#how to make moodboards

[mischievouslittlecreature]

Hi there! I noticed you're away for the week, so no worries if you can't answer right now.

I just wanted to say I love your mood boards; they're so perfect!

Most of the time, you don't even include pictures of the main characters, but the mood is so clear that you can easily envision them.

Do you have any advice for a newbie like me who wants to start creating mood boards? What's your process?

Oh, anon, thank you! 🖤 That is so sweet of you to say, and I am so touched that you've enjoyed my moodboards! Putting this under a read more because it got a little long!

For making moodboards (and pretty much any of my designs like my fic banners) I use Canva. They have some great free templates available where you basically just have to drop the pictures into the spaces and it's already formatted and everything!

As far as finding images go, I usually will use either the images provided by Canva, or ones from Pinterest, since I have boards for all of my series. As of right now, like for my aesthetic boards, I may start with searching "Character Name Aesthetic" into Pinterest and see what pops up. Sometimes, I have specific images in mind, like with Tommy I knew I wanted horses and cigarettes to be featured somewhere. If I need to, I'll adjust the brightness/other aspects of a photo after uploading it into Canva in order to make it fit with all the images in the moodboard, and if I need to I'll also crop things to fit better.

When it comes to formatting moodboards, I have a bit of a rough template I try to follow for the different types of boards I've made, specifically aesthetic, OC appearance, OC x Canon, and Fics.

For aesthetic boards, I try to find images I highly associate with the character or OC, and sometimes if a character has a specific color scheme, like red for my Peaky Blinders OC Lucy or blue for my Inception OC Alice, I'll try to search for images focusing on those colors, and use 4 of those and 4 more neutral colored images so that the color really pops. Then I'll put a quote that fits the character as the center image of the board. I mostly use 9 image (3x3) moodboard templates. Typically I try to keep these faceless, just because I like the challenge of trying to find at minimum 8 images to fit a character that don't involve their actual physical appearance, but you can 100% use these too if you want!

For OC appearance boards, I try to find 4 photos of clothing that they would wear which go in each corner of the 3x3 moodboard, 2 of their hair (faceless) which goes on the two middle spaces of the right and left columns, 1 of their eye color to go in the center, and 2 of their faceclaim to go in the top middle and bottom middle rows. Basically what I want to do is give as good of a general consensus as I can of what my OC looks like. Because I can't draw, this is sort of how I can convey to anyone interested how I personally picture my OCs.

For OC x Canon, I use a similar method as I do for OC appearance. I find 4 aesthetic images that either I can relate to their relationship or that just fit the "vibe" of them as a couple. For example, in my Alice x Robert moodboard, I have an image of the ocean there because the ocean is a big motif in their series. These go in the 4 corners of the 3x3. I also find a quote that fits them as a couple to go in the center, and an image of the OC faceclaim and the canon character to go in the middle spaces of the right and left columns. For the top middle and bottom middle rows, I find two faceless "couple" pictures. Something like two people holding hands, cuddling, kissing, etc.

Finally, for fic-specific moodboards, I take basically the same approach as I do for OC x Canon, except the quote in the center and the aesthetic images in the corners should relate to the topic of the fic, and not necessarily just the OC x Canon relationship.

Obviously this is just how I prefer to do things, as I like having clear systems and templates in place that I can easily follow, and you can make your moodboards however you chose! My main tips would be to try to ensure you have a clear theme, whether that's just a specific color or a topic, character, or story motif. That'll help your moodboard feel more cohesive. And just play around with it! Try out different images, try them out in different spots, adjust the image settings like the brightness or contrast, try out filters (I use the black and white ones a lot) and just have fun!

Let me know if you have any other questions or any other comments related to this! I am by no means an expert, but I'm always happy to help! 🖤

[callmeurrbunny]

i'm just a kid

i never use my brain

i only use my heart

and my imagination

[bastardalbum]

ST CHROMA + TYLER .

THOUGHT I WAS DEAD (2024)

[aybuketheblogger]

[thedeathofeve]

[7kyujin]

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[daintydoll13]

˚ ༘ If I get a little prettier, can I be your baby? ⋆｡˚

[little-pup-pip]

Christopher Robin!!

[guardians-of-exo]

Moodboards by Pinterest

It's taken me way too long to get this done (hoped it would be by your birthday this year...) but I just want to say thank you for being the most amazing mutual and friend all these years @starchild--27 💜

[fllavmur]

[adorethesmiths]

i hit my cigarette and it felt like a kiss

[callmeurrbunny]

[bunniebi]

outfits for the infamous ROs ^-^ (except O, Seb, E and LA... </3 but maybe in the future)

[aybuketheblogger]

[melancholygirl111]