#especially with rendering and colour picking

[kidovna]

it’s that time of the year when i want to change my art style bc i don’t like it as much anymore

[moonsaver]

Iris family!reader back at it again! Here's part 2 of this, which was VERY incomplete because tumblr decided to bust on me and upload it while i was still drafting!! I think this part might be more confusing, so feel free to ask about it right away!

Taglist is at the end of the fic hehe

-

Aventurine has an eye for craftsmanship. And very good ears.

You recall vividly. That's the first thing he mentioned about himself when he first introduced himself to you.

You know it's not a coincidence he's reaching out to you. Especially after a meeting with Mr. Sunday, which is his direct, formal contact with the Oak Family. You, on the other hand, were a direct, informal contact. The fact you were barely a notable singer in the plethora of talents Penacony held wasn't what mattered to Aventurine. Neither did it matter that you were from the Iris Family. Because to him, you were a one-way ticket to Sunday's mind. 

It's also no coincidence he's decided to drop by after he sees the wide open door of your room.

“I've heard well about your station, friend.”

He makes himself comfortable on the stiff couch of the hotel room, the fabric wrinkling and the frame creaking from the shift in weight.

“I.. don't need your help. I’m fine.”

“Can't hurt to always have connections, keeps you afloat, birdie.”

“Don't tell me that. I don't need any more. I've had enough.”

Aventurine smiles, and leans back into the couch, one of his arms lazily resting on the couch's and the finger of his hand tapping the top of his knee.

“Your earrings are the talk of the town, y'know?”

Your hand instinctively shoots up, and your fingers ghost the lobe of your ear. You're not wearing any at the moment.

“Is that so..?”

Your body language is jittery. Your hands keep fidgeting. Your lips hurt from the constant chewing, your finger rubs your earlobe.

Aventurine fiddles with his own, and gets up. He walks over to you with slow, easing steps.

“There's a cute little section in a few tabloids about those earrings. There's also a little fact that your ears burn red when you lie.”

Aventurine stands in front of you.

“That can't be right. It's totally bullshit.”

He chuckles at your response. He leans in, slowly, his breath ghosts the shell of your ears. The oddly sweet scent of expensive, exotic wine line his cool breath over your skin.

“There's also been that whole buzz about The Watchmaker's Legacy.”

The close proximity renders you paralyzed – many thoughts run through your head; should you push him away? Should you step away instead? Snap back at him?

You feel his gloved finger busy itself with your ear. A snap resounds loudly through your ear, and his hand retracts. So does he.

Your agitated gaze lingers on his smug face, and wanders over to his ears. They're red.

“I'll give you some advice – you should try and take advantage of chaos.”

His hand raises slightly, and his fingers barely kiss the skin of your elbows. It snaps something in you, and you immediately move to step back.

His other hand shoots up and grabs your arm in response.

“We can help each other, can't we, little sparrow? A glimpse of that man's mind is enough for me. I'll help you keep your family all safe and sound.”

“I– don't care what you have to offer. I am not taking that risk! This crap about The Watchmaker, I'm not having it! Find someone else to bother!”

Aventurine's smile widens, his eyes stare down at you. The concentric colours are almost hypnotising.

“Relax. The game's only started, I'm sure there's enough time for you to analyse the situation and pick a side. And things will fall into place all in due time.”

A knock.

Both you and Aventurine snap your heads to the source. The door creaks open.

Sunday stands, composed. His knuckles linger on the polished wood of the door for a few more seconds, before his hand falls to his side. His other hand holds a black, velvet bag.

You forgot to take that back.

“It seems we meet again.”

Aventurine hums.

‐

“Are you perhaps.. unhappy with your current circumstances?”

“No, I'm.. quite pleased with it. Please, don't take anything to heart. I was fervently denying all of his offers.”

Sunday chuckles softly.

“I understand. Please, be at ease.”

-

Sunday knew what lied in store for him when he became a part of the Family.

As their long-burdened history, all of them were to join and form an impenetrable force, decorating the Dreamscape lavishly for those who had the privilege to deny reality. 

Which was ironic.

It was comically ironic.

Such was their torment.

As eagles rip and gnaw the liver of human emotion, such was the painful symbolization of human strive. And this was a neverending story. A neverending performance of a traitor, prisoners and a false dream. A Death that surely extracts the price for all that has been done. A price that grows thick over the bones of each generation, for daring to dream together, for daring to yearn for freedom.

Some knew of this history. Most were not privy to it.

Sunday tells you in passing, as his gloved fingers gently drop the velvet bag in your hand. You suppose it was simple small talk.

A beat of silence passes.

“Ah, I may have fed a false fact to that Tabloid.”

You look up at Sunday.

“Im sorry?”

“I wasn't aware of whether or not your ears turn red. They were eager for a harmless fact, and I conjured up something on the spot.”

“Oh, they.. approached you directly?”

“They first approached Robin, to be exact. I arrived just in time to answer a small question. My apologies for making a hasty decision at a presented opportunity.”

You blink a few times.

“Ah, well.. not like it can be helped now but.. please be careful. One thing tends to lead to another.”

“I've taken note of that.” his eyes focus on the lobe of your ear.

What's he looking at..?

Your hand cautiously reaches up to your ear. Aventurine's earring?

“Oh, um.”

You break out in a sweat, and your shaky hands immediately remove it. You look at the flashy, teal accessory. Then you look at Sunday, gauging his reaction.

He smiles. Perhaps that fact wasn't false.

“I suggest not striking a deal with Aventurine. I can assure your family's security.”

“Oh, I know I just–”

“The Family does not take dealings with the IPC lightly.”

You stay silent.

He sighs, and his gaze seems to soften for a moment. His gloved hand reaches out and tucks a strand of your hair behind your ear.

“Apologies. The Charmony festival is coming soon. Extra measures have been established. Please, approach me instead.”

His voice softens at the end.

“I.. understand.”

‐

Sunday thinks a change of your career is in order.

A brand new start, a better title, a better colleague.

Somewhere along the way, most of Penacony's more enthusiastic visitors were in the know about you. Your popularity settled comfortably on event lists, and Sunday was steadfast in his promise.

However, there's now an increase in work. Particularly, working late at night with Sunday.

Your job now had strict parameters you didn't have in your former station. Deadlines, reports, even hearsay playing an important role. Although, for once your rusty luck has come into play, and Sunday is much more fair to you than any other manager that you could have been working under, if it weren't for your decision to become a singer.

That being said, the public now saw less of you, which instead soared rumours about you and increased your popularity more. You aren't sure how to thank Sunday – he only gives you a closed eye smile whenever you decide to at least verbalise your gratitude.

‐

“Ah, you should take a look at this.”

Sunday beckons you to come closer, pointing and curling his index finger towards you. You oblige wordlessly, and with a few swift clicks of your shoes, you stand right beside Sunday, leaning a bit to take a better look.

His finger points to several figures in the document, and you hum, eyes scanning through the neatly organised words.

“Does this mean I'll get significantly busier?”

“You best prepare, as per my suggestion.”

You sigh, a bit dramatically, and Sunday chuckles.

“My apologies. I know I've already asked for a lot from your end. I shall support you equally.”

“That's.. well, alright. I was just worried about something else.”

You avoid his eyes, discomfort creeping up on you, as those rumours swirl in your head. 

“Be at ease, tell me.”

“It's.. the rumours surrounding me. They're not serious but, recently they've taken a strange turn of events.”

Sunday hums. He gets up, and walks towards a bookshelf, his fingers slide over their spines, and stop at a specific book. You continue,

“It's– um.. quite strange.”

Sunday pulls out the book, and opens it, sifting through the pages with familiarity.

“It was just about the earrings at first but they took a bit of a bizarre turn.. they–”

Sunday snaps the book shut,

“About us. Yes. I've heard.”

You blink a few times.

“They're..”

His fingers trace over the book's cover, before sliding it back into its place.

“Rumoured relationships between us, the debate about work ethics, and the whole lot. Yes, I'm well-informed.”

He turns to you. His all too familiar smile still on his face. His golden eyes seem much more intimidating than they used to.

“They'll die down. I can assure you they are of no importance. However, it helps with your exposure doesn't it?”

He turns his back to you, continuing to look at you over his shoulder.

“They will fizzle out in due time.”

You suppose Sunday is familiar with rumours. But this time, it is only particularly because he created them.

‐

The robin chirps and twits inside its golden cage.

“What's this?”

You smile, a finger gently tapping a bar of the delicate cage,

“It's a robin. I hoped it would guide you during practice.”

You chuckle, and Sunday smiles, both of your eyes fixated on the bird that's chirping and curiously tilting its head at you.

Sunday's encouraged you to practice singing more often inside the office. You've gotten off of your formal duties very late, and as of recent you've scarcely had time to practice. Sunday's insistence led to you often humming and practicing in front of your dressing table. It took a while, but you eased into it fairly well. 

Sunday, on the other hand, enjoys your singing more than he lets on. He finds himself humming to your tune every so often, once you've left and no other ambience fills the room. Perhaps that's also one of the reasons he's brought a robin bird to you.

You sing a simple tune, and the robin follows. It chirps happily, and you giggle at its strange antics. And thus, whenever you aren't present, the bird sings in your stead.

It's not soon before the robin loses its vitality, however. A gilded cage is a cage nonetheless.

Your voice was dampened that day. But Sunday had a plethora of ideas rush to his head.

‐

Something's been wrong with your voice as of recent.

You've avoided any strange drinks, even foregoing any kinds of juices, only opting for water. You avoid even spicy foods, settling for blander dishes. Sunday assures you it's nothing to worry about – even Robin faces challenges with her voice sometimes.

You're at your best, only in Sunday's office.

Everytime you sing, your voice flows smoothly, and you hit every note perfectly. It's wonderful, if it weren't for the fact your voice didn't seem to hold this effect outside of his office. You came to this realisation late at night when you tried singing in the bathroom to yourself, your voice kept tapering, and even stopped at some points. The doctors all assured you things were fine, and at best only prescribed some throat medicine. You wonder what's been going wrong.

Sunday isn't ignorant of your recent concerns, either. He seems to be taking it in stride.

The golden cage is on your dressing table, empty. You stare at it, thoughts swirling in your head. What went wrong? Where? Why? What did you do? 

Sunday's familiar gloved hands place themselves upon your shoulders again. It's a shame. He says. What is a robin without its voice? He says. It echoes in your mind for days. 

“Take a break.” one of his gloved hands make it's way to yours, folded in your lap. He brings your knuckles up to his lips, whispering assurances into it.

“It'll be fine. I'll take care of it.” He kisses between the valley of your knuckles,

“Don't worry. Help me out with the rest of the documents, and we can take a look at your voice after.”

You don't say anything. Maybe because you can't.

-

“Hmm.. your voice tapers too much at the chorus.”

You sigh. You've lost count of how many times you've had to repeat this song, your voice simply cannot seem to hold true to the chorus that's planned. Sunday flips another page of a long-winded document, and sets it down gently on the table, looking up at you when you sigh and only hold onto the mic with disappointment glazing your eyes.

“Have a seat. Perhaps a break may help you.”

You hesitantly oblige, but sigh again, deeply, as the muscles of your throat ache with the strain and relaxation. You sit down at the makeshift dressing table Sunday managed to prepare for you. His courtesy, of course.

You shuffle around it – your dressing table isn't actually much different than Sunday's office desk. It's littered with event planners, schedules, and all sorts of graphs and figures. Your hands lazily pick up a sheet and scan over it, choosing to at least distract yourself while you give your raw throat a rest.

You hear a muffled creak behind you, followed by a few, small footsteps. Sunday stands behind you in the reflection. His hands gently come up to your hair, fingers running through it and fixing it.

“Some members of the Family – particularly the Nightingale Family, wanted to extend their gratitude to you. You've been arduously managing the crowd and shifting their gazes away from the construction work.”

You hum slightly, your eyes unfocused on the words. Sunday's touch seems to leave you dazed, or rather conflicted, these days. 

His fingers leave your hair, and rest on your shoulders. He leans down, his lips graze the shell of your ear. His soft breath tickles your skin, and forms goosebumps.

“And I am.. personally grateful to have you working alongside me.”

Your eyes wander on your table. They avoid his gaze through the mirror's reflection.

“I also.. intend to help you, further than before.”

His voice grows softer and lower, descending into a whisper. One of his hands move from your should to the middle of your collarbone, a lone finger drags up to the middle of your neck. Your breath hitches.

“Mr. Sunday..?”

“It's alright. We needn't be so formal.”

Suddenly, a splotch of colours blur your vision from the corners. You hiss, and groan, immediately burying your head into your hands, striking pain pulses through your head. You close your eyes in efforts to relieve yourself, but it doesn't cease.

“Perfect Harmony.. Order.. it doesn't come easily. Allow me to assist you in reaching that.”

You breathe heavily, the pulsing ache in your head slowly subsides, but the colours remain persistent.

“Sunday..?”

“My dear, let us rejoice. A new chapter of your life has begun. Your family can find ease. We- no, I, can take care of them. Of you.”

You swallow thickly, dread pooling in your stomach. The finger on your neck trails up your neck and pushes your chin upwards, forcing you to face your reflection. The side of Sunday's face is pressed to yours, your eyes are dazed, but his have never been so clear, and bright.

“Just do as you've always done. This is simply to bolt your loyalty, my dear.”

Sunday kisses your cheek, his wings gently flutter on the other side of your face. You close your eyes. The pain subsides into something more blissful, calming. Your body relaxes almost against your will.

‐

Your voice has been perfect as of late. As long as you don't sing for anyone.

Which is to say – you're rendered useless in the grand scheme of Penacony. This terrifies you.

Your family has never been more vulnerable.

What is a robin without her voice? It echoes irrevocably in your mind, the question awaiting an answer. Nothing responds. Nothing, responds.

Empty ballads accompany the marble walls of the hallway leading to Sunday's office. His back is turned to you, his fingers sifting through the spines of familiar books on his shelf. His wings slightly flutter every time your voice hits a high note. Your voice was pitch perfect whenever you sang in his office. Anywhere else? It was a bust. Robin also tried her hand at comforting you, but the tapering edge of her voice only concerned you. An emanator of harmony relied completely on just that to sustain her voice. She'd lost it completely otherwise.

Your lips are raw from the constant biting. Your family tries assuring you they can also pull together scraps and bits to keep themselves afloat; that you've worked hard enough, and you need your rest. Sunday assures their security as always. He's stopped commenting on your concerns with your voice.

“Sunday, my voice..”

“Perfect, my dear.”

He's grown more familiar with using pet names instead of your name. You don't remember exactly when the transition took place.

“No, it's.. I can't sing anymore. I can't perform.”

“Ah, is that so?”

Sunday's deft fingers write something down on a scrap of paper, holding the book open in another hand.

“Not to fret, darling. The public awaits your performance in due time. Take a break for now, and focus on paperwork.”

It does more to discourage you, really.

“I don't know.”

“I know.”

Sunday places the book down gently on his table. He looks at your seated figure, illuminated by the warm light of his office.

Sunday wanted the best for Penacony. But when it came to you, he couldn't help but be greedy. Your voice was beautiful to him. He feels bad, raining on your parade like this. But there's endless amounts of performers who can take your place. There's only one of you who can catch his eye, however.

An empty cage is reminiscent of a happy bird. But a chirping robin is reminiscent of a happy man. Your lost voice still echoes well through the halls, resounding through the marble structures.

A gilded cage is a cage nonetheless. A happier bird is one that does not realise its cage. Sing to your heart's desire in it, he thinks. 

Your head falls to your hands again, blurring splotches of colour blaze through your vision and head again – a familiar, aching pulse resonates in your head. Your voice feels trapped. Sunday walks to you, and places a hand on your back, rubbing gently to soothe you. The colours disappear, leaving you in a daze. Sunday leans down to kiss your forehead, relaxing your furrowed brows.

It's true. You've proven it. A bird that does not realise it's true confines. You may be unhappy, but you sing your throat raw, and Sunday is your only audience. Parameters will only get stricter, but it's for your own good. He assures you endlessly, leaving out that one piece of information.

A robin without a voice is nothing but a dull bird. You, without yours, are just his.

-

Taglist: @sharkiethrts @sarcastic-cookie

[datcravat]

HI HELLO I love your art So much,,, do you have any tutorials on how you render your stuff? For example, the colors you use & how you pick them, how you get that pink tone around the Lineart (I think) (it's just rly cool). I would love to see stuff like that, cuz your art is Such visual candy (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠)

Hey! Thank you so much, I'm glad you like my art, I worked hard to make it what it is!! Means a lot you appreciate it!!!!!!

I've had no professional art training, I seriously don't know what I'm doing and struggle making tutorials. But will try here!!

For me the colour work is really situational on the drawing! I find myself experimentally attempting to weaponize colour theory and there's a lot of instinct involved that I can't figure out how to verbalise yet. Here's an example of some thought process I have:

My main advice is to play with sliders a lot and really experiment (that's what I do for every drawing)!

To get the pink glow around your lineart, copy your lineart layer, fill the copy in with a pink of your choice (sometimes I do a gradient), blur the layer (experiment with how much blur you'd like), put it directly below the lineart layer, and set the layer to multiply (or any mode you think looks pretty)!

You may want to adjust your piece's brightness/colours after applying it and sharpen the image after exporting.

A lot of colour gradients are involved and on their own they can eventually compromise the gritty/punchy style, especially the ones that are between extreme and subtle. A good way to combat this is with screentones/haftones!! You can use them to diversify colours and imply shading/texture.

I recommend going nuts and having a lot of fun with it to find what works for you!

I often add a lot of small lens flares as they satisfyingly cut through the piece, imply flash photography (which goes well with the strong black shading), add visual noise to areas you don't want to be your main point of focus, are a great way to show speculars, and idk man sparkles are just pretty haha.

Go nuts with them and have fun!! When you get them to look good, think to yourself why that is.

I made a tutorial ~1 year ago on how I shade with black. This simple trick will really help it look good, 3D and rendered - it just requires a lot of knowledge about shadows to start with. I have a lot of experience rendering "normally" which helped me learn how to use black in an experimental way.

Minor correction that the shadows labelled "ambient occlusion" in the tutorial are actually just normal shadows, ambient occlusion is total lack of light.

I hope this is useful to you!! You have a knack for art, your work is very inspired. Please keep drawing!! I am still learning too, let's keep going baby.

-Cravat x

[balo-badartist]

HFDOSN OMG YOUR ART IS SO LOVELY!!

I was wondering if you have any tips to rendering or the way you pick colours?? It's something I struggle with and yours are so vibrant and full of life!

HII I’m actually so happy to answer ur question! I work at the studio I took art classes at to help highschool kids learn the basics to art, so I love teaching a bit of art!!

Mind you, I’m still a younger artist, and I still have a lot to learn. And this is only talking about my style and my tastes! Make sure to look at how the true masters do it too! (My favorite master artists are Redum4, Octahooves, and Matchach on Twitter)

When it comes to rendering, values, and color, it’s all about balance and contrast.

For rending, (at least for my style) it’s all about lost and found edges. Balancing lost edges vs soft edges. Smooth vs textured, harsh vs porcelain.

In my style, I see rendering as a way to convey character and mood. Lost edges equals softness and grace. Found edges equals harshness and severity.

I utilize lost and found edges in this way! In other words, if you ignore balance (such as utilizing many found edges and hardly any lost edges) then give it a narrative/mood reason, I say! :3

But in terms of the basics, lost edges means a smooth surface, a smooth transition from light to dark (or transition of color). While found edges suggests a harsh transition from light to dark. ALSO and probably most importantly when it comes to edges in rendering: Found edges reels the eye in, creating focus. Lost edges typically lose the eye, creating a rest for our eyes. It’s important to balance them for these reasons too!

For colors, it’s all about THE GRAYS. (Ironically enough!) The basics of my coloring method can be described via this sphere:

Basically, a highly saturated color can only have its high saturation in the spotlight BECAUSE the gray tones make it pop by giving the eyes a break period saturation wise. All about contrast!

As you can see, I differentiate the colors and saturations by values. My shadows are deeply saturated, typically warm. (It’s more typical to make the lighter area warm and the shadows cool! But I find that vibrancy comes easier if you desaturated the light, make it colder, and really PUMP UP the saturation and heat in the shadows.) And the areas lit up are typically cooler and have hints of gray in them! This is great for conveying strong direct light (which is typical in my style), and it makes it look as if the light is so powerful it seeps through their skin. You can see how I do this in some of my work, I typically exaggerate these qualities in skin!

You can also do this especially well for skin with melanin!

This also works especially well digitally, because saturation and value works in tangent in the color square! Pure white has no saturation, and the more saturation you add to pure white (the further right you go on the color square) the more value you get.

The use of grays are the most important thing when it comes to vibrancy, in my opinion! Too much saturation is, well, too much. Again, you can disregard this rule if you have a reason for it. Such as a high energy mood or overstimulation you’re trying to convey! Or desaturated to convey coldness, stillness, etc.

Anyways, I hope this made sense! (And sorry about it being more of an info dump than tip-giving >w<) If anyone wants clarification on anything, feel free to ask me in the comments! 🫶🏼🫶🏼

[ziyuanyuan1113]

I am in love with your art style. I love all your jjk art, it’s like stitching back the pieces of my shattered heart. Your art is so soothing and has such a warm feel, I love it. Also if you don’t mind me asking what program do you use for your art, and do you have any tips? I strive to someday create art that gives the same feeling of comfort as yours. Thank you <3

Thank you so much for the kind message! I'm actually in the middle of making another jjk piece but it's been a while so I've been trying to remember and consolidate my process. This ask came at a great time hehe

I use photoshop for most of my art pieces but I think there are a lot of cheaper alternatives (procreate on Ipad, clipstudio paint, medibang etc) that would work just as well. As for tips, I have a technical and an emotional one:

My technical tip would be to use references!! Especially if you're just starting out, it's SO IMPORTANT imo for catching mistakes especially with anatomy, lighting and perspective. And by reference I mean real life photos. I think you can be inspired by other artists' work, but there is the danger of picking up their bad habits if you only use their work for reference. I would recommend sticking mainly to real life and looking to other artists only for resolving specific stylistic details once you have a solid grasp of your fundamentals.

I would start with a rough sketch first of whatever you want to draw and then look for refs that match the mood and tone you want to go for. Get the idea down first and draw from the heart. Then the refs come in to help with the specifics (ex. what a window looks like, how someone would hold a cigarette) The jump from the rough to the clean line version is an amalgamation of all the little things you learn along the way. For example, on one day, I learned that clothing folds usually start at one point and spread out. Then another day, I learned how to do 1 point perspective and so on and so forth. Then all those tidbits slowly add up to help you get better and better.

2. My second tip would be to understand what you want to convey with your artwork. If it's fanart, what about the media that you're interacting with draws you in? It doesn't always need to be a complex answer, sometimes you just want to draw a character because you think they're hot and that's totally valid imo.

I occasionally tutor very young artists and oftentimes, they will tell me that they want to draw like X artist or X painting/piece of media. I always try to encourage them to go deeper. What about that drawing resonates with them and what specifics are occurring in the picture to make them feel that way? For example, I recently realized I love environment heavy drawings not for the background itself but because they ground the characters and seeing them do mundane things makes them feel more real to me.

For the example below, the whole set was to explore friendship and mental health. Sometimes just having someone there who listens and is willing to talk with you can make a huge difference.

Once you know the purpose of your art, then I think it makes the decision making for the rest of the process much easier. What type of lighting scenario conveys support and comfort? I went with dusk. Then I started searching up references for dusk lighting. Couldn't find the ref I actually used for colour but a quick google will show you lots of similar options.

What kind of poses feel in character for Shoko vs Geto? What is the focus of the picture? As much as I love details, I think sometimes they can actually take away from the main message. For example, if I had rendered the lamp on the right a lot more, it would've distracted from the main point of the picture so I tried to keep that and the background in general simple (still something I need to improve on haha).

Then those extra technical things (value structure, cool vs warm light, reflective lighting, connotations behind colours) you pick up along the way are all there to help you better communicate what you want to convey with your art.

Okay I lied one more tip, be patient and learn to appreciate the process. Like with any skill, there are a lot of technical aspects that you have to study and practice. I think because the end result is so visual and easily accessible in comparison to other hobbies/jobs, it really cripples beginners. Even with writing, you won't realize a book is good until you learn how to read. With art, you can resonate with a painting without having drawn a single line yourself.

I think beginners and even professionals see a lot of beautiful finished artwork and get enticed by that only to be discouraged when they find their process/finished work didn't end up the way they wanted it to look. Treat it like you would learning how to write. The fundamentals can be tedious and do take time to drill into your head, but learning them will help you SO MUCH with the creative fun parts. You can't write a poem without first taking the time to learn the alphabet, spelling and grammar. You're also probably going to write a bunch of shitty poems before you write that one good one, but that's okay because each piece lets you experiment and exercise your voice. Art is the same thing, don't rush it! Enjoy the process and celebrate your improvements.

[jeleynai]

Hey there, I adore your art, thank you for sharing it and joining us on tumblr. Your Ghoap art makes me feel so soft.

I am curious about your rendering process. I like how your pieces are textured and coloured and the 3 dimensionality of it, is there a chance you'd be open to sharing some of the steps you take to get from sketch to the finished product? For example what methods (if greyscale, selection tool, etc.) and brushes you use? How you pick your colours?

No pressure in answering this of course, I am just glad to see what you'll be up to in the future.

Hellooooo thank you so much for your kind words!! I've actually been getting so many nice notes from people, I'm so sorry that I haven't responded to them much, I promise I read every single one and shed a little tear of joy at how nice you all are!

Now to the question!!

I made a little step by step image of one of the portraits I posted here for you with a bit of commentary underneath! I'm sorry if it's the ramblings of a mad-woman I'm a bit all over the place sometimes haha (I'm so sorry if there's typos, please ignore them)

I'll also answer the direct questions here since I don't think I addressed them TOO directly in the image.

Methods: I work with soft brushes and the lasso tool for 90% of my process! I introduce textures as well obviously but I try to let my soft brushes do most of the work. A lot of that 'soft' look people tell me my art has just comes from subtle colour shifts and general softness achieved that way over working with harsher textures. I generally like to limit my layers somewhat, especially with simple pieces like the one above. That image is actually just a single layer after step 2! It helps me not get too stuck on one area but I also just... draw on the wrong layer very frequently even if I name them so I don't use them unless I'm working on pieces with different layers of depth (fore-/mid-/background etc.) I do check my values *constantly* (I use the colour-proof setup in photoshop) but I don't work directly from greyscale. I go straight into colours from the sketch.

How I pick colours: I do try to keep my colour palette cohesive and a bit more neutral to start with. I try to avoid extremes at the start so I'm not locked into that too early since it makes that 'subtlety' harder to achieve otherwise. For those colour shifts I talk about I just pick whatever base colour I put down and then shift the colours accordingly! Brush modes/layer modes can also help but I definitely recommend looking a bit into colour theory before relying on them TOO much! Otherwise using them will also end in strange results. There's no direct 'formula' I use when choosing colours since every light scenario is unique and will affect colours differently. I would definitely recommend James Gurney's book on Colour and Light!

Last but not least! If you're more of a visual learner and my rambling is a bit much in written form (I'm so sorry, I'm very chatty I know) I also have a few painting processes up on YouTube c: So if you want me to shut up and just watch me struggle instead then here's a link to the painting that started it all, the OG ghost soap piece I did over a year and a half ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D76X0MT4W5U

I hope that all makes sense!! I'm still super new to Tumblr but I'm always happy to ramble on about art so! Thanks for reading my rant haha

[glitcheslikeslego]

All The Right Moves!

Chapter 1 : Celebi

The Time Travel Pokemon. Celebi wanders across time. Grass and trees flourish in the forests in which it has appeared. It has the power to travel across time, but it is said to appear only in peaceful times.

It was supposed to be a simple mission. Go in, clear out all the newborn Espurr that were causing a ruckus, and get out.

Sylveon had been a huge help with herding all the Espurr into one group, but an especially ear piercing cry and psychic blast that could rival a Noivern’s Boomburst ended up summoning Celebi, of all creatures.

Celebi.

And you had no clue what happened next, other than the fact that you were silently praying to the Order Pokemon before a giant psychic attack attacked you and rendered you unconscious in an alleyway.

Which was… strange, to say the least. The Ranger Organization should have picked you up and brought you to the med bay to have you and your Pokemon assessed, but instead you ended up in a dark and admittedly disgusting alleyway in a bustling city.

At first, you thought that the blast somehow threw you from the forest in front of Parfum Palace all the way to Lumiose City, but when you stepped out into the light, you were terribly wrong.

The city had tall buildings, with none of the Kalosian charm that Lumiose had, and the signs were all written in a strange language you’ve never read before, let alone seen.

“What happened…?” You muttered to yourself, and you noticed that Sylveon had also gotten up to look around curiously. 

“Syl…” He looked all around the place before his gaze landed on you, and he stared at you bug-eyed. “VEON!?”

“What? What is it?” You ask, and he begins gesturing to you, like, all of you. Using his ribbons as some funky charades.

“What are you doing? If this is some joke you got, it’s not funny.” You deadpanned. 

Sylveon continued his charades, this time more frantically, but because you obviously don’t believe him, he groaned and grabbed your arm before dragging you out onto the sidewalk. “Whoa! What is it?”

Sylveon ignored the weird and curious glances that civilians shot at him and his trainer, and pulled you to the nearest window and pointed at it. “Ve.” He said.

Confused, you looked at the window, only to see you but… yellow? Why were you yellow? You turned your head, and the window mirrored your movements. You held up your hands, which were just claw shaped, and your legs and feet were rectangular.

“What just happened?” 

“Syl Sylveon!” Sylveon exclaimed, finally glad you noticed that he wasn’t pulling your leg like he normally does.

You turned away from your reflection, seeing that the many civilians going about their day also had yellow skin, claw hands and rectangle legs, some even had different shades of colours, like red and blue..

‘This is strange.’ You think to yourself. ‘Where are we?’

With nothing to do except take in your surroundings and try and find out where you ended up at, you begin walking around the city in hopes of finding someplace to go and figure out where you are. 

You let Sylveon hold onto your arm with his ribbons as you walked along the sidewalk of the strange city, still getting odd glances, but there weren’t many, and Sylveon managed to unnerve them with a glare to stop their staring.

You hadn’t walked for long until Sylveon became intrigued by something and had led you to a restaurant. You deadpanned. “Really Sylveon? Food? Now? We don’t even know where we are– AH!” You were rudely cut off from your scolding when a young man burst from the entrance, delivery bags in his arms, yelling back at someone.

“Sorry!” The delivery man apologised as he got into his dinghy little vehicle and rushed off.

“Well, that was kinda rude.”

“Syl.” Despite his nod that matched your slight Kalosian pretentiousness, Sylveon was more interested in what was inside the restaurant, so he dragged you inside. 

You paused when you saw a human in a chair eating noodles, and a Grumpig-looking man behind the counter waving a spoon around angrily. The two stopped upon seeing you and Sylveon.

“Uh, sorry for bothering you?” You say first, more confused than apologetic, and the Gumpig man’s angered look changed into a smile.

“Welcome in, customer! Take a seat, I’ll take your order in a second.” The chef gave the human a glare before heading to the back kitchen, meanwhile the bespectacled human slurped his noodles while looking at Sylveon with a curious look.

“Ve?” Sylveon looked at the brunette with a heated, offended glare, making the human nervous smile and divert his attention back to his book, sweating as Sylveon continued to send him the nastiest glare imaginable.

“Sylveon, don’t be rude.” You said in a scolding tone to the Fairy-type, who simply stuck his nose up arrogantly. “I’m sorry about him, he’s just a butt.”

Sylveon let out an offended noise, but you ignored him in favour of striking up conversation with the man beside you as you waited for the Grumpig chef to return.

The man, who had introduced himself as Tang, was a scholar. And strangely enough, he had never heard of Sylveon before. You assumed it as just a regional difference, maybe they didn’t have Eevee or any of its evolutions here? But no…

He doesn’t even know what a Pokemon is.

Which struck at all of the red alarms in your head. At first you thought that they just didn’t even have any Pokemon here, but that wouldn’t even make sense, they should still know what a Pokemon is, even if they don’t have any. 

You were snapped out of your mini crisis when the chef returned, wiping his hands dry on a rag. “Sorry ‘bout that. What can I get ‘ya?” He asks, leaning on the counter casually, sparing a slight glare at Tang.

You looked back at the menu. You… hadn’t really considered what to buy, but Sylveon seems to be at least one step ahead as he yoinks the menu from your hands with one ribbon and points to a food item with the other.

The chef looked at the spot before saying, “Chow Mein?” Sylveon nodded erratically and you sighed and nodded in agreement. It was… better than nothing you suppose.

“Alright, coming right u–.” He froze when he heard a sliding noise, and everyone looked over to Tang, who had pushed his empty bowl away from himself, wiping his mouth with a napkin. Feeling stared at, he looked back with an equally nervous and smug smile.

“One of these days I’m gonna ban ‘ya.” The chef growled as he took the bowl from off the counter. Tang just nodded dismissively, as if knowing he won’t get banned, despite the threat.

Sylveon thought he was weird.

A semi-awkward silence came over the two of you, that type of silence where you wanted to strike up small talk, but neither wanted to, but it was fine. You absentmindedly began petting Sylveon’s head. He yelped with a disgruntled look on his face, moving so instead you were stroking his back. “Sorry bud.” You muttered, Sylveon waved a ribbon in response.

It took a short while, but your noodles finally arrived. The bowl was filled to the brim with noodles, as well as other vegetables and ingredients. You thanked him before grabbing the chopsticks to eat with them. You haven’t used chopsticks in a while, having used them while at Sushi High Roller for your Ranger Leader’s retirement party a few months back, which led to your friend and superior stepping up, leaving you as the second-in-command.

You were suddenly struck with the realisation that you were technically MIA, with probably no way of contacting your Ranger Agency of your whereabouts.

The long and short of it, you’re screwed.

“Woah!” You yelped as you were set off balance by Sylveon, who greedily began munching on the noodles in the bowl. With a brown, you grabbed him by the scruff and sat him back down. “No, Sylveon. You can’t just eat from the bowl.” You look around and find a cup full of green tea, you must've been too distracted by the noodles to notice it. You took it and chugged the tea before putting a bunch of noodles in it and handing it to Sylveon. “Here.”

Sylveon looked grossed out, but the small taste he had earlier overpowered his brain, and he began chowing down on the noodles, letting you enjoy yours in peace.

All the while, Tang had been slitting his attention between his book and staring at you and Sylveon, a stranger in an even stranger red costume-esque uniform and a small quadruped fox-like monster who was admittedly cute, but really just a jerk.

As you were eating your noodles, the young man from earlier burst through the entrance with a raven haired girl with green highlights. You and Sylveon stuck to yourselves as they all began talking about the staff the young man had… that was able to extend and retract. You would have dismissed it until Tang began fanboying over the staff, talking about ‘DBK’ and ‘Monkey King’ before all running out, leaving you and Sylveon in the shop.

“Uhh, what?” You blurted out, confused.

“Veon…” Sylveon growled as he finished his noodles, annoyed that they had just been left in the shop. What kind of customer service was that!?

Sylveon had finished his bowl before you, but seeing as how he was eyeing it, as if he were planning on stealing it from you, but since you weren’t exactly hungry after your sudden realisation from earlier, you just gave the rest to him and he ate it happily.

“Now what…” You pondered to yourself. Your food was almost finished, but the chef was no longer present, not even his seemingly only employee or Tang. But you couldn’t just leave without paying.

Sylveon, however, had a much different idea. Seeing your inner turmoil, he smirked, finished the noodles and jumped off the seat. You watched him, curious as to what he was doing, only for him to take your arm with his ribbons again and begin dragging you away from the restaurant.

“Sylveon, hold on! We can’t just leave!” Oh my Arceus, Sylveon’s gonna turn you into a criminal!

“On!” Sylveon chirped back, totally unfazed by the fact that he was causing you both to dine and dash. The Fairy-type Eeveelution was incredibly strong, way more determined than he normally was to get out of somewhere. 

He kept dragging you around the city, both of you looking around cautiously yet curiously. Every turn you took had more citizens stare at you both, especially Sylveon, reminding you of how Tang was very confused about Pokemon, and how this world probably doesn’t even have Pokemon.

If this truly were another world… but seeing as how you were a yellow person and there were no Pokemon around, instead replaced with these bland appearing creatures, the theory you concocted in your head didn’t seem too far fetched.

As you got yourself lost in your thoughts, the looming doom of your situation returned tenfold. You were in a world with nothing you knew of back home, no Pokemon in tall grass, no Trainers lining the routes, the lively world you inhabited is now replaced with one that was as boring as it was nerve wracking. 

Noticing your panic, Sylveon tugged your arm harshly, snapping you out of your funk with a yelp. “Ow! Sylveon, not cool!”

The little mischief maker giggled innocently, but his smug grin showing off his tiny fangs showed that he enjoyed what he just did. 

He continued dragging you around, and everything was as fine and dandy as it could be for you both. You reached what appeared to be a district of abandoned buildings, from offices to apartments, you looked down at Sylveon then back up at one of the apartments.

“Oh my Arceus, Sylveon, you’re a genius.” You mutter in realisation, finally understanding the method to his madness.

“Ve-on.” He replied back with a prideful grin, as if to say ‘I know’. He released your arm and ducked under the caution tape before trotting along the abandoned streets of this district. You rushed to follow him.

You both walked along the middle of the road, you following your partner, and Sylveon seemingly looking for something, which with the way things were going, you hoped was a place to stay.

The ground then began to rumble harshly, the stray rocks and pebbles on the ground shaking and jumping from it all, and you looked around in confusion. Was it a horde of Diglett? Perhaps a burrowing Excadrill.

“Veon!” Sylveon pointed at the city and you saw… a giant, purple, bipedal Tauros? It was wearing strange armour, and it was obviously no good.

“What is that? What do we do?”

“Ve veon.” Sylveon said, shaking his ribbons in an ‘absolutely not’ way before pulling you into the nearest abandoned apartment building. It had major amounts of water damage, so you supposed that this entire part of the city was closed down due to some previous flooding and no one has picked up the reins to fix it up or tear it down.

Your distraction made it so Sylveon went ahead, she approached the elevator and pressed the up button.

It didn’t work.

Cue you having to grab Sylveon’s ribbons before he pushed the button through the console and made it even less repairable.

“The elevator isn’t working. We should take the stairs.” Sylveon groaned as you walked to the staircase, him having no choice to follow you up. The more stairs you went up, the less the water damage there was, and when you made it all the way up to the top, the floor was relatively spotless aside from a thick layer of dust that caked every corner.

Upon seeing the fancy hallway, Sylveon brightened up. Forgetting his overdramatic breathing as he finally made it up, he bounded down the hall to the fanciest door. 

The door was missing its locks and some hinges, so Sylveon managed to open the door with ease. The apartment was more like a penthouse, spacious and fancy looking, making you feel unwelcome. Sylveon was undeterred, scampering about until he found somewhere to plop himself down.

You followed him, finding yourself in the living room, with Sylveon napping on an exquisite lounge chair. You decided to sit on the couch. As soon as you did, the ground rumbled again, startling you both.

Sylveon growled, shaking a ribbon like a fist before going back to nap without a worry. And you decided that napping was also probably a good idea.

Maybe this was all just a weird dream made by the Espurr, who knows?

[cheseely]

Hi, I'm sure you get this often but I really love your recent genshin artwork, do you think you could explain your painting process? I love the colouring effect in that piece especially. Thank you.

Thank you so much! I got a few messages like this from my previous piece (thank you guys for the staff pick & blaze btw, I really didn't expect all the support😭) so I thought I'd share a bit of my process below as thanks.

I always do my lineart first because it feels less daunting to me when applying colours. I will do some rough colours first so I can easily adjust it to my liking.

Next, I make sure to separate each character into different layers when I clean it up. I like to work one character or object at a time, it's less overwhelming for me that way, and I can use clipping masks for ease of rendering.

I'll usually apply some adjustment layers on top of the base layer for shadows and highlights. When I say base layer, I just mean a layer of the colour without any effects.

I like using 'hard light' for shadows, and 'screen' for highlights, but you can really use whatever clicks with you.

Rinse & repeat this process for every character in the illustration. Note that I make Furina the focus so everything behind her will be less rendered than the elements in front of them (Neuvillette is a lot less rendered compared to Furina, and the painting in the back barely has much shading).

Once I render out each asset in the illustration and add shadows & highlights to my liking, I then to merge foreground/ midground/ background elements so I can make the overall illustration clearer to read. I don't want it to feel messy or overcrowded, and I think it's easy to get tunnel-visioned in small details and lose the clarity of the entire illustration.

Make sure to zoom out constantly and make your illustration B&W to check the values to see if the drawing is clear.

I created a simple S curve with the values for readability, and have the foreground elements have darker values & contrasts.

As for the BG, I wanted to add more textures into the drawing, particularly the painting in the back. Here's an image of it when I only added in the base colours.

I use the smudge tool to create more texture once I fill in the base colours. Since I don't really 'paint' anything with the textures in, I just put in the base colours and take a textured brush to smudge it. However, over-smudging can lose the painterly texture I want, so I usually smudge vertically or horizontally in a single stroke to create a sense of movement.

Another thing to note is that I only textured the BG, I thought it would help it blend into the background a bit better. I usually wouldn't do this for the foreground because I want those elements to be clearer.

At the very end, I tend to spend a fair bit of time just fiddling with more adjustment layers, various filters (such as blur, or noise), or liquify small details to really finalize the piece. Just vibes...basically this is me

Anyway, I hope that was helpful & it made sense!! Feel free to message me if you have any other questions & I'll try my best to answer! I might've glazed over a lot since I didn't wanna make this too long.

[another-lost-mc]

dessert first | solomon x gn!reader

cw: sfw. fluff and humor with some suggestiveness. descriptions of food and cooking. wc: 0.7k+

If cooking is a love language, then Solomon is convinced that no one can cook more delicious, heart-warming food for you than he can.

He doesn’t notice your apprehension whenever he brings a steaming plate of something to the table. You bought him an apron as a gag gift once ("HOT STUFF CUMIN THRU"), and it's splattered in what can only be described as radioactive waste with it's odd colour and pungent smell.

You're relieved - barely - that the food can't be too acidic, since there's no holes burned through the apron's delicate fabric yet.

(You know Solomon loves that silly apron you gave him. Barbatos told him how to remove even the most stubborn biohazardous material - err, food stains - from it. You know later that Solomon will hum happily when he prepares it for the laundry, and when it's clean he'll fold it and tuck it away safely for next time. He always wears it when he cooks for you.)

Since you’ve known him, and especially since you started dating, you’ve pondered one question: is Solomon completely oblivious to your reactions when he cooks, or is he completely sadistic?

Sometimes your eyes water when he makes something that's far too sour. He holds a hand over his heart and says how happy he is that you're so moved by his cooking that it would bring you to tears. You let him brush away the stray tears with his thumb and kiss your cheeks - it's the least he can do.

Sometimes you clamp your mouth shut and try not to shudder as sharp, searing pains ravage your stomach. He's flattered that you're rendered speechless by his creation - and did you know that he modified the recipe specifically for you? He beams at you from his seat across the table while you try to focus on his words and distract yourself from the agony tearing your insides apart.

Later you mention as casually as you can that you'd like to lay down for a while. He tucks into the space behind you on the couch and hums in your ear while you nap - or pass out, you're honestly not sure which.

Today, you expect the same as all the meals he’s made for you before. He takes off his apron and sets it aside to wash later. Your steely resolve melts just a little because he treats it so gently, like it's more than just a common apron to him (because it is).

You look at his culinary offering today, some sort of stew the colour of burnt orange with hints of purple. It bubbles menacingly in the serving dish he places on the table. You scoop a small amount into your bowl - you try not to grimace when he insists that you help yourself - and grab your spoon. He helps himself next, and he's already digging in when you bring a mouthful shakily to your lips.

It doesn't smell too bad up close, and you can pick out the familiar scent of the unique blend of herbs and spiced he used. The first mouthful goes down easily, surprisingly so, and you chuckle when the tension melts from your body. You expected so much worse.

You're helping yourself to your fourth spoonful, more generous than the others before, when the delayed reaction hits you. Your throat closes in protest and you spit out the soup. Solomon's shirt is covered in it.

It feels like time freezes as embarrassment and horror flood through you. There's a dribble of soup running down your lip, and the spoon clatters loudly when it drops on the table.

Solomon looks stunned by your reaction.

You wipe your mouth with a napkin and try to sputter apologies and clean up the mess, and—why is he standing up and taking off his clothes?

You gape at him while he strips off his shirt and lets it drop in a heap on the floor beside his chair; you're distracted by the unexpected sight of his bare chest.

He sighs dramatically with his hands on his hips, and instead of seeing hurt or anger in his eyes, they twinkle with something like mischievous delight.

"Oh, darling," he teases you, slowly unbuckling his belt. "There's no need to waste food like that. If you wanted to have dessert first, all you had to do was ask."

read more: solomon masterlist | obey me! masterlist

[adobe-outdesign]

could you review some of the neopets as animals outfits, like the fennec kacheek, red panda vandagyre, and cockatiel pteri? (those are examples, choose whichever you like!) thank you <3

(Note: I included a random selection of outfits in this post, but feel free to send in asks if anyone wants to see a specific outfit I didn't cover.)

I'll be honest, I'm personally not super big on the "outfit that resembles a real-world animal" trend. First, I play Neopets for the cool fantasy creatures; even the most true-to-life Neopets species have some pretty fantastical colors. I feel like making pets just look exactly like actual animals kind of defeats the purpose of them being Neopets. I get why people would like it and I'm not saying it's bad; it's just not my thing.

Also, the other reason I'm not always big on these outfits is that a lot of Neopets have colours that already resemble real animal patterns. Not only do the outfits blur the colour/customization line quite a bit, but usually I like the colour ones much more, as they keep the actual design of the Neopets in place and just change the patterns and colors, rather than covering up the fun fantasy elements. This also helps them avoid the uncanny valley effect, which I talk about more below.

Also I might be over thinking this but who is making these outfits. None of these animals seem to exist in-universe as far as we're aware. what are the shopkeepers basing these off of. the colours at least have a magic as an excuse

Examples that I think are okay:

Feathery Pteri Outfit: This one's nice! I like the layered patterning on the wings and the high-contrast colors. Most, though, I like that this sticks fairly close to the actual pet, mostly just changing up the tail shape. This almost could've been a paintbrush colour, but then again what colour is up in the air.

(Side note: the eye clipping over the beak is a rendering issue? I think?)

Bouncing Zafara: This one definitely strays farther from the actual pet than the Pteri, but it's a fitting animal choice and it doesn't fall into the uncanny valley, which is all I care about. The body is still somewhat recognizable as a Zafara in terms of shape, and the Miamouse as the joey is super cute.

Freshwater Lenny: Kind of the same case as the Zafara; not super one-to-one with the actual pet, but it's still recognizable as a Lenny and isn't too uncanny. The legs are a particularly nice touch, actually changing the pose to look more heron-like (though they are also the part that strays dangerously into being too detailed).

Please don't:

Adorable Kacheek: Sorry to the fans of this one, but this outfit just resides deep within the uncanny valley to me—like it's a mascot suit instead of just a normal pet. The artstyle is way off from Neopets, looking much more Subeta-ish (except Subeta's art usually isn't so off putting). It's not a bad artstyle, mind you, it's just not very Neopets-ish. I also feel like a fennec fox was also a bad pick for this one, as it's basically unrecognizable as a Kacheek at all.

Feathered Eyrie: Speaking of the uncanny valley, this is another pet that lands squarely there due to having entirely too much detail in the shading and weirdly realistic fur textures. It also just doesn't look very good aesthetically—the beak doesn't fit the face, and the wings are an absolute trainwreck (not only is the perspective wrong, but the left wing is coming from the middle of its back!). On the plus side, you'd be hard pressed to not recognize this as an Eyrie, and it's a fantasy creature instead of a regular animal, so I guess that's something?

Furry Meerca: Hmm... no. This one also suffers from an overly-detailed artstyle and way too much realism, which is especially jarring when placed on top of the Meerca's heavily stylized body shape, resulting in a perfectly round animal with hyper-realistic animal eyes. It's also particularly bothersome because we already had a chipmunk Meerca design in the form of the striped Meerca colour, which is just this but less soul-haunting:

Which is what I meant at the beginning when I was talking about colours vs outfits. The colour is a Meerca that looks like a chipmunk; the outfit is a chipmunk that looks like a Meerca. Big difference.

[forgotten-rain]

A real hero.

(Pls open the image for better quality 🥲)

Transparent bg (and some rambling) under the cut!

My first real digital art piece!! I'm really happy with how it turned out, especially since all the colouring took like a thousand hours 🫠 How do artists render someone help I just want to draw cool fanart like The Greats (TM) 😭 (Also big thanks to @bluebescuits, your tutorials helped me so much I love your art style)

Genuinely, the only reason I seriously started to teach myself how to do this is because jrwi has me in a chokehold. Dakota's righteous anger in ep 10 would not leave my mind (I'm on season 2 right now so it's been there for a while) and I needed to draw it out to keep my sanity.

Can't believe this hiatus has been going for like a couple of months only and I've already picked up a new hobby so I can make my own jrwi content for myself. I'm desperate.

[graementality]

i love your art so much!! would you be alright sharing some info about your process for art? i'm in love with all of it especially your more recent painterly stuff :D if i could eat your art to gain its power i would

Thank you so much!!! :DDD and ofc! I'll try and articulate whatever I do (I truly just See What Looks Good tbh) below the cut :]

I'll use my most recent work as an example :]

So I start off with the sketch of course, for this I'll usually have the general idea of what I'm doing planned out in my mind, but if I can't figure out the pose/layout or whatever I'll usually scour pinterest for references/inspiration

Then COLOUR SHIT. Ok, I couldn't get a version of this without shading bcus I sadly merged the layers already </3 but basically once I have the base colour(s) down I'll mess with the layer's colour settings until it works with the lighting I'm doing and then I'll start shading. I'd say there's a more refined process but tbh I kinda just pick a section (skin, hair, clothes, etc...) and go ham.

After that, rendering! (And small details [the first pic]) tbh I have no idea what rendering is/how to do it? But my definition is 20 layers of airbrushing at low opacity until it looks good 👍 (for this piece that was alot of dark blues, reds and purples. In general I try to use the dreaded Colour Theory to make things look nice and cohesive [complimentary colours and the like]) this section is very much trial and error, I'll also mess with the settings and colours for everything I've done so far ALOT, as well as go back and fix little things I did forever ago

Then the background/any final details! (Usually if I'm doing a more complicated background I'll work on that at the same pace as every thing else [sketch, colour, render] but for pieces like this where it's simple, I'll do that whenever)

But yeah! Hopefully that's helpful (?) In some way. My process is all over the place and I usually break my own order of doing things and start like rendering half way through colouring half the time?? Anyway thank you!!! It feels very awesome to know people like my art and wanna see how I do stuff :DDD

[starflungwaddledee]

do you have any tips for leaving compliments on other people's art ?? your tags are always so well phrased !

oooo oooooooooooooo uuhhhhhhhh hmmm!

firstly, thank you!! i'm rather glad to hear that! i try quite hard to leave meaningful comments so it's nice when folks notice or appreciate it!

outside of commenting on the work, i first consider the tone of what i'm saying and who i'm saying it to.

i always try to make sure that what i'm saying will be appreciated by the person! that's the point. for the most part i leave comments to bring joy to the op, and thank them for their hard work, for being here and sharing art that made me happy! if i'm speaking to a mutual or friend, there's gonna be inside jokes and probably an amount of casual yelling. possibly even a little friendly roast, if i know them well enough. if i'm speaking with someone i don't know as well i try to keep it a little more professional, but i keep in mind that this is a fandom so an amount of yelling and screaming is expected. i tend to think about what i would like from someone else.

also if i notice that a caption or a blogs about is not in english i double check. if english is not the first language of the artist i make sure to construct tags that are easily translated and i use only and exclusively positive phrases. saying things like "delete this!!!! /pos" or "eating my own hands" can be totally lost in translation. i also keep in mind the age of the OP. don't tag as though you're Looking Disrespectfully at the art of a minor, even if that's your favourite blorbo.

as for how to comment on art or storytelling itself, this is indeed a learned skill, and it can be helped by training your eye to understand different things in artwork. but it's easy to start practicing! this is intuitive to me now, but an easy way to begin is to pick out one or two things that really stand out to you on a piece. (examples could be line quality; is it smooth? neat? textured? full of emotion?, shading: is it crisp? atmospheric? realistically rendered?, or colour choice: is it vibrant? is it moody? is it perfectly on model?) and draw attention to them and how the artist successfully used them to make the piece work.

if the piece includes design-work, pick something of that which you like as well. (clothes, colour choices, abilities, parallels to other characters, totally new or unique concepts that you haven't seen before. if you see your favourite colour combos or notions, let them know, but if it's a stranger remember they made the design for themselves, and you just share (good) tastes!) if you really want to make an artist/designer/storyteller's day, try to find the Little Thing that they've snuck into their art or design that ties into the story or lore that they are telling. even guesses to this end tend to be appreciated!

generally useful things you can also comment on are how well an artist has utilised a medium for its strengths, especially if the medium is a little unusual. if someone @'d me in particular i make sure to acknowledge that too because they probably read me for something and i should acknowledge the effort!

another thing i also always, always encourage, is to try to periodically share and comment on the work of people who are either less experienced or who have less visibility than you. especially if you have more of a platform! if you want to keep your blog clean of too many reblogs for aesthetic or professional reasons you can even go through and remove them later, but sharing the work of smaller accounts- even temporarily- makes such a huge difference! and encouraging + supporting younger or beginner artists is something we should be endeavouring to do as much as possible!

at the end of the day, i always just try to be very earnest in my tags.

there is generally no reason to withhold any praises i can think of, because it's usually nice to have your work perceived and appreciated! i personally loooovvve long rambling tags, screaming tags, stuff like "AAHH NOOOOOOO (THE BLORBO)" and so on. i try to leave the kind of thoughtful comments that i like (and am lucky enough) to receive, and i try to share artwork from a wide variety of people!

[in-study-hell]

im very impressed by the way your animatics *feel!!!* a lot of the moments you choose to focus on are so so cool....... big fan of the composition and colors too it's so cool aughg,,,,,, and your storytelling is especially very impressive!!!!!! you've gotten me interested in trying to figure out how to make images move : ] i wanted to ask what program you use to animate? im lookin around and trying to pick animation programs to check out first : ]

Thank you! I mostly use Rough Animator on the iPad to make un-coloured/ flat coloured animatics like this one:

While for full-rendered (and ~1 sec only) stuff I suffer in Procreate (also on iPad) haha. It’s def much harder to animate on there but I like the brushes so I sometimes plan the animation on Rough animator then render the frames in Procreate.

[bookish-blood]

Modern AU

Keyleth looks up from her sketches as the little bell over her door chimes. „Vex! Hi, nice to see you. Sorry, I’ll just-“

„I’m a bit early, not to worry.“ Vex leans against the counter, picking up one of the business cards and twirling it between her fingers. „By the way, I was thinking… You know, Percy and I are together for a while now. So how instead these arrows we talked about we-“

„Vex, I am not tattooing your boyfriends name on you! It’s so stupid to do that! And I-“

Vex grins. „I was joking.“ She pockets the business card and winks at Keyleth. „Show me my arrows?“

Keyleth glares at her, more playful than anything else. „I hate you,“ she say without any real heat behind it. Throwing her pencil to the side, she shrugs out of her light cardigan, revealing a beautiful sleeve of floral designs on her left arm. „But I had a fun time doing some sketches for you. Look.“ Out of a drawer she pulls various sketches, all of arrows in different designs. „I’m favouring this one. Do you still want it on your forearm?“

„On the inside, yes.“ Vex takes the sketch Keyleth has pushed towards her. It shows three arrows crossing each other in the middle, their arrowheads and feathers beautifully rendered. „This look gorgeous, Keyleth. Would you mind some colour on those?“

Keyleth grins. „I should be the one asking you. What are you thinking?“

Vex points to the feathering. „Can you make them raven and magpie?“

„Sure. Let me look something up real quick and I’ll add some colour to the sketch. If you like it, we can get started.“ Keyleth starts to type away on her computer and modifying the sketch. „Can I get you something to drink?“

„I’ve got some water, but thanks.“

„You’ve eaten?“ Keyleth raises an eyebrow at her, looking briefly up from her sketching.

Vex returns the look. „It’s not my first tattoo.“

„So?“

„Yes, I’ve eaten. No alcohol yesterday and not even a coffee today so far. Which, I might add, is a great sacrifice on my end.“

Keyleth chuckles. „Your sacrifice is appreciated.“ She tweaks the design a bit more, then nods her head. „Alright, let’s go back.“ She starts prepping her workspace and, after putting on gloves, Vex’s skin.

Hours pass with chatting, laughter and the occasional scolding, all while the machine whirrs and the design comes to life on Vex’s skin. They are nearly finished, when the bell over the door chimes again. „Just a moment!“ Keyleth yells. She carefully turns Vex’s arm and traces a few lines a second time before setting aside the machine and gently wiping it down. „We’ll let it sit for a few minutes, then I’ll pack you in. Remember, no bathing for the next four weeks, no direct sun for the next six. After that, do use sunscreen. And remember to-“

„To care for it especially in the next two weeks and not let Trinket slobber it up, I know. It’s not my first tattoo, you know?“

„I do know. A few of yours a from me, after all.“ Keyleth wipes Vex’s arm down again before covering the fresh tattoo in adhesive tape. „I’ll see who it is. Take as much time as you need.“ She throws her gloves into the trash and pushes her stool away to stand up.

A man stands with his back to her, his gaze on the wall that holds her various sketches, interspersed with some photos of those she has tattooed over time. His long, dark hair falls open over his shoulders save for a few braids with beads in them. Hearing her steps, he looks over his shoulder; his resemblance to Vex is uncanny. „You are Keyleth?“

„I-i-i am.“ Keyleth clears her throat. „I mean, I am, yes. You are…?“

„Vax’ildan. I’m here to make a deposit on my appointment?“ He smiles, almost unsure of himself.

„Of course! Just let me get my notes.“ Keyleth rummages through her desk. „Here! Two daggers, one on each forearm, right? One with flames.“

„That’s me.“

„Vax? What are you doing here?“ Vex comes out, holding her arm at a bit of an awkward angle. „Where’s Trinket?“

„What, you think I bring him into a tattoo studio?“ Vax raises an eyebrow at her. „I took you for being smarter, sister. Though maybe I shouldn’t, with you dating Freddie and all that.“

„You, Vax’ildan, are an arse.“

„Sister?“ Keyleth looks up, eyes wide. Both twins turn their attention to her pointing at their own faces. „Right. I just… I didn’t know you were the brother Vex keeps talking about.“

Vax turns back to his sister, grinning. „Aaw, you do love me. And to answer your question, Trinket is with Pike. She holds the fort at the shop, there’s a delivery of fresh flowers supposed to arrive today. So, here’s the agreed deposit,“ he puts a few bills on the counter, „and I’ll be back on the fifth. Do you need anything else of me?“

„Uhm, no, no. Just tell me if you change your mind about what you want to have tattooed or if you can think of any details you’d like to have incorporated. And if you can’t make it to the appointment, it would be nice to let me know in time.“

Vax nods. „Of course.“

„I’m looking forward to it.“ Keyleth smiles softly, then turns her attention at Vex. „If you’re unsure about anything or have questions during healing, just let me know. And no scratching!“

„As always, will do. You outdid yourself, darling.“

„A pleasure. And give Trinket some scritches from me.“

~*~*~*~*~*~

„Hi, how can I-? Oh, Keyleth. Hello.“ Vax smiles warmly, brushing off his hands. „How can I help you?“

Keyleth closes the door behind her, returning his smile. „Vex recommended you. I’m looking for a few plants for the studio. Something… I don’t know.“

„Not a problem. Do you have experience with plants? Do you want something with blooms or without?“

„I have some experience, yes. Not too much, though. And I love flowers I just find them…“

„Intimidating?“ Vax nods, still smiling. „Well, some people tend to kill orchids, but really it’s rather easy to care for them. I think the amount of sunshine in your studio, at least in the front, would be suitable for them. And maybe something without blooms for the back, so that you don’t have to worry about pollen?“ He points to different, luscious plants all around his shop.

Keyleth looks around helplessly. „I, uh, I’d defer to your expertise? This is… This is a lot.“

Vax opens his arms, shrugging. „How long do you have? I could… Well, I could get us a coffee from down the street and then I could show you the plants I’d have in mind for you and answer all your questions. If that is alright with you?“

„Yeah. Yeah, sure.“ Keyleth can feel the blush spreading to the tips of her ears. „Uhm, I can take care of the coffee? I’m sure you cannot leave the shop unsupervised.“

„I could always close up,“ Vax retorts with a grin. „But sure, if you insist. Just,“ he rummages around in his pocket and pulls out a few knittered bills, „take this. No protests! I’ll just have a black coffee, no sugar.“ His fingers linger for a moment as he pushes the money in her hands.

Keyleth blushes even harder but doesn’t pull back her hand. „I’ll be back in no time.“

~*~*~*~*~*~

„Alright, that was dagger numer one.“ Keyleth pushes her stool back and snaps off her gloves. „I’d say we go for a little break here and then we’ll take care of your other arm. How are you doing?“

Vax chuckles and moves to rob his left forearm before catching himself. „I’d forgotten how much a tattoo can hurt. But your designs really are beautiful. I mean, the deatils, the depth… No wonder my sister comes back to you.“

She grins at him. „Maybe you’ll come back, too. Oh Gods, I’m sorry, I don’t know… I’m sorry.“

Vax’s smile turns softer, warmer. „No need. Really, don’t worry. I’ll even bring more plants, if you want to.“

„I, uh, I really love that monstera you brought today. I hope I don’t kill it.“ Her blush is still prominent, feeling as though her face is burning up. „I’ll do my best not to, anyway.“ She clears her throat, finding Vax’s gaze again. „So, this is not your first tattoo?“

„Disappointed? Your daggers are more beautiful, though.“ Vax sighs, rubbing his neck with one hand and reaching for a pen to twirl between his fingers. „Yeah, I was a teenager. It was stupid. Vex… Vex and I were in a difficult situation back then. It’s, uh, it’s not something I like to talk about, to be honest.“

„You don’t need to.“ Keyleth smiles encouragingly. „And should you ever want it covered, just tell me. We’ll work something out. No need to carry a difficult memory on your skin.“

Vax lets out a breath he hasn’t known he has been holding. „That… Yeah, let’s talk about that some time. Maybe after these are healed.“

„Anytime.“ Keyleth gets up and opens a cabinet door at the end of the room. „You want a granola bar?“

„Sure.“

~*~*~*~*~*~

The bell over her door chimes again, causing Keyleth to turn around from where she has watered her plants, which have grown in number ober the past weeks and months since she has met Vax’ildan.

„Vax! Hi.“ She smiles brightly as she recognizes the man entering. „You’re early.“

„I brought you something, a seedling of a plant named Alocasia Antoro Velvet. I thought you might like it.“

Keyleth carefully touches the dark, almost purple leaves. „It’s beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it.“

„It’s a rather rare plant. But I managed to get one some years ago and I thought you might like one, too.“

„That is… very thoughtful of you. Thank you very much.“ Keyleth accepts the plant with a smile and places it on the shelf. „Are you ready for our session today?“

Vax nods mutely, briefly averting her gaze.

Keyleth smiles softly and takes his hand. „Come.“ She leads him in the back where her sketches of antlers are already prepared. While she prepares her tattooing machine, he slips out of his shirt, baring the rather simple symbol of the Clasp between his shoulder blades. Keyleth sprays his skin with disinfectant and carefully wipes it down. „I’ll place one of the stencils on it and you can see whether you like it or not. If not, we can try another design or placement. Alright?“

Vax clears his throat, „Alright.“

He lets Keyleth work in silence, until she gently swats his upper arm. „Go to the mirror and tell me what you think.“

„When have I ever not done that?“ He manages a smile, but it feels rather crooked. With a deep breath he braces himself, then he looks up in the mirror. He only sees a pair of elaborate antlers. While the lines are not thick, Keyleth has managed to blend the symbol of the Clasp with the design so much that it almost vanishes behind it. „It’s perfect, Keyleth. Thank you,“ he says, his voice choked. He lets his gaze linger a moment longer before sitting back on the stool.

Keyleth smiles softly and leans forward to kiss his hair before she starts tattooing.

Find the master doc here

This oneshot was inspired by this post by @daniellecroy. I'm almost inclined to make a whole fic out of it, if I should find the time.

[onthegreatsea]

my friend mentioned that the 30th anniversary of Goldeneye is coming up in a few years and encouraged me to pick up my mod again i had forgotten how exciting it is seeing my work running on real N64 hardware honestly. and im kinda shocked at how much better it looks on a CRT too sometimes i think "wow importing this thing is taking hours and it'd take me 5 seconds in the unreal engine, why am i subjecting myself to this?". but i cant get unreal working on an N64 can i? so i will struggle and struggle because the end result makes me so happy :)

i love making low poly art but i especially love making low poly art for the N64. its hardware has so many neat quirks.

did you know a texture will load faster if its wider than taller? the same texture rotated 90 degrees and you can save a whole bunch of memory loads. i love squishing down a texture vertically, by one or two lines of pixels at a time, just to see how low i can push it while still looking good in context you dont even have to use mip maps and can make higher res textures that way. 32x32 becomes 32x64. or you go 16 colours and you can max out at 64x64 but you can also go like 64x49 and suddenly have enough room in T(exture)MEM(ory) to fit two mips. and with some custom work you can make something that has a lovely balance between the blurriness of Goldeneye and the aliased mess of a PS1 game. its fun making custom mip maps (im insane i know) and im so used to making things for modern hardware that i never worry about UV splits in my textures. but every time you split a UV thats basically another vertex to render. so on hardware as limited as the N64 how you use UVs is actually super important. i've been redoing some old models with this in mind.

i just love how thoughtful you have to be. every polygon and every texture and every texel and every vertex matters anyway have a pic: