨ grunge ✨ effect, I grab an old paper texture (after reducing its saturation and upping the contrast until it's mostly black and white splotchy) and set it to OVERLAY at anywhere from 50-20% (this is a 'let your soul decide' moment) over the whole thing

Then I grab another old paper texture and put underneath the Overlay Texture Layer, on MULTIPLY, at anywhere from 65-25% (again, let your soul decide). Both layers will give you a nice level of funk to go with your halftone shenanigans

A lot of the colorwork is going back and forth and back and forth because what looked ok in flats didn't translate after toning, but it works out eventually!

Some important things to remember:

Cool tones tend to fade back and warm tones tend to move forward if you're gonna use this method on any kind of scene

Keep your shapes SIMPLE; don't get bogged down in tones of gradients and fades and all of that because most of it WILL NOT come across once you start toning! Think of it this way: mass-production doesn't have time for fine detail, that's why comics are a lot of heavy black inks and flat color contrast

Experiment with the colors! You're working in a limited palette (if you're using any of the old Marvel/DC print books especially), and it doesn't have to be photorealistic/absolute. For instance, my Nos isn't actually green, but the tone suited the funky retro vibe so I went with it!

Let yourself fall down the research rabbit hole of pulp covers because they're both hilarious and informative. Same dot energy is an interesting collection website to go through, you can also go through your search engine (remember to add -pinterest -youtube to your search term to filter out that crapola)

HAVE FUN!

💖

[inkspindle]

This post got a lot longer than intended (oops), so feel free to just skim the pretty pictures, or skip to the bits you find most interesting!

I got bored, and wanted to try something out, just to see how it looked. The goal was: Make a visually appealing pixel-object out of very limited colors, which is both clear in visual, and shaded to give a lil depth. While this isn't a tutorial on making old-school pixel art, I'd love to see if this inspires anybody else to give it a try!

Shrunk a public domain photo down for the silhouette of my base here (https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=173260&picture=tree) and just kinda riffed on it. Tried to "capture" the way it looked (to me) as best I could, while staying true to the original photo.

In order to tempt people into scrolling past the read-more, here is the final image I settled on after taking several passes at it. (Be warned, this is a VERY LONG post!)

(And what it looks like at normal size)

Normally, when I do pixel art, I prefer not to do the thing where you shrink a picture down, and make it more pixellated. But... I've realized there's a bunch of different ways to emphasize those same pixels. So I decided to experiment.

First-off, my initial goal: The background would be the lightest color, and I would then use a darkest color and two mid-tone colors to re-create the entire image. I couldn't work with any other shades, as it would help me simplify the shapes I'm looking at a little better. So I started by blocking in the deepest shadows I could find, and then sculpting them into more satisfying shapes.

While it "worked," I didn't like the end-result. It wasn't terrible, it just didn't look the way that I wanted it to.

The next attempt was to make all my existing shadows the darkest color in my palette, then "fill in" between them with a nice mid-tone. Something to soften the shadows up a bit, and make it look a little more cohesive.

This also didn't quite give the effect I wanted. The shadows are a lovely shape, but I probably added too many of them. I wanted the "focus" on the bits of the tree that were fully highlighted, but it still didn't look right.

While it broke my initial "rule," I tried combining the first picture and the last one, to see what a "happy medium" looked like. The end-result... looked almost identical to the photo that I started with. (Colors notwithstanding.) While the visual effect was a bit more pleasing to the eye, that definitely defeated the purpose of the exercise. So...I started over completely.

SKIP DOWN TO THE TL;DR TO AVOID THE VIDEO GAME HISTORY RANT.

(Certain things have been heavily oversimplified, to make for a shorter explanation!)

Fun lil video-game history fact: Early visuals in video games started with "off" and "on." A lot of the modern limited-palette pixel art you see is directly inspired by the fact that the earliest screens we had to work with could only show visuals in binary; Parts of the screen were "on" (the lighter color) or "off" (the darker color) and we hadn't gotten to the point we could display a crisp white or black, yet. This meant that you might have a green background with darker green artwork. Later on, they were able to add a mid-tone shade or two for sake of depth and detail.

After we went through our early MS Paint era of video game visuals (complete with blinding use of primary colors), people stretched what early processors (CPU/video card/RAM/low-res displays) could handle to the limits. That harsh limitation on what an early computer could display without frying itself, and what it could display at all, led to some extremely clever uses of color-choice, dithering, and cross-hatching, to trick the eye into filling in with colors and shapes where early video game artists couldn't add them.

See, when we talk about "8-bit" games, we're talking about (oversimplified, mind you) the amount of colors and pixels a computer is capable of displaying, both overall, and in a given section of the screen at a time. Individual tiles and character-sprites for old games had a set amount of pixels per "square," and within those "squares," you were only allowed to display a certain amount of colors. Each separate "square" then had to be designed individually.

Some while after we figured out how to display more than "off" and "on," we developed computers that could handle showing a lovely range of different colors. But then we had a new issue; Within a single "square" (8x8, 16x16, etc) of the screen, you could have white, black, and up to 1-2 other colors. The computer couldn't handle displaying anything else; No midtone shades inbetween, no nothing.

So early video game artists compensated for this by sticking to that old method of "chunking" out the visuals on the screen into tiles, which matched that resolution. You wouldn't notice that your computer could only show 2 gray tones in the same square, if that square happened to be a stone wall. The square next to it could then be two different shades of green, and it would make a lovely piece of grass, or a tree, with shading even!

There was a period inbetween where we had such limited colors to work with, people had purple trees, orange grass, and red skies. It created a wild visual effect, and had all the right contrast (see artwork term: "Value") to allow the eye to see the detail needed for games in which visuals were really important, like early point-and-click adventures.

Eventually, artists stretched the limits further. While that resolution was slow to evolve, people began to create complex backgrounds with visible perspective, that blurred the lines between each "square" on the screen. If you wanted to create a diagonal edge, or overlap two objects over eachother, you had to use a set of colors that could apply to both objects you wanted to create.

So!!! FOR THOSE WHO SCROLLED DOWN, tl;dr-

I wanted to see if I could re-create this tree with only 3-4 total colors (+background) in a way that an early computer could have rendered on-screen. That means white/black + 2 colors per "square." Since I didn't like how harsh a pure black looked while I worked on it, I skipped using it. We're going to pretend an old computer could handle these specific shades of pink and purple (spoiler; they absolutely could not)...but the visual effect being used is true to the idea.

A first-attempt was made. I allowed myself one extra mid-tone, just for the sake of smoothing things out. I then decided on 8x8 pixel squares. You can visually see where one stops and the next starts. It had a fun visual effect, and it was much closer to what I was originally going for...but the artists that came before me made nuch nicer artwork with much worse tech, and I could do better. So I took a second pass at it.

THIS was much closer to what I'd been going for. While you can still guess where each square begins/ends, all the extra dithering and more organically-shaped lines helps to blur the edges of each square, without straying outside of them.

If you got all the way down here, you're amazing. I hope this entertained somebody, and that others will like the end-result as much as I do. :)

[lunacias]

The way you color is SO so pretty 😭 Do you have any tips for how you color? Or like a tutorial? 👀

Ahhh thank you soo much! ; ; Tbh I always feel like my coloring process is all over the place but I'll try my best to kind of explain my process!

So one thing I find that really helps with colors is picking and choosing the colors for your background/lineart first, as these will effect how your colors will look. Surrounding colors can easily make others look different; pinks can look green, reds can look purple, etc. So, for example, here's how my dendro drawing looks if you take away the background color and lineart:

Even like this, the colors still have a specific yellow/green tone to them but there’s no additional layers here that are effecting the colors; these are the base colors as they are with no adjustments. This is all because of the background and lineart colors I used while putting my base ones! So look again at the top picture, and then vs how it looks with the colored background and lineart I used while putting my flats and later when I went back to color my lineart.

See how different it looks just with the colored background/lineart? And then later with the colored lineart, how the colors pop more ever so slightly?  Just this simple trick can help you pick your colors, even if you end up changing the background color later (so, say, if you want your base colors to have a different hue than your background). For example, here are some early iterations I went through (and tossed) using this technique for my TMA drawing:

I'm not used to working with darker colors, so unfortunately this technique didn't initially work out because they kept blending in too much with the background. I usually double check my colors on my phone, as they look different on my tablet/laptop/phone, and whenever I checked these iterations, I could barely see anything. I ended up changing the color of the background/lineart to something much lighter than what the final version would be (and actually, I think the background color I actually used was much lighter than the version here, but this is what I had in my file so it’s close enough). This is what I ended up using for my flats vs how it looks once I changed the background/lineart to what their final versions would be.

The colors are all the same, but they look completely different with just the simple change of lineart/background.

As for actually choosing them, colors are funky lil things that easily look different depending on what their surrounding colors are. So pinks can look like green, blues can look like orange, etc. etc. if you pick your colors right. If you look back on my TMA drawing, see how Martin's blue sweater isn't exactly blue? How Tim's purple shirt isn't even purple once placed on a white background. If this is something you struggle with, something I recommend to start is figuring out how your black/white is going to look. I personally will rarely use black/white on my drawings (not to say you can't use them of course!) as their hues can help decide everything else. Here are some examples of what I used for black/white in some of my drawings:

Also notice how I sometimes use multiple colors for black/white depending on character color palettes as well, as those will impact how they look too! A lot of this will be trial and error, so don’t be afraid to experiment with different combinations! 

As for picking everything, I usually go with analogous colors, with complimentary colors used to help certain parts pop out. 

So for my Amame drawing, I stayed with blues/purples/greens (sometimes pinks) and very rarely dipped into orange. Whereas for the above Ryuki-Mizuki drawing, I stuck with oranges/reds for everything. Rather than use green for the bushes, for example, I stuck with something that’s more orange on the color wheel. Even Mizuki’s blue hair is more of a pale grey, despite how it looks in the actual drawing. Again, a lot of this will be trial and error! A lot of why it takes me so long to finish a drawing is because my flats will take up so much time as I experiment with different combinations.  

After putting base colors on, I’ll usually go on to color my lineart. I will be honest, a lot of this is just eyeballing it alflajsdsd I’ll usually colorpick my flats  and go for a darker shade/different hue than it, but also Ctrl + H will be your best friend if you need to darken anything or change hues. A lot of my issue is that I’ll use colors that are too light so my lineart gets lost, so I’ll usually adjust everything in between this and after shading. This will help everything pop out even more! 

Like with my flats, I usually stay with colors that are analogous to whatever I’m using (so I’ll stick with oranges/reds if it’s a warm drawing or purples/blues if it’s a cool for example). But again, Ctrl + H will be your best friend! 

As for shading/rendering, I wish I could be a bit more helpful here, but I’m really a “just throw colors down” kind of person. Layer modes are my best friend at this stage tbh, and my defaults are usually Multiply + Linear Burn + Hard Light (though sometimes I’ll do other layer modes depending on the drawing). Multiply I mainly will use for shading skin and pushing things to the background. So going back to my dendro drawing, I’ve used it for their skin and background elements (notice that Collei’s left leg is now slightly darker to add depth, etc). Depending on the drawing, I’ll use different colors for this step, this one in particular I used green to shade, though for their skin tone, I’ll stick to whatever I used with their flats..

Linear Burn I’ll use for everything else and this part is truly my “just throw down colors like it’s nobody’s business” stage. I’ll usually stick to colors that match whatever overall tone I’m going for, so in this came I kept mostly with greens, yellows, and some blues.

But again! Ctrl + H is your best friend! Adjust those bad boys and experiment with different combinations! I almost always will adjust this layer once I’m done with it; a lot of times, I’ll find different iterations I like a lot more than whatever I used! 

From there, I’ll usually finish off with a layer set to Hard Light, which is, again, adjusted afterwards using Ctrl + H. I do this to add a lil shine to their hair and whatnot. Or, if there’s lighting, for that. For this drawing, I did adjust it afterwards with two overlay layers over everything (a light blue one and a green, set below 10% opacity), but that’s usually on a drawing by drawing basis. 

Multiply + Linear Burn + Hard Light is my go to for most of my things tbh, but it’s also a case by case basis depending on how detailed my drawing is! My Amame and Ryuki-Mizuki drawings have a lot more going on after that, while my other TMA drawings follow this pretty much to a T (err... somewhat. My Guest for Mr. Spider one was a bit weird in terms of base colors, but everything else stayed the same). For rendering, I suggest trying different layer modes and opacities out as well! Or sometimes, if my base colors still aren’t cohesive enough to my liking, I’ll make the layer slightly more translucent and set the base color to whatever hue I want my drawing to be. 

I hope this explanation could be of some help!! It ended up a lot longer than I thought it would be so hopefully it’s coherent enough to make sense of afsjdalds. I really love talking process so I’m really happy you asked me about my colors! 

[sp-epari-digitalmedia]

God of War: Decrypting Kratos

BLOG 5: SIGNS AND SEMIOTICS BEHIND GAME CHARACTERS

God of War: Ghost of Sparta was the game that first got me interested in video games. It was an immersive experience that not only introduced me to console gaming but also made me fall in love with this enthralling medium. One character stood out above the rest with unmatched force amidst the suspenseful plot and fierce action: Kratos. His appearance on screen served as more than just a decorative element; it also served as a spark for my developing passion for video games.

Kratos, with his intense presence, left me curious. I wanted to dig deeper, beyond the cool fights and epic adventures, to understand what made him tick. Where did his name come from? Why did he look the way he did? What hidden meanings were behind the colors and symbols that defined him? I decided to take a closer look through the lens of semiotics, examining the signs and symbols that make up his character.

About the Character

Kratos, the central protagonist in the popular game series "God of War," leads a spectrum of nine titles: God of War Betrayal, God of War Ascension, God of War Ghost of Sparta, God of War Chains of Olympus, God of War I, II, III, God of War 2018, God of War Ragnarok, and God of War Ragnarok Valhalla.

The genesis of Kratos's character witnessed a noticeable shift in 2018, not only transitioning from Greek to Norse mythology but also marking a substantial evolution in his personality. In his earlier depictions, Kratos showcases unbridled rage, an unrelenting force shaped by the profound losses of his wife, children, mother, friend and his long-lost brother. The paradigm shift surfaced in a more contemplative and rational Kratos, departing from the archetypal rage-fueled spartan we had come to know.

This transformation extends beyond a mere alteration in mythological backdrop. It signifies a profound metamorphosis in character. No longer solely defined by unbridled fury, Kratos, in his evolution, unfolds as a multidimensional figure, portraying a depth and complexity that belies his initial portrayal.

Academic Standpoint

Fiske in his study, "Introduction to Communication Studies", mentions that media is not always direct. He breaks media comprehension into 2:

Denotation: This classification is the literal meaning of the media. It is simply the direct translation of what is visible to the audience. (Fiske, 2010)

Connotation: This classification is the hidden meaning of the media. It is the intended meaning behind what is visible to the audience. (Fiske, 2010)

To decrypt the character, I am going to use this study. In order to keep it comprehendible I am going to take Kratos from 2018 edition onwards.

Semiotics in Character Design

Name & Origin

The name of the character is Kratos.

Kratos is a Greek word that means Strength. Additionally, Kratos is also the name of the Greek god of strength.

Color Thematic

The character constitutes of the selected palette of colors.

From right to left:

#660000: Dark Red

#922929: Indian Red

#F2F3F4: Anti-Flash White

#A9A9A9: Dark Gray

#1B1B1B: Eerie Black

Dark Red is the color normally associated with emotion or rage and also the color of blood. Indian Red is color made in the honor of Red Indians symbolizing brotherhood and friendship. Anti-Flash White is a type of white. White color is often associated with purity and godliness. Dark Gray has a lot of negative emotions associated with it including fear, frustration, gloominess and mourning. Eerie Black is the color of mystery and death.

Other References

Scarred Eye

Scarred eye is a warrior like feature, often representing strength and resilience.

Ashed Skin

Ashed skin is often linked with the supernatural and the energy to connect with it.

Kratos's Tattoo

Kratos's tattoo is actually a replica of his brother's birthmark symbolizing his love and endless pursuit for his lost brother.

Shoulder Guards

Shoulder Guards showcase the burden and responsibility that one bears.

Character Development

Paradigm shift in the Pesonality

In the documentary Raising Kratos, Corey Barlog mentions that Kratos represented his phases of life. Kratos earlier was rageful and aggressive and was the symbolism of his teenage. The new Kratos was symbolizing his adulthood phase highlighting his joy of becoming a father.

Overall Representation

The name Kratos means strength is a direct remark on the character symbolizing his strength is unparalleled even though he is not completely a god in the beginning and is not really the god of strength but takes over the mantle of God of war.

The colors represent the building blocks of the character. The Dark Red is the emotional state of the character which is anger and bloodlust. Kratos being a father, general and initially a brother justifies Indian Red in his palette. Being a god Anti-Flash White is the perfect representation of his status. The color Dark Gray sets his emotional tonality too, he has lost quite a lot of people in his life and the color represents mourning, gloominess and frustration. The color black is the color of death that he himself is surrounded with or is the reason for.

Features like scarred eye, ashed skin, body tattoo and shoulder add different layers to the characters. It shows that he fills the shoes of many roles from a soldier, mourner, seeker and an avenger.

There is an additional dimension to the character as it is the direct reflection of the creator's emotional state.

Conclusion

Kratos is quite a complex character and has many dimensions to it. He is filled with various hidden meanings and that information is quite easy to miss out. Overall, Kratos has a rich history, and the design of the character symbolizes that quite impressively.

References

Fiske, J. (2010) Introduction to communication studies, Routledge eBooks. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203837382.

[raynicole]

What to know before becoming a painter

Painting is such a fun way to express yourself, but I know it can feel daunting to first approach this hobby. Let me guide you through the must-knows of painting to get you started. This is going to be the bare minimum to get you past the barriers of entry so that you can start creating as soon as possible and without much hassle.

(KunstLoft Magazine)

Materials Needed

To get started, you will need the following items.

Paint (in red, blue, yellow, black, and white)

Canvas or canvas paper

Paint brushes

Palette

On-a-budget Alternatives

Paint in monochrome or black-and-white if you’re limited on paint colors.

Use the thickest paper that you already own instead of canvas paper. Just tape down the edges to a flat surface to prevent waves when drying.

Finger painting is a great alternative to using brushes, and it is much more fun.

Use a flat surface like a paper plate instead of a palette.

Remember, there’s no way to paint “wrong.” Use what you have easy access to!

Types of Painting

Painting is a large umbrella category, which holds a lot of different kinds of painting within it. Some of the most popular types of painting include watercolor, gouache, acrylic, tempera, ink, and oil painting.

Decide what type of painting you want to learn. This decision should consider the price, difficulty, and limitations associated with the painting type. 

I recommend that beginners get started with either gouache or acrylic paints. Acrylic paints are likely what people have used in a school art class, so you may already have experience with this paint. Both gouache and acrylic paints are easy to work with. They are water-based paints (meaning you don’t need to worry about buying and handling toxic paint thinners) that behave how you would expect them to.

Watercolor is a good cheap alternative to these options, but know that this paint does require more knowledge to work with it. I recommend looking into some free  tutorial videos or online guidebooks if you want to take up watercolor painting.

The realm of painting has so much to offer and explore. Get started today and see what you like!