#i never do lineart and basic shading

[alpha-window-9-creations]

Asked and answered. @1spooky2me

[loustica-lucia]

Heroes of the Dragon Age

An animation I've made for Dragon Age Day 2023, featuring my main Warden (Alyssa Cousland-Theirin), Hawke (Eleena Amell Hawke) and Inquisitor (Sulevin Lavellan)!

It's to this day one of my best artwork and I thought I should share it here too! 90+ hours between the original sketch, outfit design, the rough animation, rotoscope, inking, flat-colours, background shading and even the audio :')

Interested in the process? I detailed it below since it was my first time doing something like that:

I would like to start by saying I'm not a professional animator!Everything you've seen here is the result of experimentation and a lot of practice to learn and understand how 2D animation works.

My first idea started in May 2023. I just finished rewatching DA Absolution for the X time, and wanted to analyse why I loved the intro so much. (Even after countless rewatch, I never skipped it once.) I was inspired to study it with my main three protagonists!

Then came the first test with Alyssa Cousland-Theirin, my Hero of Ferelden! I tried to understand which part to separate for the animation. Mainly the hair and cape because it flows a lot more than the rest! If I recall, my first idea here was to make her counter flame attacks (?). Then, as the camera turns around her, I tried to add a grid to know how the camera would work around it.

I ended up making the clip longer, so she could position herself to the further left and leave space to the two other protagonists.

Now it was time to try to animate Sulevin Lavellan, my Inquisitor. I really kept that quick doodling style just to capture the vibe without putting too much time/effort into it! The background would be static to contrast with Alyssa's. I also loved the idea of a rogue sneaking!

Instead of working on Eleena Amell Hawke, my Champion of Kirkwall, I went back to Alyssa and started working with Clip Studio Paint 3D models (this entire animation has been done on the EX version of the software!) It helped for rotoscope animation and maintaining likeness! That's when I got the idea to make the background swirl around the character to let the eyes be guided by the rest of the screen!

After a couple more hours, I planned the entire animatic with 3D models and quick doodles! I finally found a cool pose for Eleena Hawke, which was honestly the hardest of the three to imagine for some reason? I tried many other poses but ended up picking an animation from the game!

This whole time, I was studying a bunch of background ideas and how studio Red Dog Culture House (who made Absolution) work! Thankfully, they have a YouTube Channel where they shared some BTS content so I could analyse it!

Then, I simplified my character and their original designs in the style of the studio! These outfits are how I imagine them after Trespasser. Alyssa as the Queen of Ferelden, looking for a cure to the Calling, Hawke following Fenris to Tevinter & Sully as a Red Jenny Inquisitor!

The idea for Sulevin's animation actually came from a piece I doodled on a live stream, when I was drawing pose studies and turning them into finished artworks haha As for Alyssa, I wanted to draw the fight that got her facial scars!

Once their designs were ready and the background ideas too, I made the rough version of the animation! Basically a sketch done on top of the 3D models to add the details, staying pretty rough just to capture the idea and movements.

Then it was time to start the lines! I decided make a folder per frame, so I could separate all he main elements and draw them one by one. It helps keeping the likeness of a character in the different frames without having big "jumps" between frames! In fact, every parts were coloured differently to recognize them, and then I used vector erasers and masks (Ah yes, the entire lineart is done in vectors of course! It's easier to adjust and save time when working on similar frames!)

At first of course, everything overlaps! But I find it easier to draw too much and erase after, just to make sure everything is coherent in each frames! The cool thing about CSP is how you can change the colour of the layers in one click! So all the coloured lines turned into black in one second, and I could reverse it just as quickly to double check!

Then I started working on Sulevin! I made a blue line to mark where her feet were, as the sketch in the background wasn't perfectly straight! (Like Sulevin's sexuality 🤭😂) The silhouettes were very quick to do, but I had fun adding more & more details as she came closer to the foreground!

I really wanted to add that little dagger trick, but I remember it required me to change the pacing of Eleena's apparition, as it was recovering her arm too quickly! I had to change the pace of multiple frames quite a lot during the project, to make sure the flow was right! For Eleena, most of her animation remained around her arms and the staff itself, as magic would be the most difficult part! That way each character has their own focus: Alyssa has a very animated background, Sulevin got the grappling hook and Eleena the ice!

Then it was time to start adding colours! Just like for the lineart, I separated every colour on it's own layer, so I could easily adjust the colours later if needed. I added one colour at the time, going through all the frames, and then another colour!

I made full palette tests with the colours I would use for their background at this point, checking if the details remained readable! Alyssa was the most challenging in terms of clothes, because I made her a very detailled armour! I had to simplify the Theirin heraldry, vectorize/redraw the Cousland, and make a brush for her cape's pattern!

Once I was done adding the flatcolours, I started the background, and oh boy it was a wild ride. For the cave, I painted multiple tests. I imagine was to use CSP panorama tools, which transform a texture into a 3D sphere, so each corners must match to look good. Sadly, it made the background very blurry, so after hours of testing, I changed ideas. Instead of the random fire balls (?) I originally imagined for Alyssa, I made three simple frames of a Rage Demon to attack her.

I ended up using the cave as a repeated pattern to make it turn 360° around the character. For Eleena, I mixed inspiration from the comics, Dreadwolf & Absolution, using warm colours matching Hawke's signature red. Just like I made the cave very grey/blue to match Grey Wardens. For Val Royeaux, it was more complex because I wanted to make it green, matching the Inquisitor's signature green. But bright green couldn't work, and the original colour during day time was blue/white/gold. So I added more leaves, played around the design a bit! After adding the rage demon, I made the shading! It was surprisingly easy and quick to do now!

I clipped a white layer on the flatcolours to not be distracted by the colours, and made thin lines to separate the light/shadows, then simply filled everything with the bucket tool! Then you set the layer to multiply and remove the white layer, and you have celshading shadows! Now the character looks out of the picture, so I added layers of blue in color burn, saturation and substract blending modes to make her look like she's in the right setting! Of course, I did the same with the other two, giving Hawke a red overlay and Sulevin green shadows!

Then I added the details, it went from white irises, to sword/staff smears to earrings and smaller finition that goes on top of these layers. To add the lights, I simply selected the shadows and reversed the selection! Using warm and cold tones to create contrast with the purple/bluish shadows! I also added more ambient light layers for Alyssa to reflect the Rage Demon fire. Now it was time to add ice magic! My first attempt had too many frames, making it look weird! Sometimes it's better to lower the frame rate to make things less bumpy!

Then I downloaded some cool ice brushes on CSP assets that made it look less like blue magical flames! But when I covered the screen in ice, I realized "Oh wait, I could make a cool transition from the ice, to blue lyrium turning red?"Red Lyrium truly links these three games and The Veilguard somehow! I spent the next hour painting over the idol and putting it in a black background, with lyrium and then the golden Dragon Age title text.

For the SFX, I used free youtube libraries sounds & "Darkspawn!" comes from the violent human female voice set (iconic for ""Can I get you a ladder? So you can get off my back!"😂🤭) After editing all that, the animation was finally done!

Here's the final math:

About 15 hours for the sketching/rough/animatic phase, 30h for the lineart, 25h for colours, 10h for backgrounds, 5h for details & 5h for music & SFX, for a total of 90 hours. Aka the same amount of time it took me to finish Baldur's Gate 3 the first time lol

If you have any question regarding the animation or the softwares etc. do not hesitate to ask, I'll do my best to answer!

[dreemurr-skelememer]

Hello :D

I have been following you for the last year or so (a few days after I got my Tumblr lmao) and I absolutely love your art!

I have been wanting to study your art style for a while but don't really know where to start,,,

Could you please show me a small portion of your art process, if it isn't too much trouble of course. Thank you and have a nice day!

hello. oh my god. this took forever to find.

im sorry it took 2 WHOLE FUCKING MONTHS for me to respond to this but i wanted to put it off until i felt happy with my art process again, so here it is

my fall 2024 rendering tutorial!

(this will be very very long)

FLATS AND WHATEVER YOU WANNA DO WITH LINES GIRL. then make sure to recolor the lineart to better match your base. trust me it helps, bold dark lines are Not your best friend when rendering. wait for that post-rendering

i start off with a doodle or a sketch, and then filling it in with flats and other details such as blush

FIGURE OUT YOUR LIGHT SOURCE. FIGURE IT OUT GIRL YOU CAN DO IT you can make it as simple as possible, make it as big as possible, dont even THINK about the details.........just make it really fucking big so you at least know where the shadows and the light goes THEN add smaller shading details LISTEN TO ME. LISTEN TO ME OKAY!!!!!!!!

my key point with this is for you to learn lighting fundamentals.

it's SOOO ANNOYING but alas......they are all correct. it helps a lot.

one thing i also really want to point out is that i like creating a big shadow shape first before fixing up the little details (such as folds and whatever) because it helps me focus on the way the lighting actually works instead of tunnel vision-ing into making the shading make sense on the clothing.

contact shadows (i dont remember if thats what theyre called okay) theyre fucking ugly because im not actually thinking sorry 💔

okay so basically:

contact shadows (if that's what they're called) are the spots in shading and lighting where light will NEVER hit.

shadows are still influenced by the colors and lights around it (it's why a blue shadow and a yellow shadow feel completely different, despite both being shadows) so it's not always COMPLETELY dark.

BUT! there are small points in shadows where light never hits, and they're almost always super dark or pitch black.

it's hard to explain shadow and light so briefly for a tutorial, but you'll notice it when watching fundamental studies and when trying it out for yourself

YES i unclipped the multiply layer YES its ugly and terrifying but it makes coloring the multiply layer easier okay the colors merged w multiply so now it looks cool and has depth overlaying colors that actually make sense

so basically what i did was color the multiply layer that i used to shade the overall drawing

adding a band of red/orange/yellow around where the light hits, and blue where the shadows get big and wide, gives it a fake ambient occlusion effect in the way that a person would get if they stood under the sun with a clear blue sky

the colors don't have to make sense, especially because i never draw backgrounds, but coloring the shadows really help it give a sense of depth and extra subtle detail and effect that just helps make the painting look nicer

around the end, i also put in colors (in an overlay layer with a low opacity brush) that actually make sense in context of the drawing, which is the lit cigarette and the yellow eyelights

mostly because none of the colors were making sense and i needed to actually make use of the lighting that DOES exist in the drawing lol

adding a muddy golden yellow pin light layer (opacity turned down to like 40-50%) to make the light colors less ugly lol

i SWEAR by the fucking pin light layer style. it's so useful and so so underrated.

i used an almost brown-ish gold color on stop of all the layers, and with the pin light layer, it helped make the bright (almost blue-ish) white colors more warm and more yellow. it just helps make things more warm (something i prefer)

i could probably show what it looks like without adjusting the layer opacity to truly show off what i mean (like in the coming section) but i sadly forgot to do that lol

make a layer on top of your drawing with this color in these ranges YES the drawing is fully merged NO don't be afraid, the base was fucking ugly anyway 💔 make this layer into an exclude/exclusion layer style TRUST turn down your exclusion layer opacity from a range of 10% to 40% literally until you're happy with the contrast and the way the color over the drawing. use your eyeballs. i know you can do it im so proud of you

this is pretty self-explanatory instruction-wise, so i'll go into why i do this instead

i really like art that seems like it has low contrast, with almost mid-gray shading and lines. i don't personally use dark and bold lines and shading, unless i find it necessary for the tone of the piece, so using this method helps lower the contrast of the art and make it look "pleasantly muddy" in the way that it's easier and softer on the eyes.

the inverted blue color also helps makes things warmer!

the exclusion layer style is still a bit of a mystery to me but i really like the effect it gives, even if i don't completely get how it works lol

if you want an alternative method to this, and if you have access to it (because i primarily use sai and sai only),

i absolutely encourage you to play around and experiment with gradient maps.

there are so many out there you can make yourself or even get from others that just give the painting an extra amount of depth and color variation. they're SO fun.

personally, if sai2 gets a gradient map update, it's over for y'all it will literally be so over no one will be able to stop me

then i merged everything and actually adjusted the contrast back up because it was looking too muddy for me 💔 but the color adjustments are still there so all hope is not lost here's a comparison of the adjusted contrast in black and white (adjusted on the left) (newly merged layer without adjusting the contrast on the right)

as you can see, i actually turned the contrast back up (despite talking all about how i liked things with less contrast lol)

i wanted to demonstrate that doing adjustments should be done in moderation, and is why i adjust layer opacity often when making color effects

you are free to play around with colors to help your style, but don't lose your initial idea and colors along the way.

you still need to trust your own colors and intuition!

along with that, i just want to say that it's completely okay to change your mind mid-painting, and it's okay to make somewhat drastic changes.

don't be afraid to change things you don't like or change your mind about certain aspects way later on

that's basically the whole thing of this!!! don't be scared!!!

now im gonna hold your hand when i say this..........but you need to learn how to render by yourself. it seems like i can teach you but i literally can't, because rendering is different on every piece and depending on how clean your base is. i have to render A LOT because of how fucking ugly my sketches are LMAO to simplify it, think of it as obsessively cleaning up every detail you can see, but with a color picker and a clean, hard edged brush. if you have shit lineart, you don't have to redraw it cleanly over and over, just paint over it. that's basically what rendering is

THIS especially is where you need to be brave and stop being scared.

like i said, i can't teach you how to render, and it's something you have to discover yourself because rendering is something that will always be personal to every single piece you make. the way you render on every piece is different.

on one piece, you will barely need to render, and on another, rendering is more than half of your ENTIRE process.

don't be afraid to paint over your old art.

rendering is a process that's both very perfectionist yet also very careless.

find your balance and just go for it.

and then that's it……..u did it………..now yuo know how to paint and render. it's literally just layering shading and lighting knowledge until you think it makes sense and looks okay lol additional note: since i render in only one layer (you don't HAVE to do this, but it'll be harder for you…), i also made slight adjustments with the transform (and liquify, if you have it) tool to make things more proportionate. (i drew the head too big lol)

if you compare the finished piece to the final unrendered base, you can see that a LOT changed, including a bit of subtle proportion adjustment.

particularly, the sleeves changed A LOT (because i really didn't like them)

but it's also over all cleaner and more coherent, instead of having haphazard colors and shading just thrown about.

rendering is when you finally use all 100% of your brain to finalize and figure out where the shading should go, where to clean up your lines, where to ERASE or ADD BACK in lines, and make sure all your colors look coherent.

it's not as intimidating as it seems, i only use a hard edged brush with a little bit of color mixing and my color picker.

it's like dragging and dropping colors to cover up mistakes, it's really quite fun when you get used to it

i wish i could explain it clearer but it's hard to describe without visuals!

i hope this helped, and i hope all my yapping isn't annoying (art as a special interest beloved)

have fun studying and trying to render in my art style!

[nu1lst4rs]

doodled human designs for a few neutral aus! (pt.1)

(click for better quality)

can you tell i lost motivation... thank you to chandr for doing the last 3's lineart for me. legit couldn't get freshs colours to fit with the rest. eugh. its the best you're going to get out of us for these guys.

Nightmares gang, star sanses, neu au pt.2, extras

COLOUR, CLASSIC, PAPYRUS, EPIC and ANY REQUESTS will be in the next neu au post 3_^ so please please request me to draw neutral peoples... gonna open general requests in a separate post.

some hcs under the cut!

warning for alot... i mean.. alot of text..

> Ccino (he/they)

indian... ccino... mbghbgb. MAINLY BECAUSE I WAS EATING GULAB JAMUNS AND I WAS LIKE "huh this reminds me of ccino."

trans masc! you should be more surprised if someone wasn't trans at this point

just for individuality, i feel like he'd have cat features. toe beans, tail, but no ears. personal preference.

hopeless romantic. wants to fall in love so bad, like so bad. but doesn't have anyone to fall in love with.

his AU is a neutral where the player killed all bosses. because of this, ink had offered them a pocket AU with just their cafè. ccino still visits their old au from time to time, but otherwise lives in the cafè.

one of the youngest AU's/sanses, only a few hundred years old

> error (he/they/xe)

spanish + colombian

as a divergence from classic, he maintains a similar body shape. also the fact he eats nothing but chocolate.

^ similarly, his eye is covered by a star glitch. xe never equates this to the fact they were geno, and just see it as some weird cool glitch.

rocks an alliance with both NM and dream, so wears both the stars pin and gangs patch. he always choses the side of who benefits him the most in that moment. neither of the groups are happy about it, but see error as too valuable to deny.

has arthritis and bad joints. his strings usually dig into his fingers, causing scaring and pain. (bsp related: he gets taught how to relieve these pains by nms gang because they all have chronic pains of some kind)

taking strings from his eyes is PAINFUL. its basically his unraveled code and magic combined, glitching and stuttering.

illiterate. he cannot read anything but code.

brother of ink. annoying brothers that HATE eachother. but love eachother at the same time.

> cross (they/he)

spanish. it fits him. and its relatively canon.

cross is indecisive. they've jumped between nightmares gang and the stars several times, easily being swayed. as of my AU right now, they're with the stars.

they're colourblind! their AU was monochrome, and thats how they see everything. everything is just a shade of purple. he's never told people about it, but most people catch onto ir.

autism. cross has horrible sensory issues, and gets overwhelmed easily. also bad at social queues.

THIS MAN IS THE DEFINITION OF DOG POETRY. they would go on pinterest daily and cry about it.

is a great artist. ink taught him the basics when they were stuck in the void, so they built on it. they're really self conscious about it, and keep their sketchbook locked away tightly. (in their bedside drawer)

> reaper (he/him)

egytpian. i feel like he'd embody their idea of dying.

bird claws. bird wings. everything bird.

seen as a parental figure to dream and nightmare because of his extensive knowledge of the universe and balance n all that.

(THE GAY FLAG WAS A MISTAKE) he's bi. and loves his wife. (life)

aroace spec! completely ace, and demiromantic.

sorry guys i dont have the best hcs for him 💔

> geno (he/they)

spanish + colombian

needs a portable oxygen tube to breath. he can live without it, but its really painful to not have it.

some parts of his body are decomposed, while others are held together through determination. practically constant agony.

same reasoning as error for body shape.

> fresh (they/it)

parasite. its ass doesn't have a race nor nationality.

not the hotest with a few sanses. dream and nightmare don't like someone demeanour not being affected in the slightest by the amount of pain and agony they're in. error hates how the code overlaps and glitches. and overall they're just a bit crazy.

wears either heelies or rollerskates. refuses to EVER walk anywhere, and always rolls.

i don't got much for him.

eugh. i am so sorry if the hcs are lazy, i am not good hcing with aus im not familiar with. if anyone wants to input please do! i'd love to learn about them. <3 anyways i am sleeping because i need to stop staying up till 4am..

[earthnashes]

I needed examples for a new commission type bracket I'm adding to my website, so these brave souls stepped forth and allowed me to experiment/test them out with their characters! The owners of these lovely ladies, in order, are: PyritKyrit, ChibiCreates, BoxofFoxes, and Daughteromega! Thank you all so much for being my test subjects! ;w;

I do these "EXAMPLES NEEDED" commissions on occasion to answer following questions: -How long will this take me from start to finish? -How do I want them to look across the board? -Is the test price an appropriate price for the piece, or should it be lower/higher?

It's basically my form of quality control to make sure I'm offering something that looks good/has a consistent baseline look, is fun for me to draw, and is priced fairly for both myself and the potential client based on the hours worked. It also gives me the perfect excuse to experiment with new potential commission types! :)

As you can clearly see, this time the test was for Lineart commissions. I've done them in the past, but they never felt uniform enough to properly gauge a price as well as give an acceptable example to really show folks what they'll get from me. So this was me sitting down and giving myself specific parameters to stick to when I do these commissions, and those parameters are "toned lineart". Lineart with some flat toning/shaded added for extra sauce.

BUT YE! I had a fuckin blast working on these. My August commissions will be opening within the next couple of weeks, in which these badboys will make their debut! Keep your peepers open for more info on that later, and until then I hope ya'll enjoy the art! More to come soon! :)

[rutobuka2]

I've been wanting to ask for a while but never was brave enough to. I'm not a very good artist myself but whenever I try to do a comic by the second panel; my art, mind and hand are all worn out from doing one panel.

How do you keep your panels and art style so consistent throughout the comic?

hi!! thank you for being brave to talk to me! I really enjoy discussing technique!

I think comics seem simple and easy to make, but they're a looong process.

👉First of all: start small. like, ONE page small. TWO pages, etc. just tell one joke, or one kiss, etc. it'll make the entire process less daunting. but do think of the beats of the story like...

1- character A is doing a thing 2- character B makes a comment 3- character A gets embarrassed

/ end

something simple, but you can cut up each little beat into two panels if you like, or just keep it at 3 and explain more with the dialogue.

👉for the drawing part, you should really start with a really ugly basic sketch to outline what kind of dialogue and story progression you want to make on each page.

this is a sketch of page 11 of my Bunny Crossing comic:

as you can see, I put a lot of focus on drawing the more delicate moment where Bilbo notices Thorin remembered the comment, so I just actually drew his face in detail there. But the rest was just enough for me to know later where each character is, or if I needed to draw a background, where the dialogue should go, and such.

👉divide your work into days. if it makes you exhausted, you can take one entire day to draw the rough sketch. Then, another day for the dialogue and speech bubbles. Then, another day to actually draw the panels and the more polished sketches of each character. Then, another day for the lineart. Then, shading. etc.

👉try drawing grayscale first. Don't add colors until you're sure you'll have the energy to finish it! It'll get you used to the process, you'll iron out any errors easier.

👉consistency comes from the process itself. I try to be careful while drawing the sketches for my panels, because a good sketch can help you so much in the long run!

👉look for reference on other people's work! manga artists and western artists have loads of footage of themselves drawing online, you'll get inspired for sure!

I hope this helped a little bit! Do respect your own rhythm! 💖 also, if it doesn't help, not everyone likes to draw comics, and that's ok! It IS a very repetitive process. static illustrations are amazing too, and I envy the skill!

[larrytheflute9]

How exactly do you color your artwork? Since whenever I see it, I feel like I’m looking a painting (that’s a complement btw)

Hi! Sorry, for taking so long to respond. I’ve been swamped with work this semester. But anyways, I usually use one of two brushes to color my stuff: the opaque watercolor brush or the smooth oil paint brush. Although recently I’ve been experimenting with one called flat oil paint brush. I do all my digital work in ClipStudio and I’ve never actually downloaded anything beyond what came with the program lol. So those are just some basic brushes from the base kit. This is an example of the watercolor brushes:

And this is a good example of the oil paint brushes:

As a basic rundown of how I make my digital art: I do all my lineart with the design pencil tool and then I fill in a base layer of color underneath. Since my lineart is usually pretty sloppy I don’t really use the bucket tool at all lol. I usually just fill in color with the mapping pen tool. I don’t really use a lot of layers either. So usually on top of my base layer I add one more and that’s where I do all of my shading/rendering. I just kinda slap a whole lot of colors together and let the brush naturally blend them as I go. I don’t feel like I do anything particular fancy.

Really there are only two “tricks” I can think of that I use. Sometimes after I’ve finished all of my coloring I’ll go in and use an effect that’s just called “artistic.” This basically simplifies and exaggerates the blocks of color. It works really well with the watercolor brushes to give stuff that extra layered watercolor look. Usually, I reduce the layer opacity anywhere from 10-20% and make it an overlay on my color layer. A good example of this technique:

The only other thing I sometimes do is blow up the design pencil tool to its biggest sizes and use it to texturize my colors or lineart. This kinda makes a blotchy/pixelated look that I really like. I feel like this one shows it pretty clearly:

And that’s it really! I’m sorry if this is too long but I wanted to be thorough! I hope it makes sense! Thanks for asking and for being such a supportive follower! I really appreciate it! If you have any other questions on how I make stuff, I’d be happy to answer but this is all I can think of right now. Thanks again and take care! :)

[midnight-mourning]

1000 kudos/100 Follower Special!

wow so um, there’s a LOT of you now

👀👀👀

WHERE DID Y'ALL EVEN COME FROM LIKE?? HI!! 👋👋👋

AND ALSO

THIS???? CRAZY, incredibly appreciated <3 but also wild

anyway, I think that deserves celebrating! So, here’s a couple ideas I came up with for y’all to vote on, with the option of sharing other ideas in the comments, I’ll do the top two and save the others for the next milestone :)

If the 'other' option gets the most/second most votes, I'll do another poll with ideas that people suggested and we'll go from there. You can scroll down and click the read more if you'd like more info on each option! SO, having said all that:

Letting you guys make the call with this one! I have stuff prepped for all of it, just a matter of people voting since this is ME showing my appreciation to YOU. And again, next milestone will have the opportunity for the other choices :)

Also, this isn't just for followers/the moots either! Anyone is welcome to vote and participate if they'd like to 💙💙

Please also feel free to ask questions in the comments if that helps you with voting! Can't wait to see what you guys pick :D

I will expand on each option here for clarity in your decision making:

CS one-shot: I will write a one-shot (3,000-5,000 words prob) based in the CS universe. It will be canon to the fic but will never be mentioned/referenced in the fic itself so stand alone to read. It may be a future scene, may be based somewhere in the current timeline. Open to ideas on the POV and such (though I have some floating around that I can do ;))

Q&A/Ask the Cast: a classic, I know my ask box is open but here's also a clear chance to ask something that you've been really curious about! I won't share spoilers for the story, but everything else is on the table, including stuff about me, writing etc. Just no super personal questions is all! Additionally, you can ask the cast questions and answers will be in character, perhaps with a little doodle as well ^-^

Finished refs/busts for the cast of CS: I'll post the finished versions of the rough sketches I shared a few months ago, along with the remainder of the cast! This includes the rest of the engineering team, the division heads, the glamrocks, and the DCA! I also will include little blurbs for all the characters as well. This will probably happen eventually anyway BUT if you want them sooner rather than later this is you're chance if you're curious :)

Spooky Season one-shot: something halloween-related that again I'm open to ideas for! Would also be about 3,000-5,000 words in length, could be related to CS or not

Writing Requests: similar to the requests I did for reveal day, same rules apply (no nsfw, suggestive is fine, be specific if you want specific) but a little longer in length (500-1000 words)

Doodle requests: I provide you with a little drawing I made with tender love and care (would be lined, colored, shaded, etc.)

A peek into the drafts: I do in fact have a couple other fic ideas floating around in my brain that I simply haven't started so that I don't get bogged down/focus on CS. I would share those and a little bit of concept art

Other: explained above

[sweetsparadise]

How to do Q-Lia/Kamio Japan fanart like you? :3

omg ty for asking :3 tis actually super easy my friend!!! this is basically what many of the oldschool kawaii adoptable makers wld do (so pwease dont get mad at me for tracing T_T i can often tell exactly what memo theyd used lol). i use paint.net cuz its super duper simple n if i ever need to do something more specific like blurring (not v applicable to pixeling) i jst open clip studio paint for a minute. its much preferable to me to do most my drawing on paint thx to the super simple ui ^_^ this method is only for official art never trace over original art of course!!! anyway i start with a memosheet that ill brighten n desaturate like this. then on a new layer i trace the lineart

this is optional if u dont have super duper bad tremors like moi, but i make lines exclusively with the curve tool! (1px with aliasing off) its probably quicker if u can jst do it by hand, but i must use my workaround. another tip for my tremor bros is turning ur mouse sensitivity all the way down. i keep it pretty low all of the time n just got used to it but u can turn it back up after ur finished. thats how i manage to color nicely :3

as for coloing i rly dont have much advice, i just keep the original memo at a glance to reference. one cool thing u can do is go to make ur subject super tiny then going to effects>color>quantize, this will make it way easier to colorpick n have a consistant palette!!!

this is my litte tremor friendly shading hack, turning aliasing back on, making the brush huge n using just the edges of it to shade specific sections that ill select with the wand c: if this is actually a hack or jst a regular method of shading idk i dont watch art tutorials myself x3

if anyone uses this tutorial pweeeeeeeaaase lemme kno so i can see ur art cuz i looooooooove these stationery characters to death n love art based off of thm ^_^

[bogleech]

Ive always really admired your ability to draw just like super grotesque shit and I was wondering if you had any tips? grotesque not that its like "oh thats a spleen guy gross" but more the amount of pain and tension at the coffee shop, or any of the mortasheen creatures that involve maggots and moisture. I have tried several times to draw things that are rotting, or lumpy, or suffering, etc, and I can never finish those pieces.

If you mean it's just arduous designwise, I start with a huge canvas size (like 3000 pixels across), sketch it all out within that size and then zoom way in to draw little details with a normal size pen, or lately the "hard-edged" pixel pen so even the tiniest lines are fairly sharp. White highlights (even simple little white dots) make things look very moist and a dark blot of blurred colors, underneath the lineart and white highlight layers, can make them look translucent, here's what those quick steps do to a simple doodle of a slime:

Additional wrinkle lines and simple messy speckles make a design look even more detailed and grungy. As an aside, these little details look best when they're clustering near solid lines and leaving some open space towards the center:

If you mean how I can just "stomach" it though, I guess I just don't draw any gore or grime that really bothers me! Even when I drew Awful Hospital creatures based on revolting disease symptoms that I can't stand looking at in real life, it wasn't a problem because it was just natural to those creatures. A human eating a rotten smelly corpse would be horribly unpleasant but the video of the hyena rolling around in a maggoty wildebeest guts is cute because that's healthy normal hyena behavior. I do have a hard time allowing a creature to "suffer" even fictionally, and all my monsters end up being basically happy the way they are unless it's just a really crucial plot point that they aren't.

virtually everything in mortasheen likes being whatever it is (you can also see that this design just has the same couple things applied as the slime doodle but with a couple more layers of shading)

[ohcorny]

while you're talking process, any tips on doing color fast? just if you have any things that streamline flatting, etc? comics always take me foreverrr to color

i'm very sorry if your art style has open or textured lines because really the only way to color something fast is if the lines are all closed and you can use the fill tool. like i can never make a comic with the textured brush pen i actually really like using Because it doesn't work with the fill tool.

i also don't do shading, my character art remains flat, the colors just get adjusted for the lighting and unless it's Dramatic, there's no shadows. and my backgrounds (in hunger's bite at least) are generally just a solid color with some loose lineart overtop to imply the space.

basically do less, is how i do it fast. as long as it's harmonious you can get away with doing very little

[adobe-outdesign]

chia pop chia reviews, maybe? is there even a better name for those because chia pop chia sounds unwieldy but they aren't all fruit. potato chia pop when

(Note: I already covered a bunch of Chia-specific colours in my Chia review. To avoid redundancy, I'm going to list a few secondary favorites in this colour review so the entire thing isn't a repeat. Also, I'm doing my least favorite colour instead of species for obvious reasons.)

Chia pops are basically just those cheap ice pops where they come in liquid form and you toss them into your freezer. There are a bunch of them and for the most part they're normal food items... except for a few with the handful of "magical". For reasons that have never even been remotely explained in the lore, Chias that eat magical Chia pops change into a matching fruit/veg form, most of which are unique to them specifically. These additional colours give the Chia some flavor (both literally and figuratively) and are their main gimmick.

Conversion is a weird topic for these Chias. The bulk of them got redrawn and put into standard poses for customization (which is a particularly strange choice as they can't wear clothes anyway)... except for some that just didn't, for no clear reason.

Because the conversion was so uneven there's no way to make a judgement call for all colours, but on average I'd say that they looked better pre-conversion, as they tend to just look strange in the default poses—though on the plus side, most of them lost the weird lower lip that Chias used to have. Hopefully TNT will consider doing pet styles for these colours in the future so people can pick and choose what they like best.

(Secondary) Favorite Species:

Agueena: Chias that are based on Neopets-specific fruits are always neat, and the agueena was already a good-looking item, so unsurprisingly the agueena Chia also looks pretty good. It's less fruit-like than some, but the cyan-on-blue splotches make for a good pattern that works really well with the orange hair-like "leaves". The shading on this one's also really good.

Banana: I like my fruit and veg Chias ridiculous, and this is a ridiculous colour all right. The elongated body is immediately distinct and fun, and I like how its partially unpeeled, which adds a bit more visual interest to it than it would have otherwise.

My only issue with it is that I wish the face lineart was colored so it matched the rest of the design. Also, the arms and legs don't seem to actually line up with the body quite right; I kind of feel like the legs should've been redrawn and the arms dropped entirely ala the onion Chia.

Thornberry: Another Neopets-specific fruit, this design is pretty similar to the tomato Chia, which is its only major drawback. However, I find myself liking the thornberry Chia more, as it has a bit more contrast with the dark feet and the texture at top breaks up the otherwise monocolor body.

This is absolutely a colour we could use a pet style for though, as the unconverted version was much better. Aside from having better face proportions, the variable sizes of spikes really added something to it.

Least Favorite Colour:

Gooseberry: Just kind of a strange pick of fruit to begin with (for those wondering: gooseberries are an actual thing, look it up), nothing about the gooseberry Chia has ever looked good. The colors are drab and low-contrast, the body is weirdly off-kilter and has poor shading, the face placement is odd (it used to be lower down on the pre-conversion art, which was better but not by much), and ironically the thickness of the stripes make it not look much like an actual gooseberry. Honestly, all this does is make me want a watermelon Chia.

[salted15]

hi i just discovered your blog and i LOVE your art. can you do a tutorial on how you do your pop rocks colors? im OBSESSED with it.

(totally cool if not, no pressure! :] )

this is generally what i do , and it's rough since i rushed it , but this is generally how it goes

this is a normal sketch

messy lineart done with a deep blue hue

colors !!! with basic shadows included . shadows aren't done with multiply or any of that , i just make the color a lil more saturated and move the hue

on an (unclipped) layer on top of the lineart layer , i just color my lineart . very loosely . this whole style is loose most of the time . i also add highlights by lightening the base color and moving the hue in the direction that feels lighter . additionally , i outline my shadows with a slightly darker hue bc it looks cool

(on the same layer as step 4) this is where i go Nuts . the lightest colors of the highlights are always pure yellow and teal , as they're naturally lighter than the other colors , and the secondary highlights are usually a bit more saturated and are blue green and yellow green . for other colors that aren't highlights , i tend to mostly go over the shadows (and the shadow outlines we added in step 4) by picking a color i'm gonna be going over and shifting the hue until it's a similar value/until it doesn't seem lighter or darker to the color i picked . i usually stick to purples , pinks , and blues for this

other things to note:

i tend to stay away from pure red and pure green

i use firealpaca's marker brush , which is like your standard pen brush but it's shaped like a rectangle

i don't think too hard about where i'm placing colors . if i pick a new color in step 5 i'll just put it wherever looks good . don't think about it too hard

unless i'm trying to be cleaner with this , my stabilizer is usually pretty low . i have it set to 10 on firealpaca- for reference , my sketching stabilizer is around 5 (side note: i should also mention that comparing to a lot of my artist friends , i just have my stabilizer really low all the time . my lineart setting is usually like 15 and firealpaca can go up to 40)

^^ i should also mention that stabilizer levels are different between programs just go with what feels right for you

my colors here are always very saturated . they're always either tints or shades , but never tones . mostly tints

^^ i do make exceptions to this if i'm going for a less saturated look (like my gumigoo drawing)

[kate-bot]

HELLO my commissions are open!!! give me some money and ill draw (pretty much) whatever the hell u want!! :D

i’ve added the animation option- i’m new to this but i would be willing to make small animations as well!! please ask me about prices / examples for these!! i’ve also updated my sheet so now all of my prices are in GBP!! please keep this in mind when you send me payment!! :]]]

you can contact me on Discord (@mrbutlertron), through DMS, or you can email me at lbutlertron@gmail.com!

BASIC TOS: (by commissioning me you agree to these!)

if you choose a sketch or lineart commission, i will expect payment upfront! if you choose an unshaded, simply shaded, or shaded piece, i'll send you a sketch to confirm everything's to your liking, and will expect payment then!

please do not ask for huge last minute changes!

if drawing your character, i'd expect a photo for reference! if you're interested in receiving a ref sheet though, that's a different matter and we can sort something out! ^_^

99% of the time your art will be completed within a few weeks!

unless discussed, commissions are for personal use only! that includes using my art for AI generators.

i may alter the price slightly if i see fit - for example, if you request extremely simple characters, i may reduce the price. or conversly, if you would like a very detailed character to be drawn, i may up the price slightly to account for the extra work (it'll never be by much tho, and i'll be upfront about it from the beginning!)

i won't tolerate rude or disrespectful behaviour!

i have the right to decline a commission for whatever reason!

i only accept payment through paypal - unless you're from the UK and you're willing to bank transfer! (i'll give you a discount!)

that's about it!! dm me if you're interested!!! :]]

[newtafterdark]

I’m not sure if it’s a good time to ask this, but after seeing @mrultra100’s post about the matter, what was your history with the Dr. Crafty show? And what kind of history did you have with the creator?

Ah, I see folks are talking about the whole mess on here now too? (As an important sidenote: I talked about it in length on my Twitter, but I privated my account and don't plan on ever using it again.)

For those who don't know, this is in reference to the Youtuber and VTuber that went by the alias "Dr. Crafty", also known as Alexander "Alex" Tansley.

The short of it is that I used to work for him for around two years and thought of him as a friend - until I reached the point of realizing that something was very wrong with having the man close to myself and my friends.

Basically, after making some fanart of some of the characters from his show, Crafty and I got in contact and it became what I thought was a fun friendship that developed throughout the months. Now I know better and I know he has a pattern of "befriending" people to get things out of them.

Around the end of 2018 I brought up that I'd be happy to help out with his show if he ever needed help… and that lead to me creating all of the "Questionable Qloset" tarot cards. (Which he put up on his Red Bubble without asking me. If there was ever money made with them, I never saw a cut.)

I was not doing well mentally at the time at all, hell, I worked on the tarot cards while being in medical rehab and he still was pushy for me to finish them way earlier than we had agreed on. But at this point I am not surprised that he took avantage of my less than great mental state. It seems to be a pattern for him, having read several testimonies.

That work unfortunately also lead to me being one of the absolutely overworked employees during the creation of the "I Need A Hero Academia" finale for his show. I was tasked to colour, shade and add effects to the storyline bits of one full episode of that three-part finale, and some bits in the third episode, along with coloring two short animations. Close to 200 illustrations coloured. 90 bucks for all of that work. And burned out at the end of it all. A nightmare.

I also was responsible for designing the Infinia Relics and big villain at the end of the series, but aside from one glimpse of her, that design mostly remained unused.

Along with that I was also partially responsible for the core idea behind "Shakeup Saloon", as I had the idea for the host character - but Crafty took my idea and warped it into something almost unreconizable. He also never credited the person who gave him the idea for the show itself in the first place, Nero (of "ToonGrin"), one of his editiors at the time.

In general, Crafty hated crediting us for all the work we did to make his shows a reality. I had to beg for myself and my co-worker Zaz (who did the lineart I colored) in the finale to be even credited in the last video of the three parter. We didn't even get credited on the video we did the most work on.

So… in general, looking back it was an exhausting work experience.

My personal gripes with him mirror the behavior you might've heard from a multitude of folks on Twitter last month.

Unwanted pushing to do NSFW rp (and me telling him off multiple times, but he would try again multiple times) and trying to do the same with anyone he perceived as female in my private discord server. If you were AFAB, he'd try to slide into your DMs, basically. Which also goes hand in hand with him completely disreguarding that I am a trans man and drawing me with an hour glass figure and needing to be reminded to not draw me with massive tits. It just felt like if he percieved you as a women, he'd use you for his own entertainment as he saw fit. It just took me too long to realize that. Still, I managed to completely cut contact with him in 2020.

All in all, Crafty was a shitty boss and a creep who pretended to be my friend. And that's all I'll say on that matter on here.

Don't waste your energy on thinking about Crafty. Support his victims and let them heal.

[bluespiritshonour]

How many layers do you typically use for your drawings?

it really depends. if its something complicated:

or something simple:

take this unfinished zuko piece for example:

i use one layer for lineart, more if it's complicated and would make my life easier. same for flat colours, i usually use the select tool (my lineart is never neat enough for the magic wand)—if not, then i use more than one:

here i used one layer for everything, and another beneath it to paint his hair that's behind him.

one multiply layer to give the skin some depth, darker shading around the eyes, ears and nose—knuckles and elbows too. i use blur tool heavily for this. overlay for that ambient lighting effect. then another mulitply layer for shadows with harsh boundaries.

it depends on what allows me to be the laziest. if i can get away with doing something in a single layer, i do it. otherwise i use multiple layers. again for shading, suppose i use the same layer to paint zuko's scar, soft shadows and hard shadows, i'd have to be extra careful while blurring because i don't want the harsh shadows blurred.

same with using a separate layer in the above drawing for his hair, 'cause then i don't have to be careful about it overlapping his clothing. basically what doesn't require me to zoom in with a fine brush and saves time and labour.

and if i've merged the layers i never hesitate to go for a new one. sometimes i do the basic run-of-the-mill rendering and merge it, then if i'm not satisfied I keep shaping things up with new layers on top. anything that won't make me regret later on for using a single layer. too many layers are hard to keep track of, but then, i can always use new ones if i can't find an old one among the heap!