#edited because i realised i fuckin. forgot to turn on some layers

[demigod-of-the-agni]

Horizon fandom please accept this offering

[bytemycupcakes]

How I do my sprite edits!

This is long so!! Read more

First things first. Ya gotta open up this lil dohicky

(Can be replaced by other art programs, dw)

Once ya got this bitch open, you’re gonna open a new heccin canvas

“why tho? we’re doing a sprite edit! shouldnt we open the sprite??”

Well I’ll fuckin tell ya why you silly lil bastard.

We gotta design our bloodswap frist silly!

Now I got this old request, so we’re gonna be makin a cerulean Amisia today.

Get out your trusty sketchin pen (this is mine) and start sketchin!

Important things to remember!!

1. This is a bloodswap! We are not switching Amisia erdehn with an existing cerulean! we are takin out Amisias blue blood, and givin her cerulean instead!!

2. The only time you need to change a swaps horns is if they’re bein turned into a goldblood, or they are being switched away from a goldblood

3. While changing a sign is optional, it always feels more complete when ya do! Leaving the sign the same (imo) makes it seem like you just slapped the new colour onto the troll. In Amisias case, instead of giving her Sagira, we will be giving her Scorra.

Alright now that ya got your sketch (I forgot her glasses-)

now you can open up the sprite.

Now, granted I didn’t change much about her- and thats cause Amisia has one defining character trait (being/atempting to be an artist) thats obvious in her design, that can apply to every caste

It’s what she does with this trait that really changes from caste to caste.

But because of it, this may seem a bit overboard for how simple changin Amisias sprite seems, but when you get more complicated swaps (i.e: purple Tagora) it becomes pretty necessary

Now open up a new heccin layer

colour it cerulean (I change the colour based on the swap m doin, like purple goras background was purple), and lower the opacity. This seems a tad useless, but trust me it makes thing alot easier to make out when you

Also lower Amisias opacity!!!

Selet a pen that you can use to replicate the line style, I use this at different sizes for all of mine

Now you’re gonna line everything in the sprite that doesn’t, or just barely changes- In this case, I’ll be lining everything but the hair, and eyeballing the arms to make them the right size

Now that we got this lil bald cutie, we gotta draw in her hair

So open a new fuckin layer n go in and just fuckin draw that shite in, you can sketch it if you’d like, but I tend to just... draw it in

Now look at that, aint  she cute? The hair is where your own personal style is gonna show the most- if you’re like me and learned to draw hair from homestuck, it’ll be barely noticeable. It’s always important to try to replicate the style as much as you can.

Now she needs her symbol, and since this is a simple one, I’m gonna draw it. If you’d rather not, it’s really easy to save/get a screenshot of the sign and remove the background from it, if you want I’ll do a mini tutorial on that but I think it’s self explanitory.

This is the brush I use to draw symbols, it’s a nice, solid square brush

I usually draw it off to the side, then position it where it’s gotta go, use the base sprite to help you position it if you didn’t change it’s location

REALISE YOU FORGOT SOME CLOTHING DETAILS AND FIX IT (this is a very important step)

Now that all the lines are done! we move onto shading and colouring

Now show the base sprite again, and make a new layer set to multiply, you can try to mimic the shading style (like I did with vikare’s sprites) but I prefer not to

While you’re doing the shading, pay attention to the spots you’ve changed, and take a guess at how the original artist would’ve shaded those areas. Successful sprite edits are all about mimicing styles, which can be surprisingly easy.

Now ya get to colour it! (shading and colouring can be done in any order, I just like doing the shading first)

You’re gonna fill that in with grey, and adjust the shading til it looks good against the colour. I find this is easier to do with the cooler colours, but for colours like yellow, I usually have to change the colour of the face shading to a grey (Like yellow Gale)

Now preserve the opacity of that fucker, n colour it all in, using the sprite and your original sketch as a guide

While you’re colouring, you might see that you need to double up the lines, at least I usually need to- So do that if you think ya need it

There we go!

Now gettin the paint splaters, you could just trace em all from Amisias normal sprite... But I don’t think Cerulean Amisia would have that much paint on herself, so I’m just gonna draw it in on my own.

Now once you’re done, you’re gonna crop (if desired) and save it (make sure its transparent!)

And there ya go! We got a lovely Cerulean Amisia!!

Now if you want, you can start thinkin of some slight story for her- though you may have been doin that along the way (Like I usually do) Some stuff I thought of is:

She actually produces art!! But it’s by making lowbloods do it for her!

She doesnt have much paint on her cause she’s rarely doing the painting, and most mess is cleaned up by her lusus