#definitely using my normal lineart brushes for the next time i draw them

[jellykinss]

a bit of a different style compared to my normal s/i intro posts, but an intro post nonetheless! it’s my trainersona, jelly :)

i wanted to challenge myself to get this down as close to the sugimori style as possible… including the lineart…. i hate solid black lineart but i had to try…. T-T

[bellassoblr]

i honestly have way too many different ways i do lineart it's not even funny

firstly off, careful with layer modes n stuff. multiply can work but only if your colors underneath are nice and smooth. otherwise it can make it look messier/blurry. if that's what you want go ham but if not, be aware. i tend to leave my lineart on normal, coloring it in with alpha lock on instead. SOMEtimes i use multiply or soft light but that's for pretty specific pieces and i usually have to touch it up later (when i merge layers)

as for which brushes to use- just experiment until something works. i also like using something with texture though, i like the sketchy feel C: i recommend NOT using brushes with low opacity for lineart though. some people can make it work but it's tedious as hell. better to get comfy with high contrast first. this means pencil brushes can be problematic if the grain texture makes them really bleak, but there are brushes that are both opaque but with a nice texture! sometimes, my lineart is actually just my sketch but cleaned up. erase with the same brush as you're drawing with to add weight and define stuff. this might not be super effective if your brush size is super small though? and again, if you're using low opacity brushes.

then it's just down to personal style and getting the hang of techniques. if you want a more sketchy style you can draw in shorter lines (polish them with eraser using same brush), but if you want a cleaner style you'll need to practice drawing longer, fast and steady lines. drawing slow = shaky lines. this can definitely take some time.

honestly one of my practices is just drawing lines. vertical lines, next to each other. not perfect lines, but they should be generally aligned. maybe add some curved ones. adding different line weights. another is just drawing in a circle, trying to keep it as even as possible.

a bit like this? you do this until you get a good flow. usually this is for learning how to draw with a screenless tablet (ie practicing hand-eye coordination) but it can still help no matter what you're using.

and uhhhh yea!! that's it. experiment n keep at it

Hey gang, how do y’all do your lineart? Just curious cuz I’m trying to develop my art style a wee bit more and idk if it’s working.

Currently I’m using a pencil texture and setting it to multiple

[zoomy-brain]

2014 vs 2021

I rediscovered my old deviantart from when I was 11 and if I felt like my art was meh lately... WELL THAT FEELING GONE NOW

This btw is a redraw of a lil drawing I made of @helaia when I was like 18, for some colour challenge. This was BEFORE I had a tablet with pen sensitivity, my GOHD

So let’s talk about the evolution of how-to-draw-gooder!

(if I’m going through my old digital art cringe-town, I’M TAKING YOU WITH ME)

2010 (age 13)

So my first shitty drawing tablet was one my dad had found somewhere in a closet at his work, which has nothing to do with graphic design or drawing or anything. It was old, the pen was falling apart and it didn’t have settings options or anything. I just plugged it in, hoped it worked, and then got working on GIMP. Photoshop was then too complicated and too expensive.

Most of the stuff you’ll see will have quite a few things in common: no control over the pen, no width variation in the lineart, ugly or saturated colours, no full grasp on anatomy, the same stupid brush everywhere and what I did for shading was just pick the colour i did for normal light, dragged it a little towards black and just did that on a different layer. At least I actually used layers!

It’s often said that the tools don’t make the artist and in some capacity that was true... but I was definitely working with a broken machine and it was showing. What I knew, I had learned from speedpaints on youtube. (I tried to look up the ones I learned most from but they’re no more :c)

Next I did was straight up figure out how the software worked, by using manga pages, put the layer on multiply, and colour the page in. I also tried to copy what my favourite digital artists were doing, by trying to figure out how they did what they did:

Next was just loads and loaaaads of practice and keeping it up. At this point, drawing, for me, was just a hobby. Something I did to waste time instead of doing homework. But just by doing it over and over again, and drawing my favourite characters over and over again, I started to get a subconscious grasp of how anatomy worked, especially in anime and mange.

But that was only when it came to characters and how to draw them.

I hadn’t even started to think about backgrounds, colours, composition, effects, texture! That was the next step: I learned about putting a layer on multiply helped with shading, I learned how to use different kinds of brushes, I learned textures are cool and funky! I also learned how to deal with the stupid pressure sensitivity. Not well, but still. I only learned pressure sensitivity was a thing when I was... 17 or something.

And at some point, you gotta make a choice in what works for you and what doesn’t. One can say that tools don’t make the artist but my tools were actively working against me, since I was still working with a tablet that had no smoothing or pen pressure.

(PART 2)

[sparklingpax]

Y E S id LOVE to see how you draw The Boi!!

I think you’re referring to when I posted about asking if anyone wanted me to put out a tutorial about anything so....ok! :D

Your wish is my command~

///

Uhh so for y’all other artists or people who might also see this, disclaimer again that I’m not  a professional so pls pls pls dont come at me if you see mistakes...which there are mistakes...like I’m 99.9% sure some of this isn’t really “symmetrical” or its warped weirdly because I Suck at perspective and I’m still learning! :’) 

The point of this tutorial thing is just to show my general process of how I draw Optimus (a headshot of him, just his head and neck, to be specific; his body is another, longer story o//o’’) and others’ execution of it can definitely vary. I mostly just showed the steps in which I completed the different parts of his helm. 

Which I’d also like to add that I’m an Idiot and forgot to record my screen so instead I took photos of the different compeleted steps after drawing the whole thing O//////o’’ but anyway......I do still hope this maybe sorta helps....^^’’ 

///

1.) Sketching; I like to draw a human head actually (same goes for body; I’ll start with a human form as the sketch and then do a second sketch of the armor over it before I start lining; and those dont include other sketches I do over those to clean them up....^^’’)

2.) Cleaner, More Specific sketch; This is the last sketch before lineart where I place things and color the lines so I get an idea of what the final product might look like...if I end up doing it right! I try to place everything that should be in the final, so before this are other sketches....but this is the last one. Ok. Moving on--

3.) Crest; this can move around a lot while lining the rest of the helm as you may find you’ve centered it incorrectly...or at least...that’s what happens to me...but nonetheless, I begin with the crest~

And a note about how I make it: I use the line tool to make the shape, duplicate the shape, make that one smaller, fill it in completely, then take the eraser and turn the canvas so I can erase in the lines. When you finish, it’ll look like a grill of sorts (is that the term??? O///O’’) and it saves the trouble of extra lineart,,,idk call me lazy but it looks good in the end,,,, ^^’’

4.) Top of his helm; When I draw this the first time, I close up the bottoms so I can clean them up later when I draw the other parts of his head, but as I said above, by this point I’d already finished the drawing so that’s why it looks like that, but basically, that blue part of his helmet goes next! :D I also try to do extra lines as I go along so I don’t forget later...^^’’

5.) Add in the audio receptors + Side face-plate things!! Preferably, start with the receptors, then do the side thingies. And for the grill on those, take your line tool and draw in a rectangle that follows the shape at the top but is straight on the bottom and fill it in. Then, erase the same amount of times on each side to create the same look~ Obviously, be neater than me...since this example here is kinda lopsided....but I suppose you probably get the idea.. :’3 

6.) Draw in the blue plating on his face, then the chin on a separate layer below, and on yet another layer, add the tiny blue things at the bottom. Clean up the chin lines that cross into the blue plating spaces, and that should give you this step! If that,,,makes any sense? If my rambles make it confusing, just look at the final result here and compelete the three components on three separate layers so it’s easier for you. Also, when you’re done with that, combine the side blue plating and the chin bits so you have less layers to go through in the end...if you wanna...

7.) As for the antennae things, use the line tool for sure, and erase or change the brush size up so you can play with line-weight...and again call me lazy but you can combine them when you’re done cleaning them up (again, I reccommend putting each one of these on a separate layer first so you can clean them up individually and then combine to one) and duplicate the layer for the other side. For front view, literally just flip it so it’s symmetrical, for 3-quarter, you might need to use your “transform” (hahah lol) tool to fix it a bit. Or just draw the new side in, either way, that completes step 7.

8.) Neck!! Now this wasn’t a more “serious drawing” or anything, so I kinda made a neck shape and drew in random cables and lines so it looks complicated but it’s actually not....tbh when you do draw him, you can kind of do that because ultimately, the shades of black used to color his neck area are dark enough to conceal what exactly was drawn in there so it’s not the most important thing in the world...since you’ll see there’s lining in there but it’s too hard to make out what exactly....basically, from afar, having all this “complication” will give the look that he has a complex neck area, with all these cables and wires and it looks alien! And that’s exactly what you should go for without needing to make it too hard for yourself. I remember someone told me once that in a lot of art, especially art displayed on social media or that kind of thing, you wanna focus on details but not too much; always do a double-take to see what it looks like as a thumbnail so you won’t end up stressing over every tiny miniscule detail. Idk but it seems like good advice~ 

9.) Eyes/mouth; For the eyes the only thing I wanna say is that I make a shape and fill it in. I know he has other little details surrounding his optics, but for the sake of showing you how I do this in my lil style, I like to simplify it by just making the shape and filling it in, then duplicating the layer and “gaussian blurr-ing” it so it has a softer look. The mouth is...the mouth. Do with it what you shall~

10.) Optics! The blue part! The most fun part in my opinion! I actually have a more “complicated” (not really lol) version of his eyes which I use if I’m going to color the piece or do something more “serious,” so this here’s the simplified version. Like I said with his eyes, I like to keep it simple when it comes to his eyes, since idk it just...looks good to me ^^’’ I take the pen tool and draw in two circles, ovals, whatever the shape is supposed to be. I do not use the circle tool because it feels a little.....stiff..? Idk ^^’’ But anyway, then I duplicate the layer, gaussian blur, and combine both. Another thing I like to do is change the first layer (the one that didn’t get the blur) from “normal” to “Add (Glow)” ((as it’s written in Clip Studio settings, that is)) and mess with that a little, THEN combine these layers. The last part is adding your shine bits; just take your white pen and go wild, and if you wanna, do the whole “duplicate, blur, combine” thing with the shine bits as well; it adds to the look~ 

And ofc, take away the sketch layer (but don’t delete it, just in case you need it! ^w^)

I have another process for coloring....but I didn’t include it since it’s fairly simple ^^’’

Unless you wanna see that too....but for now.....I hope you could get something out of this tutorial here! Sorry it was so long!! 

I also just realized I forgot his eyebrows, but you can add those in along with the eyes/mouth step if you don’t forget like I did...idk, for this particular look it seems not to take so much away from the drawing but....I should have remembered ahh--

Anyway! Thanks so much for asking!! And thanks to all of y’all for reading/looking through all this!! <3 

See ya around~

-Kuni :D 

[lavalampelfchild]

Lava’s Art Masterpost

Hey, all!  Welcome to my art masterpost!  I have no idea if this is a thing that is done typically for art, but oh well, I like organizing things, so here we are!  What you’ll find here is mostly Dragon Age, with a few non-DA pieces in there, and there’s a range of styles I like to use, depending on my mood.  But a lot of what you’ll see will most likely combine lineart with some other form of coloring/shading.

Feel free to browse at your leisure, and I hope anyone who stumbles upon this enjoys what they find! :D And thank you to anyone who sees this and likes, or reblogs, or even just stops by to peruse a bit!  

All that said, away we go!

Digital Portraits:

1. Portrait of Nameless Woman, 2020 - This one is just an experiment with a watercolor brush that I did.  It’s not anatomically perfect, but I enjoyed playing around with shading.

2. Sketch of Aja Amell, 2020 - This one is basically sketch practice with my Amell~  Not really the most expressive pictures, but it’s a start toward drawing her more expressively.  Full disclosure: Aja is one of those OCs of mine that I have had trouble with deciding on a definitive appearance for several pictures, and I really want to work on upping my level of consistency when drawing her.

3. Long-Haired Fenris, 2020 - Exactly what it sounds like; this was for practice drawing Fenris’s features (I love how distinct they are), but with long hair because I am weak for it.  This one was a fun piece to shade, and mixing the stylized lineart that I normally use with a greyscale shading spectrum was really enjoyable.

4. Portrait of Ilorin Lavellan, 2016 - This is an oldie.  Basically practicing expressions, and it is technically a WIP, but I’m still very happy with how the shading turned out, especially because this is actually (aside from the unfinished hair) one of the more minimal pieces I’ve done in terms of lineart  It’s still there, and it still shapes the flow of the picture in some ways, but it also ends up flowing with the shading instead of standing out next to it, which I like.  (Both styles are good, though, and I love seeing other artists try both too.)

5. Old Portrait of Aja Amell, 2016 - Much older picture I did of Aja; she... honestly looks very little like the newer one, I think, and that consistency is something I’m still working on, but this one was the first picture of Aja with that particular hairstyle I drew.  What I like about this picture is how young she looks; it fits with her image as a fresh and sheltered Circle mage who’s only about 20 years old at the time of DAO.

6. Old Portrait of Trilyn, 2016 - They very first piece of art I posted to tumblr~ It’s not exactly how I envision Trilyn anymore, but it was still very fun to draw, and helped me get a feel for drawing him in the future. 

Dynamic Movement Pictures/”Moment’s in Time”:

1. Tabris in Arl’s Estate, 2020 - TW: blood.  I am super proud of this one.  My ultimate goal is to draw all of my Warden DAO OCs, and I could not believe I’ve never drawn my Tabris, and so here she is.  This was, in large part, practicing expressions because I absolutely love art that depicts characters in motion, or capturing some kind of expression.

2. Velyn in the Rain, 2017 - This one was actually based on some art that I saw in a Teen Wolf fic!  It was an experiment with a more expressive style (and one of the first pieces I did without lineart left in the finished version) and it was a huge step out of my comfort zone.  But overall, I am extremely happy with how it turned out.

3. Jem Nocking an Arrow, 2016 - And here is the lineart version.  This was entirely an excuse to draw my DAI baby, Jem, and to do a cool archer pose because archers are my fav, and I love characters in motion.

4. Solas Teaching Trilyn Fade Magic, 2016 - This one was a painterly picture that was also (like the Velyn picture) something which I tried to keep lineart out of.  Overall, I am proud of a lot of parts of the pic, but I think I would definitely go back over it and change a few things now if I had the patience.

5. Trilyn Closeup WIP, 2016 - TW: injury, blood, mention of abuse in the author’s note.  A lot of early pictures I have are of my OC, Trilyn, and this is one of my absolute favorites.  His entire upper body is technically in the picture, but I hadn’t finished rendering it yet, so this was what I posted.  And it was an experiment with a cross-hatching style with the pencil tool for some texture, with air brush shading and a blurring tool.  It’s a style I had fun playing around with!

6. Trilyn Blood Ritual, 2016 - TW: blood, injury (the slight cut used to supply the ritual with blood).  This one was definitely a sort of “captured moment” from a backstory I gave Trilyn, and I think what I was really going for was an atmospheric piece that could fit with any potential fic I wanted to write for Trilyn.  And then it ended up being practice for extreme lighting/shading techniques, and drawing the blood and the gross mass of demon ichor (or whatever the heck that is) turned out to be highlights of making the piece for me.

Art + Text:

1. Freedom and Control, 2020 - TW: scars, but very difficult to see.  This one was ambitious for me!  It started originally just as Solas and my Tal-Vashoth OC, Saara, facing each other, because I love the dynamic I’ve built for them in my head, but then it turned into an attempt at a tarot-esque background, and just sorta grew from there... Overall, I’m happy with how it turned out, especially with how Solas and Saara themselves turned out.  The version you can actually see a larger view is here.  

2. Marianna and Delia Codex and Art, Pt. 1, 2020 - I love writing my own codex entries, first off, and I love combining art with text to create a (hopefully) seamless work.  This work was an attempt to flesh out these OCs of mine with both art (because unique facial structures are hard for me to get down, but so important regardless) and text (because writing~).  I think it turned out well overall, but there are elements of the portraits that I might at some point touch up a bit.

3. Marianna and Delia Codex and Art, Pt. 2, 2020 - Part 2, with what I refer to as a “DAI Outfit Change” because I have always loved seeing fans show their own OCs as they look in DAO, DA2, and then finally DAI.  So I absolutely wanted to jump on that bandwagon myself.  The skin tones are a little off (and I’m sorry about that!) because I was playing with the watercolor brush at that point, and it dilutes the colors I use.  Still working to figure that out, but I was very happy with the overall lineart and structures of the faces.

4. Alistair/Aja Amell Picture with a Blurb, 2017 - Ooooold, old, old, old, OLD!  I still love the art, and I’m soooo happy with how the interaction between Alistair and Aja turned out (drawing kisses is extremely difficult for me; I always end up creating a distorted weird lip-creature, instead of realistically puckered lips...).  I’m not as happy with the blurb that went with it?  At that point, I was still very much figuring out my own DAO worldstate, and the characterization for everyone, so, eh.  Take it with a grain of salt!

Unfinished Costume Designs:

1. Ancient Elvhen Armor with Dwarven Influence, 2018 - People who do costume design work are amazing and mystical beings, and I wish I could do what they do.  This was an attempt at merging the Keeper robes from DAI with a more dwarven armor aesthetic, solely because I created an ancient elvhen character, Ceda, who was taken in by the Cad’halash dwarves mentioned in the Witch Hunt dlc, and I wanted this character to have a mix of the elven style of armor and the dwarven style.  I’m overall decently happy with it, but there’s still that persistent level of self-criticism present.

2. Herald of Andraste Outfit WIP, 2016 - This was a very old picture, not one I showed around a lot, but the idea for this was entirely born of my intense interest in how fashion and outfit designs could be used to create a symbolic image for the Herald of Andraste.  In general, I love the combination of ceremonial armor with long and flowing cloth, so that was what I went for here.  I’m still actually very proud of how this came out, and headcanon something similar for my Herald in my canon DAI worldstate.

Pencil Sketches:

1. Quick Saara Sketch, 2019 - TW: saarebas mouth scars.  Exactly what it says; very quick sketch of Saara I did in a small notebook I carry around with me.  This was basically a test for myself to see if I could manage to draw Saara with the features and facial structure I envisioned for her without needing to use a lot of references.

2. Mass Effect Character Sketch; Jesse, 2018 - Similar reason for drawing this one as the above Saara sketch!  With these characters, I love sometimes the way they can turn out with the specific character creator used for them, and when I draw them, I enjoy trying to create a definitive look for them using what I get from the CC, and my own knowledge of Hooman Faces.

3. Saara Sketch, 2017 - TW: saarebas mouth scars.  A more detailed sketch of Saara than the one above, and one I definitely put more time into overall.  It’s currently the profile picture I’m using for ao3, and is the definitive go-to reference picture I use whenever imagining Saara in a fic, or for other Saara pics I make.  I am extremely proud of this picture, and feel like I should work in graphite more often.  It’s such fun, and the texture is so nice to look at.

4. Sketch of Nameless Alamarri Woman, 2017 - This was a sketch I did of what I envisioned some Alamarri tribes to look like; I used artistic depictions of Gaul tribes and hairstyles for inspiration, and have used this as a go-to reference for my version of Alamarri tribes.  Nothing super notable about this one, but I really liked the way the shape of her face turned out.

Events and Gifts:

1. Another Scar, 2020 - TW: blood, injuries, gore.  The most recent piece of art on the list, and a gift for @cartadwarfwithaheartofgold; featuring sisterly love between Rica and fem!Brosca, which was her requested prompt.  This was a tough piece for me because of the difficulty with the lighting I dealt with.  For some reason, that one particular element of it gave me so much trouble.  Overall, I’m very happy with how it turned out, though, especially the skin tones of the sisters; Brosca I always sort of like as having this greyish, more gaunt look to her, while Rica I like seeing with a darker, richer, and warmer tone to her.  

2. A Very Cousland Christmas!, 2019 - This was for a holiday exchange for a server, and I drew a friend’s Cousland (Elissa, the girl on the left) with my Cousland (Gazza, the girl on the right).  I love kid-fic, and I love kid-art, and so I decided... baby Cousland art!  Drawing kid proportions was the toughest part, I recall, and I thiiiink it turned out well, and I’m still quite proud of it overall.  Elissa’s design came entirely from my friend, but I added the holly~

3. Exchange Gift with Dis Brosca and Mabari, 2018 - This was an exchange gift for @fanfoolishness, using her lovely Dis Brosca, and was my first real attempt at backgrounds... I struggled with the coherence of the foreground and background a bit, but I’m still very proud of how it turned out, especially with the colors I had to work with.  What I also really enjoyed working with was the lighting and the expression on Dis’s face.  Backlit subjects are always fun to play around with!

4. Inktober Picture, “Deep”, 2017 - TW: scars, injury, mentions of abuse in the author’s note/attached dialogue snippets.  This was for an Inktober prompt (the only one I’ve ever done, sadly... because I am bad with deadlines...), and again features Trilyn.  Trilyn’s backstory has him a former slave in Tevinter, and a lot of the early works I do for him are sort of deep-dives into his life there.  It’s all meant to be an exploration of the things he endures, and then those moments when he overcomes it all and takes back his own autonomy and self.  This art is definitely provocative, and I can understand if not everyone likes it, but to me, I just wanted to show just what he faces (without glorifying it) before showing the moment of his own triumph.

5. Christmas Holiday Picture with my Brosca and a Friend’s Amell, 2017 - This was a piece of art drawn first by a friend of mine, @nanahuatli~  She drew the Amell, the background, the mistletoe, etc.  All I did was add my Brosca to the mix to finish the image.  It was a lot of fun to do, 1) because it was fun trying to match her style so that the picture looked cohesive, 2) because I love doing collabs with friends, and 3) because it was just such a fun thing to imagine my surly short Brosca, looking at this weird plant/fungus/thing dangling over some puckering human!  It was an absolute joy to do this collab with her!  

6. OC Kiss Week Pic of Jem and Saara, 2017 - TW: saarebas mouth scars.  A spur-of-the-moment thing meant to demonstrate just what kind of dynamic my OC, Jem, has with my other OC, Saara (both of whom are members of Leliana’s network in DAI).  This was a very quick picture (deadlines...) and was mostly just to have fun drawing these two characters interacting, and to see if I could make them look like themselves.  I think I did a decent job with it overall, especially with Jem’s kissy-face!  (Again... drawing kisses are the bane of my existence, although hands and feet take a close second.)

[revengeworld]

The Circus V

Werewolf! Kylo x Reader Modern/Monster AU

Words: +3.200

Warnings: None

AN: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I’m back! At least for the last parts for the Circus. The next Parts will be posted each Friday until we are done with them. I’m also writing on other stuff but I’m honestly not sure if I will post them. Zero Feedback = Zero Motivation to post them, since it makes no difference to me. So yeah we will see...

MASTERLIST: Can be found in my bio if you are interested in more!

-

“What happened to you?” Kylo chuckled when he came around the corner to find his beautiful girlfriend covered from head to toe in paint streaks. 

“I started your banner!” taking the cool bottle of lemonade from him, Y/N quickly took a few sips before brushing over her forehead to look at her work.

Following her gaze Kylos mouth fell open. With a chuckle she carefully pushed his chin up.

“Holy shit! That's me?” he asked astound and stepped closer to look at his own face on the gigantic Banner.

“Well yeah, who else. But it's still not finished so don't expect too much!” she mumbled a bit worried that she wouldn't be able to satisfy everyone's expectations.

“Oh don't make that pouty face, Moonshine. I look fucking badass.” grinning at the banner he already saw the wolf sketch that would be behind his shoulder.

“This will be awesome, you should really stop underestimating yourself so much.” he mumbled and pulled her closer, to press a kiss on her soft lips.

“I know … but that's how the progress works.” stretching herself, Y/N yawned.

“How about we take a little break?” Kylo already grabbed her by her hip and sat her down on the hood of his car.

“Yeah… the paint needs to dry anyway.” leaning back she already enjoyed the nice sunshine and closed her eyes before Kylo joined her.

“Ah wait, careful...” quickly shielding her ear with one hand, she grabbed the tiny white snake that had been sleeping in her hair again.

“Well … Hello Koh, what are you doing here… again?!” Kylo growled with a sweet tone to the snake who just looked away and curled around Y/Ns fingers.

“Phasma is training for her show and he is still too young so I babysit him.” with a smile Y/N started to pat it's tiny head and the little snake closed its eyes in relaxation.

“Well if you want a baby to take care of, I have an idea...” Kylo growled seductively in her ear and she started to chuckle.

“Mhmm I think I should listen to Poes tip and tie you up at night from now on.” with a teasing grin she pressed a kiss on the tip of his nose.

“I`m not in my rut!” he huffed offended and she just giggled even more.

“You are so sweet when you try to hide the truth.” ruffling through his hair, Kylo quickly pulled his head away, not wanting to give her the satisfaction.

“Oh come on. I`m just teasing, Darling.” Y/N took the last sips of her drink before looking surprised at the little snake in her other hand. 

“Did you hear that?” looking over to Kylo he only shrugged his shoulders.

“What should i have heard?” gently laying his hand against her cheek, she lightly shook her head.

“Maybe I just have been to long in the sun.” watching the little snake for another moment, she placed him back around her left ear before sliding off the car.

“I get you some water, then… Don't overdo it please.” 

“Don`t worry about me, you have your training soon!” she reminded him and he looked shocked down at his watch.

Running into the tent, he quickly grabbed a glass of water and brought it to her before pressing a strong kiss on her cheek.

“I`ll see you later! Love you! God dammit!”

Watching him run towards the big tent she could only try to hide her laughter.

“Yes you`re right. He is a bit clumsy sometimes.” Y/N answered the little snakes hiss and started to mix her paints to continue Kylos banner.

A few hours later, Y/N had made a lot of progress and the little snake slowly poked his head out between her hair.

“You want to take a break?” she asked it and Koh hissed delighted. For now the Banner needed to dry anyway and tomorrow she would be finally finished with the first one. It was only missing Kylos stage name now. Cleaning her brushes and the glasses she had used, she stepped inside the cool tent. She had already noticed that whatever kind of weather was outside, the tents were always at a comfortable temperature.

“Want to help me choose the colours for your Mamas Banner?” she asked the little snake while placing it next to her sketchbook on the wooden work desk.

Letting out a small hiss, Y/N nodded with a smile. 

“I'll get you some water then.”  getting a tiny bowl she filled it with water and placed it next to the small snake and watched him drink for a moment, before she pulled her aquarelle colours out of a drawer.

“So what do you think? I put you big in front like you wished for. Phasma right after you with all your other siblings.” Y/N stretched her hand out to the white snake who quickly slithered on it and looked down at the finished lineart she had made.

“Pretty!” the snake hissed and pressed his scaled snout against Y/Ns cheeks just like a small kiss. Giggling to herself, she watched Koh for another moment. So it was him she had heard earlier, first it was a little shock but now that she had time to think about it, it made sense. Since she was here she had noticed more and more magical things inside the circus, little things like the changing appearance of her co-workers, who looked more and more like their original forms. A man with horns, a woman with flowing hair as if she was constantly underwater or the wondrous animals she just had laid eyes on so far. So, that she was able to understand Koh it must have been a part of being here and especially being accepted by everyone, even though she was just a mere human, at least that was her conclusion to all of this.

“So since you're white, how should i paint you ...” Y/N started to mumble to herself while taking a closer look at Koh who rolled himself together on her hand.

“Rainbow.” he hissed and she noticed the lightest bit of colourful shimmer on his small scales.

“Oh I see! I can definitely try something like this!” grabbing another piece of paper she prepared an example and showed it to Koh.

With a small hiss the Snake observed the paper before turning itself to it's own body.

“More shimmer, please?”

“No problem, sweety. Silver or Gold?” placing two containers next to the test drawing the small snake looked between them.

“Silver, please.” he nodded excited and watched closely while she placed a thin layer over the light rainbow part.

“How is that, my little friend?”

“Perfect! Thanks!” getting booped by his snout again, Y/N smiled. It was nice to have the little snake around while all of the others were so busy preparing their acts, since the first date of the show was announced for this weekend.

Working on the colouring for Phasmas Banner, Koh slowly made his way on her head to watch from above while he curled around a strand of hair.

-

“Can we visit Mama soon?” the small snake asked after a while with a yawn and Y/N carefully stretched herself after putting her brush down.

“Yeah, let's go… I'm creatively exhausted too.” cleaning up her desk, Y/N soon made her way towards the big tent, the sun slowly sinking in the background.

Koh climbed back down towards her ear where he had the best grip and felt the most comfortable.

“Y/N? I was just about to come over to you.” Phasma was approaching them and Koh quickly stuck his head out of Y/Ns hair.

“Mama!” he called with a wide open mouth which made Phasma smile with adoration.

“Are you done already? Koh wanted to watch you rehearse.” Y/N stated and helped Koh from her ear before holding him towards his mother.

Surprised, the tall woman let Koh climb from Y/Ns hand to her own, not taking her eyes off of the young woman in front of her.

“How did you know?”

“He told me.” tilting her head the slightest Y/N shrugged her shoulders as if it was the most normal thing.

“Is that so?” Phasma smiled, not trying to show how concerned she was.

“Yes. She understands me, Mama. It's very nice. We talked a lot today.” pushing his head against Phasmas cheek for a moment, Koh soon slithered up into her hair.

“Let's go together then. Everyone is still in the tent. How did your painting go?” she asked while they walked to the Main Entrance.

“Good! Just need to put Kylos Name on the Banner tomorrow and then I will be starting with yours. Koh helped me pick most colours.” she smiled and the small snake nodded delighted, Phasma could tell he was very proud about it.

For her little child it was of course exciting to be able to communicate with a normal human, but it made her more than worried.

Entering the main tent, Y/N could already see Kylo on the wooden stage in his big wolf form, before someone laid their arms around her waist, it was Rey.

Y/N could feel Rey slightly rub her head against hers and she started to laugh. Since she had spent a few hours with the female werewolf to sketch her, Y/N and Rey slowly became friends after getting over the first awkward hurdle.

“Get your goddamn awful smell off of her!” Kylo suddenly screamed and came running, before turning back into his human form and ripping Y/N basically away from the other before nuzzling his face like crazy against hers.

Starting to giggle, she quickly pressed a kiss on his lips and in an instant he seemed to calm down.

“Come on, at least let me borrow her from time to time.” Rey called teasingly while stalking around them.

“In your dreams, bitten!” growling he wrapped his arms tighter around Y/Ns waist.

“Don’t be so selfish, especially when she smells so sweet at the moment.” Rey sighed deeply as if she was talking about the most beautiful thing in the world.

“Now you've done it!” turning back the black much bigger wolf chased around a brown one which only snickered while running away.

“What is it with them today?” Y/N laughed while watching them before Finn landed right beside her, which made her look up in confusing wondering where he even came from.

“As far as we understand it...”

“More like just assuming...” Poe interrupted.

“We think Rey is teasing Kylo for his rut, since you are ready to have pups.”

“Oh okay… Wait… what?!” first she nodded understandingly before Y/Ns eyes widened in realization.

“Kylo explained to us once that werewolves fall into ruts when they smell that their female is most fertile to have the pups.”

“And he smells that?!” she shrieked while sniffing on her own arm, her cheeks getting redder by the second.

“Your blood does smell a little sweeter than normal, I guess.” Finn agreed nodding.

Shocked Y/N looked at Finn, before she pulled the jacket around her shoulders closer and quickly zipped it up.

“Pervert ...” Y/N crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“No! Please don’t misunderstand I'm not doing it on purpose!” Finn plead to her.

“Vampires and Werewolves just have a very sensitive nose for blood. Believe me!” 

“How embarrassing ….” she mumbled and wrapped her arms around herself.

“Don't give it any mind. That's just how these things work i guess.” Phasma tried to calm her and patted her head.

Kylo had thrown Rey off the stage who landed in her normal form next to them.

“Fine big guy. I keep away from her for now until you calmed down.” the young woman bowed and winked to Y/N before leaving the tent.

The black wolf quickly came running again, his mouth curled up into a grin, very proud of himself to have defended his mate, before he turned back and embraced her.

Nuzzling his face against hers again, Kylo tried to get rid of every bit of smell that wasn't his.

When he looked down at her again and saw her flustered face, Kylo bit his lip, she was just too cute and goddamn tempting. 

“Sorry for the chaos...” he apologized and she only nodded slightly while avoiding his gaze.

“Are you already done with training? Kou and I planned to watch.”

“Ah yeah sorry … maybe tomorrow. I'm pretty beat too...” leaning with his heavy weight down on her, Y/N started to struggle to keep him up.

“How about we just go home and cuddle… lots.” he suggested with a loud yawn.

“Actually Kylo, there is something I would like to talk with you beforehand. If that's okay with you...” Phasma suggested and looked down at Y/N.

“Oh sure. I will prepare a nice hot bath for you, my love.” standing on her tiptoes, Y/N pressed a gentle kiss on his lips before she wished everyone else a good night and left.

With a heavy sigh Kylo watched her leave before he gave Phasma and the little snake on her head his attention. 

“What is it? You look pretty serious.” raising his eyebrows, she suddenly pointed up at the small snake that was just letting out a long yawn.

“Y/N can understand him! I don't know why or how, but she can completely understand him!” 

“Are you really sure about that?”

“I didn't see it myself, but Koh and her both confirmed it.”

“Wait… holy shit does that mean she is one of us?” sitting down next to the werewolf, Poe crossed his legs.

“She can't be...” Kylo stated shocked before letting himself fall on a chair nearby.

“She doesn't smell like any of us. And if Y/N really can understand him shouldn't she at least have a similar fragrance like Phasma?” he asked Finn who only nodded in thought.

“Yeah, they have completely different scents.” the Vampire agreed.

“She doesn't have to be a Snake person to talk to him. I mean… Nature Spirits could too.”

“And it seems like Y/N just now started to understand him, right?” Poe added and Phasma looked to her small son who slowly nodded.

“He tried before but today was the day she seemed to really understand him.” she explained to the others.

“That is… unexpected.” brushing his hair back, Kylo took a deep breath.

“Well it doesn't really change anything seeing that she might not know herself.”

“Is it only Kou she can speak to?”

“I don't know… come to my tent tomorrow and we can find out. It just really surprised me...”

“Finn and I could do some research if you want too...” Poe suggested but Kylo seemed to barely listen anymore.

“Yeah, I will try to talk to her about it.” standing up he left the others behind without saying another word and made his way to the edge of the Circus where their tent was.

As soon as he saw her, Kylo grabbed her by her waist and picked her up before letting his lips clash against hers.

With a chuckle she wrapped her legs around his hip and quickly held onto his broad shoulders.

“Don't get ahead of yourself...” she warned with a smile when she felt his firm grip on her behind.

“But you are so goddamn tempting.” kissing along her neck, he could hear her heartbeat fasten before she quickly pushed his face away and laid her hands over his nose.

“How do I smell like to you?” she asked ashamed and for a moment he looked confused at her.

“Oh … the others told you, huh?” nodding the slightest, Y/N laid her head on his shoulder.

“Well to me ...” leaning down to her he let his nose run over the exposed skin on her neck.

“You smell like a warm summer night and since yesterday there is a hint of sweetness that just drives me crazy. Similar to the Cotton Candy that we ate the night we met.” Y/N screamed when Kylo suddenly let himself fall with her onto their bed.

“And it's not just that, if you should think that. You`re drop dead gorgeous and i still can't fucking believe that you are mine. Only mine.”

“Okay okay enough or my heart will explode!” chuckling shyly, Y/N was the one who nuzzled her head against him.

“Are you sure, because I have a lot more.” he smiled while smothering her face with kisses.

“Kylo?” hearing her serious tone he stopped and looked down on her.

“How is that when someone is expecting pups? What happens at full moon when the baby is still in the mother?”

“You were worrying about that?”

“Well when we have pups at some point ...better I will be prepared, right? Besides it seems to be the topic of the whole damn Camp...” she mumbled and her cheeks started to flush with a pink hue. They never had gone further than snogging and already talking about children seemed a little much, but also necessary and she was curious herself.

“Oh sweetheart… let me show you something.” pulling out his phone, he rolled right beside her and showed her a few pictures. 

“I asked my mom to send them earlier this week.” he swiped through the pictures and watched intently when she started to giggle.

“Wait, is that really you with little wolf ears?” 

“Yeah that's me when I`m two. Werewolves start transforming around their 3-5 year. It will be just like a completely normal pregnancy my mother told me.” 

“So you were an early one, huh?” she grinned.

“I always was. When you hit puberty it's starts that the full moon takes over.” he explained while Y/N had taken the phone from him still staring interested at the pictures until she saw a small Kylo in a tub.

“Oh no! Your bath!” suddenly jumping from the bed she run to the back of the tent.

With a smile on his lips Kylo shook his head before his eyes fell back on a picture with his parents. A heavy sigh escaped his lips before he followed Y/N after a short while.

“Maybe you should join me… you are still covered in paint, my Moonshine.” laying his hand on her hip from behind, he looked over her shoulder while she added something into the hot water.

“I would just ruin the nice water and we two would both be stained. So you still have to go in alone, my love.” leaning against his chest, she felt him press a kiss against her head before he buried his face in her hair.

“Maybe next time then.” he said teasingly before turning her around, pulling Y/N into a soft kiss.

“I love you, Moonshine.”

“I love you too… my big bad wolf. Now get your butt in that tub!” she chuckled before giving him a light slap on his butt just like he would always do.

“Yes ma’am.” pressing a quick kiss against her temple, the werewolf let her leave and soon was laying in the tub, just letting the hot water soak in and his sore muscles relax.

Now waiting for Y/N to come out of the bath, Kylo was just rubbing his hair dry while trying to think of a way how to start up a conversation about the fact that she could speak with the little snake.

It was something that he just couldn't wrap his head around, for him her scent always had stuck out of the crowd of normal humans, but that she might be one of them was a light shock for him.

Of course it didn't change anything about his feelings for her, he was just worried under which circumstances she lived beforehand since she didn't seem to know herself.

Hearing her little footsteps come closer he looked up to find his girlfriend in her favourite pyjamas and dripping hair.

“You stole all the towels!” she pouted and he quickly took the towel he just used to throw it over her head to ruffled her hair dry.

Letting herself fall into his lap, she waited patiently with a smile.

Just these small moments were something that always made her day and it seemed like for Kylo it was the same, that he literally forgot to talk with her and soon the were cuddled up in their gigantic bed.

-

Tags: @kyloren-supreme-ben​   @celestiaelisia​ @sdavid09​  @ayatimascd​ @acunningstargazer​ @agirlwithlonelymusic​ @ev3e​

[irageneveart]

hello! i was wondering what program&brush settings you use for your artwork? im new to digital art and i really like the way you colour! Especially those light effects they're so extra cool!

omg Anony you’re such a wonderful being, thank you for liking my art enough to ask me that!

now watch me failing trying to explain things to you lmao. I’m self taught and I’m in no way the best at this, so what I’m going to tell you might still be flawed but this is how I do things o/

hmm it’s gonna be long so I’ll put it under a cut!

1) I’m using Paint Tool Sai for everything in my art but if I still feel the need to, I’ll use Photoshop to correct colors and lighting. for example in this progress gif:

you can see where I decided “no, I don’t like this cold blue feeling” so I went to Photoshop (because it allows changes much easier than Sai when it comes to colors) and I changed it to a warmer purple! you can always play in Photoshop and try to see different versions of your art, different colors will give off different feelings

most of my artworks don’t look the way they do at the end because while drawing I tend to be focused on other things (line, where to place shades, lighting, etc) while when the picture is done I can focus on the feeling I initially wanted it to have!

2) My usual brushes are really basic. also ignore my ugly writing.

Sketch: I use this to sketch because it has a nice and easy flow, I can get messy lines that look good (the latest Brahms Heelshire drawing I did is entirely drawn with this one!)

you can always switch between your brushes depending on what feeling you want your art to have

Lineart: this one has nice, smooth and bold lines. I like to play around with it’s size. I believe it’s the basic one Sai has

little advice: if you’re not happy with your lineart try to alternate heavy lines with tiny ones. for example:

you can see how bold her hair is, but adding thinner lines to the glasses, the folds of her clothes, hair etc. it will create a better dynamic of your picture and will leave the eye of the viewer to run around it! I’m honestly awful at explaining stuff fdkjsnjkfds ofc this is a personal preference but my linework improved since I started to think like this

Base color: this is the color tool sai gives you, I changed my names so I can’t remember its default name. I like it to be bold because when I was little I used to color entire coloring books, so even now digitally I like to color every bit like I’m using crayons haha. time consuming and useless but shhh. basically I put down every base color with this one

Acrylic: now this one is tricky, when I got it the first time I wanted to use it to shade, but using it I discovered it’s much better for blending. after I put down the main colors and shades I just use this one to blend them together and I sometimes paint with it too

Blending: it’s literally the blur brush Sai provides you xDD

now keep in mind that using its settings (the things near the “Normal” option!) you can get different types of blur! always play around to see what looks good in your art. also remember that not every shadow has to be blurred or blended out, there are many ways shadows can look, using both blurred and heavy (cast) shadows in your art will definitely improve it. using real life references might help

Airbrush: the very brush Sai gives you. I’m using this one mainly for lighting. what I do is basically put down a hard light, like literally take a light color and place it where I see fit on the character, then I give it a bit of glow with the airbrush. one thing I noticed is that depending on the surface, the glow will change!

in this one you can clearly see the light on his cheekbone, but then there is a much weaker light on his face, that’s made with the airbrush and then blended into the structure of the face.the glow on the cheekbone and the ear is made with airbrush, using orange and playing around with the layer modes (overlay and luminosity, these are your best friends when it comes to lighting!)

lastly I want to present another best friend for us artists, the eraser

you can make highlights with the eraser too! you can cut the light in different shapes to give different feels and many other things, the eraser is definitely your best friend and not only in erasing mistakes. try to play around with it sometimes

Other things I learned:

try to use a different color for shading, using the exact color but darker will only make your art look dull, lifeless. the same goes for lighting! there are lots of tutorials on color theories and practices out there to help you with it

don’t be afraid to get wild, use oranges, reds, blues, purples in your skin and play around with the layer modes, you’ll see how much more alive it will feel. also don’t be afraid to try different styles, constancy is not the friend of a creative mind. experiment, try things, go out of your comfort zone. make it fun, make it personal. if you like drawing dogs then keep drawing dogs and enjoy it! don’t let labels and others to influence you and your spirit

ik this is obvious but never compare yourself with others. your journey is yours, you have a different hand, a different brain and a different being. this also goes to drawing things others did already! who cares there’s 0284e4895 other pictures with Kitbull already? draw yours, it will be unique and special because it has something from YOU in it, and no one can replicate that not even with tracing

watch people online! of course when you sit down to draw it will be completely different, but involuntarily you’ll learn and exercising you’ll find your own way of doing things. there might be much better ways for drawing lighting than I do, but this is how I feel good and I like to do it!

I know you hear this everywhere but really, practice, daily if you can! in October 2017 I tried to to the inktober challenge for the first time, I haven’t finished it and I was late anyway but I can tell you that trying to draw daily definitely improved my art. now I’m able to draw a picture per day with not much effort (yesterday I was able to draw three pictures with pretty good quality! o/ always start small and be proud of every step!!)

lastly, don’t be hard on yourself. every picture is a lesson, doesn’t matter how it came out. maybe the anatomy is wonky af, but you learned and your brain will remember what not to do next time. try and try and try and never say “my art sucks”, say “this pic doesn’t look how I wanted, but I still like it. I’ll do better next time!”. the moment you start to like your art you’ll see how much it will start to shine hehe

I might come out with more stuff but this is already really really long xD  just be yourself, love your art and enjoy it!! lots of luck for you Anony, I hope I didn’t bore you and this will be helpful for you and others! :D

[resbang-bookclub]

AMA Transcript: Leap Year

Next up, @blinkfl0yd, @ahshesgone and @innocentcinnamonbun stopped in to answer questions about their Resbang, Leap Year! Here’s some of what went down!

*Please be advised that this AMA contains one (1) small spoiler for the unpublished part 2 of Leap Year :)*

Q: My first question is for Inno and Ash! How did you choose which scenes you wanted to draw! :)

Inno: Ahh I usually like to draw scenes that have a big emotional impact or are just really funny (Which a lot of scenes in Blink’s story made me laugh out loud pretty hard) I also like to make book cover-like pieces for Bangs I do.

ahshesgone: Ohhhhh I was so in love with that first scene with Spirit and Maka, I HAD to do it, because it set the tone so perfectly for both of them. Then it was mentioned that Blair babysat Maka and I Had To also, bc that right there was a dream I had and I realised it when I read it, and Stein and Marie were just impossible to pass up. Blink writes so vividly, I would draw forever if I had the time.

Q: What was the inspiration behind this story? I always love stories about the adults and we get them so rarely!

BlinkFl0yd: Honestly I just really like the adults haha, I just thought they needed some love. I'd been playing around with a college AU for the adults probably since before Resbang was announced, but I think the biggest thing that kind of inspired where it was going to go was probably learning about anesthesia awareness?? Which is pretty much exactly how it sounds and is actually really terrifying and made me think of Spirit and Stein which is pretty much what kickstarted that whole plotline. So that was sort of the basis for the whole fic. After that it was just... coming up with different shenanigans. The horse head was totally a spur of the moment thing.

Q: This one is for everyone: did you guys have fun working together? Was there a lot of communication? :D

ahshesgone: I really liked working with both Blink and Inno!! They're the awesomest. I guess we could do with more similar timezones though, tbh.

BlinkFl0yd: Oh gosh seconded. ash and Inno are so cool and so talented and it was so much fun working them them.

Inno: I had such a blast working with ash and Blink ;;;u;; <333

Q: Was there anything that you wanted to add but couldn't? Or anything that originally wasn't going to be there that ended up going in?

BlinkFl0yd: So the thing is, as a result of splitting it up for Resbang, I now get to sort of rework some concepts that I had to originally cut out because of the time crunch. I think the biggest thing is that I originally had a whole plotline planned out for Medusa and White Star that I had to cut out or rework for sake of time, but now I get to add it back in and I'm really excited.

Q: bb Maka is SO CUTE AND I LOVE HER, how did you go about characterizing her?

BlinkFl0yd: Oh gosh yes, baby Maka was fun but difficult. I have no idea how children work so…

Q: Yeah like, you didn’t make her too babyish which is a problem I see a lot when people write kids.

BlinkFl0yd: I am honestly not very good with kids, but yeah, it does irritate me when people write kids super babyish, I deadass once read a fic where a ten year old was still making baby sounds and even I know that that is Not Right. I think that's the one thing that helped me with baby Maka and the rest of the kids.

Q: Favorite character to write and favorite scene to write?

BlinkFl0yd: It was a lot of fun to get into Stein's head, and I also had a lot of fun writing Blair's appearances. I also enjoyed Sid a lot more than I thought I would, and Nygus.

Inno: You wrote Stein so well, it made me cry tears of joy.

ahshesgone: Omg I loved them both so so so so much. [And] OH MY GOD Azusa.

[there is much joyful screaming about Azusa]

Q: Artist chans, what was your arting process like once you decided what you wanted to art? I think you both did digital, but I bet there are a lot of differences in how you work!

ahshesgone: Hmmm well my process for these ones was pretty all over the place. They were all started around the same time but I finished all of them at different times so I think all of them came [out] looking pretty… dissimilar? I wish I had made the Blair one look less digital because I think that's what I needed for my art for Leap Year, for it to look??? tactile?

BlinkFl0yd: I honestly cried a little when I saw the first draft of the Spirit and Maka picture.

Inno: Ahh I lay out a gesture sketch, then a normal sketch, then I lineart the sketch, fill the whole canvas with a color that pertains to the mood of the piece and use a low opacity brush to lay in colors then just start blending colors from there to form lighting and shade. After that I sometimes air brush some more color into the piece. :,) Other pieces I just color in the lineart and add basic cell shading :,,) I hope I answered right :,)))

BlinkFl0yd: BOTH OF YOUR ARTS MADE ME CRY A LITTLE.

Inno: Couldn’t have made it without such an outstanding source material blink ;;u;;;;

Q: For all of you, do you think Resbang helped you hone any skills/get better at something, maybe something you decided on trying to work on or something you surprised yourself with?

BlinkFl0yd: Honestly, yeah. I've never never actually worked with other people before for a fic, I've never even had a beta before until Resbang? So that was new.

ahshesgone: Oh, I used a really weird way to sketch the steinmarie thing which I was very impressed with myself for. I think I crosshatched the silhouettes and then just erased where I needed lighter areas?

Inno: I've been trying to get better with perspective and comics as well as drawing backgrounds and resbang definitely helped out getting my butt into gear to practice drawing those things. I did pretty well too on it.

Q: Do you feel like your writing has changed or improved at all during the course of writing this? I'm just curious if you felt that your techniques or style had changed at all.

BlinkFl0yd: I'm not really sure if it's changed much? I think if anything I’ve gotten better at working under a time crunch. I'm kinda a perfectionist, which does not go very well with Resbang, so I guess if anything I've gotten better at just word-vomiting first and editing later.

Q: Were there any particularly difficult scenes or roadblocks you needed to work through?

BlinkFl0yd: Hmmm. I think some of the trickiest scenes to write were the ones with Shinigami and Kami. We know so little about [Kami] so she was probably the hardest one to write. I was coming up with a full-on backstory and personality for her as I was writing, so that was both kinda fun but kinda difficult. And Shinigami is… Shinigami.

ahshesgone: OH BUT THEY WERE SO GOOD. I was shaking when I was reading that fight in the car.

BlinkFl0yd: oop. SPOILERS.

Inno: LOL.

ahshesgone: SORRY.

BlinkFl0yd: That's one thing that'll be in the next parts haha.

ahshesgone: Oh my god sorry I read so many versions of it I’M SORRY.

BlinkFl0yd: It's fine! Lol, call it a teaser.

ahshesgone: t-tt-tadah!

Q: Totally not rushing you, but do you plan on posting some of part 2 soon???

BlinkFl0yd: Hopefully soon. School has actually been horrible.

Q: After this, do you have any other projects lined up? And artists, what're you working on next? >:)

BlinkFl0yd: There's a lot I want to do!

Inno: r e v e r b.

BlinkFl0yd: Oh gosh, REVERB.

[bluwiikoon-archive]

Yo how did you paint those old style Pokemon like that ?

Strap yourselves in friends because here’s a tutorial! :D

Now firstly you’ll want to grab refs for whatever it is you want to draw. This may include modern sugi art (if you’re drawing a modern pokemon), and I definitely recommend selecting old Sugimori art refs based on the colours, shapes, pose and body style of what you want to draw. I know @sometimesnosepass by memory so I just pick some old Sugi refs for this tutorial.

The first proper step is, of course, to sketch something!

When sketching, do keep in mind the stylizations that gen 1 art has. For example, instead of using Nosepass’ normal eyes (which are black ovals) I opted for Clefairy’s style of eyes here.

For something like my Fennekin, I also kept in mind things like how the fur is styled in old gens. Things are a bit smoother nowadays in Pokemon, but in old art Sugimori wasn’t afraid to get fluffy at times. Animalistic Pokemon are also less skinny and take on rounder shapes (Pikachu is a famous example). Use those refs!!

Now of course, you’ll need some good brushes for the linework and colouring. I recommend a rough pencil-ish brush for the lines, and a textured watercolour brush for the colouring. Below are the SAI2 and SAI1 brushes I use, but definitely experiment until you get something you are comfortable with. (Also, if you want my textures, here is a download link. Google how to add them to your SAI if you need to!)

Anyway, lines! As all the gen 1 artwork was hand-drawn they are full of small imperfections, but that’s what gives the art character and makes us all love it in my opinion. As such, take it easy and don’t be afraid to be a little wobbly.

The next step is to loosely select the outside of the linework…

…and invert it! On a lower layer, fill your selection with white.

A common thing with uploads of RBY Sugimori art is that they are a bit rough around the edges, since it is quite tough to cut out hand-drawn art for transparency. As such, if you want to be accurate to this kind of thing, the loose selection gives us some little white edges around the artwork.

So, what’s next? Either lock your white layer OR duplicate and set it to clipping group. This is so you can blend the colouring without it extending past the boundaries of the white base. And… start colouring!

The brushes I use make things darker as you layer them, so my strategy is to blend some light parts and then colour in some dark spots with hard edges. Remember, the old Sugimori style uses a lot of white in its colouring, so you have to preserve that kind of thing in your own piece and let yourself have some highlights. The colouring also tends to be quite muted and pale due to the scanning process, so use pale and muted colours in return. Pay attention to your references!

Sloooowly work at it. Sugimori was pretty dang good and didn’t let differently-coloured parts overlap, but as you know traditional watercolours are still prone to small mistakes and on some of his art pieces you can see it. Thus, be careful, but don’t worry too much about things like the blue on Nosepass’ nose.

Colouring differently-coloured parts works pretty much the same, but we won’t be stopping there.

With your rough/lineart brush set to a slightly lower opacity, just go around the colouring and give them some harder or rougher edges where they seem to need it. As you can see on the examples of Sugi art on the right, there are definitely places in the edges where they have a textured finish or a harder edge. This was my first time doing this style on SAI2, so I feel I did make my watercolour brush a little too soft!

So it’s looking pretty good! But there’s still more..!

On your colouring layer, set your layer texture to some kind of papery thing. Or for other programs, perhaps some kind of slight noise overlay. It’s noticeable, I promise!

Duplicate your linework layer and blur it (for SAI1 you will have to do this by hand sadly, but that may actually give it a better result).

And finally, set the opacity of the blurred linework to around 40% (or whatever you prefer) and Clipping Group it to the colouring layer.

Another optional thing (which I did here) is to colour the main linework off-black to give it a bit of a washed-out look. It can help sometimes!

And… you’re done…!?

Go and stun everyone with your newfound Sugimori skills!! I believe in you!

(And if you enjoyed this tutorial, please consider donating! Thank you! ^^)

[erratically-present-gengar]

How I derp-art. Alma Tutorial

So a couple of you weirdos keep asking me for help with how to art/draw gengars or what my process is because art is hard. Art is indeed hard and even with gengars can be a pain in the ass and I am mostly bullshitng my way through it, and my process can be stupidly long and I need to work on screwing with it so I can get shit done faster.

BUT

I put a tutorial thingy together, though first ever one I’ve done so more of me not knowing what I’m doing and trying to get things set up right to be helpful.

I put some steps in one image file and idk how tumblr is going to handle it, so if it’s a pain and you guys want the individual files set up somewhere else let me know. Can let me know if you want to know what brushes I use if that’s needed at all, but mostly this is to show how much I bs my way through things.

This is all in photoshop too though, so why I don’t use a lot of info for shortcuts besides the grouping.

To start with I try to get my damn circles/ovals shaped right for whatever I’m trying to do.

Sometimes it takes me a lot of tries to get it, sometimes I just start all over and try something else, sometimes I use the Ellipse tool, and sometimes I give up, find a reference, and start out over that for sketching with general shape because sometimes my brain just is full on dumb.

Eventually I end up getting out a sketch, usually using multiple layers in case I need to move a part or make edits without messing up some other bit. This is also why I like messing with digital more than paper because it makes this part of the process easier for me and can easily hide or delete layers or adjust transparency when needed.

I’ve more or less settled on what to do with Alma’s design, so not necessarily something to do with drawing Gengar in general.

Alma has very large/long ears and a tail compared to the usual for Gengar. I still have no idea what I’m doing with those damn spikes/fluff, but I add extra fluff around the bottom of her ears too. These are all definitely style choices I have for her.

I don’t really bother with the back spikes on her either because I end up having some difficulty getting them to look right to me, and usually blocked off anyways. I just go with the biggest fluff/spikes are on her head and around her ears, and then they shrink as they go down the back and eventually smooth out by the tail.

Arms are just like attaching them to a ball and figure out where they sit. Usually I start around under the ears and around where the mouth is going to be, but it’s a gengar, the things can do some weird things with their bodies so can probably have their arms just about anywhere if you really wanted, though personally I tend to get stuck with realism and wouldn’t be happy with doing too weird of stuff with the arms so just shift them around closer to the front or lower depending on what I want to do or if she’s got her hands in front of her.

Hands and feet I usually just do 3 digits, but can have more or less if you want. Most times I just draw 3 lines for where the fingers may be or general triangle shapes around it. Fingers and toes have their own layers too in case I want to change them and then don’t have to mess with the main limb.

But definitely different shaping compared to the usual gengar shapes. It’s just a personal thing. I don’t recommend copying off Alma’s features for your own gengars, and it would bother me somewhat. First try out figuring out how to work with the basic gengar shape, and then play with the form to figure out how you want to draw it, if you want to go with ball/balloon with limbs and spikes.

Once the main body is done I try out faces, since half the time I only have some idea for what I want to do with it, and I may also figure out something better. There can be a lot of trial and error with this, and a lot of extra sketch layers.

The stylistic thing goes with her eyes and being shaped a bit differently than the norm to soften her looks so she doesn’t look so scary. She can look normal for eyeshape, but as she tries not to seem intimidating most times, it’s normally just different than the usual.

Once  I’ve figured out what I want to do with the face, I group up the Sketch layers and use the pen tool for neater lines, because I am terrible at getting my lines right and clean with a regular tablet, so I cheat for the base part of it.

Each part has it’s own layer, especially if lines overlap so that clean up of the lines is a bit easier. It also helps with making some adjustments for parts I decided that looked odd to me with the lines that don’t get noticed as much with the sketch layer. Even for art that I don’t use the pen tool on I will usually separate the lineart in to their own layers. It can help if I want to change a limb or hand’s/foot’s position, or just minor changes without messing with the rest of the drawing.

Yeah that last part looks pretty terrible, huh?

But I can just go through the layers and erase lines I don’t want, fix up some of the ends so they’re pointed, longer, shorter, or whatever.

When it’s cleaned up I use my main brush for the outside lines and look sketchier and/or add line weight so the lines look more interesting. I’ll also use a smoother brush for the face since a little bit of a harder edge for those parts than the body.

After that I duplicate the group I have for the lineart and merge the 2nd group to help with color borders, slap down my colors, use the selection tool for the outside of the lines layer, and modify/expand by 1 or 2 pixels, move back to the body layer, and then just hit delete to get at least most of it.

Sometimes I remember to clean up around the lines more because my sketchiness can still trap the color where I don’t want it... In this case I didn’t remember until later, but oh well.

After that I make some layers for the other parts that need coloring. In Alma’s case she’s pretty easy since it’s usually just the eyes and sometimes teeth or something involving her mouth. I’ll make some layers for each part’s shadows and highlights, then group those together out of the way.

When I’m done with that I’ll use the pen tool to try to pretend I know what I’m doing with how shadows work and put down some guidelines for shadows. They’re usually not great, but I’ll mess with them afterwards.

New layer for the shadows. It’s a whole lot of bullshitting my way through them and pretending I know how they work. I’ll use my brush at a higher transparency at the start and then lower it to mess with edges and soften them, or use it in areas the shadows may not be so strong. I’ll also do a lot of erasing along parts and usually use the sponge brush for the eraser. I keep playing with it until I figure it’s good enough.

To clean up around outside of the lines I just go to the body layer, fix up the areas around the edges, then select the white space, go to the other layers that need cleaning up, and just hit delete as I go through them to erase the stuff outside the lines.

Next I work on highlights. Again this is a whole lot of me pretending I have any idea what I’m doing. The little brighter ones get their own layers, and the body highlights get another. I’ll move one of my sketch layers up over the color ones sometimes to try to help me figure out where I want to put a highlight over the main body so it looks rounder. I spaced and used the wrong color for highlights at first but adjusted them for using the purple I had for it already. Usually I use the lighten or screen layers for it. One thing I’m trying to remind myself of is the secondary lighting and how light bounces and can highlight the outside of an object too even if that part is otherwise in shadows. It can help separate parts too, though not really needed if you guys don’t want to. I just like it myself. The extra highlights I keep in their own layers too. .... I use a lot of Layers

I’ll usually mess with the floor shadow too, to show if she’s on the floor or in the air, and usually to me it makes the image a bit more interesting instead of blank white, since I usually am lazy with backgrounds and I suck at them anyways.

Just copy the body layer and distort it to wherever it looks good and at least semi matches the main lighting direction.

After that I darken it and, while it’s fine like that, I usually mess with it a bit more for style stuff and have a few duplicated layers to mess with it until I like it, rather than accidentally messing up the main part of it.

When Shadows are done I’ll throw on a bunch of unnecessary bullshit using a grunge brush because I like the idea of a haze being around her, though it’s not needed and more just a style choice and I like using textures. I have a few layers of it until I’m at least alright with how it looks, make some last minute adjustments with liquify for somethings that are bothering me but I’m too lazy to redraw the lineart part of it to fix it, and there I am.

There’s my likely very long process for how I draw Gengar/Alma.

Aaaaand that’s about it for what I do with them.

Pretty much why it takes me forever to get art done when I have the free time, and don’t post daily with art. With the jobs and health I just can’t do it.

and I def need to work on simplifying things.

I have several boards over on pintrest now to help with learning some things like lighting, shapes, etc. It’s largely either objects or people kind of references for most of the boards, but it can still help with learning faces or people if help is needed with that too

https://www.pinterest.com/Kalooeh/