#so I did it with inverted method

[why-the-heck-not]

20.12.23, wednesday

My main hobby is just procrastinating in any way I can. The plan was to make a cup of coffee and then start working. What actually happened is that I watched a 3 part video series (by james hoffmann ofc) on Aeropress coffee and made a few cups with different variables. Still not sure if I found The Recipe for me, but it’s getting better (tho I don’t love the coffee beans I have)

[tempural]

Started with this B/W sketchbook drawing. Got inspired by the look of the sketchbook spiral on the side, cuz it looked like film notches. Made me think of x-ray scans. Ended up doing the whole medical route on the final drawing.

Coloring method was mostly pressing the "invert" tool to turn the canvas black. Then painting red/yellow with gradient maps. And then drawing the glowing blue lines, as well as typing the "medical" text, on an "add" layer.

Spoilers and long head canons and unlicensed medical talk under the cut.

The text reads:

REVIEWED BY PONY EXPRESS AUTODOC MODEL-SCUMSUCK

PATIENT: CURLY

Near total body disruption from explosive decompression

Complete dermal vascular system collapse

Severe radiation poisoning

Hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state

Muscle and bone cachexia

Single eye rupture

Chronic obstructive pulmonary

Testicular rupture

Severe leukopenia

Itchiness and dry eye

RECOMMENDED TREATMENT

Administer intravenous therapy and catheter

Support neck and spine

Change bandages as supplies last

Orally administer paracetamol for pain

Turn and reposition patient every 2 hours to prevent bed sores

Create relaxing enviroment

Listen attentively to understand emotional state

Allow time for exercise and meditation

Encourage positive thinking

Brush teeth

Administer mouthwash

SIGNED OFF BY DOCTOR ANYA

Of course none of the treatment is actually good. In the game itself, you give him paracetamol (TYLENOL) for pain haha. So I thought I'd go along with the bad medical advice. Including that universal medical advice you get to do "exercise and meditation" if you are in a bad mood :)

I think I spent about as much time looking up the medical stuff (specifically things in relation to explosion damage and radiation damage - thinking of the Byford Dolphin Incident as well as Hisashi Ouchi) as I did with the coloring! We don't know what exactly happened with Curly, but I'd just guess with my lack of medical knowledge that the ship crashed, something exploded, and he was exposed to intense radiation.

Realistically he wouldn't be surviving with the level of medical care they have available on the ship, so I drew a couple things I thought would help him... namely the IV and catheter haha. Also thought it'd be a fun time to introduce my favorite headcanon to gift cute characters: the gift of genital nullification. Yes, I drew this mostly to show off my not-buff and no-pp headcanons!!!!

I like Curly with no skin, no muscle, no hair. It's ok if he had those before. I probably wouldn't draw him "recovered" with perfectly functioning prosthetic limbs and magically regrown vocal cords and sexy 8 pack abs. That's just me. He could get a wheelchair, perhaps some sort of eye controlled assisted communication like Stephen Hawking (but Curly doesn't seem to be able to control his jaw or cheek?).

Thinking about ~da dystopian future~ and what support he would even get? His job ain't gettin him anything :P He doesn't seem to be in the sort of society with universal healthcare, they'd drain his savings and then put him in a dark room with a nurse that turns him over once every 24 hours... Well, that's if they find him. I think he's staying frozen for 20 years and then melting like Walt Disney once the power runs out.

[thepaintedsable]

PYRO! It’s Pyro! Yippee e!

I accidentally inverted the colors all of the insignias and gave Blue Pyro Red Pyro’s flamethrower :( My professional explanation for the second part is that Blue Pyro beat the living shit out of Red Pyro and stole their weapon, my professional explanation for the first part is I am is have are stupid.

Close-ups and special sketch page below the cut!!!

I remembered TF2 existed and this happened.

I have to mention that I have never touched this game, but I’ve been fairly aware of it for a really long time. I strayed away from it all because I was not/am not the best at multiplayer games, especially shooters (especially team shooters), and I never exactly felt like I had the skill to draw any of the characters. Plus the comic’s whole “missing the last issue” situation. I just really, really, didn’t want to be let down by investing myself in something I couldn’t be invested in. But something about “Meet the Pyro” stuck in my head like a burr to a shoe.

Rewatched Meet the Pyro more times than I should have. Looked into more animations and the fandom. Finally broke down and read the comic LMFAO. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed it! Even with the missing part, the format it’s presented in and the general wackiness was refreshing compared to what I normally read.

I still like Pyro, and when I remembered I’m better at drawing now, augh. There he go. They are all over, as they should be.

MF has a homemade flamethrower, canonically killed great value brand Smokey the Bear (on purpose), is/was the highly successful CEO of an engineering company, and is so efficient on the battlefield his teammates are horrified by him and his methods. Also there is no telling wether they even know what they are doing or where they actually are because of the pyro vision stuff. Plus the fun mystery of who they are under the mask. :) We don’t even know nothin about this guy.

Just a silly little guy. I’d like to take both the “They know nothing about what they are doing” and the “They know everything about what they are doing” and staple them to Blue and Red respectively. Which is which, though? Not important. Only need enough info to pit two bad bitches against each other, and also to consider how their teams treat them in response. They are both fucked up, but in opposite directions.

ALSO WHY DID I HAVE TO FIND OUT THIS FANDOM HAS THE CUTEST SHIP NAMES EVER ON MY OWN????? I don’t even really like ships in general, but like… Texas Toast? Speeding Bullet? Brush Fire??? Can someone please please confirm that French Toast is another one oh my god???? I don’t even care about the ships, I care about wordplay and cleverness. If you look up Texas Toast on this site it is all Engineer x Pyro and that is SO FUNNY

I can’t promise that this will be the last Pyro page. He might be the one that’ll actually stay.

[judithan-fr]

Tutorial: How I Render Accents

PART 2: COLORS

I usually do not recommend 'pixel hunting' aka going over your work with a fine tooth comb and picking out stray pixels to erase. However, for setting up a proper base layer for accents it is imperative to do so.

To explain my method of color blocking: I select everything outside of the lines, invert that selection, then fill in. This does a more accurate job than going into each and every section and filling them all in individually, and is also significantly faster. Only downside is small sections like above where you can see bits of the green (which I use bright green against a dark grey background to contrast the base color, lines, and background) poking out, as well as the inner section where it filled in a spot I did not want filled in. Getting all of this right in this stage will make your life easier as you go. (It's also the method I use to color block all my work, even beyond accents)

Now this where my style of rendering color may come off intimidating and, tbh it might be. I do gradients first and then I color over them with "normal" blend layers. I typically don't use multiply layers unless I'm shading something that has a lot of textures. If this scares you, it's okay I'll keep walking you through it. Here, my gradient goes from a pastel but deep periwinkle, to a soft more cyan blue, then to a lighter pastel green. Skipping steps and going from the periwinkle to green will give it a different look. There's also hints of a pinkish tone as an accent color.

So as I said, these additional layers are done with regular "normal" blend mode layers. I've placed one in between the butterfly line art and the line art for the rest of the flowers, and then an additional layer under everything else. This allows me to create a glow effect specifically around the butterflies, and then specifically under the flowers. Going back and forth with the proper amount of opacity (by using the airbrush transparently) helps to make it glow but not be Too Loud. Also checking it against a dark background can help to check for spots where it spills past the borders, as well as really gauge how Bright it is. I've also color matched the butterflies with the flower pits and the bulbs. This adds extra cohesion and makes them all look uniform but different enough with the gradients.

The stages of how I render gems/dew drops. Take the base color, make it a bit darker and less saturated (as well as changing the hue a bit depending on what the default color is. For yellows I go more orange/red, for blues I go more purple or even pink. It depends), add a small drop light at the bottom thats a fairly saturated version of the base color, and then a stark white/ near white highlight. That's it. Don't over complicate it, it will not matter when it gets shrunk down. Note that I do not use multiply/overlay/screen layers for these types of things as it adds too much bulk to the files and doing it manually helps to strengthen your color theory skills.

For shading and rendering, again, I create a "normal" layer and simply. Draw over what exists. Color picking and hand blending allow me to create the exact shades and effects that I want that multiply/screen/overlay layers may not be able to achieve. (which isn't to say I dont use them! i just don't use them for the main meat and potato part of my coloring) All of what is shown here is also achieved with the CSP asset SOIPEN (which can be found for free in the asset store)

another example. The one on the right is showing how the layer looks without the gradient base layer under it. All of this is rendered by hand. I also specifically put a highlight color around where the butterfly is sitting to give a better illusion that it is properly sitting on the flowers rather than just in front of them.

Next is changing the color of the lines, if needed. A method i'll use is I color just the sections I want (on a separate clipping layer) then lock that layer's alpha setting to them add in a gradient. It's a small and subtle effect that adds more depth without doing a lot of effort. (work smarter not harder)

Now we get to the Polish Layers!

first image is how it looks as a base. second image is with an overlay layer applied. I've used some dark purples and mid tone desaturated greens to push the values a bit further (especially evident on the top left wing) Third image is with a screen layer applied, highlighting the inner most part of the flowers and adding some additional bounce light.

An important thing to note about making accents vs making full coverage skins: OPACITY AND LAYER TYPES MATTER OVER TRANSPARENT SPOTS. What I mean by this is that if you use a soft, light grey to shade with a multiply layer, don't clip it to anything, and have it go outside the lines - that will no longer appear as a 'shadow' when it comes to the final result. Instead you will have a section of soft light grey that is simply laid on top of whatever the image under it is. The same applies for overlay/screen/add layers and so on. If i use a very dark color on a screen layer (to give a soft highlight) and airbrush it over a bunch of stuff and don't clip it, it will end up with this horrible dark splotch over everything that isn't opaque. To this end, mastering normal layers is imperative to having well rendered and convincing accents.

Another thing of note: when it comes to sparkles/small details, note how 'large' the sparkles behind the butterflies are. They seem a bit chunky, yeah?

this is what they look like at proper size. If anything, I could have gone larger on the small metal beads connecting the dew drop jewels to the lace.

Another trick I also like to do is this:

a slight hint of transparency! It's just enough to let the dragon's lines underneath show through but not enough to be super noticable. I like to do this a lot when it comes to sparkly and magical effects.

Next is the worst part of all: destroying all that beautiful hard work with the shadow and line art layers! (sobbing)

This stage always agonizes me. This is my first pass of the shadow/line layers and let's hope it's dark enough.

But yeah that's a start to finish look at how I create my accents. Unfortunately a lot it devolves into needing to know, yknow, line weight and silhouette importance, color theory and the ways that drawing applications actually apply color to a png vs how its rendered in app. All of these things impact the finesse of the accent, and are things you do have to learn gradually over time, but hopefully this has given yall some additional insight and perhaps some helpful tips.

And this should also explain why I get so mad when people go 'hey can I get this accent in another color' no! no you literally can't!

[callmearcturus]

The Video Gaming Major Arcana

The latest patron episode of Into The Aether/@intothecast asked the boys to decide a video game for every Major Arcana card. They ran out of time on it and only got 2/3s thru

my ass was like "Challenge Accepted"

0 - The Fool - Dragon Quest (The Fool is infinite potential and is at the start of a long journey. DQ as a series is a long-running, is a bedrock of the medium, and has done its own takes on everything from pokemon to minecraft, and it either did it first or did it better.)

1 - The Magician - Metroid and Zelda (The Magician is the first person the Fool meets and is a guide for the journey. The Magician is associated strongly with teaching and with tools. Metroid and Zelda both are foundational works and they revolve around gating player process through tools.)

2 - The High Priestess - FEZ (The High Priestess is another guide, but sits before the veil, keeping guard over arcane, hidden knowledge and deciding when to share the secrets of the universe. FEZ is one of the Big Games that hide under layers and layers of mystery.)

3 - The Empress - Stardew Valley (The Empress presides over growth and cultivation of her kingdom, sitting in a field with wheat in hand. SDV is chiefly about taking care of your own domain, the farm and the wider village.)

4 - The Emperor - Civilization (The Emperor is the firm hand of government and can be an important navigator in chaos but also is angered by lack of obedience and losing control. Civ is all about steering every aspect of a nation and protecting it viciously.)

5 - The Hierophant - Pokemon (The Hierophant is a cultural, societal leader that gains power from people who believe similarly but subsequently is very set in their ways. Pokemon is a huge phenomenon that unites people of all ages, but also struggles heavily with innovation and progress.)

6 - The Lovers - Journey (The Lovers aren't necessarily smoochy-smoochy, but represent a Decision, joining hands with another person and striding into the future together. It's Journey. If you know, you know.)

7 - The Chariot - Bethesda's Catalog (The Chariot is a tumultuous, potent card. They hold onto the reins of powerful beasts and drive forward, blazing a new path. But if they lose grip, everything goes to hell. Bethesda's works tend to have this incredible ambition to them, and when they hit, they HIT, but when they miss, it's dramatic.)

8 - Justice - Dark Souls (Justice is the system and its enforcement of its rules, whether they feel fair or arbitrary. I feel DS fits it well-- it relentlessly follows its own rules and is firm in them, which can either draw players in or seem cruel and unwelcoming.)

9 - The Hermit - Immortality (The Hermit is a wise person who gained specialized knowledge but through great personal sacrifice. They find it difficult to share their knowledge because they essentially traded that ability to communicate easily for the wisdom. Immortality has some deeply complicated concepts to communicate, but its methods and the basic mechanics it uses are to some people impossible to understand.)

10 - (Wheel of) Fortune - Spelunky (Fortune is the card of pure luck and the whims of fate and how you survive being caught in its spokes. Spelunky is a pure Rogue-like as opposed to a Rogue-lite and there is no knowing what the procgen will give you.)

11 - Strength - Undertale (Strength is specifically about emotional control and fortitude. It's not about slaying the lion, but holding it, keeping it from lashing out. Undertale is a game that asks the player to endure emotional struggles both against the mechanics and against their own inclinations.)

12 - The Hanged Man - Signalis (OH BOY ITS MY FAVE CARD. The thing about the Hanged Man is that it's a test, a gamble, a deal. The Hanged Man is not hung from the neck, this is not an execution, they are inverted. They choose to be inverted in the hopes of gaining some Insight into the universe, but in doing so risk madness or obsession or doom. Signalis is both a game about a protagonist going through this and also a game that will put the player through this if they aren't careful.)

13 - The Nameless Arcana - Braid (I'm not even personally a fan of Braid, but I believe it is one of the handful of Original Indie Games. The very existence and popularity of Braid and its contemporaries showed that games outside the big studios could hit big. Braid (or Cave Story for the PC crowd) altered the landscape.

14 - Temperance - Yakuza (Temperance is the melding of disparate elements that should not go together into something grand and new, and maintaining that balance. Yakuza manages to be genuine and profound not in spite of its strange mixture of tones and mechanics but because of them.)

15 - The Devil - Genshin Impact (I don't feel the need to elaborate on this one.)

16 - The Tower - Shenmue (The Tower is total upheaval and where it all comes crashing down, where ambition crumbles and brings an institution down with it. Shenmue is not solely to blame for the failure of the Dreamcast and Sega's exit from the console arena, but it contributed to it and is emblematic of that seachange.)

17 - The Star - Mass Effect (The Star is a beacon in the darkness, a distant light that indicates not so much a goal, but that the journey will continue. Mass Effect is a landmark title that maybe didn't execute on half the things it tried, strangled by its own scope, but it still showed what games could do, broadening the possibility space. It is hope for greater experiences and art.)

18 - The Moon - Metal Gear (The Moon illuminates the path through the darkness, but creates illusions in the reflections, demanding the querent move forward with care or they will go astray, go mad. Is Metal Gear really deep? Is it the closest triple-A games get to arthouse? Does it have meaning? Or is it a mess? Is it too Problematique to justify it's big ideas? Is it all just really, really stupid? Or is it genius?)

19 - The Sun - Tetris Effect (The Sun comes at the end of a long, arduous journey. It is the sigh of relief, the tears of release, the light to finally see how far you've come. Tetris Effect is the latest iteration of one of the oldest formulas ever, and it's brilliant and celebratory and invites everyone to take part in its joy.)

20 - Judgement - Pathologic (Judgement is all-seeing and all-knowing, the final tally and the reckoning. So is Pathologic. Few experiences demand so much from the player, and few games are so brutally honest in answering the player's decisions. In Pathologic, you will get what you deserve.)

21 - The World - The Outer Wilds (The beginning is the end is the beginning. Completion and totality and holistic understanding of Everything. It's gotta be Outer Wilds.)

[kakishirocream]

underswap sprites i did for fun lol

-Chara and Frisk Swaps obviously lol but they still keep their personalities and Meta sides. Chara still represents the addiction to number based rewards, finality and your true RPG character.

-Frisk still represents curiosity, completionism, emotional attachment and memories you cherish and the joy from playing for plays sake But theyre in Charas narrator role.

-My take on underswap Chara’s design is based on Unused Human and The Vessel

-My take on underswap Frisk’s design is based on Hero and Kris

-Flowey is still Flowey but hes an echo flower lol I mean i have to swap something

-Asgore and Toriel keep their roles still before their childrens deaths and how they swap roles will play out like Inverted Fate

-Papyrus is the sentry and self appointed judge obviously and hes VERY enthusiastic about his role and along the way he does science experiments and hes still THE GREAT PAPYRUS NYEH HEH HEH!

-sans is an actual member of the royal guard but he doesnt do much yet it seems like he is actually doing sh!t. He sells hotdogs.

- Alphys is the captain of the royal guard but her methods are less direct and she mostly uses puzzles and diversions alongside technology to stop and capture chara, she actually is quite shy and insecure and still a weeb. She does fight direct at the end of waterfall with a mech

- Undyne is the royal scientist, a MAD one. Her experiments can be quite explosive (literally.) she is still brash, determined and willing to sacrifice herself just for the betterment of monsterkind but has expertise in technology and science.

-In this, Mad Mew Mew and Mettaton swaps. Maddie’s show will be more Anime themed and a lot more chaotic than Mettaton in Undertale.

-Again, for Toriel it will work out like Inverted Fate

-I didnt swap Asriel because i am not a fan of swapping monster kid and asriel because to me it doesn't make any sense so he is in the tragic prince role still but Frisk is his childhood best friend instead of chara

Anyways thats all i have for now because its just a random thing i came up with

[sugarmasonmearii]

[Repost] Mario Pokémon Trainers Series

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Almost a year ago, I started this mini drawing series, where I drew the eight well-known human main characters from Super Mario in outfits of the player trainers from all Pokémon regions, in (almost) their official 2D art style, by Shigeru Miyamoto. It's actually hard to capture the full essence of the 2D art style, so I could only get as close as I can. But I think I did okay.

The inspiration behind this series was the stickers from Mario Party Superstars, and since I had been drawing so much Pokémon and missed drawing some Mario, yeah this was the result.

Three months of work, and I did all of this before on computer mouse so it's no easy task. Although after I did Yoshi, I closed off this series and moved on to making more Commissions and finishing my own projects. Despite that, these still get the attention of many in DeviantArt, not so much on Twitter anymore cuz these are literally my first art entries in that site.

I chose a Pokémon from the region assigned to each character:

Mario - I chose Kanto for him, as well as Pikachu because the first Generation is the mascot region of Pokemon, reflecting Mario being the mascot of Super Mario ofc.

Luigi - Johto is actually a region beloved by a lot of people, and Luigi is almost the same, sometimes even more preferred than their counterparts. Although Chikorita's there cuz... green.

Peach - My origin region Hoenn. I chose Skitty for her cuz pink and cute, and perfect for a princess like her.

Daisy - Ironic for a Princess living in a hot biome to be assigned in the coldest region, but at least she has a shiny fellow warm-biome friend Luxio.

Wario - Unova, like Wario and Warioland series, two things that only get the love they deserve way later. Picked Tepig for him, although there are other Unovan Pokémon that'd fit along.

Waluigi - The least loved region, paired with the unloved Luigi Clone. Inkay is due to its evolution method, which also alludes to Waluigi's emblem being an inverted L.

Rosalina - Frankly it's due to the Minior why I assigned her to Alola.

Pauline - Same thing with Grookey that's why she's assigned to Galar.

Yoshi - Someone begged and guilt-tripped me nonstop from the comments in DA, that's why this thing happened. 😑 This too is why I had to strictly implement the "No Free Art Requests!" rule.

Will the series continue? Apparently it did because of this commission. But again, I don't intend on voluntarily continuing this series. So if your character didn't came out, you can always commission me :) ...

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If you're interested in a commission from me, [do check here] for details. Or you can check my [Carrd art commissions.] Or you can DM me too.

You can support me via [Ko-fi] and/or [Patreon] too!

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Fanart: Me Super Mario and Pokémon: (c) Nintendo and Game Freak

Do not rip, trace, steal, copy, distribute, or use without consent please!

[thatneoncrisis]

Curious about your issues with the show!! I have my own ofc but always interested In more opinions

spoilers for like. all of the show el oh el

its hard for me to like. properly articulate on the fly but i think its primarily 1. a show that is genuinely trying to build a complicated structure out of the rusted metal and twigs that makes up LoL lore that gets overhauled every like, four years, so often times it feels like a character in arcane will get hard shafted out of a natural arc so they end up where they "should be" in accordance to their league counterpart.

strongest example i have off the dome is violet, where i think in act 1 of arcane shes a really intriguing and well crafted character whos sympathetic and has goals and values you can follow. and then they shunt her off to prison during the time skip and when she comes out shes like. everything she does from that point on just feels Tilted it feels like they gutted out all the parts that would have gotten me from A to Z wrt her going from scrappy kid in the lanes whos like. direct causes of terror and unhappiness in life were from enforcer. to a bitch who joins the enforcers. and its not that i dont think that turnaround is possible, i just dont think they articulated it well with such a truncated amount of episodes split between so many subplots

and then my main Thing 2. uuuh. this is more of like my own issues with this kind of story telling in general rather than an arcane specific issue that i will codify as "liberal progressives attempt to Both Sides the issue of apartheid in their magic story." the creators of the show emphasized that they wanted each character to be morally grey, differnt shades to them and the motivations contextualizing their actions. which is like, fair enough thats just good character writing but i dont think theyre particularly. great at that. especially when trying to marry it to my earlier point about how certain characters essentially have to invert to become their league analogs in some sense. also someone like ekko? not grey. hes just right? he doesnt fuck with enforcers and he doesnt fuck with the kingpin flooding the lanes with shimmer, he just wants to help the people suffering the most. stand up dude.

theres a lot of different levels to which this clashing between intent and execution falls flat for me in arcane but the one ill get into now is silco and vander. from an objective view its a classic story of two close brothers in arms driven apart by ideology/circumstance, weve seen it with professor xavier and magneto, it also reminded me of tchalla and killmonger although they dont have the childhood friends aspect going for them. but the point is its not like a unique idea. two people want to change the world for the better, one of them starts killing civilians about it, the first guy is like hey! maybe dont do that! epic fall out ensues.

and the story is cognizant of the fact that silco IS an antagonist: not just in the sense that he is opposing our protagonists goals, he sold out the children to the enforcers in the first act, he released shimmer onto zaun and keeps a stranglehold on the city with his circle of chem barons like he fucking sucks. and the whole time im watching im noting how his methods to "free zaun" are like, THE thing destroying it. the streets are rampant with nameless mutated homeless people hooked on shimmer he is directly responsible for. and i was kind of waiting for like. a shift within his circle. if that makes sense. obviously people like violet and ekko and caitlyn dont like him but they never did they dont have to be convinced, but to have someone who initially put all their trust into him as the guy to bring zaun into glory and then slowly have to reckon with the fact theyve propped up a mad man who has prioritized power in himself over the initial goal of liberating the city would have whipped ass.

and then it just didnt happen. theres this fascinating thing going on with silco where hes talking mad shit about the likes of vander, oh hes too softhearted, he will never do what it takes to truly ensure the safety and freedom of the lanes bc he cares too much about his damn babies. and then silco finds himself as caretaker of one of those babies. the show meticulously shows me how he cares for her, he softens for her, he lets her tinker in her silly cave all day and blow up cops with harley quinn bombs. so we have three main things to keep in mind with silco:

his primary stated goal is to free zaun from piltovers repressive rule.

his shimmer production is one of if not The thing actively destroying the lanes

he now has Baby, whos safety has become a growing priority for him.

this culminating in the finale where he is presented with the opportunity to hand her over to the authorities in exchange for zauns independence. now THIS could have been a really interesting internal dilemma for him. he is now faced with the exact choice that led vander to becoming "weak" in his eyes. whats one girls life in exchange for his dream finally becoming a reality. but its also an impossible thing to ask because thats his Daughter. so now hes risking scrutiny from his underlings for being wishy washy. ooh intrigue mystery. youd really need some time to steep on his agonies and what hes really willing to prioritizeat this point in his life

and then none of that happens bc hes immediately kidnapped and shot and never has to seriously consider it. he never has to SACRIFICE he always just. has everything he wants. forever. until he dies. powerful chem baron running the show with his army of teen supersoldiers.

another route i considered them being able to do is something more focused on him and sevika. she left vander to join his cause specifically bc she thought vander was weak. as his right hand, she would do anything for silco, including literally giving up her fucking arm when she saved him from the blast in act one. timeskip, now we see she has a fun new mech arm powered by silcos own shimmer, which we are shown the side effects of time and time again. i thought this was leaning into a metaphor about how her emotional dependence on him and his cause was being represented by a chemical dependence on shimmer. like its destroying her physically and mentally but she NEEDS it to work out to know it wasnt all for nothing so shell put up with whatever sketchy bullshit hes got going on, the ends justify the means. and we get like six detailed shots of shimmer being pumped directly into her body i thought for sure they were gonna be like oh this is fucking killing her, like a compound v situation

but shes like. fine. theres no side effects besides a cool scar. shes chilling.

i also thought her antagonistic dynamic with jinx was going somewhere. like if sevika noticed that silco was putting her above what needed to be done for the sake of liberating zaun, and noticing how it mirrored how vander became "weak" and getting that much more pissed about playing second fiddle to a 17 year old. like imagine you get that whole scene where sevika makes it look like shes gonna execute silco, then murders the chem baron who asked her to do it because she trusts him THAT much, then later she hears about jayce's offer to silco and sees him GENUINELY considering leaving the offer on the table JUST for jinx. sorry if i was her id snap. id go crazy id start a coup.

so basically what im saying is. lotta different options to make the characters richer and more grey as they struggle with what they really care about. but the story just kind of shuffles past them and then insists that the bonds were there the whole time you guys jinx and sevika are totally besties now shes a symbol of zaun <3

[no-name-publishing]

Dirt by Astern

Right off the bat not gonna tell you how long this took me to finish, cause it's embarrassing. But it's done, it's huge, and it's mine!! More glamour shots and process pics under the cut!

Hand dyed cloth, done with an ice dyeing method; title painted with gold paint, as well as the distressed areas; speckled edges done with acrylic ink and metallic bronze acrylic paint; handsewn endbands made from silk-finish cotton sewing thread; typeset and printed by myself all from Word.

Cheeky little video showing it all off together.

My first and sadly second ice dyeing attempts to get this looking right. First pass was not near what I wanted at all, so we stuck this bad boy back in the freezer.

Steps from trimming the unruly head and tail, to splattering the edges, to sewing the endbands. Took me probably approx 3 hours for each one, and I did 2 copies, so four endbands RIP. (The keen-eyed will also notice the patterns do not match between the two photos of the endbands. That's because I wasn't paying close enough attention and inverted two of the colors between copies. But it's a feature not a bug!)

And Tommeh :3 Thank you for looking!

[fantasy-anatomy-analyst]

I've got a small pile of unanswered asks, sorry for the wait! got myself busy again with other projects, like a christmas themed kids book I need to get done by thanksgiving.

I've been noticing that when my uncle has the books printed, they come out very dark and muddy, which is not great! I tried to research rgb to cmyk conversion and ran into all sorts of different advice on which profiles to use, found that most of the instructions rely on very specific art software, only to ultimately learn that many places used for printing art will just apply their own cmyk profile anyways. which can actually make the colors worse if you already converted the file yourself.

and furthermore, the problem is extra bad with these books because my uncle has been going through Amazon and they use a variety of third party printers! based on the results with the books, I'd say they're cutting costs with low quality cheap printers >:/ which means there's nothing I can actually do on my end to ensure that the illustrations accurately print with the colors I'm using.

However. I don't give up so easy. I've seen artists make all sorts of color choices just so the end results looks a specific way under specific circumstances. Like using negative colors so the image only looks "normal" when it's been inverted. or using blue and red so the image looks different based on whether it's under a red lens or a blue lens. making color illusions like that blue/black vs white/gold dress or the illusion of grey strawberries looking red when they're surrounded by cyan. I did a final project in college on the topic of color illusion, making my own example paintings.

(image description: three photos of small paintings. the first two images are solid yellow and green respectively, with neutral grey abstract shapes painted over them. because of the solid color backgrounds, however, the neutral greys appear to be slightly tinged with the compliment color of their backgrounds; blue tinged on the yellow and pink tinged on the green. the third painting shows a side by side comparison of the same pair of yellow scissor handles. on one side, they are painted bright yellow on a plain white background. on the other side, a dark purple background and more dramatic lighting still give it the appearance of being yellow scissors, but in actuality the handles are painted in shades of green and orange, blended together in some places and darkened or lightened with other colors. they simply look more yellow because of the purple background and the warm shading. end description.)

So I know a thing or two about color strategy. and I am not losing a war against low quality cheap printers, not today. I spent a while looking for cmyk color charts and palettes, testing images through an online cmyk converter, and I have finally achieved my goal. the final test will come when the book is done and sent to print. essentially, I just ran a cmyk color chart through a converter to see how it might look after being printed, then set the original and the converted version next to each other on my file. I can now use the brighter original colors but base the colors I pick on how they'll look in the printed result rather than how they look on my screen. this means the version on my screen is far more pastel than I would normally go for! but the test results so far prove the method, and I think this book will print just fine.

(image description: screenshot of the rgb and cmyk versions of the same painting, which look very small and compressed because they're thumbnail images. the rgb version looks very light and uses a lot of pastel colors and soft shading, while the cmyk version looks much darker and has more distinct shading. it depicts a family out caroling around Christmas, standing at the porch of another family who look very happy to hear the song. end description.)

by golly I am not going to let Amazon keep turning my hard work into muddied disasters. I get paid for these illustrations and I'll make them look good in print by any means available to me.

here's the colors btw if anyone else needs to use this trick:

(image description: two color charts. one is very bright and rainbow, the other is much lower contrast and dark. the colors that are the most affected are the blues and greens, while the reds and yellows are somewhat more intact. the greys have also become more brown in the second version. end description.)

just figure out what the end result needs to look like and pick the brighter color accordingly. should make the low quality print jobs look at least passingly decent! sometimes you really have to plan ahead to make things look the way you want.

[wordy-little-witch]

Transfemme Buggy who never realized until a certain disease is transmitted and spread on an island she and her crew visits.

Blackboard and his ilk had been there before, and Buggy had just so happened to show up within a week of the other leaving. Damages were minimal overall but the marks of their presence was there, everywhere, in the pale faces, the new graves, the sickness and fear.

It was a typical stop, supplies and information gathered in equal measure. Tasks delegated, Buggy is among a group chatting up the locals, and that layer of ignorance self consciousness is there, as it always is, when eyes catch on the captain's visage, but way that Buggy is being watched changes between one minute and the next. Someone comes into the shop, a young woman at a glance, who sneezes. Buggy doesn't think much on it, a charming smile and offered handkerchief the only response. The gazes go from wary, warming up to them, to suddenly wild and fearful and there's a shout and-

Buggy chokes on air, feeling the moment something latches in his lungs. His Devil Fruit is useful in ways few can fathom, in ways he cannot explain, but the introduction of something Foreign and Unapproved is a feeling the jester knows well, one which is often a mere reflex to Chop off of his cells, but this one adheres, latches, and Buggy can feel it seep and spread and-

Between one moment and the next, Buggy blinks past the sudden vertigo, genome shuffled and reverted and inverted until the swimming in his vision pauses, Cabaji's wide, panicked face swirling into focus. The blue haired pirate squints, confused tilts a dizzy head, and then freezes at the ambient wave over sensitive Haki, terror and guilt and panic which chokes and screams and wails.

Buggy moves to stand and freezes.

He looks down.

That is... definitely new.

A gloved hand touches his chest, the breasts straining under the striped top. "Huh," the clown captain says after a moment. "I did not have 'Sudden Sex Change' on my 1565 bingo card."

There's laughter, and Buggy preens a little as the negative emotions begin bleeding off, replaced by cautious amusement. Once tempers have calmed enough, there's a moment of questioning, where clarity is sought and then relatively received.

It's a change, certainly, and one which is yet another echo of Teach's group having been on that island. Buggy isn't upset - it isn't their fault after all, the town is just as hit by this as he is - but he is.... contemplative about it.

The crew is overall relatively calm about it. Gender equality is something Buggy does enforces heavily on the crew, assigned sex at birth or otherwise. Barring a few others, some more well renowned than most, the Buggy Pirates are the most progressive and open minded of pirates.

So after a quick explanation, things are back to business as usual - and Buggy is happy about it, obviously, the respect is there and it's perfect, the normalcy is fine.

It's the way he feels that throws a wrench in it all.

It takes a while to realize, because it's There, but it's just beneath the surface.

It starts when Buggy puts on a little weight.

All in all, that's not a big deal - but to Buggy who has a long standing problem with food and eating, it's notable. It's not uncomfortable. It's not like there's an Issue with eating or bodily image issues, it's the lack of time, of desire, of enjoyment in it. Buggy had always been on the slimmer side, never packing on muscle the way of the men and women in his life early on. Buggy was built slim and willowy, no less strong but less visibly jacked. It suited him just fine, that method of muscle, suited to aerials, to agility and speed. It fit and Buggy was adaptable.

Only now, Buggy isn't as preoccupied. There's less of a desperate, cloying need to fill his every waking moment with tasks and duties and activities. It's subtle. It's the slightest of shifts. It starts when he gains a little weight.

Then it becomes casual comments from the crew. "You look so healthy," some say warmly. "You look happy." And Buggy is. Buggy IS happy. And Buggy feels healthy. And it's strange, so strange, and it's wonderful and confusing and amazing, and it all comes to a head as things do with Buggy by sheer happenstance.

They dock at an island. Buggy and Alvida are restocking on makeup. A clerk calls them "ladies". Buggy waves it off, both the butterflies and the referral, and then that same clerk responds to a question the captain asked with a warm "yes, ma'am, absolutely"

And Buggy is having a realization in a small cosmetic shop on a tiny no-name island in the New World.

As they leave, she catches Alvida's sleeve and he - she - asks a question. "Could I... be a woman?"

And Alvida, sweet Alvida, blunt and brutally honest Alvida, snorts. "Fuck if I know. If you want to, sure, but your body doesn't determine that. If you're a woman," she pokes her friend in the chest, above the clown's heart, "then this is all that needs to be a woman. Is it?"

And Buggy breathes shakily. "I... yes. Yes? Yeah. I. I think so."

"Then you're a woman. Now come on, sister, we still need to find a foundation for me."

Buggy comes out to the crew casually though not without nerves. They get back and she just drops it with all the finesse of a bull in a China shop. "Surprise, it's a girl! And by it, I mean me."

The only response for a moment is silence, then someone asks about pronouns. And Buggy is bathed in the cacophony of her crew screeching their happiness for her, thanking her for trusting them, singing her praises, and she's a puddle, truly, she is melting into a pirate puddle.

Accepting it makes things fall into place a little easier. She's comfortable in this body in a way she never was before. The center of gravity fell in a more natural way to her senses, lower and steadier. She isn't any less strong, and she's not at all interested in the stick-thin-sensational body type, though more power to people who rock it. She is herself, and she never expected to be all that different. She's still got the musculature of an aerialist, the corded muscle of a knife fighter, no amount of hormone changes will take away that. She distributes the weight differently like this, filling her clothes in a way that looks and feels better to her. It's like she was assembling a puzzle in her heart, blindfolded, and she never knew a piece was missing until it fell into her hand, knocking the rest into place like a domino effect. Unexpected but undeniable, she was happy.

She felt beautiful in a way that she never had before, she felt more confident, more at home, more at ease in this skin of hers now that it finally was molded into a better form.

And with that contentment came freedom that she hadn't had the time for in what felt like eternity.

Freedom to experiment, to train, to explore. She felt better, so she could be better, could do better, and so she became better.

And the Seas quaked as a result.

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

WOE, RATS BE UPON YE!!

more Ruju doodles because I lost control of my hands, oops

this time, featuring a later snapshot from Ruju's Commander timeline: set around the time of Secrets of the Obscure and Janthir Wilds, he's now even farther off model than he already was!!

and now some obligatory (non-spoiler) ratmander lore-dumping under the cut:

characterization notes as The Commander™

slowly comes into his own over the years, with his softer side finally showing itself mainly when Aurene chooses him

this rat was the softest little guy wherever she was concerned

no seriously he was almost as clingy with her as she was

Caithe was the serious parent he was the fun uncle/big bro

he used to race her up the jumping puzzle in the egg room

largely wanted her to get to have the childhood he never did

he still play-wrestled with her even once she was 1000x his size

his bond to Aurene helps stabilize his magic significantly

there is an inverted bell-curve of 'respect for the Commander' based on how much experience one has with him

step 1: celebrity hero. step 2: violently insane. step 3: ok yes he's insane but also thank every divinity he's on OUR side

actually did NOT get along with Gorrik at first. he is a grade A projector and also distrusts anyone Inquest immediately

Gorrik being enamored by the murderous beetles did not help.

(that entomologist almost wound up in the sea. oops)

after multiple interventions and a few sincere heart-to-hearts though he's become EXTREMELY protective of the guy

similarly protective of Taimi, though he teases her back too

genuinely struggles to keep track of things. he writes out the canon story journal in a small notebook to help with that

miscellaneous other details you didn't ask for

consistently chooses ferocity-aligned dialogue options even and especially when he has absolutely no good reason to do so

do not pick him up. do not pick him up. do not pick him up.

if he allows you to carry him either he really really likes you or he's pretty sure he'd serve a prison sentence for biting you

acts very big and tough but is a total softie deep down

no seriously if you hug him he might actually cry

(he'll claim it's just something in his eye though)

had some crushes in college and fumbled every single one

50/50 shot of whether the rats he picked on were just easy targets or if he liked them and was trying really hard to cover it up

(if he ever met them again he might actually burst into flames)

incapable of sleeping in normal positions. also snores LOUDLY

puts bloodstone dust on ALL his food. Oxbone would be proud

also makes his own food EXTREMELY spicy when he can

dw he won't put that on yours though. he's not THAT mean

originally got into cooking as a method of training his fire magic

LOVES to put on a big show with it if he has guests, too, complete with all sorts of fancy knife tricks. you get The Works

his ADHD hyperfixation is knives/cutlery. he has told no one this

constant motion/fidgeting, can't keep still. foot tapping, scratching, claw biting, pacing, etc are all very common

[boin-de-bindery]

All Shook Up / É tutto cosí semplice by ke_vl

My first têtê-bêche binding! First and foremost, thank you ke_vl for trusting me with your AikuSen fics and agreeing to let me bind them 🧡 please check out All Shook Up and É tutto cosí semplice, two stories which catch me in the feels every re-read.

For this project I had to work out how to format both fics into signatures so that the latter one would sit upside down. I was fortunately able to wrangle one fic into 96 pages, while the other ran to 80. Since both are divisible by sixteen, this allowed for the fics to be formatted into self-contained 4-sheet signatures. Hey presto! So rather than navigate inverting PDFs, I printed the two fics separately, then sewed the latter set of signatures on upside down. It was a lot easier than expected, thanks to the numbers working out so neatly.

This is also my first paper cover bind, with recycled 150gsm cotton paper from Søstrene Grene. Adhesive backed vinyl for the cover graphics and text, bound together using kettle stitch. I'm not sure of what brand the endpapers are, but they're 110gsm and pretty sturdy. The endpapers and headbands reference Aiku's heterochromia, while the cover paper is peachy like Sendou lmao. rip blond Sendou

In terms of typesetting, I've found a formula that works for me and my printer... mostly. The margins are a little wide still, even after a round with the chisel. I've pretty much given up on that as a method of page trimming—it scuffs and tears the edges too badly.

Some further WIP pictures/commentary under the cut, since I actually took some for once!

Sewn textblock, then with added headbands/mull. The kettle stitch took me ages for some reason... considering going back to French link stitch for the next project, I think it's quicker.

The headbands are a little scrunched up but I'm happy with them. Green and purple is a pleasing combo.

Completed casing and textblock, then the weeded adhesive vinyl—supervised by Chigiri 👑

I always tell myself my Cricut can handle cursive and thin fonts as long as they're big enough... it really can't 🥲 Had to redesign and reprint the author name / spine titling for É tutto cosí semplice since my original design was too bitty. Weeding was hell regardless. HTV is so much easier to wrangle, but I have loads of the adhesive stuff to use up before I let myself buy more HTV.

I had a concern that the cover paper design was too busy for the vinyl to stand out on. In the end, the purple looks fine, but I think the reverse cover would look better if I'd used a darker green.

The last issue with the book is how jank the spine looks when the cover is laid flat. I think I glued the purple side of the text block too close to the edge of the coverboard, making the other side bunch? That or yet again, I made the spine stiffener too wide. It's not super noticeable when the book is closed. Hoping to improve on this in future binds!

My favourite detail is inspired by a têtê-bêche novel I owned in childhood (Sisters... No Way! by Siobhán Parkinson) It's written from two perspectives, and when you'd finished reading one, my copy had a note telling you to flip over and read the other side. I did the same thing here, accompanied by panels of the two boys nabbed from the manga.

[chubsonthemoon]

GUESS WHOSE BOOK ARRIVED TODAYYYYYY SO NOW I GET TO POST PICS!!!!

This is To Hell and Back Again, by dear dear @perexcri. Cover design by @byierficrecs (thank you SO much for letting me use your design!). Binding by me!

I'm not in ST fandom, but I had the pleasure of skimming this fic while I was typesetting, and can I just say? I'm rooting for these kids SO hard. I'd go to hell and back again for them--[GUNSHOT]

But in all seriousness, Leah's writing is whip-smart, sincere, and funny as hell. I cannot recommend it enough to anyone who is a fan of these crazy kids. Her ao3 is a veritable treasure trove of excellent byler stories, which you should absolutely check out right now go do it!!!

As usual, process chatter and more pics, under the cut! <3

WORD COUNT: 144k

FONTS:

Title: Hellprint

Heading/Chapter Headings/Spine Titling: Norwester

C4 Summary: Roboto Condensed

Main Body Text: Garamond

COVER MATERIAL: Epson Premium Presentation Paper Matte, printed on my Epson Ecotank (more on that later baha)

HEADBANDS: Trebizond silk thread in the colors Garnet and Black

EDGE PAINTING: Acrylic paint in Crimson and Black

TITLING: Red iron-on foil for the text and white HTV for my maker's mark. Cut by Charlotte, my Cricut!

BINDING:

This was my first go at a German Bradel binding! I've seen lots of Renegade folks use this method and am so psyched I got around to trying it myself. I modified DAS's approach a bit and tipped on endpapers instead of sewing them in (there were a lot of new things to learn so I decided to shelve sewn endpapers for the next binding XD). I also only had 2.0 mm bookboard instead of 1.0 mm, so instead of layering two of the same boards like DAS did, I instead used one 2.0 mm board and one very thin piece of cardboard to create the groove for the hinge. The original article that DAS bases his video on actually uses boards of two different sizes too--a "thick" board and a "thin" board--but I still want to experiment with DAS's way of doing it, especially since I think it'll be easier to do cutouts on thinner board.

As far as matching the groove with the hinge, I think I did pretty okay for my first try! One board is definitely better fitting than the other though baha. There's always room for improvement, but hey that's where half the fun is anyway (and also you can't tell after the case-in whew), so I'm not stressed about it :D

COLOR SCHEME:

Nearly all of my design decisions for the color scheme were based off of @byierficrecs's gorgeous cover design! They were so generous in letting me use their cover and answering my questions about fonts, for which I can't thank them enough. And with so many wonderful elements to work with, it was so much fun to tease out the elements I loved from their work!

I decided to keep with the theme of red/black, which I also thought was fitting for a ST fic set largely in the Upside Down. Thus, black painted edges with red vines, as a kind of inverted, "upside down" continuation of the cover:

Even the thread I used to sew the signatures is red/black! :3 (please also ignore how the picture of the textblock is not focused on the actual textblock ajsldkfjs it was very late when I took that photo)

COVER PRINTING:

This was my first time printing a cover on my new printer (!!!), and BOY oh boy was it an adventure. Figuring out the dimensions took a second, but not as long as it took me to figure out what settings produced something I was happy with. Behold, all my test prints:

Very long story short, let's just say now I understand why being a prepress color specialist is literally a career you can have in publishing LOL.

Also, for some reason I could only sometimes get the bleed to work? Basically what I ended up doing was painting over the parts where the design didn't quite extend over the turn-ins, using with the same black acrylic paint I used for the edges. You can see this more clearly in the photos I took of the groove, and the endpapers covered the messy bits when I cased in:

THE MAIN INGREDIENT: LOVE

Finally!! The most important part of the process!!! HI LEAH ILY!!!! This fic is special for a lot of personal reasons, but chief among them is LOVE!!!! Your A/N's made me tear up when I first read it, because AH! You read my words of love!!! And went and wrote hundreds of thousands of your own words of love!!! And now I hope I've given that love back once again :3 And on and on we go, ad infinitum, until we are relieved of the curse of literacy and greet whatever comes after all this, thanks be to Todd. But until then, I'm so glad I get to shoot holes out of bagels and scream about radioactive tumblr posts and cry over fake people with you, friend :] Truly, peace and love on FUCKING Planet Earth. We are making it and we will all go together when we--[ANOTHER GUNSHOT]

I'm so excited to see where we're going, and what other stories we have to tell. But for now: EEEEEEEE YOU WROTE A BOOK!!!!!!!

<33333!!!

[loupy-mongoose]

That last piece aaaaaaaah beautiful and sweet, really captures how Lav feels about Randy :D

Also I love how you colour and shade everything, how do you do it? Do you think you could record a speed paint or something? What brushes do you use? Canvas size? How do you painstakingly colour within the lines? What device do you use?

Sorry for so many questions in one ask, I’m really curious lol. Hope you can answer these! No rush :3

First off, thank you so much!

I use Procreate on iPad, which has a handy-dandy little feature where it automatically records everything you do on a canvas, and you can create a time lapse of it. So, yes, I can give a speed paint. :3

(Yes I painted this specifically for this ask.) For comics (and this painting sample), I use a canvas that's 1813X2263. For doodle dumps and other less dedicated projects, I use a 1955X2357 canvas, rotating as I want or need to. If I have a bigger project I want to do, I start with Procreates "Square" canvas default (2048X2048) and crop as I need to as I work.

I've been sticking to this Jingsketch brush set for a while now, though I've modified some to make them more comfortable. As of now the set is free to download. (There appears to be a larger Jingsketch set that costs about $15--I may get that someday lol)

For smudging of shadows and markings, I use the Jingsketch "Jittery Smudge".

Alright, prepare for a thorough rundown of the time lapse. X3

As for how I color, the video shows my two most used methods. I do the Momo method when I want it to look a little neater or smoother, and the Midas method for when I don't care how unpolished it looks and just want to show a colored image.

For flats (the solid red seen in the video) I do it on a layer under the lines. I usually put all the flats on one layer, but this time I did their flats on separate layers for demonstration purposes, and merged them once they were both filled.

For Momo, I colored by drawing just inside the lines, erasing what went outside. Then used a Freehand (or equivalent) selection tool to fill in the inside. This is the more time consuming but smooth of the two methods, in my opinion.

For Midas, I specifically drew the outer lines thicker so that I could use the "automatic" (I guess that's "wand" in other programs? I'm not sure) selection to do a quick fill. This method will usually leave the colors with a hard, semi-unappealing edge. (Feathering the selection a little or smudging the flats can probably help with that, but I don't do that very often.)

What I do is select the OUTSIDE of the lines, expand the "Selection Threshold" so that it barely selects JUST outside the lines, then invert the selection so that it filles everything INSIDE the lines. With this method you need to be careful to get all the negative zones as well--I didn't think about demonstrating that in this painting, so here a mini-tut on that.

For the actual colors, I usually do each color on a separate layer set as a "Clipping Mask" to the flats layer. Eyes usually get a layer of their own--The iris colors and pupil (if present) get the Clipping Mask treatment until I'm satisfied with them and merge them into one eye layer.

For shading, I'll fill an entire layer, still Clipped to the flats, with my color of choice, usually set it to the Multiply blend mode, and adjust the opacity as I want. I usually shade the main body separately from the eyes, but try to match the blend mode and opacity settings.

For more high-effort projects, I'll fill a layer with a solid color under the shadow layer but above all the other colors so that I have a better idea of the shapes. Colors like on Midas here can really badly mess with the perception of the shapes and shadow locations. I may also add more Multiply layers if necessary.

And that's my lengthy and extensive look into how I paint~ Keep in mind this is MY process, and I admit I work in a rather quick, dirty, and even somewhat lazy way. So take what you will from this, and go arting as YOU please! ^w^

[knatdreamart]

hello! hope you're doing well :)

i was wondering if you have any tips on how to do the lighting on edits? the colorful or dark ones or maybe probably every single one you can think of because it's the part i struggle with the most so if you have the time, i would like some help in this department lol

thank you so much in advance <3

Hi! Im doing great, thank you for asking!

I guess my biggest advice is to use tons of references and gradually you'll start to understand where the light goes. Also deciding beforehand where the light is coming from will help you understand how to work around it. I'm also thinking about the vibe of the picture a lot, bc different lighting will give you different vibe.

If we talking about technicality, I use Brightness/Contrast or Solid Color Adjusment Layer with Blend Mode Color Dodge and Fill around 50%, but can change the number depending on the picture. I would also recommend to do several layers of lighting with different levels of Fill/Opacity and different Blending Modes. Use a Mask to draw the light where you wan it to be. Mostly just follow the lines on clothes and face. Play with Blending Modes and Fill/Opacity. And to create a general vibe I use Color Lookup/Color Balance or Hue/Saturation. Again depends on what I wanna do or portray. One of the things that I add as well is mist/haze. It just adds to the atmosphere in general and helps separate model from the background.

Just did a quick example. I didn't use any Blending Modes here. But I hope it will give you an idea of how it works.

You can find the Adjusment Layers here:

Oh, yeah, create a light source on the background. It helps to identify where the light is coming from not only for you but for the viewer as well.

Here's one of the method I use if you wanna add color and not just the white light. Create Solid Color Adjusment Layer. You can choose any color you want. And then click twice on the layer to open Layer Style. Here you can find Underlying Layer. And by pressing Alt drag one of the points to the middle or closer to the middle.

You shoud get something like this

Then close the Layer Style window by clicking OK if you are satisfied and click on the Mask, invert it (ctrl +i) and then using Brush, preferably soft one, draw the light. White brush color to draw and Black brush color to erase. Or you can just simply copy the mask from previous layer by holding ALT on that layer mask and drag it to this one.

And you get something like this.

Hope this helps a little. Obviously, the more you practice and experiment yourself the more you'll understand how everything works, so I hope you won't give up and continue your journey. Good luck!