#trying to work on my lineart as well as values instead of just slapping color on

[wormboytrav]

Soultember 1: Death Scythe

(@rennikun)

[pandemique]

hI!! i love your art and was wondering if you could make a tutorial showing how you paint stuff? only if you can! it's just really pretty !!

hi nonnie! thats very flattering !! i’m sorry i dont think i’ll be very helpful bc i’m a mega noob as well :D but i’ll try my very best <3

my process is very tailored for speed instead of quality (oops soz LOL) so i do suggest this for if u have short doodle breaks ⬇️⬇️⬇️

thumbnailing (for comics) -> lines (sketch who?) -> bucket tool/color drop in the base color -> color in the lines -> one multiply layer for a “base” shadow (in the vid below its purple!) -> one (1) render/paint layer a.k.a lawless no man’s land

full rendering process & more general painting tips below the cut‼️

NOTE: i’ll be focusing more on traditional/fundamental tips for stylized art because i’m sure there’s a much more effective way in digital. I truly do only use one normal layer for render... i think this is bc before i made this blog, my only prior experience in drawing is middle school art class, so all i know is traditional painting on one layer.... pray i can answer this again in the future with something smarter lmao

🌺 MY PAINT PROCESS

1. Choose a color scheme!

It doesn’t have to be set in stone like below, but i at least keep in mind the color range i’d like to use depending on what i want to convey (ex. soft pastels for soft fluff, or warm colors for happy vibes). I try to be as limited as possible for base colors because I tend to go ham when painting, you’ll see later AHAHA

2. Base coloring + Base shadow

Base -> bucket tool in the color scheme (I know other artists are against this but when i discovered the bucket tool in digital art I immediately divorced manual coloring i’m sorry i loved you tho bae) (this is why my style and lines are simplistic as they are, so the color drop works!)

Base shadow -> in theory, warm-colored light creates cool-colored shadows and vice versa. because i’m a fluff addict i mainly use warmer light, so i like using blue/purple as the shadow. generally u can’t go wrong with complementary colors!! (yellow light & purple shadows / orange light & blue shadows).

I make a new multiply layer (decreased opacity just bc i like things soft okay) and clip it on the base layer, then block in the areas i think would get blocked from the light.

3. Color in the lines!

for simplistic styles i swear this works wonders. i just clip a layer to the lineart and manually color the lines with a darker but more saturated version of the base color. it just tends to look more dead i guess with low saturation lol (ex. u can see above i use both peach and red or pink for lines of skin, i guess it implies the blood under the skin too. or something :D)

4. RENDERRRR

when i’m not in a rush i just paint things completely (and mindlessly), but here are the things i almost always do:

line the shadows with a saturated color! i’m not sure this is common but i love it lol, in almost all my doodles just check the shadows—on the edges, there’s bound to be a wild color :D (usually its the light color, shadow color or a color scheme color but sometimes i’m just like boY do i loVe piNk)

my art major friend told me about saturated colors on desaturated bases and my life was changed forever lol. u can see below even when my base is very grayyy, my rendering is very gay :D ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

make the shadows darker where i think they should be darker. usually i can just colorpick from that darker, saturated lineart color!

if it’s a more realistic piece i usually make the highlights lighter, but in simple doodles i find it unnecessary, and i dont like how light/white it looks :( i tend to just make the areas exposed to light more saturated

color in the rebound light~ in reality there’s usually not only one primary light source, at least there’d be secondary light from where light bounces off objects. in art we just emphasize that! so in large shadow areas, or in areas close to other objects/colors, i like to ‘splash’ other colors on

yeah this part is less intuitive for beginners and u have to learn a grasp on the concepts over time, like for lighting and structure. values can be more important than color, so i do suggest learning shading first before coloring, but only if u like (u can always be like me and just pull up references when u dont get how the light would fall on some materials :>). i have more general paint tips below! don’t give up okay, i believe in u nons, we’re all still in the eternal learning process together ( •̀ᄇ• ́)ﻭ✧

5. OOOOHHH SHINY ✨🤩

this step is just me being mesmerized by how easy it is to play with lighting in digital. i play around with the layer settings (multiply for shadow, overlay for light, and often try out the other settings too!). my favorite effect is the highlight glow thing, where u just make a copy layer of the highlights below the original layer, and blur it slightly so it looks like glow ✨✨🤩 overpriced acrylic could never

6. COLOR ADJUST / EDIT

Truthfully i usually skip this step, but my more pro friends really vouch for it!! i think definitely an incredible thing with digital is that u can edit proportions and even color after you’re done. i think they usually use like the curves adjustment layer in photoshop until they get colors they like, but for me, well, in a reaally diligent day i like to slap on the “auto” fliter in the iphone’s photos edit button lmaoooo

🌺 GENERAL PAINTING TIPS

learn basic theory: i think theres free courses everywhere online, but heres a few things u might like to have a basic understanding of: color, perspective, shape language, lighting, composition. don’t sweat it too much tho, it should be fun to explore the concepts!

and for drawing hoomans: proportion, gesture, expression, and veery basic anatomy. i find that overall forms are so much more important to learn than like detailed anatomy bc u can always look it up lol

but remember, u mostly want to learn the rules so u know better ways to break them :)

uuuuse manyyyyy referencessss every time u draww!

^this includes other people’s art — when u see good stuff, figure out why u like it and apply it to ur own art

get feedback!!!!

draw tons!!! brainrot helps !! ;D

aaand thank u for coming to my ted talk! sorry for the ramble nonnie, i hope u got something out of this lol

[scarlettroubles]

Drawing Process: A Crown for a Fool

Thumbnails:

Okay so I had the idea for this drawing for the longest time but only finally got the motivation to actually get to drawing it after clowning with @weirdcursedvaultkid​ for like, 3 weeks straight about Merula and I really wanted to get the drawing right so I ended up doing a few thumbnails. Thumbnails are a great way to plan out the composition of your drawing so I made sure to explore a few different ways the drawing could go. 

The whole idea behind this drawing was basically going to be around Merula’s want for power and recognition but how as the years go by and she actually starts making meaningful relationships with mc and co., she comes to the realization that she might not want that anymore and starts to question herself and the values she was raised with, but doesn’t really know how to stop. She doesn’t know how to be a better person when all her life she’s been taught that power meant everything and feels that because of her past actions, power is the only thing left for her. And so she continues down the line of bad choices and comes to regret it.

The crown symbolizes the power and recognition Merula has worked so hard towards achieving, but as she’s about to put it on, she hesitates. She knows she doesn’t want this anymore and knows it will bring her no satisfaction. And so I had her looking away from the camera in shame. I wanted this piece to have dramatic lighting to give this sort of magical feel to it but also a feeling of complete, utter loneliness to show that her ambitions only led her to be more alone then she ever has been in years. 

Out of all the thumbnails I decided to go with the second one and with that, I proceed to work on the lineart.

Lineart:

The trickiest part of this stage was getting the crown and the expression on Merula’s face right. Since I wanted those two things to be the central part of the finished piece. I think I had to redo Merula’s expression 5 times because I was just so unhappy with it. The hands were also tricky because what the fuck are hands even-

Colors:

And again, were at my favorite part of the drawing which is the coloring. I put down the base colors but once I was done I realized I was sorta stumped on what to do next. I usually just do a very simple shading where I choose a shade of red and proceed to color in the shadows on a multiply layer and then slap a few overlay layers on the piece but when I did do that this happened:

It didn’t look like how I wanted it to look like at all. I remember feeling so disappointed at where the drawing was going I wanted to give up on the piece and try again next time. But instead of doing that, I instead took a step back to think of a way to save this piece. 

And that’s when I decided I was gonna properly shade the whole thing. Something I don’t really do with most of my drawings anymore because it just takes so much time. But I wanted to give my best for this piece and let me tell you, taking my time and shading this thing properly was definitely what saved me from abandoning this drawing all together. So don’t be afraid to take your time with your artwork kids XD

Shading:

I had a lot of fun playing with colors and warm tones for this piece. I painted Merula’s skin with some shades of purple to go in with the reds and oranges and once that was done I made several overlay layers, picked a shade of yellows and oranges and just proceeded to play around with them while also keeping in mind where the light source is. Lighting is still something incredibly tricky to me so I most definitely fucked it up at some places. I picked a shade of purple and made a new multiply layer and proceeded to make a block of shadow around Merula’s eyes to really sell that look of regret and melancholy I wanted her to have for this piece. Most of the shading got covered up by the overlay and multiply layers I set up which admittedly made me pretty sad since I spent so much time on it ;-; 

But the piece was finally coming together so it worked out in the end.

Final Touches:

And with that, I put up the final touches by setting up a bunch of shine and overlay layers for the background to give it that hauntingly magical feel to it and giving the crown a little sparkle as well as a highlight for Merula’s eyes. And with that, the artwork is finished!