#not saying to absolutely don't use an airbrush

[alma-n]

i think you really need to know that your art is so so so pretty 🥺❤️ you deserve thousands and thousands of notes for each and every piece you make because its all breathtaking!

(also, hope this doesn't annoy you, but do you have any advice for getting started on art? i've been trying it out recently, and i kind of suck but wanted to know if you have any pointers to improve. feel free to ignore this part if you don't want to answer, though! <3)

once again, i just LOVE your art OMG ❤️

Sjkhwkaaawjh

Thank youuu :'))💕💕

Oh and this definitely doesn't annoy me! If you want to ask anything that you think i have answers for, ask me!

For getting started on art, first thing i want to tell you is when it comes to art, never, EVER push too hard. Coming out of your comfort zone? Experimenting? Sure go for it. But don't overdo it. Don't traumatize yourself, Ive done that it sucks. Keeping your art fun, is what will make you improve on the long run.

You don't have to attempt a master piece every single day to improve, just sprinkle art around your life. Doodle things, draw memes, draw for your friends, do silly things with it, this will help you much more than you might think!

Also have confidence in your art, it's normal to think your art sucks I always think my art sucks too its an everybody thing ig,

But what i specifically mean is, don't draw shaky, short lines, go for many (lighter), stronger and longer ones till you find your forms! Don't erase every single thing that you find slightly unperfect, go on with it, some 'mistakes' are what make your art, art!

Lastly, the internet is your best friend, my mom is an art teacher, but i would def say most of what i know, comes from the internet! You don't necessarily have to watch long ass tutorials that are 1,2 hours or more, short art tip videos on tick tock or youtube here and there between your daily dose memes will do!

Basically, TAKE IT EASY

[prismdrive]

As promised, a render tutorial!! (Featuring Donnie as our model, because of course)

Reminding the process can vary from piece to piece and it's usually really messy, but this is just the general workflow.

Let's start with the sketch: it's an absolute mess, but it's just to get the idea down. There isn't any real science or pressure in it tbh, but i'd recommend looking for references either for poses or inspo (palettes, styles, aesthetics etc.) REMEMBER TO FLIP THE SKETCH BEFORE JUMPING TO LINEART! If you use liquify or transform afterwards it can look blurry and weird.

Once you got that done, it's lineart time: I tend to keep my linearts raw and crisp, meaning i don't usually erase lines that stick out. Note that i use a medium/big sized brush + high pressure sensibility, making the lines very variable

Add a base: A solid color will do, it's just so we don't go out of line!

Colorful tint: On a clipping layer on top of the base we'll put some colors (1-3) that match the theme/environment, this will give the actual colors some variation and depth

Painting down: The color picker will be your best friend in this process. In the same layer with a soft blending brush you'll gently add your character's colors, trying to avoid using small brushes. If you need to fix something grab the color in that specific area with the color picker, since most probably it's a different color than the one in the ref. Make a mess, basically

Shadow makes a big difference: On a different layer you'll block down the shading, the color will vary on your environment/style but i'd recommend not using pure black or just purple on all drawings. Put layer in multiply and lower opacity to liking.

If there's shadow there's light: Same as shadow, the color will vary depending on enviroment/style. I went the easy way and picked a light yellow in a lower opacity.

Bounce light: Basically the same thing, just this time it isn't a single color. You'll pick the nearest color for bounce light on a lower opacity.

My favorite part, texture: I love this because i can experiment with different brushes! I put all the color layers together into a single one, but that's optional. I'd just say go nuts, see what seems right. Usually i don't add much texture to skin, but did for Donnie's goggles, plastron and bandages! (+ changed the lineart to an off-black color)

Finishing touches: I'll go with some warm/light color with an airbrush and highlight some important parts like the face and chest, overlay and lower opacity.

I'll also add random noise, overlay and a really low opacity.

Now, since i use Krita and it doesn't have the color aberration option i do it manually, but if your program does have it then go ahead and use it on the lineart!

The way i do it is cloning the lineart three times and paint them in red, blue and green, moving them just a little to different sides, overlay and lower opacity

In the end i suffer my way through the background and crop the drawing! And done!

Hope anything of this is at least a tiny bit coherent xD like i said, my process is a mess and i just do what feels right

[upn-the-sky]

General Kratos (no-ashes OOAK, part 1)

The headline is a spoiler itself, but whatever, because today is the day, when i finally can share the part of my latest work!

This is going to be my second custom of the action figure and long story short. When I had a first thought about having a tan-skinned human Kratos, I was blessed with rare enthusiasm, because we don't have any official figures of Kratos in his "golden ages" as a human and general of the Spartan army (WHY).

It would be easy just to repaint figure from mass production, but those figures are all post-vow-to-Ares. And we need to be canon. If we make Kratos from the timeline when his soul was still his, we make him fully-General!!

Why not to go under the cut to see how is it going?

Everything starts with the head as usual. I bought it last fall, I guess? You have no idea how hard it is to find a bald head with a beautiful scull. With the right proportions of the face to match the body and to match Ares. (They are going to stand together). All "action heads" are different and rarely interchangeable and I guess I used all my luck at this step, because things became so problematic after, that I nearly lost my mind. In a time I also bought a head of a nordic Kratos in a hope to make my life easier, and oh god it is giant even for a giand body I have.. This head now in my scrap.

Anyway. Let's look at our donor. Don't know who is this...

You probably think 'meh he doesn't look like Kratos' and you are right! But what do I have here? A KNIFE!

The plan was simple, I just needed to cut off his neck and face and re-sculpt this head entirely.

Step. By step. I cut and build again his eyes, eyebrows, nose, lips, chin, cheekbones, jawline, forehead, nape... until I started to see him. Hi~

Actually, you never can say, how the sculpt will show itself after painting. It is the most cruel and frustrating thing, you can like the result, but the face easily can play uno reverse card with you in the end. With those thoughts I made a new neck for him. Because default neck of the body I chose was too long and wide and has an absolutely useless point of artuculation. First try, second try, and after curing it still seemed a bit too long, so after passing some time I cut the bottom of the head a bit to set it deeper.

After finishing the sculpting I sended all and prepared everything for toning head and neck with the airbrush. Aaaand here my airbrush died. When I bought a new one with a normal compressor, I proceed. Somehow I repaint it 5 or 6 times in a row. God bless my "red stone" primer, really. Quick color match test! Nice?

Nice! Now we can finally paint his face and body. Really I have no idea how doll customizers uses pencils for such a small faces. How! Brushes and a liquid paint is the only option for me. And I am happy about improving my technique since I painted Ares! ❤

By the way, his scar is carved, you can feel it, it is just hard to see it at photo.

Oh gosh here I had a big exhalation, because sculpt didn't do a sucker punch to me, while it could. I didn't give him a too angry face for a yet-secret reasons, but wow.. he is.. so young. ?? and.. human-like It is easy to forget that there were time, when Kratos wasn't 200% done. It is so mind-wrecking. I.. it is hard to show at the pictures how much life and personality he actually has irl. I will gave you a better pictures next time, when I get used to him, I just see now how easily electric and natural lights and shadows change the perception of his face. But.. still wow.. He needed the last thing. His beard. Here could be a lot of curses, because it ate 3 days and 4 tries to glue and form it, but it won't be here! Let's just have a small laugh, because I used actual goat wool for his goatee. And we finally can assemble him!

What's next you ask?

I kinda have nothing to say except 'I am making his Dominus armor now 👺'.

Thank you for watching and commenting in tags if you did it when I made Ares doll, I love you guys

Stay tuned! Skeletor will return very soon!

[chaosandthe-deadblog]

Sunny's unnofficial rendering tutorial because idk why but people say they like how I color

Hey kid. So you got your drawing, right? And you have your flat colors, now you gotta render 'em, right? Then you find that BAM, you have no idea how to make it look cool? Neither do I! But here's what I do (I've been told that my coloring is cool)

1. Place your flat colors

Imagine these are your flats. A few things: you want your base colors to be all around the same hue, that way they look better together. See how all the blacks, greys and whites are purple/blue-ish? That's on purpose babey! But how do you acheive this? idfk. jk, you have to stay on one (or two) areas of a hue wheel.

This way, all the colors look like, nicer around each other. You're not FORBIDDEN from going outside an area you picked, but you should still try to make sure everything is in the same hue so you have to do less overlay layers later.

(FYI: I do this because it saves me time on rendering. I don't think it's mandatory, there's no rules to art. Go crazy!)

2. Shading

I think shading makes or breaks a drawing. Personally I don't have a lot of rules about it, but there are still tips I can give.

So here's what you gonna do. You're gonna pick a color that's somewhere on the opposite of your main hue, alright? Here, my hue is mostly cold colors, so I'm going to pick a warm tone. You're gonna make sure it's dark enough so it's like, a shade, but not enough so it becomes black when you set the shading layer to multiply.

(Note: I never get this right on the first try)

(Another note: as you can see, I have the entire drawing, including the lines, inside a group. Don't worry! I'll explain this later)

Personally I like to use a paintbrush-esque brush because I like the look of it being hand-painted that it gives my art. Mine is the default paint tool sai brush, but I'll leave the settings down here just in case.

I don't. Really know how to explain the way I shade, I mostly follow the lines I already placed in the lineart phase, and give them depth. I guess my biggest tip would be to FOLLOW THE CLOTHING FOLDS!!!

Idk how to explain this. But people always tell me that they like how I shade the clothes, it's because I follow the fold lines I place on the lineart phase! Not only does this give the clothes depth, it also makes shading a lot easier. Follow your lineart, idk what else to tell ya.

Now you're gonna set the layer to multiply...

And lower the opacity as much as you want until it looks good. No real rules to this, it's kind of depending on the vibe you want your piece to have.

Now, and stay with me here, grab a blending tool, okay? This is the one I use, I have a textured version for when I'm feeling brave, and a regular, flat version (the one I use the most) Here I'll use the flat version.

And. Stay with me here. I want you to blend the FUCK out of this. Just absolutely destroy those borders. Okay? Trust me. If it looks messy you're doing it right. You're gonna want to follow the shape of the shadows tho, this way you don't lose the shape of the objects you're shading.

Woah! Suddenly everything has depth! Let me go back to the clothing folds, because holy shit, the clothing folds.

See how I'm adding depth to the shadows I placed by kinda. Following the line I drew and blending the outside? Idk how to explain this. You blend whatever isn't touching the line, okay? Trust me.

3. Lighting

Ok. I'm holding your hand gently. You have to do lighting on your art, okay? You have to. It adds depth to the shapes and also is sososoososo easy. Here's how. It's so easy.

Grab your airbrush tool. Yes, that one. Hear me out okay?

Pick a light, warm color between yellow and orange.

Stay with me. Make a new layer, set it to whatever lighting mode you prefer. I use luminosity because I live dangerously.

Now.

Airbrush everything that the shadows aren't touching. Yes. I'm serious.

It's gonna look ugly as shit. DON'T BE ALARMED. This is part of the process. I want you to take the blur tool. And blur the ever loving fuck out of this. Just go fucking ham.

Good. You're doing so well. You're being so brave. Now lower the opacity as much as you want, until you like the way it looks.

Like so. I also like to add a few brush strokes and blend them on an up-and-down motion for the hair and certain details, but this is optional. Same as before, you're gonna take a (slightly warmer, but still bright color) and make a new layer on luminosity mode.

Take the blending tool and make it small, only slightly bigger than the brush strokes, and blend these lines until they look nice. Adjust the opacity, and voila!

Now, I could stop here. But I'm extra so I keep going.

4. The pizzazz

AKA, "Ah fuck the colors don't look the way I wanted them to!"

Do not worry! I have a solution that's almost never failed me.

Overlays. Just a whole fuckton of them. I don't really have a method to this, I just kinda try colors and layer modes until something looks good.

For this one, I felt like I wanted the colors to be warmer, so I picked a warm color and overlayed it on multiply. Then, I noticed that the darker colors came out darker than planned, and you couldn't really tell them apart, so I picked a light warm color and overlayed it on screen.

Voila! We're not done! There's one more thing I like to do, and here's where the layer folder comes in!

Remember how I said I keep everything, including the lines in a folder? This is why!

Make a layer that's on top of everything, like this. Pick whatever color you want, make sure it's bright. (Personally I like using pink). Take the airbrush tool again and airbrush whatever edges you want to give a little more pizzazz to.

Blur it as much as you'd like...

And adjust the opacity and layer mode however you like!

5. And done!

Sometimes I add white highlights. Sometimes I add more shading, or more lighting. It depends! But this is the method I use in a nutshell.

Hope you enjoyed it, or at the very least realized idk what the fuck I'm doing!

[lavender-z-love]

Knock On

Jaehyun X Black.FemReader

☁️ Genre: Fluff, Confession, Idol Lovers

✨️ Warnings: Nothing I don't think, Let me know

☁️ A/n: This was supposed to be posed on December 15th but today is the 16th of January- Anyway I wanted to make something sweet so please enjoy

✨️ Wordcount: About 900

"Wow! The moon is so pretty Tonight!"

Your jaw drops in amazement. The natural satellite, gleaming unusually brighter than usual. Such elegance and charming without it doing much. Jaehyun had brought you to the roof top of the SM's Parking-Lot building. Your fellow Idol friend, asking to spend time with you after a collab. Your friendship growing day by day, it was safe to say Jaehyun was more than ever a big supporter of yours.

He watched you lean against the cement wall/ledge, to get a better look. Your elbows placed on the small wall, you held your chin in the palm of your hands. The stars reflected in your beautiful doe eyes. Jaehyun had to face it, looked like you were more invested in the night sky than him. Jaehyun didn't complain about it though, still you looked absolutely breathtaking. The way the wind blows, as the moonlight glistens upon you. Your dress danced in the delicate wind, shining, giving an illusion you were an angel.

Your jet black hair..its satiny coils which stopped mid-black also had been carressed by the wind. Jaehyun hopped down from the hood of the car he'd been observing you from. As if it wasn't hard enough already to not constantly think about you..or bashful at the sight of you. Tonight he could feel it in his heart; there was no hope for sleep, you lived rent-free inside it. Now standing next to you, it honestly made him timid.

"How are you enjoying the view?"

You sighed in delight,"Oh it's wonderful!" Jaehyun wished you'd look at him like that. You turned to him, revealing a sincere smile. He knew it was genuine and that made him very happy. Your bronzed skin, smooth and airbrushed in the celestial body's light. "Oh! Jae-Sunbae! I hope you dont mind, but I brought you some wine as a gift!"

"Of course. Though, you didn't have to Y/n. Also, please! No need to be so formal with me."

"What? No! I don't mind! Besides, why not?". You playfully winked,"As a matter in fact, celebration is in order!" Jaehyun laughed, receiving his glass. His lips part as the wine glass slips between them. Infact this time, you too become flustered and not because of the wine. Your eyes quickly move back to the sky. Jaehyun hummed as a response,"Its really good!"

"No cheers first?",you laughed.

Jaehyun smiled wryly, and stopped drinking quickly. "Right, Sorry"..He said scratching the back of his neck.

"No, No- I was just teasing Sunbae",you said reassuring him. The both of you walk and take rest against Jaehyun's car, taking seat on top of the hood. Enjoying a nice evening ambience. Jaehyun eventually taking notice that you were shivering. In a swift motion, he takes his jacket off, draping it on your shoulders. You pulled the jacket together, amused,"Sunbae I appreciate the gesture, but aren'tyou cold?"

Jeahyun, scoots a bit closer. Helping you zip up the jacket. "No I'm fine. Though, this is nothing, Im capable of much more than you think, Y/n". He smiled, keeping his eyes on you. "Much more you say? Like what?",you asked as you adjusting the jacket. You were cute, asking him little questions.

"Oh well—cooking, cleaning, I'm a huge romantic.." Suprised to hear him playfully respond back. You were speechless, gazing back at him with a light pink hue. "Seems like, there was competition between me and the moon, for your attention."

"Competition?"

"Mhm..Looks like Ive finally won too."

Hiding behind your hair, embarrassed by the things he's saying. Jaehyun's no idiot, the two of you have been working on a collaboration for a while if anything, he's come to have an idea of what your habits are. One of them being when you're shy, you use your hair to hide. His hand carefully reaching over to brush your locks out of your face and behing your ear.

"You're right Y/n, The moon is absolutely beautiful tonight", Jaehyun Sung. Realizing that, the phrase that Jaehyun just said had another meaning. "Sunbae!", You yelp gently pushing his shoulder. "You shouldn't say things like that!" You covered you mouth, shocked by his sudden confession. "Y-You've clearly had enough to drink", You declared soon attempt to take his glass away from him. Though when you placed your hand on the wine glass, Jaehyun stopped you. Placing his slender fingers on yours. There it was that Princely smile he'd given you many times before, but for some reason..this time was different.

Finding your reaction quite enjoyable, he soon spoke up,"Im serious Y/n..I'm not speaking to you as your 'Sunbae'..but as Yuno." Your eyes widened, shocked.. "But..Im-" you were swiftly cut off,"I don't mind one bit."

You averted your gaze, looking down at your fiddling fingers..You liked him, you did- "God you're embarrassing.."

Jaehyun blessed you with that cute angelic laugh. He was now standing in front of you. One hand on your left and the other on your right. He leans in a little,"So? What do you say?"

Why, why was he like this. Speaking of which...the atmosphere so beautiful when he asked you, almost like the universe had this planned for you. The moon illuminates his skin giving him such a glow. There was no pressure into anything you didn't want. You were just taking in this masterpiece in front of you.

Your answer was with certainly, you attempted to hide your bashfulness. "Yes, I-I'd love to."

A cheeky grin, from ear to ear. "Tell me if this is too bold of a move, I'll stop If you're uncomfortable.." He leans in, holding his hand up to your left cheek. Soft strokes with his thumb on your skin. His lips now, embedded on your right cheek. You were definitely flushed though because of the night sky, it went unnoticeable.

Jaehyun pulls away, slightly tugging at your hands. He placing them around his neck, and he went back to his previous position. Leaning forward with his hands on either side of you.

"So.."

"So?"

"What's our first deed as a couple?"

You look to the sky thinking,"Err..Um– promise me."

He raises his pinkie to you,"Of?" His action catches you off guard. 'He's so cute!' You thought to yourself. "Keep me happy...Treat me right." You raise your pinky, linking it to his.

"I, Jung Jaehyun, Promise to keep you happy...I'll keep you elated, I'll make you more than happy. I will treat you right, Y/n."

"Sunbae–"

Your pinkies fall,"My turn, ditch the 'Sunbae' Jaehyun, Yuno, or a pet name will do."

He lifts his his opposite pinkie,"Um..Sunb–"

He stops you, waving his pinkie,"uh uh uh..Promise me." With your eyes semi-closed you glare at him. 'Hmm...I guess.' Now linking your pinkie with his again. "Okay then deal."

"Deal", your fingers fall. His eyes glow with endearment. He was willing and ready to make you happy. "What do you say we pick this up from tomorrow? Maybe with a date?"

You nod shyly,"Yes..I like the sound of that."

Written on December 15th 2022

[kaijukat-art]

Hi!! I just wanted to hop in and say that I love your art / style so much!!! Do you have any advice for newbies to procreate? No worries if not! I just *clenches fist* you're art is so fucking good and I just love it a lot, it brightens my day

RAAH TYSMMMMMM ur too kind :') <3

putting the yapfest under a cut /o/

honestly i'd say number one is to learn all the shortcuts for actions (two finger tap for undo,, three finger tap for redo, etc) to speed up the whole process. there's lotsa tuts on yt that go through them all!!

i'd also just generally learn what everything is/what it's function is. like if you don't know what alpha lock is you might be torturing yourself with cleaning edges when you dont need to kinda thing, or trying to blend with colours when you can try the smudge tool instead, or not using clipping masks to make your life easier, and so on

i know everyone says this and it sounds tired but i promise you, reference and practice work. you're fueling your brain's internal library and learning way faster!!

id prob play around with brushes and find a handful to favourite and play around with the most when you start off, it has a lot of choices but it can be a bit overwhelming so i'd stick with a few to start with, and switch up if something doesn't feel 'right.' (it has a lot of cool texture brushes but imo it's better to start with the simple brushes and move up) this is a personal thing, but as someone who gets brainbored when sketching sometimes, i throw effect layers over top to make it feel more appealing to me. whether it's a colour wash or something that creates a neat contrast, i think it helps me feel like it looks more neat/slightly more finished?? idk if this is just a me thing but it makes me feel better when i'm playing around lol

i would also recommend duplicating brushes you kinda like but dont feel quite right, and play around with the brush creation settings! it's pretty thorough and fun to see what you can come up with. some of my staple brushes are just basic default airbrushes that i tinkered with a bunch. there's also a tooooon of free brush packs online, would recommend browsing and see if any speak to you!!

i will say procreate is pretty fantastic with the price/usability balance, but the thing that's made me steer away from 'finishing' pieces in it over the last 6 months or so is it's colour blending can be fuuuunky and it doesn't have correction layers (yet?). which is why i will send my procreate sketches to my comp to finish them in csp x) tis absolutely a banger to learn digital in though!! play around and have fun!!

[k00295632]

Animation

Reinvention in story telling

Three Blind Mice, Epic/Historical, Space Age (1957-present)

Week 3, 22-28/04/24

Monday

Did a zine workshop during the morning, I made a sad little zine with some bits of rough potential visuals for the project.

I then jumped straight into creating concept art and trying to figure out how to combine natural cave formations with architectural features. What I ended up doing that day was creating this rough pencil of some stalagmites and drawing arches and doorways on top of it.

Using this as a starting point I went off and photocopied it a few times, which I then cut up and collaged together on a page to gain a rough idea of what this metropolis could look like.

This is what I ended up with. I love how the buttresses came out but the perspective of the piece looks completely wrong, making it look cluttered without purpose. I tried colouring parts blue and pink to separate it a small bit, but I think the main issue is that all of the structures are the same size even at a distance, in future I'll have to make the ones in the back larger and more hazy looking whereas the ones in front smaller and more detailed. This was just an experiment so its not too important.

Later that evening I did a colour study of scenes from Akira to develop my understanding of cel shading, I also watched a few videos on the production of Akira. It ended up being very useful and I found myself very surprised with Akira's colour palette. I quite literally colour dropped the colours from the scenes and and did rough drawings of the scenes using them, I was really surprised to see that the colour I dropped was the same as the one in the scene. It was absolutely fascinating.

Tuesday

I further looked into combining architecture with cave structures by doing a quick study on Antoni Gaudi's building designs and did a study on different stalagmites.

Looking at Gaudi's designs was interesting as he uses lots of organic shapes that almost look like they're melting in a way, and in other works like the Sagrada Familia he has lots of towers with unique features.

I tried combining these features to the stalagmites I studied to gain unique structures that would be believed to have belonged to an underground metropolis. I ended up with some nice designs, I worry a small bit that they might be too detailed but overall I'm happy with them, I still think these designs would have to be further developed but I don't have the time to do so.

At the moment my plan is to individually recreate these digitally and then photoshop them together in different ways to gain the illusion of having more designs than I do.

The photo is a small bit fuzzy but this was the first structure I recreated digitally. This took me around 6 hours to do, which was mainly because I've never done a proper digital piece before, so it took me a bit of time figure out what worked best and what short cuts I could take. I actually drew on top of a picture of my original paper sketch instead of redrawing it.

I created this solely using the air brush tool, and I love how it turned out, it looks so drippy. The only thing I can say really is that I wish I got it done a bit quicker, and that the values were much darker on my personal monitor.

I used the background from Akira as a reference for the colours.

Thursday

I made 4 more structures, significantly much more quicker too. While I spent too much time on the first one it gave me the experience needed to bang these ones out quickly and more efficiently. These were also done using the airbrush tool. For the backgrounds we actually made it a point to solely use airbrush as a way to commemorate the animations from the 70's/80's.

Since most of my pieces were done I got started on piecing them together. I tried making the buildings further back bigger and transparent and the ones closer to the viewer bigger. This was as far as I got on Thursday. If I'm being honest I'm not happy with the layout. I was using the Akira background as a reference but then realised it wouldn't work as the light source in the background is from behind, in my background the light source is from the front. I knew I definitely had to redo the layout.

Friday

We did a pitch workshop with Paul and Yvonne and then as a team discussed how we would go about our pitch . We discussed who would say what, what we thought a funder would want to know before investing in a project, we worked out costs, how many episodes, how many animators it would take to animate it in a year and ect...

We also did a few rehearsals in the studio improvising our lines and timing ourselves to get a feel for it. We decided that I would open and close our pitch, introducing our Nursery rhyme, genre, & time period while also setting the scene for our animatic.

Before work I managed to redo my background, I thought this one turned out way better. The perspective looked way better than last time too. I feel like with more time I could develop this further but I don't have that time so this is what I have and I'm happy with it.

Sunday

I made the presentation for our project, and the team went on call to rehearse our pitch. We did this twice.

[rawk-chikk]

How to Build Your Own 'Augmented Super Wife Supersoldier From The Future' Funko Pop.

A Semi-Coherent Guide By RC.

This is a long one. A loooooooong one.

I meant to do this like two and a half years ago, but in the spirit of keeping this fandom's head above water, and the fact I'm at the hospital (nothing serious!) with nothing to do for the next couple of hours, I'm doing it now.

So if, like me, you are still bitter that Grace and Dani didn't get official Funkos, or official *anything* due to manufacturer short-sightedness, why not say 'fuck it' and build yer own?

This rambling tutorial will attempt to demonstrate how to build Grace from the 'when they start to kill me, run' scene.

Like, literally that bit 😋.

Anywho. Let's do this!

You will need:

- Funko Pop DIY (female)

- Polymer clay (eg. Sculpy, Fimo, CosClay). I'd advise against cheapo no-name alternatives purely because in my experience the baking times/temperatures stated are absolute garbo. Also, polymer clay will give off quite gnarly fumes while curing, so better to use a trusted source. But if cheapo's all ya got, it's all ya got.

Other modeling materials you might consider instead of polymer clay include...

Epoxy clay (eg. Milliput, Apoxie Sculpt, The Army Painter 'Green Stuff', even something like J-B Weld or similar 2 part plumber's/repair putty).

Plain ol' air drying clay (eg. DAS, FimoAir, Gedeo).

You could even whip up a batch of 'cold porcelain', or an oven cure salt dough from ingredients you probably already have at home. Make sure you clear coat any salt dough creations properly after curing as over time ambient moisture may mess with it.

Each option above has its own pros and cons. Do your research if you aren't sure. Me? I used Fimo.

*ahem* Carrying on...

- Masking tape

- Hobby knife

- Pin vice

- Kebab skewer (wooden), or styrene rod

- Paint brushes

- Primer (plus dust mask if you're using a rattle can indoors)

- Sandpaper (around 400 grit oughta do it but you could probably go 200 either side of that and get a good result)

- Acrylic paints (optional: Posca PC-1MR pens in black and white for fine detail).

- Crafter's heat gun, or a hairdryer

- Varnish/clear coat.

Optional extras: Airbrush, spray booth/cardboard box, rotary tool, oven thermometer, artist's/cake decorating turntable, UV resin, silver leafing pen, jeweller's files, jeweller's wire, acetone, superglue or 5 minute epoxy, a lil piece of sponge, pearl mica powder, scavenged Funko Pop head 😈.

Step One: Grab your Funko DIY and separate the head from body using heat to soften the vinyl enough to wangle it off the neck post. Shoving it in a mug of hot water for a few minutes should do the trick. Make sure to dry out the head as much as possible. Last thing you want is mould growing inside it. This is Terminator, not The Last Of Us 😉. Alternatively you could use your heat gun/hairdryer, but I explain in Step Six why the water bath approach is a better option (imho) at this early stage.

(You are giving this entire thing a quick read through before you start, right? I dunno about the rest of you but I like to have at least a basic idea of the work ahead before I get stuck in. Saves finding out you're missing a necessary tool/material at an inopportune moment and all).

Stop rambling, RC. Sorry. It's easier to be succinct when you haven't lost half your photos 🤦‍♀️. Moving on...

If you don't wanna attempt to sculpt the hair yourself you can, as I did, take a kitbashing approach instead of using the supplied DIY head. Grab one of the many commercially available Funkos with a decent approximation of the hairstyle you want and then go Step One on em. Buy 'pre-loved', buy BNIB, dig one out of a dumpster, steal one from your lil cousin, it doesn't matter. Procure as your time/budget/situation dictates. Improvise where necessary.

Sorry, Ron. I need your floppy hair. I do not need your clothes.

Or your boots. Or your motorcycle.

...😋

Step Two: Take the body of the Funko DIY and mark out the position of the tank top and the cuffs of the jeans. These will be used as guides for when you add the clay.

At this point I used a pin vice to drill the hole thru the fist for the rebar. If you're a crazy person you could use a rotary tool with an appropriately sized bit attached.

To make the rebar I fashioned a mould from a drinking straw and filled it with UV resin. Because I'm awkward. A wooden kebab skewer, or some hobbyist's styrene rod (eg. Evergreen Scale Models) would work just as well. Just cut it to size, paint it silver and you're golden. I used a metallic leafing pen. You use whatever you've got handy. Doesn't have to be shiny. A flat grey acrylic would work just fine.

Use jeweller's files and sandpaper to make small adjustments to the hand hole and rebar respectively in order to get a good press fit. There's always glue if you overdo it 😉. But don't add the rebar to the model just yet, as you're gonna need room to manoeuvre for the next bit.

Step Three: How do you make it look like your figure is wearing clothes when you don't have much real estate to work with?

You fake it, that's how.

You do not need to model an entire set of clothes! It's an arse ache, and we're all about working smarter not harder on the RC channel.

So, take your modeling compound of choice, roll a chunk of it out to the desired thickness, and then cut into strips, say 2-3mm wide. Use your best judgement here.

Now, using the jeans as our example, wrap a strip around the bottom of the leg where the cuff would sit. Cut off any excess and blend out the join. Just give it a lil rub and it's like it was never there. Like magic! You should have a nice defined edge at the bottom, just above the foot. Now see the top edge of your lil clay strip? Well, you wanna start pushing and flattening the clay to blend the edge right out so it fades back into the body.

Repeat for the other leg, and the bottom of the tank top. The straps are relatively simple, tho the bits that pass under the arms can be fiddly due to lack of space. Use a hobby knife to shape and crisp up those edges and then blend out the extraneous edge. Same thing with the neckline.

Run a strip around each foot to form the soles of the boots, and a lil 'x' on the top of the feet to give the impression of laces.

For the rips in the clothing you can simply gouge out a little of the clay. If there isn't any on that part of the model (the knee for example) roll out a little wormy dealie (for you North of the Border fans 😉), position it as needed, blend out the edges, then gouge as required.

If you're playing on hardcore mode, this might be the time to start piling clay on the Funko DIY head and sculpting the hair. You may prefer to leave it til the head's re-attached tho. It depends on the material you're using. If you don't think it'll stand up to a bit of manhandling while pushing the head back onto the body, save this step til that bit's done.

Cure according to the clay manufacturer's instructions. The vinyl will not melt at the temperatures required to cure polymer clay, but if you don't wanna risk it or you don't wanna use your food oven to cook plastic, with all the gnarly fumes and stuff, I've given you plenty of air dry and/or non toxic alternatives. Consistent temperature is key with polymer clay. Undercooked, it's quite brittle. An oven thermometer comes in handy here if you've got one.

Step Four: Primetime!!! Some like to brush on primer, which is fine if you're painting a fence or throwing gesso on a canvas. Not so fine if you're painting a figurine imho. I mean, unless it's Cassandra from Doctor Who. A good rattle can of spray paint is what you want ideally, but again, it's about what you can afford/wangle/manage with your crafting space, so feel free to ignore me and brush away!

First rule of Primer Club: several light coats are better than one heavy coat. Second rule of Primer Club: knock each coat back a lil with sandpaper before applying the next one. Third rule of Primer Club: sit your rattle can in a warm water bath for five minutes before shaking it up to improve flow.

You can get primer specifically for plastics but while I would recommend it, it's not absolutely necessary.

A scavenged head may need masking off if the base colour already matches the skin colour of your character. Save yourself a bit of painting innit. You can get really tight, clean edges against the hairline with a hobby knife. If the hairstyle, hair colour, and skin colour match straight outta the box? Congrats! Why are you even reading this? 😜.

That thing in the background is a portable spray booth (that other thing is a turntable). A cardboard box is also a portable spray booth if you want it to be. Only thing it doesn't have is an extractor fan. So put on a dust mask, and open a window or work outside.

The DIY figure comes primed outta the box, so if you're using the DIY head and are planning on sculpting the hair after re-attachment you don't need to prime it. Unless you want to.

Step Five: Time to paint that shizz. You don't need me to walk you thru this bit, right?

Right?...

Masking is your friend if you don't trust your ability to freehand with a brush. If you're masking over a part you've already painted and are afraid of pulling the paint off, you can knock the level of tack on the tape down by sticking it to yourself (or your clothes) a couple of times before applying it. Some prefer to add a light layer of clear coat to 'lock in' the underlying paint. It's like a real life 'save point'. Some people do both. Some use masking fluid. Some use silly putty/blu-tac/plasticine. Play around, see what works. You do you.

I painted Grace's eyes blue coz Grace is extra and so am I. I threw a lil bit of pearl powder in there to add a subtle shimmer, as I thought going full metallic blue might be a bit too extra.

Lady Funkos have eyelashes. Don't forget the eyelashes.

(I nearly forgot the eyelashes).

A fine tipped Posca pen comes in handy here if you've got one.

Ditto the eyebrows, tho those aren't just for the ladies obvs.

For Grace's augmentation scars, again I recommend a Posca pen but a brush will do.

DO NOT PAINT THE NECK POST. Don't even varnish the neck post. Keep that bitch masked up until you're ready to reattach the head. Like, you can get away with painting the very bottom if you're worried the bare plastic will show even with the head attached, but that's it. Any more will be making a rod for your own back.

You have a choice now. Whether to weather your figure. I chose to add that extra level of detail as it made sense to me. Use a combination of dark washes, dry brushing, and/or sponge stipling to add dirt, blood etc. If ya want.

When you're happy with your paint job, give everything (except the neck post!!!!) a couple of layers of clear coat.

Step Six: When it comes to reattaching the head you probably don't wanna be dunking anything in water by this point, just in case. So we're gonna soften the neck post (and around the base of the head if necessary) with hot air instead. Use a hairdryer if you don't have a heat gun. DO NOT use an industrial or decorator's heat gun for the love o' god. That shit's meant for stripping paint, not gently warming vinyl figurines. It'd be like using a nuke to shake a cherry tree, and you'd likely burn yourself. A hairdryer is more than capable of doing the job.

Why did we not use the hairdryer for Step One? To be honest there's nothing stopping you if that's what you wanna do, but as you don't have direct access to the bits that need softening at that point you will have to wait for the heat to penetrate. You could be doing other things in that time by letting a water bath do the work for you.

Now, however, you do have direct access, so you'll probably find you only need to blast the hot air for 10 seconds or so.

Step Seven: So, you've got the head re-attached, and your paint job is finished and clear coated. That means it's time to add the rebar. If you went a bit too far with the drilling or sanding now's the time to get your glue on. As an final extra touch you can spiral some thin jeweller's wire around the length of the rebar to make it look more rebar-y. I didn't do this bit as the wire I had in my possession at the time was too thick for my tastes.

But whether you opt for that or not, congratulations on making your very own Grace Funko Pop!

I'm still planning on making security guard and future war versions of Grace, and at least one version of Dani. Yeah, I've been saying that for the last two years, but it's still absolutely happening, trust me.

Anyway. That'll do it. If you have any questions, or you need further explanations or recommendations etc. y'all know where to find me.

[tysonfurybattlepass]

Heard you were looking for some anon hate, so here's some that I've thought about over the past few years 😉

Your art is pure garbage. Your shading is so basic and yet it looks worse than the drawings on wikihow articles, and your colors are an abhorrent mix that looks like neon puke. Literally one of the first tips beginner artists get is "don't use the airbrush". And what do you do? Airbrush the fuck out of your markings and shading! Your older anatomy and character designs were far more superior while the newer ones are a bastardized version of their former glory days. I'm younger than you and I can actually paint and pick good colors lmao

You haven't improved at all in 5 years. You actually got worse! You're drawing the same snarling cat 20 times a month instead of working on your backgrounds, shading, anatomy and compositions, and their jaws still look crooked with displaced teeth Every. Single. Time! I wonder how strong their bite force is when the lower jaw is at a 45° angle from the upper one?

All your characters look crazy and deranged and like absolute psychopaths. It's not a good look for your "brand" <3 And their torso takes up 90% of their body. How are they supposed to be strong beasts when their stumpy legs can barely hold the weight of your bad stylization? And you call that an improvement instead of godawful anatomy!

And then, and then!! Y're constantly making new characters, drawing them a bunch and forgetting about them! Algernon, Jarith, Lucia, Geneph, Xiaoya, Bailey, Jicama, Utah, Felin, Civen, Afryea, Thyodore,.Tyson (Aster's pet Inostrancevia), Donnie... And you have even more that you haven't even posted about? How does it feel to know that someone knows your characters more than YOU do? Talk about being an irresponsible artist

You're not even creative enough. "Here's a species that looks exactly like a cat but trust me guys it's not a cat, see? it has two extra arms!" "Here are 20 smilodons that are yellow-brown and have spots, but I love all of them and can differentiate between them!!" "Here's a leopard seal who's bigger than the natural ones and is a made-up species (who's supposed to be part bear and I definetely didnt forget about that) even though nothing is different between her and a regular anthro seal!!!"

I hope you give up on art. It won't take you anywhere in life, just like your autistic interest in paleontology won't help you. You didn't even get a superior education, so it's clear you'll live your life working minimum wage jobs because you're not qualified to do anything better. You’re lazy as fuck and you have no excuse for how weak you are.

You say you have 1000 followers but you barely pass 10 notes on your art and even less on your vents, and whenever you demand people to send you asks daily, nobody says anything. So not even your followers like you. They're just observing your every move and are laughing at your pain. The only thing you're good at is being daily entertainment for me and hundreds of others like me.

All your "female" characters loook like males regardless of what they identify as. It's as if you're incapable of drawing women.

Hooray for making all your best characters trans since you seem to be allergic to normal people. I'm glad you confessed that you support the mutilation of middle schoolers / transing gender non-comforming females (Azure).

You call yourself a "he/they" but you're still competing in the women's category cuz you know you wouldn't last in a fight against real men. You're such a failure that even your step father calls you his daughter publicly. (Your parents surely are disappointed in what you've become. I wouldn't be surprised if you were the reason for their divorce)

Only a few years back you were a proud tomboy girl, but I guess you hate yourself so much that you project your self-misogyny through self-identification and an atrocious art style.

You even chose the name “Tyson”, like that troon Chris Tyson. Considering the recent controversy, that’s what people will associate with your name, not whoever “Tyson Fury” is, and truthfully you deserve it.

You're so fragile being called a girl when you look, sound and act like one. Girl. Woman. Female. Dike. Lass. Lady. She. Wahine. Kaikamahine. Did this make you cry some pathetic manly tears? 100% sure you look like the soyjak in the soyjak vs chad meme right now. Can’t wait to read your breakdown on tumblr, if you’re not going to outright delete every account you have to escape me

Typical white girl starving for attention online behavior lmao.

You boast that you are "hot" but you are objectively ugly, not even mid. Your undercut is shit and your face is so damn bland. Your fursona is strong and beefy but you have a thin female body with stick arms and visible breasts. Talk about projection and an inflated ego. You're oozing with narcissism, and I wouldn't be surprised if you got diagnosed with it. It would 100% suit you.

Your "girlfriends" are still lesbian women, but you’re not one? “Transmasc butch lesbian” my ass, you absolute pooner. It’s not that hard to be a regular woman. Pretty sure you're not even dating them, you're just friends who haven't even held hands. And you’re still a virgin lmao. No bitches? 🥺 And you have not one, but two, because you're insecure in your feelings and can't commit to only one person since you need that external validation. I'm sure they're cheating behind your back because they know you wouldn't check on them.

I hope your sleep apnea kills you in your sleep. You deserve it.

L + ratio + you’re a loser + cope and seethe

Don't bother blocking and reporting me, I said all I had to say, I don't plan on interacting with you anymore and I don't have this level of hatred against anyone else.

Now, have I stalked your accounts until their beginning, or have I followed you for a really long time? Or a secret third thing (I stalked you for a really long time)?

the color thing is true but you should get a job

[middleschoolfursona]

i like your art style a lot–have you always drawn this way, or is it something u developed over time? do u have any tips for drawing in the general sparklecat/old internet art style or similar?

1. Thank uuuuu <3

2. Under cut ⬇️

It's a mix of both- my current sort of diary art/stress relief/ wholesome style is a replication of my elementary school art style! (Like 5th grade, not 2nd lol. I was still drawing stick guys blowing up zombies with tanks and crap back then)

Otherwise, my other styles are style emulations, essentally!

I'll break it down rq:

Mostly based off my own childhood art:

Natural progression of my art as I grew up:

Style "emulation" (le me making an amalgamation of liek 20000 old deviantart artists into one image)

Most of the sparklecat and scenedog art I draw like the above, is inspired by the works I stockpile from deviantart deep dives, and archive blogs. They're not emulations of one style, but multiple styles, taking parts I like or think are the most 'authentic'- essentially, I do what your young brain would have done without thinking, but I have to do it on purpose haha

My tip: while practicing, I'd say absolutely do studies of peoples entire DA galleries and figure out what works best for you.

Above all else I can't say anything else but like. Age regress lmao. If you can't do that, just do everything you can otherwise to put yourself in the headspace of the art you're emulating.

Put on old Amnesia playthroughs on YouTube, listen to Yaoi Nightcore playlists, edgy scourge AMVs, Naruto YTP, the whole Twilight movie- really whatever you listened to back in the day. Put that back on in the BG. Open current MsPaint or your preferred emulation of old MsPaint, or a free art software like medibang. (Don't download cool brushes. Work with Pen 1 and Airbrush or whatever.)

Use references of the era you want to emulate and use only those. Take all your current knowledge of art and BIN IT. The #1 problem in most emulation art even I have a really, really hard time with- is your stuff looking too modern because your art style is modern. Your tools are modern. Your mindset is modern. It will make your art look uncanny.

Don't try hard. It's really temping to draw the most rawrxd scenecore webcore hot topic revival 100 gecs whatever, I get that I guess- but it won't look like it's from the era. It's really hard to get x3randum ☆~ iTs rAinIng TACOOZZZZZZ ~☆ humor right, so don't try it for your first and submerge yourself in the era first. Tryhard sparkles are a real issue and you risk making your art look like it's snark.

Small canvases and or destroy your image quality. I don't do this as much as I should but it definitely adds to the look LULs

I will say, I have no idea otherwise because I come from a very privileged background when it comes to style emulation which is that I grew up planning to be an animator and thus, in my critical years, I was basically 100% drive on the ability to draw characters in many styles, on model. If you don't have this skill, it'll be a lot harder I'm sure.

Use your non dominant hand for especially young looking art. (If you have one. If not... uh... try your mouth?) (~that's what she said~)

(I mean. If you're *going for* the look of 'yes it's 2023 yes I'm bringing back this' go ahead, it just won't look genuine in the slightest and I am someone who's art journey is about doing all I can to emulate authenticity. Just adding this because I know a lot of people are! Go make that modern sparkledog eyeburner mary sue antisnark! It's just not my cup of tea. And I can't really give any pointers kthxbai)

[tellywoodtrash]

hi TT! can I ask you for some advice? I'm a teenager who is really insecure about how i look. i don't really think there's anything wrong with my appearance per se, but everyone around me does. my dad keeps recommending me fairness creams (even though he is dark skinned himself) and my mom keeps telling me to lose weight (even though she is fat too). i have been dealing with some health issues for the past couple years that have led to a LOT of weight gain. i now have stretch marks all over my body and my friends always comment on it and make fun of me for them. it makes me wanna never show even an inch of skin again. what do I do?

Hello love,

First of all, big hugs. 🤗🤗🤗 People (who are supposed to love you regardless of how you look) are being shitty to you and you absolutely do not deserve that crap. I'm here to tell you they're wrong. You are good the way you have been, are right now, and however you will be in the future.

i don't really think there's anything wrong with my appearance per se, but everyone around me does.

I'm glad you have accepted the way you look. You realise that the problem is with the people around you. Good. That's a massive step 1 already sorted. Because so often, we start believing what people tell us, and it becomes the "truth", when it's absolutely not.

Tbh, I'm a rudeass bitch and I'd let off verbal zingers at everyone, including parents. idgaf about politeness when someone's coming for me like that. But perhaps you're a much better person than me, lol. So maybe when your dad tries to push fairness creams on you, you just reply with a curt but polite "No, thank you!" and end the conversation right there. Walk away. With your mom and the weight loss, ask her if she's willing to take on a "get healthy plan" with you, where you both eat better and exercise TOGETHER. If she's unwilling, then ask her why she has expectations of you that she's not willing to subscribe to personally. Again, walk away. Don't let them think they can just say these things to you and you'll sit and listen like a good bachcha. And boy oh boy, your friends. To them, I say be straight up rude. Like, call them out. Say "What makes you think you can talk to me like this about my body? Why are you so obsessed with the way I look? How does this affect your life in any way????" coz literallyyyyyy; friendship doesn't mean a free pass to talk any shit, that too such superficial garbage. Everyone's body has something or the other wrong with it. EVERYONE. (Another thing almost everyone has???? Stretch marks. I've had them since fucking puberty, still do in my 30s. They're as much a natural part of your body as body hair.) That is just the nature of the flesh prison we reside in. This is just a pile of fucking electrified meat that holds our brain and soul, which is what really matter. To have someone who calls themselves a FRIEND talk to you unkindly like this should make them ashamed, and honestly, make you reconsider if you even wanna be friends with that person if this is how they choose to behave.

This is the outside stuff. Now for the inside stuff - the internal work you do. First, make sure you watch and subscribe to media of people who look like you, and make you feel "hey, they look just like me and they're so pretty, so that means *I'm* beautiful they way i am too!" I'm telling you as someone who grew up in the pre-social media age; I had zero representation of ppl with my body shape/size and hair texture. It wrecked my self esteem. I spent hours poring over magazines and looking at airbrushed models thinking "why don't i look like that too????" even though I KNEW they were digitally altered images. It just got into my head SO MUCH. One good thing about social media being in the hands of EVERYONE is the ability to see such a range of people from all over the world, looking amazing in their own ways. Follow a diverse looking set of people and see the beauty in them, and thus yourself. Second, do some minor work to alleviate your health issues if you can. Be regular with your meds if you take any, do some daily movement to the extent you can, eat mostly healthy and stay hydrated well, etc. It won't change the way you LOOK, but it will make you FEEL better about your body, and how you are doing your part in taking care of it like it needs. Third, only if you choose to, feel free to beautify the flesh prison as you see fit. Wear whatever you like. Colour your hair. Get a piercing or tattoo. (Obv. wait till you're a legal adult!!!!!! Also, never get names of people or something that is just a ~~phase or trend you're into at the time. Aesthetics come and go. Body modifications like these are forever. Choose wisely. Very very prudently.) Do things that make you feel like "this is MY BODY, and *I* GET TO CHOOSE what kind of pretty it is". Take agency and make your choices and be proud in them, and fuck literally everyone else's opinion. They're LOOKS. The least interesting thing about you. They don't matter in the larger scheme of things, and they'll keep changing as you go through life. Just do whatever makes you feel good to be in this body at the time!!!!!!!!

I love you lots baby sibling. 👩🏽‍🧒🏾👩🏽‍🧒🏾👩🏽‍🧒🏾💗💗💗💗 I am threatening everyone shitty around you with angry laser eyes as I protectively wrap an arm around you.

[torvus-bong]

ok so thoughts on mpr so far (heading to chozo ruins 4 ice beam atm)

it is as graphically stunning as everyone says it is (I want to eat the snow in phendrana drifts)

floaty/less precise jump physics suck ass (but I am also a speedrunner and have played 1.0 NA exclusively til now so. everything that affects sequence breaking irks me)

remastered sound design is 💯💯💯

I stand by what I originally said about the new renders of the power suit. needs more matte, more clunk - they airbrushed/glossed it up way too much imho.

^ related, someone has said it before but what is UP with that barbie-ass buttcrack indent 😭😭😭

love that Sammy's face reflected in bright shots looks far, far more human than she did in the OG game

most damningly the new thermal visor gives my photosensitive ass a headache. I absolutely hate this. can't even turn the in-game brightness up anymore so I don't have to use it as often?? hello???

I don't regret buying it and will likely get a physical copy for collection purposes but ig I'm just a purist lmao. give me my gamecube analog deadzone & exploitable code & sharp-edged thermal visor ty very much ;_;

[berzlape36]

LESS = MORE art tips vol.2

I can't stress enough with this. If it's not realism, then why do people feel the need to make their jobs so detailed that it hurts to look at?

Anyways let's get onto breaking down the examples.

A.

So, avoid blending. Please. It doesn't make the colours pop in the slightest and makes everything look like a porridge, just a bad way to present a stylised artwork. Just don't blend and add normal shadows. That's the only way out of it. Also make sure to use as much colour you can to make the work look more complicated than it is. Also line art can be messy. It's even better because it gives work some personality and makes it more lively, while a single line makes it do the opposite and lose everything.

colours = ur bezzies

no blending

use your line art skills

restrain yourself from using a thin brush

B.

Logos. It's easy but at the same time not. I just recommend listing down things that make the logo stand out, like I did with Castore. It's just a pair of wings, so quite simple, just drew the wings with no text and detail in them. I did the same with Adidas as seen on examples C and E, as well as the fern logo on the both examples. As long as you know what it is, and are confident that you've portrayed it nicely, no one is going to ask questions. Plus people don't even look at it in detail!

the less detail the better

absolutely no text allowed

3-4 lines max

if it's a letter, don't even thing about recreating the same font - just draw a lazy A or B and call it a day.

C.

Again, like in example A, blending is avoided at all costs, and like in B, the logos are simplified to a level where it's recognisable if you know what you're doing. Shadows are done in a nice tone, and there's not much difference between example A and C other than the colours used and the part of the body portrayed in them. It's also visible that I've simplified the face, Rieko Ioane in this case - it might not seem like it, but if I go around saying that it's Rieko, then it is going to be Rieko and nobody can do anything about it. Just know what you're drawing, and take every short-cut you see.

just don't blend alright

know who you're drawing

simplify everything

messier line art - more personality

D.

Trust me, unless it's realism, nobody's going to chop your head off if Marcus doesn't have each of his hair strands drawn individually (actually yes they are because there's a simpler way than drawing each strand) so just don't do it, and do it like seen in example A - no blending, just a good line art that provides everyone with everything they need to know. Moral of the story - DO NOT draw hair strands, use lines, it's simpler and you won't actually die from stress.

detail = bad

nobody even cares

just use your pen/pencil brush alright

E.

If you're not a muppet you've noticed that it's literally picture C but altered. That's to show how to do SIMPLE highlights. Yes, an airbrush tool or marker tool is allowed here - but only here, and to make it more convincing, I recommend adding streaks of the same colour but with the pen slash pencil tool (depends on what programme you're using!) Like I've written down there, it's completely alright to not use the highlights - they're loads of work but if needed, no shame in doing that either.

highlights are the only case where other brushes are tolerated.

add shine or glow mode to the layer

one colour and do it lightly to not steal anything from the work

Moral of the story - just don't do anything stupid, don't go deep into detail, don't blend unless really needed, and the pen/pencil tool is the only legal one unless a certain exception. As long as it's not realism (or attempted realism)

[fabrickind]

Since I see a lot of people in the replies asking questions about these, here are some answers and resources:

You don't buy this exact version, but you can make them yourself! Here's the article from the screenshot, and here's the original tutorial.

Since you're making them yourself, you can absolutely have them in different skin tones. I'd recommend getting your fabric from Blue Moon, since they have a decent selection of different skin tones of matte spandex. You can also dye your own spandex for a more custom color.

If you are doing multiple characters with unnatural skin tones (say, a green character), yes, you would need to make multiple pairs. You can also make multiple pairs if you want to permanently attach costume pieces to one, which is an advantage of this type of breastplate.

You can buy an extremely similar product, but you need a shopping service. It comes in only three skin tones that don't get very dark, which is unfortunate, but you might be able to airbrush them (never tried myself, but worth a shot). You can get the Neo Oppai Sister from Classe wigs.

I don't recommend this type of product for daily wear or anything you want to look realistic. The shape is extremely anime, they're a bit flat looking due to the fabric (as in, not shaded, not as in flat chested), etc. For daily use for trans women and anyone who just wants big booba for a while, silicone breastplates tend to be better. These have more realistic shapes, skin texture, the neck hides better, there's collarbones molded in, the edges hide well with straps and bra bands... They tend to be uncomfortable since it's like wearing a silicone shirt, but for special occasions and cosplay, they're great, and some brands have them in "cool" versions with an open back (I have this type). I got mine from Roanyer (extremely NSFW website, caters to crossdressing fetishes), and they have good quality and a LOT of styles, but are pricey. Look for seasonal sales. I can't vouch for the quality of cheaper alternatives, but they're out there on places like the River Site -- still pricey but less so. Japanese cosplay brands have also started making this style.

THAT SAID (and keep in mind this is a cosplay blog so that's what I'm focusing on), this style of breastplate is going to be more comfortable and less than half the cost of even a cheap silicone one, so ymmv and it depends on what you value and the look you are going for.

To make these look more realistic: you need to have neck coverage and coverage of the edges (the halter neck sides, the bottom edge) to hide that it's a breastplate. You can also possibly use airbrushing to add some shading and dimension to them. This classic KLK tutorial uses the same method but covers them in liquid latex for a more skin-like texture.

Brands also make no breasts but yes muscles silicone plates! (Same NSFW site as above, different section) Great for transmasc folks, cosplaying muscular male characters, etc. Again, very hot and sweaty (it's wearing a non-breathable silicone shirt), but they're out there.

Hope someone finds this helpful!

[bradcolbow]

What is the Best Art Software for Digital Illustration?

If you're trying to mimic traditional media, using charcoals, oils, watercolor, pencils and brushes, then you want a drawing software specifically for painting!

With so many options available, it becomes hard to make a choice that would best suit the kind of art you want to make, whether you're just starting as a beginner or are a professional.

What you'd generally want is a digital illustration software that is compatible with the device you're using, supports the kinds of tools you need for the art you create, the cost, and any additional features that a creative can play around with.

Some digital art software may even be outdated, while others keep experimenting and keep further development at the forefront.

Different digital artists look for various features in the software they'd prefer to use.

In addition, The price point is always something to consider, but not to worry, there are just as many free alternatives to good quality software as paid ones.

Considering all of this, here's a comprehensive list of the digital art software that has the potential to be the right fit for you.

10 Best Free and paid Art Software for Digital Painting & Illustration

These are the 10 art programs that I personally like and would recommend:

If you want more info about them, I suggest you visit pctechtest site.

1. Photoshop

Photoshop is the industry standard, and preferred among most professionals, but it costs an ongoing subscription fee.

Photoshop's brushes work so much better, virtually no lag and a lot of variety. Importing brushes from pros also works easily because.. most pros use Photoshop.

2. Clip Studio Paint

Clip Studio Paint is the best for doing Line Art, Paintings, Comics/Manga, and even 2D Animation.

Clip Studio has a lot of the tools Photoshop does, but is just more intuitive for the average artist. Also it is a one time buy, you don't need a subscription.

Users value its quick loading time, lack of lag, pen stabilization for clean line art, and ability to export in PSD format for easy editing.

3. Krita

A lot of people use Krita as it's free and have plenty of useful tools and brushes, but there is some learning curve to getting the most out of it.

4. Corel Painter

Corel Painter feels like an entire art store full of stuff, very realistic brushes especially for water colour and charcoal etc.

5. Rebelle

Rebelle is a top choice for artists seeking a realistic, versatile, and user-friendly digital painting experience that's competitively priced.

Rebelle is really amazing at making painting feel very close to what is to paint on an actual canvas. The products you use like the paint and the canvas have an amazing interaction.

6. ArtRage

ArtRage is also an excellent and easy to use paint app that does a great job of simulating the flow and texture of real oils and watercolours.

7. Sketchbook Pro

Sketchbook Pro is a great tool to sketch when it comes to freehand drawings. Airbrush feature along with copic colors makes it perfect for art.

8. Medibang Paint

MediBang Paint is a free, lightweight and easy to use art program suitable for users who loves to illustrate!

9. Procreate

Procreate is a premium quality, low-cost app on Apple ipad for artists of every kind.

With abundant customizable features, expandability, and an attractive and intuitive user experience, anyone can create 2D and 3D paintings, drawings, hand lettering, and animations.

10. Paint tool SAI

Paint tool SAI is absolutely amazing for digital painting, but only available on windows devices.

It is so responsive to the pressure and movement of the pen and it's great. Once you get the hang of it, it isn't hard to use at all and you make amazing paintings.

What's The Difference Between Digital Art and Graphic Design?

Digital art is a form of art that involves the use of digital tools to produce images and videos.

Meanwhile, graphic design is a profession that combines artwork, text, and typography for use in advertising, web design, and other forms of communication.

Digital Designers rely on graphic design software to create, edit, and view graphic art.

Krita vs Photoshop - Which Program is for You?

If you're into basic drawing and sketching, A simple painting program like Krita might be enough.

But if you're a professional artist needing advanced editing, photo manipulation, vector graphics, or extensive text tools, then a photo retouching software like Photoshop is the best.

To let you know, Photo Editing software allows users to stitch images the way they want, which can make all the difference in the final look of your photos. such as online photo editor, RAW photo editor, etc.

Do I need a pen tablet to use with art program for drawing?

For hardware, outside of a half-decent computer and monitor, you may eventually want a drawing tablet with pen, whether that's a screenless (such as classic Wacom tablets), or a drawing tablet with display.

You don't need one to get started, and they take some learning of their own, especially screenless. Screenless graphic tablets for beginners are available for under $100, screen-in start around $200 for a very small decent one and go up from there.

Conclusion

Drawing software is an essential tool for an artist or illustrator, professional to novice wishing to create digital art.

The most important thing you need to consider when choosing the best drawing software is that you're comfortable with it.

If you want a powerful drawing program that will give you the best possible experience you want Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint or other paid software.

If you can't afford them, I recommend going with free software like Krita or Medibang Paint instead.

Free software can sometimes be less intuitive, but with use, you'll get used to it instantly and let your creativity flow.

[prachigandhi01]

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Planning your dream wedding is a whirlwind of excitement, and every bride deserves to look and feel her absolute best on that special day. If you're a bride-to-be, you understand the importance of flawless makeup that enhances your natural beauty.

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Airbrush makeup is a revolutionary technique that uses compressed air to spray a fine mist of makeup onto the skin. Unlike traditional makeup application methods, airbrush makeup provides a flawless, lightweight, and natural-looking finish. It's the go-to choice for brides who want their makeup to last all day and night without the need for constant touch-ups.

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Airbrush makeup is formulated to last for up to 12-24 hours, ensuring that your bridal glow stays fresh from the moment you say "I do" until the last dance of the night. Here is our one of the best blog: Bridal makeup also visit our homepage: Prachi Gandhi

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