#rip to the shadow i blurred and colored tho

[oneirataxia-girl]

ngl this is a new type of style for me

still need to learn how to do lighting, hair could use some more work, and i feel like raon/minsi's placement is somewhat odd, dunno why tho so i'll come back to it later

one hour later...

[khaliarart]

Recently found your art blog from the IZ tag and I really love how your lineart/shading combo looks like actual show screencaps from a distance. I was wondering if you had any tutorials for how you pull that off, especially for pieces like /post/722388451213918208/attack-on-drawile ? I ask not because I'm trying to rip your style or anything but I really have a thing for animated screencap + cel shading quality fanart that doesn't just look like grainy VHS footage.

So I don't have a tutorial and I never tried to make one, but I'll try my best to give a quick rundown here. My process is very messy and I usually rush through and don't reflect back on it.

The background I made by planting blobs onto the screen I color picked from different anime backgrounds (got no pic tho). Then I used the ClipStudio colorize feature to blend them into one big sky blob and added some building blobs per hand (picture 1). I then blurred it all with gaussian blur (picture 2).

I always use the same line brush, it's a photoshop round brush on the smallest size that will work. The colors of the character I pick straight from the reference.

From there I only use colors I find in the background to shade the character. In this case I put a purple multiply onto the flat colors to merge the character more into the scene. Then I put a gradient map onto the entire image, usually on Hard Light mode and 50% opacity.

From there I think the key is to stay simple in your shading. Animation usually isn't heavily shaded, it often only has a lighter rim and darker shadows. I picked only one color for all shadows, the same purple I used for the gradient map and that's found in the background.

Last step is random stuff that looks fun- making the rim light stronger with a big glow with a soft airbrush and also adding the little particles. I also made some soft airbrush shadows to the large parts like the tail and arm, because a hard shadow that big would have been to much.

I didn't use any grain or chromatic aberration filters. They may have added to a screenshot feel but that wasn't my focus here.

Hope that helps!

[malleus-maledicarum]

Consciousness hits Dorian like a stone suddenly, tho he can barely tell as his eyes open to pure darkness.

And in that darkness he lays for a moment, gathering his bearings. Before too long objects start shifting into view; familiar objects. It hits him again This is his room. It's unmistakable. The desk with his collectibles, the wardrobe, the window overlooking the yard though right now the curtains were closed. He was home. But...how? What was this? A dream? Did...

His questioning is cut off by the door opening a crack to let a slice of light to cut into the room. Faintly, there's the sound of music coming from downstairs.

Whether by compulsion, or curiosity....or worse, fear, he cautiously heads to the door to follow the music. The house is empty, no signs of anyone having come through recently

More than that the halls feel Strange Still his house, absolutely but.... They're off. As if everything was moved an inch to the left. And all the portraits are blank, empty voids where paintings once lived.

And were the hallways always this winding? It feels like it takes forever to reach the stairs, as if walking a maze. His hand grips the banister in a feeble attempt to ground himself.

The music is closer, a grand sweeping melody that honestly sounds like something his Mother would request played. Suppose that makes sense then that the music seems to be coming from their entertaining room.

Through the closed double doors he can see passing shadows that interrupt the light in the cracks. Were his parents throwing a party and didn't inform him? That was odd but...surely he had studying to do? Honestly so many details were hazy right now.

Curiosity once again getting the better of him, he pushes the door open ever so slightly to catch a glimpse inside. The room is much larger than he remembered it, too large to even fit the house. Lights dot the room, almost making everything blur with an ethereal glow. Masked shapes elegantly dance amongst each other, perfectly in tune with the band.

It's almost like a dream. And he realizes, that's because it is. The fact becomes clear when he sees a very specific figure mingling in the crowd.

Holding the hands of a faceless figure is Karver, who turns and catches Dorian's gaze.

"Oh there you are!" He detaches himself from the dancer, who stands perfectly still and watching them. Karver pays them no mind. "I was hoping you would find me, come in come in! You've never visited my home have you? Here, dance with me while we talk"

Dorian cannot get a word or protest in edgewise as Karver grabs his hand and pulls him into the swaying fray of bodies. All he can feel is confusion and indignation as Karver takes the lead position, resting a hand on his hip and pushing him around like a broom.

Getting his bearings, Dorian attempts and fails to stop the waltz and just goes along with it until he can exit the dream. "So it's your fault I'm here. Typical. Wh- what is this place? You're "home"? What does that mean?"

Karver chuckles, dipping him and quickly snatching him back up. "Did you expect me to just live in the emptiness of that little head of yours? Of course not. During my imprisonment, I've managed to create a respite while I finish up my work. Lovely, isn't it?"

The room spins around them, streaks of colors and shapes. Vague in every sense, it's impossible to make out any details Except Dorian strains his neck, swearing he sees someone familiar but Karver just keeps them moving. "I wanted to have a discussion with you, Dori. Try and reach an understanding."

Dorian cringes at the nickname "Absolutely not. In every sense. I'm done listening to you. All you have to say is poisonous drivel and I'm beyond fed up with it."

"Okay. Yes, alright I've been...less than kind to you." His hand sweeps out and quickly pulls Dorian back in holding him almost intimately close. "Even tonight I've said some less than cordial things to you. I'm realizing I've been going about this the wrong way."

This takes him aback. Karver has never once shown any signs of empathy or kindness in the entire time they've been together. Rarely to others and certainly never to him. Dorian stares into the eyes of his disease for...well anything. Hints of lying, mockery. Anything to make this make sense. "You...Have made my life more of a hell than it already was." His tone is cold, doing its best at indifference.

Karver's expression furrows, a tinge of annoyance, but he plays it off. "Your life was never that bad. Anyways. Yes. I've been cruel to you. It's for that reason I want to make amends. Make the transition easier."

"Transition?"

"Yes, for when I take over the body. You see-"

At that sentiment, Dorian finally rips himself from the dance and firmly plants his stance to glade daggers into his double.

The room falls silent and the figures stand perfectly still.

"You. Are not taking over, do you understand me you fucking plague.?"

With a sigh, Karver steps forward. His face looks the closest to sympathetic Dorian has ever seen. "You're getting weaker, Dorian. You were already so...weak. So small. You were barely able to survive childhood. Even now, you're losing your fight. Each dose grows more ineffective as your serum does its work, as I do my work." He steps closer Dorian takes another step back. "You made me-"

"I did NOT. You are a failed experiment and the WORST side effect-"

"YOU. Made. Me. You wanted a total overhaul. A full body and mental enhancement. You. wanted everything better."

They continue their perfectly in sync walk, one following the other, until Dorian feels his back hit the wall. Karver poses himself over him, all but trapping him in their conversation.

"You wanted everything fixed, you wanted to perfect yourself, and my Detested I'm sorry to tell you there was simply too much to fix." His hand reaches up to gently tuck a lock of hair behind Dorian's ear.

The man finds himself frozen, memories of that night filling his vision. The injection The awful feeling the night after followed by a few nights of feeling wonderful. The first time he heard Karver's voice. The voice that continues to lecture him.

"There was simply too much work to do, and I think on some level you recognize that don't you? You were never fast or strong. Not even head of your class. It tried, your little mixture truly did...but the only option left was to start from scratch."

When did Karver get this close? When did he wrap his hand around his in such a tender embrace? Intimacy alone was foreign to Dorian, but from his disease it was baffling. "I am your cure. I am the solution you asked for. But I know...how terrifying this must actually be for you. Trust me, I know how bleak nothing is. I could have made the process less painful, but my anger got the better of me. I want to remedy that now, and offer you a choice."

"A..A...." Words fail him. He's backed against a wall by his greatest enemy in such a passionate embrace, speaking to him in a way he's never experienced before "A choice?"

"Keep fighting. Succumb tired and afraid, losing potentially every aspect of yourself...or. Come willingly." Now Karver is cradling Dorian's face.

"Let me assimilate you by your own choice, complete the transition, and not only do you go with some dignity and grace but who knows? Maybe some traces of you will remain! The best parts of you accentuating my already superior attributes."

And there it was. The confused look on Dorian's face contorts into pure horror. Karver is looking at him with full sincerity, his voice so gentle and calm. As if this was a good ultimatum.

"Y-you." Dorian is practically shaking. "You're asking me whether I wish to be murdered or EUTHANIZED?"

"If you have to put such ugly terms on it...yes. Go peacefully or go down swinging but regardless Dorian, you are going to succumb. You pushed the needle in, your inferior body created me to replace you, the least I could do is offer you some mercy-"

"Mercy??" He scoffs, attempting to wrench his hand free. "You call this MERCY? Asking me to give up EVERYTHING to you, my whole life thrown away for someone else to live!"

"Oh please you were barely living your life. The crime they pinned on you aside, you had the social skills of a thorn bush. You couldn't even make a friend with the one person willing to talk to you. You were nothing and even if you get rid of me you will go back to being nothing."

Ouch. That's why the face looked familiar. Dorian looks back out into the crowd, now realizing the perfectly still figures were all people they knew And sure enough among them was Douglas. Masked, but undeniable.

"You...why is he here...?" His voice is a whisper. "Did...you make him?"

Karver follows Dorian's gaze and is silent for a moment. "...He was brilliant. And talented. He would have done amazing things. Then because of you, all that was taken away. This is more evidence. All you do is break things. You were a runt of a child and have grown into a failure of a man. Once replaced, maybe this body will be put to use."

"I...That was NOT my fault." A strange new fire he'd never felt rose in his stomach. "I am TRYING. And yes. I fuck up. But that is part of living. I'm...I'm going to swt things right. I'm going to survive. They're going to help me find my cure, and you will be such a forgotten memory even I won't remember your putrid name."

Karver is silent for a long while, studying Dorian closely. He seems to come to some sort of decision and sighs closely before stepping very close to him. "I want it known...I offered peace. And from here on out you will be treated as a tumor. And I am going to have you cut. Out. Dorian Rathmore. I tried being civil."

Without warning, his teeth were in Dorian's neck. Pain shot through him and he could feel blood dripping down Karver's mouth.

He sat upright suddenly. And a smile spread across Karver's face. After penning a letter and having it sent to the inn, he set off With newfound purpose and a new deal to make.

[shadowdianne]

hello there, do you have any advice on what to do after being stabbed in the back? it's for a friend

Hello my friend. Uhm… about being stabbed in the back you say? I certainly don’t know how that could be correlated to ANYTHING on my recent posted stories. (xd)

(Don’t despair tho. How about something like… this?)

A/N In order for the right part of the actual fic being understood we need to look back to a previous written moment that is actual canon on our little story. I’ll mark when the actual moment ends and the fic starts but I’d say that it’s going to be quite obvious. If you have any doubts regarding lore and why are we doing certain things don’t hesistate on asking Xd Also, did I get it right H? Was that your tumblr, darlin’? 😉

A/N2: This happens BEFORE our current situation and backs up the reasoning behind Freya’s weakness against psychic damage and how Jericho and others have learnt to maneuver through it. In case M hasn’t sent you this one.

 She wasn’t entirely risen by the voices whispering at the other side of the closed door; she didn’t truly have the memory of when she had awoken, to be honest. Just a blur of morning light and scurrying shadows that had become clearer the longer she kept her eyes open. It hurt to breathe, though, and there was a phantom pain at the height of her diaphragm: as if something had punctured it enough times for her lungs to heave.

She was surrounded by softness; the quality of the sheets that covered her good enough to make her remember the bed that had been hers back at her parents’ home and she curled her hand around a fistful of the fabric while pulling it closer to her face. The scent that permeated them, however, wasn’t the salty one from the bluffs back at her childhood home but herbs and remedies made out of lavender and night jasmine and she inhaled it as her mind kept on swirling.

There was something there though; a vacancy, a haze, that made her swallow, uncomfortable, as she heard Allura’s voice at the other side of the door. Urgent; worried. The answering one was Ireena’s; much calmer, subdued, and accompanied by a set of footsteps so light she suspected no one but someone accustomed to Jericho’s way of walking would have heard. Pressing the tip of her tongue against the back of her teeth, she focused once again on the haziness that tinted her mind.

She remembered some things; the fight against the creature. Vera’s awful way of trying to make it look towards her direction as she brandished her new sword, the one she had managed to buy from the poor merchant they had helped a few towns ago. She also remembered her own magic; feral and blue-colored, as she had called forth Sehanine’s power. The moons had shone between the clouds, their light growing brighter the longer she kept the connection open, circling her, penetrating her, filling her, until she had expelled it towards the fangs of what seemed about to devour them all.

She had heard a screech, a sound so high she had winced while wishing to have had the thought of covering her ears. And then…

Then nothing, darkness.

There had been other moments when she had felt the anguish rising up her throat, clawing its way up her flesh, ripping through her muscles. She had usually needed a few days under Jericho’s care to fully come back, complaining all the time as the tiefling tried his best to make her see that it was good to admit that she needed external help. A thought so risible that she now wanted to laugh yet again.

She could recognize a psychic attack when there was one. The numbing pain, the excruciating memory of her own alive status, the throbbing of wounds that weren’t hers but should have. She glanced down, at her fingers and the white-hued knuckles as they grasped the sheets; she was naked down them, she could feel the graze against her bare skin and, glutton as she was for punishment, she opened and peeked down, at the tattoos that were visible from her angle: starry and dark against her skin. A spill of ink against a white piece of parchment.

She skimmed her fingers from her free hand down her collarbone, reveling on the goosebumps she created on its wake. It was a strange sensation, almost as if it was something occurring to someone else, someone that was connected to her but just far enough for her mind to still feel deliciously numb. She wondered, and not for the first time, if she could keep the numbness forever, at least until she died.

Perilous thoughts, worrisome, but still ones she liked to entertain. Or, better, ones that never quite left her no matter how many times she pretended otherwise.

A sudden yell at the other side of the door, the echo of Ireena’s voice as she said something in that dialectal version of her own druid cant, made her halt, the cobwebs her thoughts were diluting as dew under the morning light. She moved her hand back up, covering herself once more and inspecting not her immediate surroundings but the room she was in.

It was one of Allura’s. Not the same she had stayed in during her first weeks back in Emon after…

After.

The bed was more spacious for once, the windows opening up to a second-level balcony and the details on mahogany made it quieter than the one filled with books and golden details she remembered from her last stay. Door at her left, closed and covered with etched sigils and a small yet probably enchanted chest at the end of the bed itself completed the room. It wasn’t much. But she suspected that had been the whole idea of leaving her alone.

She still could remember her screams and cries the first time she had opened her eyes after a psychic attack, the way her lungs had stopped as she had cried her heart out, as she had called for the gods, any gods, to take her soul and give the world back the ones that had been lost. Jericho had found her that day, mud up her knees, fingers dirty and bloody, magic dripping out of her in thick rivulets of energy that turned black everything they touched, sucking on its life-force, leaving it dry.

*“For the glory of the Twelve Allura, I merely was trying to help her!”

“I know that! But I also told you that we should wait a little bit longer before exposing her to your potion, you even said it so yourself; it’s still very early on the trials. We don’t know if it will have any consequences on her psyche…”

“Worse than the ones she has every time some kind of monster starts to thrash around on her head? Yeah, I’m sure whatever I give her will be worse than that.”

“I’m not…”

“She is awake.”*

Freya wasn’t entirely sure how Jericho always managed to known when she was awake, or how he could tell from the other side of the door but as soon as his voice filtered through the door, she jumped and went directly to the chest, sheets falling down around her as she fiddled with the lock until it opened. Inside, a new set of clothes welcomed her. Allura’s, probably, or that one friend she insisted she needed to make amends with -was it Kyma? She wasn’t sure-. Nevertheless, and despite them being maybe too tight on some places, she knew there was no point on pretending to be asleep no more after Jericho’s words. They would probably check up on her soon if she didn’t make any obvious noise and, despite the numbness and the slow realization her tongue and throat indeed felt weird, as if something akin to belladonna had been shoved into it a little while ago, she didn’t want them to worry. Or ask if she was alright.

She should have been more careful; probably. That’s what Vera would say with a scowl adorning her stupid face.

Sighing as she pulled the sleeves down her forearms as much as she fabric allowed her, she kicked the floor a few times, testing the deer-skin boots. Flexible, but the obvious scarring around the ankles told her that they had been fitted to withstand heavy armor rather than the lighter one she was accustomed to wear.

Definitely not Allura’s.

She stopped once more as the whispers at the other side of the door resumed once more, subdued and soft as if both the magician and the druid had decided that she shouldn’t know what they had been talking about until then. A potion had been mentioned. Ireena’s potion.

It wasn’t as if she didn’t trust the woman: her mentor had proven to be incredibly wise. But also succinct and not very forward if she considered she didn’t need to know apparent obvious details. And last time she had gotten a taste of belladonna…

Shivering at the burst of pain that particular memory brought with her, she walked towards the door, reaching for it, while glancing at the disarray she had left the bed in. She could always gain some more time if she made the bed, of course, but she wasn’t feeling entirely like it and she suspected there would truly be no point. Turning on the knob, she noticed the sigils glowing once before they died once again, the spell one she couldn’t quite recognize, made out of a magic she wasn’t knowledgeable of. Uncomfortable by the situation, the half-elf stepped outside the room only to be stopped once more by Jericho’s arms as the tiefling hugged her.

He smelled of leather and burned oak and there was very little else of him she was able to focus on before he took a step back, his hair in more disarray than usual as he took into her face, hands falling at his sides. At his back, still glaring at each other while seated around a table in where three teacups rested -cold, probably, due to the lack of steam rising from them- Allura and Ireena sighed at unison.

“Next time you try a new trick I’m going to tie you against a tree.”

Jericho’s voice made her glance at him once more, a smidge of a smirk on his lips despite the worry on his eyes. He was trying, that much she could tell, to appear non-fazed but they knew each other good enough and if there was something Freya hated was such obvious attempt at subterfuge. Rolling her eyes, she shoved into him friendly enough for it to be non-threatening, while she still addressed the two other occupants of the room.

“You gave me a potion?”

The air in the room froze and it became visible for a moment as the question made Ireena growl on her seat before she, too, rose. The tint on her skin seemed paler than usual, blue veins coloring her neck, bulging on her forearms, as Allura mimicked her.

“I found a way of keeping your outbursts at bay. Since you won’t stop adventuring.”

Allura crossed her arms at Ireena’s words. There it was, the protector’s need, the will Freya could recognize as it had once upon a time been hers. Not anymore though, not with the same intensity.

The ones she had longed to protect and care for were dead. But while she recognized the forlorn thoughts as the aftershock of a psychic attack the scarring pain wasn’t crippling her. Something was keeping her functional.

She swallowed, tasting the belladonna once more, the mix with it and something else, something she couldn’t quite place but in her mind it left a silver tray of magic and frozen leaves.

“What do you mean?”

[On with this!]

-.-

Jericho’s groaned as both he and Freya stepped outside Allura’s tower, the sun high and biting every shadow high-noon light couldn’t quite reach in-between the pebbles that covered the otherwise soft-looking road. His muscles were sore, wooden, and he messed up his hair always conscious of the two small horns that jutted from atop his forehead. He had barely gotten any sleep last night and the discussion and posterior conversation full of magic lingo that had happened once Freya had woken up hadn’t exactly helped to the blaring headache he had been sporting ever since he had insisted on getting the druid checked with the Archanist.

At his back, Freya sighed, eyes dull and expression contrite. The half-elf had barely spoken after Ireena had explained the tonic she had given her had been readied with a situation like the one they had suffered in mind. The first time Freya had woken up, memories, and nightmares mixing in a far too real attack, Jericho had been at loss. A feeling he didn’t quite enjoy. Not ever and especially not when Freya was involved. Knowing there were steps in place in order to evade a repeat of the moment when he had gotten a whiff of how utterly broken Freya had been due to the loss of so many calmed him. Yet, he, as always, found himself weary of the use of a tonic, a potion. He knew enough of them to know they were useful and needed and he wasn’t proud enough to lie and say that magic wasn’t something that needed to co-exist with maybe the less overt ways his own kind used but there was something there, out of his reach, that made him glance back at Freya once more as the half-elf raised her head towards the sky.

He wondered if she was thinking on transforming back on her white crow form and fly away. It was something she did sometimes when the pressure became too much and lucidity was needed. He suspected that, if it wasn’t for the bruises and ghost-like appearance the druid sported, he would have already been left with a flurry of feathers and the taste of magic at the back of his throat.

“How bad it was?”

Freya’s voice echoed as she started to walk, leaving the tower behind while starting the descend of the quite step path that curved down towards the less flamboyant part of the city. She wasn’t looking at him per se, but at her own boots, as if trying to gauge how much everything had been hit once her eyes had been blind to the world. He used that moment to take a gulp of air, reminiscing even if he quite didn’t like to at the moment where he had seen her fall.

“Not as bad as other times.” He finally answered, voice subdued. And it was true, after all. The attacks were still terrible, full of blood that wished to be spilled, but there had been a soothing-like feeling there. As if the moons that fed Freya’s magic had been conscious as well. He truly didn’t have a proper channel with Sehanine and he suspected the goddess wouldn’t truly answer him if he asked but he could guess that the deity had been there, accompanying him as he had moved among the battlefield with only one goal in mind: get Freya to safety. “But…”

“Yeah, yeah, you will tie me to a tree if I ever try to pull something like that again.”

Freya’s voice was tinted now with amusement despite the obvious tiredness in the way her muscles shagged and Jericho couldn’t do anything but smile at that as the half-elf turned and, reaching ever so carefully, arranged his hair once more, giving a quick tug to the tufts of hair closer to his horns. He always tried to play the passable human rather than the tiefling side. Most due because it aided with the blending on a city like they were and his own addiction on not being in the spotlight. However, the white-haired druid always tried to mess that ideal as much as possible, twinkle on her eyes.

“Maybe not tying but I’ll definitely think of something.” His own response was followed by his right hand as he grabbed her wrist, as gently as possible but pressuring her skin just enough. A hug that wasn’t entirely given, not with the situation they both were in.

Which made him consider the conversation he would like to have with the half-elf at some time, at some point. Not now, though, not with everything that was and were. Vera said it: He liked to play safe. No bets were ever won without knowing for a fact they would turn out profitable. He was a rogue, after all, he never liked the concept of something failing.

And, he thought as Freya bumped into him before moving away once more, that was precisely why he waited. He liked her. But, what if…?

What if.

[Enjoy the chaos. I’ll certainly will]

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

Someone asked for the brushes I've used to make these pages, so here they are! There was an ABSURDLY excessive amount of airbrushing to create the shadow-ish effects; as well as adding in little rips, stains, and wrinkles to make the paper look a little dirty and worn.

Most of the pages were just random paper pngs that I ripped off the internet for texture! Some of them weren't even transparent, so I had to erase the white parts out with the magic lasso tool. The smudge and liquify tool was used a LOT, not so much the blur, tho, since I didn't like the effect it made...

I also abstained from using a pitch black for the pencil sketches because it made them stand out a little too much on the page?? So I went for a gray/brown-dish color instead.

I mainly used this custom pen brush for the pencil! It works like a charm, but I have NO IDEA how tf I even made it in the first place, or even remember making it... the settings are below if you want to make the pen yourself!

It just occured to me that Stan technically canonically liked to draw, so here's my take of what Stanley's sketchbook would have looked like had he never gave up on art :]

Stanley first found this sketchbook left behind in a dumpster next to a library. The rings that once held the pages together were broken and warped, so he instead fashioned himself a jury rigged binder by weaveing one of his shoelaces through the holes in the side. In the end, it was essentially just a stack of barely held together paper, but he was still satisfied with it.

Pencils were easy enough to snag from the store since they fit so easily inside his pockets; but he had to settle for the shitty stubby pink erasers that barely did its job on the end of the pencils if he made any mistakes.

Stanley wasn't much of a poetic guy, and he didn't do the kind of art that had deep symbolism or meaning behind them. He was more the kind of artist that just drew what was in front of him, plain and simple. Had he been younger, he might have been able to fill in this cobbled together sketchbook in a matter of days, page after page filled to the brim with creatures and adventures of the wildest dreams.

Well, Stanley wasn't exactly a sprightly young child anymore with a boundless imagination to take inspiration from, but 10 years was a long time to be on the road and moving around, so there was plenty for him to draw.

(My primary goal was just to make these pages look as realistic as possible, but I did add in mini backstories in each of the pages' image description, if you feel like reading that :])

[stillgotme]

HELLO EVERYONE ok i’m finally doing this after like 84 years lmao

SO yeah several people in the past few months have asked me about my editing process and i said that i’d hopefully do it after gen 2 stuff and since i’m taking a break from gen 2 and wanna stall bc returning to gen 1 will be painful, ya girl got her ass to go through with it. keep in mind, this tutorial is for people who already know the basics of photoshop. if you don’t there’s many tutorials online that’ll help beginners. i’m gonna be editing a pic of val and chance all dressed up and ready to crash a prom to get lit with their homies maggie and eli

*rosanna pansino voice* LET’S GET STARTED

so i use reshade and i believe the version i have is 3.0.7 or something idk but it’s 3.0 and i switch between 3 presets that are my own. the one i use the most started with pickypikachu’s cinematic preset as a base.

now, i know not everyone has reshade, but there’s still a way you can mimic the DOF effect with photoshop. when my stubborn ass edited everything myself all i did was duplicate the photo, apply field blur and adjust the bokeh lighting, added a layer mask and with a brush using the color black, i “colored” in what i didn’t want to be blurry and BOOM ya got that DOF goodness

so for DOF i use either the marty mcfly shader or the matso shader and even both, like in this case. i also love that sweet mxao bc ooh yess them SHADOWS. but unfortunately bc i’ll never ever let go of alpha hair and you’ll have to rip them away from my cold dead hands, ya get this shit.

the dof and shadows cutting through the hair making it look ugly and blurry and just all around BLECH

so when taking screenshots, i take two photos. one with the dof and mxao and another without those shaders

now i open both pics in photoshop and layer the photo with the effects over the one without

ok this is totally optional and you don’t have to do it but i like to crop my photos and the preset for my cropping dimensions is 1150 x 705 bc that’s what i’m going to resize my photos to (w/ 300 resolution). again, totally optional, you don’t have to do this part but i do.

so now i add a layer mask to the top layer

next i select the brush tool and choose whatever brush i wanna use. i usually switch between these two brushes depending on what i need at the moment. and make sure the color you’re painting with is black.

and now just “paint” over the ugly parts to erase them. depending on your photo this can sometimes take a while, but hey ya get that dof and beautiful alpha hair. i also take this time to erase some of the blurriness that forms around my sims from the dof effect

right click on the layer and select “merge down” and i’m left with this. obviously, you see some parts that aren’t blurred anymore but i just fix it with the blur tool at 100% opacity, zoom in on the unblurred edges and blur them in with whatever brush i choose. i personally choose the one with hard edges and i make sure the brush size is very very small. this part’s also a lil time consuming so ya gotta be patient.

doesn’t that look better? now it’s time to get to the actual editing lmao. first, click layer > background layer to make it a background. this is necessary for me bc of the photoshop action i use.

so in order to give my pics that “crisp” look, i first reduce noise and these are my default settings

then i do topaz clean

then smart sharpen

then i use the liquify tool bc sometimes there’s jagged edges on the shoulders, elbows, chins, etc. that i wanna smooth out. i also use this to adjust facial expressions, like for this i wanna make the smiles curve up a lil bit more bc chalerie are in love and happy  

now this is the part where i kinda nitpick bc i’m a perfectionist lmao like i clean up some lines on val’s arms and fix that weird spot on the collar of chance’s shirt, all that small stuff people wouldn’t notice but I DO so i fix it

alright now it’s time for me to draw hair! again, this is optional and i understand not everyone has a tablet or likes drawing hair so skip this if it ain’t your thang. first add a new layer for the hair.

i like to add extra hair to make it more full or fix clipping and “highlights” to kinda emphasize the lighting effects i’ll do later and i usually go with a lighter color of the hair for the highlights OR i do the color of the lighting. in this case i’m just going with a very light brown color. this brush is from this set by castrochew and i have the opacity at 100% and size at 3 px.

this is what it looks like after i draw all the hair. and for the highlights i always reduce the layer opacity to 50-60% or even less than that depending on how subtle i want them to be. after that, i merge them all down.

now it’s time to do all the shading and highlighting. make sure you do it all as separate layers, too. even tho i use mxao it still doesn’t do enough for me, so i always add shadows and i recommend you use dark brown for the shadows as black is a a bit too dark especially when you’re adding shadows around the faces. like y’all don’t want it to look like your sims put mud on their face. trust me guys i contour my face.

now take a hard edge brush and draw where you wanna add shadows

apply gaussian blur and erase any excess “shadows”  then reduce the layer opacity to your liking. now keep doing that in other areas where you wanna add shadows. it all depends on the picture and i really just use my general knowledge of how lighting and shadows work. remember, make sure each shadow and highlight you add is a separate layer!

for highlights, use a light color, a soft edge brush, change the brush opacity to 60% and change the layer mode to “soft light”. like with the shadows, just paint whatever you wanna highlight, gaussian blur, reduce layer opacity, etc. then after you’re done shading and highlighting, merge all the layers down.

then to enhance the highlights even more i use the dodge tool with the exposure at 25% and paint over all the highlighted areas

so this is how it looks after i did all the time consuming stuff and now it’s time to play with COLOR YEAHHHHHH

this is the action i’ve been using forever and it’s a ride or die, always got my back, never fails me, always there when i need it. all i gotta do is click on that and press the “play” button and everything’s beautiful and colorful and all my problems seem to go away and suddenly the your lie in april soundtrack is playing the background

but most of the time i untick the “curves” layer from the action as it can be too bright for me and i just adjust the curves of the image to what i prefer.

now it’s my favorite part! time to add that good-ass LIGHTING and since i went crazy with the lights for the background, it’s gonna be fun to do this one hehehe. ok so first duplicate your image and then choose the color of the lighting you want. for this pic, i want the lighting to be a nice light warm yellow/orange color

now for the brush mode, choose “linear dodge (add)” and change the opacity to 35%-45% or hey even higher if ya wanna go bright as fuck. and get a soft edge brush and make it big. like fucking BIG. you see the size i put it at? yeah, make it big bc we want that beautiful shit EVERYWHERE

YEAH DAS DAT SHIT I LIKE. keep painting over areas ya wanna see glow and even paint over the same area twice to make it brighter. hell, don’t just stop at one color. add other colors of light if ya want. add some pinks or blue or purple, adjust the brush size, go crazy. BLIND EVERYONE.

buuuuuuut with all the sweet lighting, it tends to make your pretty pic look all washed out and also lighting doesn’t always work that way. and that’s why i told y’all to duplicate your image bc we’re gonna add a layer mask again and with a soft edge brush you gotta erase some of that lighting. change the brush mode back to normal, put the opacity at 100% and make sure your brush is black and get rid of what you need to. but what’s good about this is you don’t have to be perfect and it’s ok if there’s still some lights on your sims bc now it looks like the light is shining on them awwww. now merge that layer down

now color balance! i like to enhance the red, magenta, and blue most of the time but as always it all depends on the photo and what your preference is.

all that’s left to do now is change the image size. i change the resolution to 300 ppi (it doesn’t really do anything but like it’s become a habit of me to do it so i do it idk) and make sure if you’re making your image smaller, you apply “bicubic sharper” so your image stays sharp when you change the size

AND THIS IS THE FINAL PRODUCT.

so this is my editing process and i hope some of you learned some stuff from this. also please keep in mind that i also encourage y’all to do your own spin on things when you edit. i’m all for taking tips from others and learning cool new tricks but develop a style that fits YOU. eventually you’ll find it and i know that you’ll end up creating something amazing that shows how unique and lovely you are.

anyways, i’m so glad i finally got this done. love you guys 💖💖💖