#I’m still adjusting to the learning curve that is procreate

[masonkaye]

Knight sketch

[naturecalls111]

The way you color is absolutely phenomenal! Looking at your latest Naruto piece I’m just absolutely astonished by how the colors all work together. If you could give any recommendations for tutorials for a fellow artist I’d so appreciate it!

Keep up the amazing work 💕

~pudding 🍮

Wow, thank you so much!!! That’s so kind! I’m very happy you like it! To be entirely honest I’m still learning how to colour—a lot of what my process is right now for colouring is just… vibes. I play around with it until my brain is like ‘I like this’, and I haven’t really watched many tutorials for colouring (I should…) so my best point of reference is to see how an artist you likes does colour and experiment on your own canvas to see how they achieve that. Studying and experimenting is a huge part of the learning process, and finding what works for you specifically.

The simplified version of my process is that I paint with colours that act as the general idea of what the base colours are, and then play with curves to lower contrast + darken. I did a very quick example of what that looks like with this Naruto chibi:

This is what curve setting I use on procreate (it’ll look a little different when I do it on clip studio or photoshop, but the points remain the same. First dot is brought down a little, second dot is brought down a little, lol):

(usually I play around with curve settings a lot depending on the piece, but again the variation is based purely on what itches my brain. I just try to maintain that the curves, for me, lower contrast and darken the colours.)

For shading I will often desaturate+darken the flat colour, but I 1000% go in with a more saturated tone in between the shading and the flat colour, and over the course of painting and colour picking, it just ends up being this amalgamation of colours that work together since they are MOSTLY within an analogous range. Does that make sense?! I’m a terrible teacher, LOL!

If you’re interested in slightly more details of my process, I will say that when I do have a background, that colour is usually the first thing I put down onto my canvas. I will fill in the lineart with a darker version of that colour and then start getting a basic idea of shading down before doing any colouring and rendering just to see how the general composition will feel. With the narugaa piece you mentioned, it looked like this (ignore all the white around them, this was going to be more type-heavy before I realised I hate doing text LOL):

It’s not quite just shading, but the goal is to find the values that I would be happy with seeing throughout the piece and on this hue+value of background. Also, at this point, I’m drawing with the assumption that if I were to do this completely monochromatic, the values would look like this, ya know. And then afterwards, like I depicted in the simplified version way above, I lay down flat colours. In this case, my colours were laid down on a layer that was on the “hard light” blend mode, but I think you should just do whatever blend mode gives you the colours you like best. From here, if you combine layers so that it’s a normal layer, then just playing with the curves should get you the effect that I usually work with, but this is what those base colours looked like in my case:

You can skip this part if you feel you’re good enough at colour picking, but it helped me personally with laying down colours. I did curve adjustments + new blend mode (pin light) so that I could play with complimentary colours in a way that would add some “flavour” to the drawing later. In this case it was this greenish+reddish colour for Gaara and yellowish+purple/bluish colour for Naruto (I know his skin looks more pink/red than anything but it’s significantly more cool toned, which is what I was considering for colour harmony/relationship):

I did most of the painting over these colours before using a lasso tool to pick out specific areas and change the curves to be the Actual colours of the characters, but you can mostly tell what sort of colours I maintained from the previous version vs which ones I changed. I really do think this made for more interesting visuals, but I also think it’s sort of a convoluted process that you can just do from the get go if you have a better grasp of colour theory than I do. Unfortunately I’m not knowledgeable enough about colour to get colour harmony just by picking out the colour from a wheel. This is why I love curves so much!!! Anyway, this is what it came out to:

And then I duplicate the canvas so I can merge all the layers into a single one, and then do the final curve adjustment to make everything feel cohesive. I mostly used the curve adjustments that I showed in the very beginning of this post, but because so many of the colours in this piece felt analogous, I actually valued slightly more contrast in this piece than I would want for most other pieces. Posting the final piece here for convenience:

And that’s it!!! I’m super mega sorry for how long and convoluted this probably is LOL but this is my process……. I’m certain other artists have better tutorials and I will always recommend Sinix Design on YouTube for ANY art tutorial that you might need, but if I’m being entirely honest, anything I know of colour is entirely just me consuming a lot of art over the years and going ‘oh, I like that’ or ‘oh, this is a pattern between these two artists, so it must be right’ or ‘oh, this random artist posted a tutorial and it looked good, let me glance at this and hope it somehow subconsciously sticks’ LOL. There are definitely fundamental rules that would help to know (shadows will usually be less saturated, deciding between high key vs low key composition as far as your value scale goes, what sort of emotion each colour combination/scheme evokes, the power of tints and shades) but a simple google search on basic colour theory will already explain most of this to you. Passively implementing these practices into your drawings, in my experience, helps make a lot of these rules second nature when you’re drawing. Above all though I think you should just do whatever itches your brain LOL. I have a huge reference library that I often refer to—I recommend any artist to do the same :3

[egophiliac]

Hello! Sorry to bother but do you have any digital art tips? I’m quite new to it and any tips, tricks or advice would be helpful! Your coloring style is very beautiful and I love it a lot!

thank you! 💚💚💚 sorry this is a bit late, hopefully there's still something helpful in it!

(also, it got pretty long, sorry!)

I think the biggest thing is to just take things slow -- digital art feels different than drawing traditionally, and it's SUPER easy to get overwhelmed by the billions of cool features that the digital world offers. (I say, as someone who spends a lot of time downloading cool brushes and textures...and then never using them ever.) there is a ton of really cool stuff you can do digitally, but because there's so much, I think it's really important to take time to figure out what is and isn't working for you. spend some time doodling without any intent to do a finished piece, figure out how you like to hold (or not hold) your tablet, what keyboard shortcuts you end up using a lot (and therefore might want to map to your pen/tablet buttons for quicker use)...that kind of thing!

everyone's workflow and preferred program and style are different, so it's hard to give hard-and-fast general advice. but the things that I think of as the essentials for learning digital art programs, and what I think of as a good order to focus on learning them in (although YMMV, especially depending on what kind of art you're doing):

brush customization (e.g. flow, opacity, softness)

layers and layer masks

selections and transformations (e.g. scale, rotate, flip horizontal/vertical, skew) (skew is underrated and I will die on that hill)

blending modes (e.g. multiply, screen)

adjustments/adjustment layers (e.g. hue/saturation, curves)

and I think most stuff after that is gravy! often very good gravy though! but yeah, as overall advice I recommend just taking things one little bit at a time, spending some time just drawing and messing around with each feature and what you can do with it. whether or not you end up incorporating any of it into your workflow, it's always good to try things out and just see how they feel! :D

and just so there is at least a little more concrete helpfulness in here, here's a few more specific things that I think are super important to keep in mind!

use! your! tablet/pen buttons! I mentioned this earlier, but they are extremely useful for keyboard shortcuts that you use often! most programs will also let you create new shortcuts for other things -- personally, I use the magic wand tool to fill in big color blocks a lot, so I made shortcuts for 'expand selection' and 'fill' and then mapped them to my tablet buttons.

flop your work horizontally often! when you're working on something, you get used to the way it looks, so seeing it mirrored is a quick way to see it with fresh eyes! in my experience, it often feels like this:

(a common thing is to find that everything is sort of 'leaning' too much one way, which is where skew really comes in handy!) (seriously, I love skew, it is my savior)

if you're working with color, keep a hue/saturation adjustment layer (or a layer filled with black or white and set to Color) on top and toggle it on occasionally to check your values! a lot of people who know a lot more about color than me (and are better at putting it into words) have written about why values are so important, so all I'll say is that the rule of thumb is that your image should still be readable in greyscale:

there are some exceptions and grey areas (do ho ho), but it's a good general rule to keep in mind! (some programs also have a colorblind mode, so you can check to see how your work will look to someone with colorblindness!)

and finally, here's some digital art programs I recommend, if you're still looking for a good one!

free: krita, FireAlpaca

paid: ClipStudio, Procreate (iOS/iPad only)

[varlaisvea]

2024 Art Retrospective Thing!

I’m only going to talk about one thing.

I’m a writer, but in 2024, many decades into my life, I got to feel what it’s like when your art tools can adjust to compensate for your disabilities.

In September, I finished the best piece of visual art I’ve ever made (warning: spicy). It didn’t get a ton of notes—maybe it’s not awesome to others, but I still can’t believe *I* made it. I’m still in love with it and so proud of it.

The thing is, I write all the time. Writing is the currency of my brain; I’d be doing it whether I had anything to say or not. Writing comes naturally to me. Drawing does not! I’ve always liked drawing, especially figures and faces, but I was never great at it— I have had chronically shaky/numb/painful hands my whole life, so visual art was always frustrating to me.

THEN i discovered the tools Procreate has to stabilize and correct for shaky hands! Suddenly lines went where I meant for them to go and curves and angles took on the form I intended as I drew them. I thought it was my lack of talent that meant I couldn’t draw lines the way I wanted, but the art that emerged once those I turned those settings on was miraculous to me. I discovered I actually COULD control visual art the way I always thought I couldn’t.

I only kinda used a reference for the pose. Otherwise the whole thing came out of my brain. I still can’t believe it.

I’m making you look at it again. Please go look at the whole thing, but here’s a cropped closeup:

(I made a post about the symbolism behind all the jewelry in this crop, too. It’s also a pretty good summary of the story so far.)

But!!! I need to talk about what Procreate allowed me to do here.

Tumblr thinks the pr0n screenshot i used as a reference is explicit (it's not), and I'm pissed bc i wanted to show you how little of it made it into the final. At any rate, I started with a reference image of two people in a similar pose to this, and all that remains of it is the bottom character's shoulder and the top character's leg. Everything else--the folds and drape of the fabric, the light of the fire, the substantial changes to the pose—was math I did in my brain. I quite literally rotated my blorbos in my mind and then drew it. I had absolutely no idea I could do that.

I mean, maybe it looks like something that would be easy for an amateur to make, idk! But to me? It’s amazing! This was a stupidly difficult pose I chose for myself, and I did it. It has a lot of strange shit in it and you can still tell what’s happening!!! The weird twist of her head and braid, the strange way his arm is angled, the way fabric covers every joint on the body you would otherwise use to orient yourself to what you’re seeing… I did all of that math in my mind, and I still pulled it off.

It took me 250 hours in Procreate. I later discovered character posing tools online that might have made this a whole lot easier, and I’ve started using those for subsequent art.

Idk why people didn’t really like this. Maybe it’s bc ESO is not super popular on tumblr, maybe it’s bc of the ostensibly heterosexual/cisgender pairing (both false!!!! btw!), maybe it’s bc of the conventionally attractive bodies? idk! but honestly, I still love it. this is my achievement of 2024 no matter how many notes it has, bc it represents an immense gift I received in 2024: I learned that after all these years, I actually did kinda know how to draw. :) Thank you Procreate!

[daeyumi]

How would you recommend people practice digital art? Your work is beautiful and I'm curious what journey brought you to this point <3

Ooh this is a good one- okay so imo, the most important thing is to practice by drawing/painting things u enjoy. If you’re drawing something you love, that automatically makes it easier to want to keep doing it & improving.

As far as the technical side of it goes, I’d say experiment & try a bunch of different processes to find what works for you. There’s obviously tons of different tutorials out there from people who have wildly varying art processes and I think it’s important to try many different ways of doing digital art, because the possibilities are quite literally endless.

Personally I recommend doing studies of game screenshots or even other artists’ work that you admire, in order to help understand how people use color, value, shade, etc. (I used BotW screenshots for studies personally early on, because I really admire the game’s color scheme and it helped me get a much better grasp on how I wanted to use color in my own work, especially as it pertains to environments & landscapes.) I also personally find studies to be a lot more productive than watching tutorials, because it allows me to go at my own pace and just observe- but obviously everyone has a different learning process so what works for me may not work for everyone.

And don’t be afraid to use the resources that are unique to digital art! Things like filters, HSB adjustments, curves/levels, even just different brushes can all help you get your art looking the way you want. Personally, procreate’s “color balance” options are my best friend- I use that option a ton even still, especially when I’m planning out my color schemes.

I’d also say, more as a general art tip than something specific to digital art- if you have an idea of something you want to draw or paint, but you don’t think you know how to do it or don’t think you have the skills to draw it yet— do it anyways!! Look up all the references you can, see how other people made a similar piece, and just draw yours anyways! You’ll learn a lot more by stepping out of your comfort zone and just going for it then you will by “waiting until you’re ready”. And if you don’t end up being happy with the finished piece, you can ALWAYS redo it later— just because you’ve drawn something once doesn’t mean that you’re never allowed to revisit that concept.

Overall I’d just say, experiment, play around & have fun! Find what you enjoy and it will make creating your art a lot more fulfilling.

I hope this is helpful somewhat! 🩷

[99yikes]

Hi! I’m a beginner artist when it comes to digital art and was wondering what app and brushes do you use for your art, or maybe if you have any tips on digital art. I figured I’d ask you since your art is so cool and looks so nice!

aksjskdjf hello there! thank you so much for the compliments, i'm flattered!! my art is super sloppy, but i'm happy you like it (꒦ິ꒳꒦ີ)♡ i'm honestly a little embarrassed to post this cuz i'm pretty much still a novice at digital art stuff, so there are probably better/more concise ways to go over all this, but i'll gonna try my best anyway!! sorry if i ramble ;;

to answer your questions, i use procreate! i'm also pretty lazy and i don't really like to switch brushes often, meaning i work almost exclusively with the 6B Pencil. i sketch with it. i line with it. i even color and render with it sometimes. i knew when i got into digital art i would want to use a textured, pencil-like brush bc my favorite artist did and i always loved the way it looked.

here's an example of just how excessively i use it lmao (with some Pro Tips™ /j):

but ! because i use it so often, i've made some minor adjustments to the brush -- not enough to warrant calling it a completely different brush, but enough that there's a noticeable difference between the original and what i use when actually drawing.

personally, i like a tapered end when sketching and lining so i gave it a little fall off and adjusted pressure taper settings, and i also appreciate more control (less loose/shaky lines bc a pen tip on a glass screen is SLIPPERY), so i upped the streamline setting too!

here's a look at what settings i tweaked if you want to try it out yourself:

other brushes i tend to use are:

Round Brush for coloring. very super mega basic, but easy to work with!

and it's worth mentioning that lately i've been using Baskerville to line things! i used it in this itafushikigi piece. it gives me a lot of control and it's very tidy so i like it (bˊᵕˋ)b

and that's...really it lmao. of course these are all default procreate brushes. no matter what program you use, i just recommend testing out different brushes and adjusting settings until you find what works for you! you can always reset to default if you dislike it and duplicate the brush if you adore it. you can also download other brushes, but i don't have much (read: any) experience with that 💃

other tips would just be get familiar with your app and practice as much as you can. i'm very much a "pick one thing and draw it a million times" kind of person bc repetition gives me an opportunity to work on things i want to improve. 'if i draw yuutafushi enough times, eventually i'll perfect how i draw them' -- that kind of mindset?? idk if that method works for everyone, but, y'know...having a muse helps ;;

digital art was like a whole nother ballpark for me and i felt like i had to relearn how to do everything, so don't feel discouraged if your traditional art abilities don't immediately transfer over! it just takes time to get comfortable with it. drawing with your finger on a screen vs a pen on a tablet vs a pencil on paper are all very different experiences and there's a learning curve for each!

anyways, i hope that helps a little. sorry this is super long! good luck on your digital art journey ❤️

[darklove9314-blog]

Family : A Nessian Fanfic

Day 19 of Nessian month: Prompt: Nessian bonding with the IC.

Nesta gazed upon Cassian, Her hand firmly in his as Cassian knocked on the front doors of the river house, Feyre opened the door, a smile on her face, a hand pressed firmly to her swollen stomach before a five year old Nyx grinned at the sight of his aunt and uncle flinging himself in his aunt’s arms.

“Aunt Nes! You came!” Nyx exclaimed. A happy chuckle escaping her lips.

“Of course I came. I wouldn’t miss this for the world.“ Nesta smiled as Cassian cocked his head to the side staring at Nyx.

“What? No love for your favorite uncle?” He stated as Nyx’s eyes widened with excitement

“Is Uncle Az with you?” He questioned causing Nesta to hold in her laugh. Only five years old and he already mastered the art of a good come back. Even Feyre was reining in her smile.

“Say hi to your other uncle, sweetie.“ Feyre encouraged him as he wiggled himself out of Nesta’s arms and hugged Cassian.

“Hi Uncle Cass.“ He greeted. Nesta had no real idea why Nyx had grown more of an attachment to her than Cassian, but she guessed she would never really know that answer. Kids were always a mystery.

“Come inside, we’re just getting to cutting the cake.“ Feyre explained as Nesta and Cassian entered Nyx holding onto Feyre‘s hand.

Cassian‘s hand slid into hers before they entered the sitting area. Several of Nyx’s friends gathered around a table as he chatted away. He really was a social one.

Cassian pulled out a chair for Nesta, she thanked him as they took a spot beside Mor who greeted Casan with a hug.

“Long time, no see, stranger.” Mor greeted. Her smile dazzling across the whole room.

“That’s what happens when you go to the court of Nightmares for a whole six months.“

Mor shrugged taking a sip of her wine.

“It’s not easy to undo the damage the years have caused there, but perhaps in a few more years The Court of Nightmares will be a thing of the past and it can start anew.”

A fresh start. Something that a lot of the Night Court had needed. progress was slow, but nothing ever happened over night.

Nesta‘s eyes drew to Cassian, the curve of his lips at his friends accomplishment. The determination she had showed to take over the Court of Nightmares after her fathers passing and do what she thought she should have always done. Made more dreamers in the city of Nightmares. Nesta had even offered her assistance if Mor ever became overwhelmed. Which she had appreciated.

“How are things in Illyria?” Mor asked, her eyebrows raised in question at Cassian, who’s own smiled beamed, his arm going around Nesta. Pride shone in them with their accomplishments.

“We finally managed to convince Devlon to combine a two small units made up of both Illyrian and Valkeryie warriors. One of them are the younger generations who wish to become apart of the ranks and the others are the ones who have already went through the rite.”

“That’s amazing, I knew you two could do it.” Mor smiled looking over to Nesta.

“I couldn’t have done it without the steel will determination of my mate,“ Cassian explained pressing a kiss to the side of her temple.

“Don’t forget Emerie and Gwyn.” Nesta added.

“How could I ever?” Cassian smiled pressing a kiss to her hair.

“I thought the mating bond was supposed to die down some after a couple of years?” Amren asked sliding down in a chair, Varian by her side.

Cassian smirked at her. “You know that’s not how that works.“

“I dread the day you procreate boy. Hopefully the babe has its mother’s smarts.“

“I hope so too.“ Cassian told her making Nesta feel warm in her chest.

She had been thinking a lot about having children lately. Been having dreams of Cassian filling her with life. thinking of the one they would create together. Been gazing at the tea she had been using as her birth control for the past five years and been wanting to have a conversation about what his thoughts were if she stopped taking it, if they had started trying.

but they both had been so busy lately getting everything together that it had been a while since the two of them had time to be intimate, Had time to talk about the future that she wanted to have with him. Would they be able to have a baby? She knew getting pregnant as a fae could be difficult, but she was willing to try. She just needed a moment with him where they both weren’t exhausted.

Amren smirked seeming to catch how deep Nesta’s thoughts ran.

“I guess we’ll see when the time is right.“ She simply said leaning into Varian. Her wedding ring flashing in the light.

Before Cassian could say more, the door opened Azriel stepping through it as Nyx hugged him. Azriel placing Nyx on his back and carrying him into the dining room.

“Be careful there, Uncle Az, you may throw your back out.“ Cassian teased earning him an eye roll from Azriel.

“I’m in better shape than you.“ Azriel retorted. “I bet you couldn’t even lift him to your shoulders.”

“Is that so?” Cassian challeneed as Nesta heard a far off voice say.

“I hate to break up your bet with my son, but it’s time for presents.“ Rhys told them taking Nyx for Azriel’s shoulder. A wide grin on the boys face.

“Presents!” Nyx shouted happily running towards them as the other children followed. Feyre smiled rubbing at her abdomen absentmindedly.

“Do you think he’ll have any trouble not being an only child when his sister arrives?” Feyre asked as Rhys beamed.

“Not at all. though there definitely will be an adjustment period.“ Rhys assured her as Nesta looked back to Cassian. His gaze on Rhys and Feyre as Rhysand pressed a kiss to her sister’s cheek.

Nesta had always knew that Cassian had longed for a family of his own. It wasn’t that his close circle of friends wasn’t enough for him or even her, but she knew Cassian had always wanted children. She had been hesitant afraid if she would be a good mother or not.

He had assured her there was no rush for children. That he would wait hundreds of years if he had to so she could be ready for them. Nesta just had to make sure she was doing this as much for herself as she was for Cassian. She would not bring a child into this world unless both her and Cassisn were ready for one.

Nesta joined the others sitting down next to Feyre as Cassian joined Rhys and Azriel having a conversation that Nesta had no clue what it was about.

Elain was beside Mor and Amren, her laughter flooding over to them as she sent both her sisters a slight wave. Nesta waved back before turning back to Feyre, not sure how to start this particular conversation as they watched Nyx open his presents. His eyes growing wide at the mini paint set his mother had gotten him.

“Thanks mom!” Nyx said flinging his arms around Feyre’s neck as she pulled her son closer.

“You’re welcome baby.” Feyre said hugging him as Nesta took in the sight. She knew she wanted that with her own child. But she was still afraid that she would not be any good at motherhood.

Nesta watched as Nyx opened his other gifts, watching as he opened the toy that Nesta and Cassian had gotten for him. Thanking both of them with a hug.

Nesta‘s smile bloomed as she beheld the hug between Nyx and Cassian, Could almost see Cassian with their own son or daughter, How good of a father he would be. She wondered when Cassian saw her with Nyx if he thought the same thing.

“Is something on your mind?” Feyre asked when they both were alone in the kitchen. they were cleaning up while the others were in the living room showing Nyx how to use his toy and helping him set them up. Cassian had always been great at building things. He was putting the others to shame. A smile tugged at Nesta’s lips.

“When did you know?” She asked as Feyre stopped on the dish she was working on.

“Know about what?” She replied scrubbing at a really stubborn stain as Nesta handed her a better sponge.

“Thank you.“ She said as Nesta dried the dishes Feyre handed to her.

”How did you know you were ready to have a baby?” She asked. Feyre stopping mid scrub.

“Are you and Cassian-?” She started but Nesta interrupted her.

“No. At least not yet. I-I haven’t brought up the conversation with him yet.“ Shd told Feyre. Feyre nodded in understanding.

“I can understand that. It’s not a decision to take lightly. There’s a lot of factors to take into account.”

“Like how I feel like I would be a terrible mother?”

Feyre looked at Nesta with the same eyes they both had inherited from their mother.

”What makes you believe you’ll be a terrible mother?” Feyre asked. going back to the dishes.

“Because I couldn’t even take care of us when it mattered most.” She confided to Feyre.

“It wasn’t your job to take care of us. It was our fathers. “

“It wasn’t your job to take care of us either. but you still did it anyway.“

“It still doesnt mean it would have been right no matter which of us took care of the other. perhaps the real mistake was that we didnt take care of each other, but we were young and we’ll learn from those mistakes, God knows I still make them when it comes to my own child.”

“Please. You’re the definition of the perfect mother.” Nesta told her drying the dishes Feyre had worked on.

“I wouldn‘t say that. I still have the deal Rhys and I made which in retrospect wasn’t the brightest idea if you want to have kids.”

“You made a mistake, it happens to all of us.“

“I will admit we didn’t really think it through. the deal I mean. But no one ever said every decision was a rational one, but you’re deflectin. We were talking about you wanting kids.”

“I know it’s been years but I still have those intrusive thoughts that I’ll end up just like our mother.“ Nesta told her.

“We can’t live our life in fear Nesta. and remember you also have a support system in your corner. If you want to have kids than that’s your choice, well yours and Cassian’s. Just make sure that you’re ready to commit to it. To put that child before anything else, because when your baby comes. It’ll be your whole world. only you can determine what mother you’ll be, The past be damned.“

“Thanks Feyre.“

“Don’t mention it.” Feyre smiled as Cassian turned towards them getting up from his spot and heading towards the kitchen until he stopped where they were at.

“I’ve come to relieve you, my high lady.“ Cassian said as Feyre chuckled.

“Thank God you have spared me of the tedious task that is dish washing.” Feyre teased giving him a pat on the shoulder.

“I’ll see you two when you’re finished,“ Feyre told them heading to sit down beside Rhys and Nyx.

“Were you two having fun in here?” Cassian teased grabbing a dish and washing it.

“Aren’t we always?” Nesta smirked grabbing the dish from him and drying it.

“What were you two talking about?” Cassian asked. “It seemed like a pretty intense conversation.“

“It was a sister thing and…there’s something I want to discuss with you when we get home.“ She told him.

“Nothing bad I hope.“

“No. It’s just a conversation that I’ve been wanting to have with you for a while now.“ She confided in him, He nodded, relief filling his features as they worked on the dishes. talking about the party. When things were winding down Feyre pulled Nesta into a hug as Nesta also hugged Nyx,

“Goodbye Aunt Nes.”

“Goodbye buddy, I’ll see you next week when you come spend the night,“

Nyx‘s eyes lit up at the sound of that, the house adored Nyx as it had any other person, Maybe even favored him slightly. Though she didn’t blame the house. it had been a while since a child had been in it.She wondered how the house would feel to have one there permanently.

When Cassian and Nesta went home, She had found her answer in a stack of novels on the house library’s table. Books on motherhood, what to expect when you’re expecting. Nesta felt a warmth in her chest as the house also presented her the herbs for her tea. She hadn’t taken her dosage today.

Footsteps sounded in the door of the library as the books vanished from sight but the tea remained. She had made up her mind. Had known her answer as Cassian approached her.

“What was it you wanted to talk about?” He asked taking a seat beside her noting the tea.

Nesta took a deep breath. “Did you mean it? When you said you wanted kids?”

Casian nodded. “It’s something Ive always wanted. What brought this up?” He asked as Nesta took another breath.

“I was thinking-“ Nesta started. “About the future you’ve talked about for us. How you said you wanted kids?”

“Did you change your mind? Did you not want kids? Is that why you said you wanted to talk?” Cassian asked.

”No, I-I wanted to talk to you because I- I want to try for a baby. I-I want to make a baby with you.”

Cassian eyes snapped to hers, searching her face before he stood up, his calloused and warm hand going to her face.

“You want a baby?” Cassian asked. Nesta nodded. And she did. Gods did she want a baby with her mate. the love of her life.

“Yes.” She whispered to him as he smiled. The smile as bright as the dawn as he lifted trash can up eyes flickering to get tea.

Nesta’s smile curved upwards before she took the tea tossing it in the trash before Cassian‘s lips camd crashing down to hers.

He hoisted her on the desk, her back leaning against it as Cassian pulled away smiling down at her in the most breathtaking gaze she had ever saw and whispered.

“Then by all means mate,let’s get stared.“

[not-xpr-art]

Art Advice #4 - A Beginner’s Guide to Digital Art

Hi all!

This weeks entry into my Art Advice tag, where I offer various advice for artists of any skill level, is about digital art! Now, I am by no means an expert at digital (I’ve been doing it for nearly 8 years at this point and that is almost entirely self taught), but I have picked up a few pointers in that time which will hopefully help anyone just starting out!

(this blogpost is a little over 2000 words long btw)

A Beginner’s Guide to Digital Art 

I know that the world of digital art has changed drastically in the 8 odd years since I started, but I’d still say that some of the options I started out with will be just as good for anyone who’s starting out now! 

As always, I’ll be splitting this into sections to make it easier for you to navigate this post!

Part 1 - Equipment/Hardware 

There are a lot of drawing tablet options on the market at the moment, and I’m not going to pretend that I know anything about half of them lol. But I think for a beginner, don’t worry about going for the most expensive option, even if the reviews are really good or your favourite artist uses it, especially if it is way above your budget! 

An important thing to know is that there are two types of tablet. One is the plug-in kind. These are essentially a pad which you plug into your laptop or computer and draw on that whilst looking at the screen (they basically work the same way as a plug in mouse works). The other kind is the screen variety, which is a lot more like what most of us know as ‘tablets’ nowadays. And you draw directly onto the screen. 

(a plug-in vs on screen tablet, both from Wacom)

Now, as for choosing between these, it is honestly a personal choice. But I’d say if you’re just wanting to try digital and you’re on a budget, a plug-in tablet can be really useful since it gets you used to the mechanics of what digital is like, and they are often significantly cheaper than the screen alternatives. I would say that plug-in tablets are a big learning curve, especially if you’re used to doing traditional stuff, but I do know a lot of professional artists who still use this kind of tablet when doing their work, so if it’s something you can get used to I would definitely consider it! Also, they’re often a lot more portable than some screen tablets! The first one I had was a Huion (a model so old that I can’t even find a link to it now lol), and I also know that Wacom are a well known brand that do some decent plug-in tablet. I’d recommend you do your own research on other brands and options, though!

Screen tablets are often a lot more expensive, but if you’re used to traditional art, they are a lot easier to get a handle of! But I know if you already have something like an iPad, or other general use tablets, then they offer apps that you can use to draw on (as well as things like the Apple pen, or other stylus’). The big difference between using these general tablets and ones specifically designed for drawing is pretty much purely a personal choice. I personally prefer the bigger screen of my XP-Pen tablet, along with a special screen protector that removes the shininess of the tablet screen and makes it feel more like ‘paper’ over when I used a general use tablet it draw. But if you already have an iPad, or something similar, then it’s honestly a really great starting point!

I think it’s important for me to mention that you don’t need fancy equipment to be an artist. The incredible Elicia Donze has revealed countless times how she has very basic equipment but still manages to produce the most stunning artworks! All you really need is some kind of drawing apparatus and a lot of patience lol! Getting good at any kind of art takes a lot of time and effort, but I would definitely say it’s worth it when you’re able to look back at your progress!

Part 2 - Software/Drawing Programs 

Much like with the hardware discussion, choosing which program to use is entirely down to personal preference. I personally have never really liked Photoshop purely because it’s really complicated, but I know so many artists swear by it. 

I think the main aspect to consider when you’re starting out is whether you want to pay for a program. Software like Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint and Procreate are some of the popular ones I hear about a lot of people using, but all require you to purchase or subscribe to them. So if you’re young or on a very tight budget, I’d honestly recommend the free alternative versions of these, such as Krita (Krita is quite a large program, but it has a lot of really awesome features and is very similar to Photoshop!), Gimp (this one is similar to Krita, but has slightly less options, I’d honestly recommend Gimp for anyone who does photo editing though!) or FireAlpaca (this is the one I use, by the way and it’s a pretty simple program, but has a lot of fantastic features and is perfect for how I work!). These don’t have as many features as some of the paid alternatives, but I honestly think all you really need to start digital art is some kind of ‘canvas’ and set of brushes!

Another great free program for beginners I’d recommend is MyPaint, which is great for doodling and just getting used to how digital art feels in comparison to traditional! It also has a bunch of ‘traditional style’ brushes, to make it look like charcoal or watercolour (which I’m sure the paid alternatives have too, but it’s always better when it’s free, I find lol...)

(this is an example of a drawing I did on MyPaint using the ‘charcoal’ effect brush!)

Most of the sites are pretty self explanatory, with sections dedicated to different brushes (I’ll go into the types of brushes later on in this post btw!), adjusting brush size, shape and opacity, a colour wheel, etc. You also have a section dedicated to ‘layers’ (another thing I’ll go into more detail later), and various ‘filters’ and editing options and effects you can add to your work to make it more interesting!

I’d really just recommend playing around with programs until you find your one!

Part 3 - The Pros of Digital Art!

I realise this section should probably earlier in this blog post lol, but I kinda wanted to go into what digital art can achieve in comparison to traditional art, and how beginner artists can utilise this!

I definitely didn’t take advantage of certain aspects of digital art when I first got into it, and they’re things that would have definitely made my life a whole lot easier lol!

Digital art allows you to tweak drawings as you do them. So if you accidentally drew the eye too far to the right, then you can easily move it to the right place. (I usually do this by selecting whichever area is wrong, cutting it out and then pasting it into a new area... And yes, there is probably a better and quick way of doing this but...I haven’t found that way yet lol...). And I honestly think that this has allowed me to look a lot more at a reference image in order to figure out where I’ve gone wrong with a drawing! Whereas with traditional art, I usually spend so long trying to get an eye right, that even if it’s slightly in the wrong place, I don’t want to completely redo that section. Digital allows you to completely rub out sections without leaving indents, which is honestly such a saving grace!

Another pro of digital is the Undo/Ctrl Z function! This means you can easily go back to before you made a major mistake with just a click of Ctrl Z... Though I have to say that this function has honestly ruined traditional art for me... Oh what wouldn’t I give for a real life Ctrl Z... But yeah, this is a great part of digital art and definitely something you will grow to love lol!

Another great thing about digital is that it allows you to flip and turn a canvas as you’re drawing on it. I spent a lot of time trying to turn my tablet around in order to draw certain parts of a piece before I realised you can turn the canvas itself without having to move yourself or your tablet!

Layers are another part of digital that can be super useful, and I have to be honest but I don’t really use them a lot. I know a lot of artists create layers for every section of their artworks (so, one for the linework, one for colouring, a separate one for the background, etc etc...). And there’s something really great about being able to paint without worrying about smudging into a previous section of the painting. This works well for my work since I do a lot of bright backgrounds. I also often create a lot of ‘versions’ of my works, so it’s useful to be able to change the background without affecting the main figure of the piece! (I have to say that I often work in one big layer when I’m doing paintings, just because I like how it feels more like ‘traditional’ art that way, but layers are such a brilliant tool, and definitely something you should play around with!)

The eyedropper tool is another one that is really useful! Although I never colour pick from my reference photos, I know some artists find this useful when they were just starting out (especially if you’re not sure what colour to make shadows or how to mix skin tones, etc etc). The eyedropper basically means you don’t need to mix your colours every time

Part 4 - Just some other things I wish I had known about when I was starting out lol...

This last section is just dedicated to a few things that I would have liked to have known when I was just starting out all those years ago. 

First one is fluffy/textured brushes! 

I spent most of my art life from 2013 until 2016 using ‘round’ brushes which are notoriously hard to blend with, so I’d recommend either downloading some fluffy/textured brushes (DeviantArt was where I got mine from a few years back, but there are probably other places you can get them for free too!) to your program of choice, since most of the programs I’ve used haven’t had fluffy/textured brushes as pre-set. 

I may make another post about how I blend in my artworks if that’s something people would be interested in?

(this is an example of textured brush blending vs round brush blending... I usually opt for round brushes for rougher blending styles and the textured brushes for more smooth and ‘realistic’ blending... for a lot of pieces, though, I use both brushes (the round brushes are good for details!) in the same way that you use different sized brushes for real paintings!)

The next thing I wish I’d discovered earlier is the Brush Stabiliser option. Some programs may do this automatically, but the one I use (FireAlpaca) requires you to manually change the amount of stabilising you have on your brush. This is particularly useful if you want to draw neat lines or straight lines (the stabiliser essentially slows down the ‘ink’ as you’re drawing). I only recently started using the stabiliser, and although I still like having it mostly turned ‘off’ for doing sketchy work, it does make doing line work a lot easier, and also gives pieces a more polished look!  

Next advice is to explore all the options you can in whatever program you use! 

I feel like with certain programs, you can get overwhelmed by choice and you end up just using a few of the functions. But I’d really recommend just playing around with these programs, trying all the filters and editing options to get used to how the program works. You can often find interesting ways to adjust your artworks this way! In a way I’d recommend this way of working more than finding tutorials made by other people... Unless there’s a specific function you want to learn how to do, just having fun with digital art is a major part of it’s appeal to me! 

~

There are probably a lot of other options I could go into, but this is already over 2000 words long, so I’ll leave it here for now lol! (I may do a part 2 though so... keep a look out for that!)

As always, if you have any questions to things I’ve said here, or are just looking for more advice, don’t hesitate to message me!

And if you like my work on here (art & blog posts) feel free to support me on my Ko-Fi! <3

[amydancepants-peralta]

brand new moon, brand new sun ♥️

From the first time she had presented her parents with a ‘consideration list’ for her upcoming 6th birthday party, Amy Santiago knew she was a Planner.  

It had been a carefully curated form, with possible locations itemised in order of preference (the local park rated higher than their backyard, the planetarium superseded the park); followed by a hopeful guest list - her already neat handwriting deliberately ranking her classmates from Most Likely to be invited (Katrina M) to Least (Kyle D).  

Her parents had been impressed by the work that had gone into it, and that year began her eleven year streak of amazing birthdays surrounded by the universe and the closest of her friends.  It also taught her that preparation led to results, and by the time she was eight Amy had already begun to map out her weeks well in advance.  She had favourite markers, and a colour-coded system for specific events; and as the years wore on and her preferences changed, one simple truth remained:  preparation and planning was everything, and hard work always pays off.

While it was true that the life calendar that she’d put together during her first year of college hadn’t planned or predicted for the undeniable impact that Jake Peralta would have on her life, for the first time in a long time Amy had simply found herself adjusting to the unfamiliar thrill of not knowing.  It had only taken two or three dates for her to realise that being with Jake had changed everything - infinitely for the better - and from the first time she’d stayed the entire weekend at his apartment, and woke up Sunday morning to find that he’d run down to his local bodega purely to buy her a copy of the New York Times so that she could still do the weekly crossword, Amy knew that she was in it for the long haul.  

Jake both encouraged and challenged her, and made her smile more than anybody in the entire world.  He loved Amy, with every fibre of his being, and would happily shout it from the rooftop of every building in Brooklyn if ever given the chance.  And Amy was so deeply in love with Jake - the kind of love that vibrated from every pore, and for the longest time she had truly believed such a thing only existed in the great literary classics.  It’s the kind of love that turns you upside down and inside out and makes you whole: that completes you even when you thought you were already complete.  He was the love of her life and her best friend all wrapped up in one handsome package, and the night that he’d sat beside her, shrugging and giving her that beautiful smile of his before suggesting that they should start trying for a baby, will always remain one of her favourite moments.  

Truthfully, Amy had known that it wasn’t going to happen instantaneously.  Her body needed to adjust to no longer being on the pill for starters, and sometimes good things simply take time.  It was several months before the fear began to creep in, and it took a pregnancy announcement from an officer on the second floor to make their sex a little more scheduled -  a little more time specific - and while The Jake Way had been a lot of fun, it too had not yielded results, and things began to become clear.  

This was a test.  And tests were something that Amy knew like the back of her hand.  It had been a rush of adrenaline, to compile all the information and fill binder after binder with scores of insider tips and tricks.  This was what Amy knew, and what she knew she could do well.  There were calendars and graphs, coloured post-its and ovulation charts and a schedule that rivalled all the other schedules she’d ever put together in her life.  Suddenly, Amy begins to feel in control again - because preparation and planning was everything, and hard work always pays off.  

She tries to shrug off the disappointment when the first test she takes after Operation Pregnancy begins, throwing the stick into the bin and shaking her head quickly when he looks at her expectantly.  Keeps her face positive when she sticks her head out of the work restroom a couple of days later, throwing out a casual nope! that doesn’t sound casual at all to her, and clearly Jake agrees because as soon as the door swings shut behind her he’s pulling her into his arms.  It’s entirely inappropriate for the workplace, but his arms are so tight around her and it feels so incredibly right that for a moment, the buzzing world around them fades away.  He whispers in her ear that there’s always next time, and she can feel herself nodding, pushing the doubts down further as she rests her head against her husband’s chest.  

Two and a half months in she begins branching out, buying a few different brands of pregnancy tests and favouring one that has a panel along the side that simply states ‘pregnant’ or ‘not pregnant’.  It’s a blunt statement, but negative signs have never been welcome in Amy’s life (all these years later, she can still vividly recall the first time she received an A minus), and she’s seen more than her fair share by now.  

As it turns out, the words sting just as much as the symbol.

Birthdays come and go, Halloween passes and so does Thanksgiving, and then suddenly it’s Christmas and Amy still isn’t pregnant.  There are three more officers in the precinct (not to mention their neighbour and her younger sister-in-law), that are pregnant; but Amy definitely is not.  

The morning the thirtieth test gets thrown into the bin Amy climbs into the shower, desperate to wash away the overwhelming sensation of defeat - but no matter how hard she scrubs, the feeling just never seems to fade.  Each attempt burns, like another red mark against her name - a report card filled up with multiple Fs - and she’s so determined to prove that they can do this, but … maybe she can’t.  

Her hands run over the curve of her abdomen as the suds fall down her body and she tenses her muscles, pushing out her stomach and briefly giving into the fantasy that someday - maybe even someday soon - there will be a baby growing there.  Her chest tightens under the pressure of it all and she releases a huff of breath, dipping her head back to let the water run down her face, her tears mingling with the rivulets as her stomach collapses back to it’s regular state.  She feels like such a failure.  And Amy Santiago has never been a fan of failure.

She runs her hands over her face as she dries off, avoiding the mirror but trying desperately to erase any sign of her devastation before leaving the bathroom.  This whole process hasn’t been easy on either of them - she needs Jake’s positivity now more than ever - and while Amy knows that she promised herself never to hide anything from her husband, the idea of admitting that she’s just no good at this was more than she was willing to say out loud just yet.  Still, his careful eyes pick up on the droop of her shoulders - on the frustration hidden terribly on her face - and as her feet pad down their hallway he’s already putting together her favourite tea, leading her to their still new (and ridiculously comfortable) couch.  His shoulder has always been her favourite place to rest, and today is no exception, but the aching no longer seems to fade as quickly.  

She hates what this has become - has genuinely begun to resent the fact that they have to try so damn hard for something that should be so simple.  There are times when she considers throwing in the towel - of standing back and waiting for fate to play it’s cards - and then her mind imagines what their children would look like, and before she knows it Amy is setting another UD alarm into the clock in their bedroom.  

Then time wears on, and failure seems to become the only certainty.  

It was an unfamiliar territory, this regularity of rejection.  She’d never realised that failure had teeth - sharp, pointy little fangs that dug into her skin and whispered in her ear whenever her thoughts would finally grow quiet.  There was an echoing sting to it all, the knowing that deep down there was no reason they weren’t getting pregnant that didn’t lead directly back to her.  Amy wanted to grow a family with Jake - to watch a miniature version of him grow and take on the world.  Another gentle boy with scruffy hair, and the sweetest of hearts that always seemed to be far bigger than his body could possibly conceal, getting the chance to finally grow up in a world made entirely of love.  To give him a sister, and then maybe another brother, and watch them play in the backyard of their house in the suburbs as she and Jake cooked dinner every evening.  It was a future that she could see so clearly - one that seemed so bright that it just didn’t seem fair for it not to happen.  

All of the pregnancy journals and fertility guides remind her that none of this is personal, and that sometimes the human body just finds it that little bit harder to conceive.  But to Amy, this is as personal as it gets.  She’s always been a straight-A student, who excelled at everything, but for some stupid reason her body simply didn’t want to co-operate.

She’d give Jake anything - she’d give him everything, if he only asked.  But this?  This, she cannot seem to do.  And it broke her heart just that little more, every single time they failed. 

*

It takes the suggestion of adding their colleague’s soon to be ex-wife’s brother in law on Facebook so they can ask for conception tips to finally push Amy over the edge, the insanity of it all splitting her heart into two because she simply cannot handle another reminder that she is broken - that her body is broken, and she cannot give Jake the family that he so truly deserves.  

None of this made any sense.  This was a test, and Amy was used to making tests her bitch.  She excelled at studying and revising and learning and winning - but no matter how hard she tried, no matter how hard they studied and moulded their bodies into perfectly hospitable vessels for procreation - nothing was working.     

She can feel her chest constricting as she blurts out I’m sorry I’m bad at making babies, and she can tell that her heart is one more word away from splitting open completely, but then Jake shakes his head, and tells her not to say such a thing, and all the reasons she loves him as deeply as she does rush to the forefront.  

He tells her they are a family, just the two of them, and damnit if he isn’t completely correct.  They are a family: a party of two, and it’s smaller than the one she grew up with but it’s filled with just as much love.  There are options, he reminds her, and even though all of this is completely out of her control and that is the worst thing in the world for her, right now none of it seems as bad as it did only a moment ago.  Despite all the heartache that exists within her, Amy can feel herself begin to smile, and it feels like coming home.  

Jake leans in, and his lips are so softly pressed against hers; so gentle and tender, so full of reassurance that truly, he is all Amy needs to get by.  

*

His hand lingers on her thigh for the entire cab ride home.  It’s entirely welcome, and the strong grip of Jake’s fingers on her skin is something that Amy has completely missed, and she wants to tell him but her mouth is far too occupied with kissing her husband.  It’s the sweetest and greatest feeling, this notion of kissing Jake for no other reason than to kiss him, long and hard and sweet and soft and definitely more passionate as they feel the cab take the familiar stops and turns that lead to their apartment.  

She’s missed this - this feeling of making love to her husband, to chasing release and holding their sweaty bare skin tightly against each other in the afterglow.  Of holding each other instead of hugging her knees to her chest, of considering the whole thing to be anything other than just another uterine deposit.  It’s the best night they’ve had in a long time, and part of her wonders if maybe they should have just given up trying a lot sooner.  

And then a week goes by, and her period is a day and a half late, and Amy knows she shouldn’t get her hopes up just yet, but this is how her cousin Mariela got pregnant and maybe they both had just needed to relax before it could all happen.  So she waits until they’re home before telling Jake about the last boxed test, the one that had been shoved to the back so that it was out of sight and out of mind, and he squeezes her hand as she lifts herself up and off the couch.  

When the word Not begins to appear, Amy waits for the crushing disappointment to wash over her, already trying to figure out a way to stall her departure from the bathroom so that Jake doesn’t have to see just how upset another negative makes her.  And the sadness appears - truth be told, it never really went away - but this time, the edges don’t seem as sharp.  Instead, the soft voice of her husband telling her we are a family … you and me washes over her, and Amy raises her head, staring at her reflection in the mirror and nodding at the woman she sees in front of her.  He was right - the two of them were already a family.  A family stronger than some, because regardless of how many times the world tried to pull them apart, they always found a way to come back to each other.  

Nothing about her has changed today, but Amy knows that she’s no longer the same.  It’s a brand new day, and their future now lay claim to a whole bunch of question marks but with Jake, the unexpected didn’t seem so terrifying.   After all, she hadn’t expected to fall in love with the overactive detective that sat across from her for all those years - but fall she did.  Hadn’t imagined their wedding to take place in front of the precinct, with shredded versions of her favourite forms covering the asphalt as she walked down the aisle towards her soon-to-be-husband.  Never dreamed of sharing her honeymoon with anyone but the love of her life.  But all of that had happened, and she wouldn’t change it for anything.  

Maybe they would try IVF.  Or maybe they would adopt - perhaps even foster.  Maybe they’d even become a family of fur babies - hypo-allergenic dogs and cats and some fishes swimming around in a tank.  

(But no guinea pigs.  Definitely no guinea pigs.)  

They would study the options, and plan for the future, but this time the weight on Amy’s shoulders seems far lighter.  Whatever the decision, they would make it together, and the sense of calm that rushes over Amy at that thought suddenly makes the negative test in her hand seem far less personal, and more a fact of life.  She wasn’t in control of this process, and for all the reasons she hates that fact, she loves Jake all the more.  

And with Jake by her side, they can get through anything - because no matter what, they’ll do it together.  

[silentwalrus1]

Hi!! Love your art so much, what program do you use to do yours? Im Just starting out so want advice from the ~experts~

WASSUP so i use photoshop CS5 mainly on a pc laptop with wacom intuos 4 tablet BUT a couple months ago i got an ipad with apple pencil and have been using Procreate on there. I like both but heres a list of points for each

Procreate on ipad: 

only $10

super versatile for a $10 program. Has type, loads of brushes, layer effects etc 

very portable. can draw in transit 

pretty intuitive! you can kinda just start drawing 

auto-smoothing on strokes if you hold the pen down! this can create very cool effects but can be unpredictable bc it’s autogenerated

HOWEVER: gradients are a fucking pain in the ass to do. and i HATE THAT.

if you use keyboard shortcuts you’re gonna have to get used to the touchscreen equivalents

I HAVE NOT FUCKING BEEN ABLE TO ADJUST THE BRUSH MINIMUM DIAMETER IN SHAPE DYNAMICS TO MY SATISFACTION. DON’T FUCKING LIKE THAT

Photoshop: 

you can do literally anything in PS

keyboard shortcuts. love em live em

steeper learning curve

worth it though. Like, if I had to pick one, it’ll be PS hands down. it’s called creative suite for a reason and that reason is “every single part of everything is customizable and there’s 19 different ways to get a certain effect and you can basically do whatever works for you” 

can be intimidating & discouraging if you’re just starting out and the brushes aren’t doing what you want them to do and everything is coming out wonky. 

at the end of the day it depends on what you want to use it for - if you already have an ipad, procreate is a great low-cost entry into digital art (buy matte screen protectors. this will remove the annoying glassy screen-to-stylus feel and let u draw like a human animal). if you expect to involve a lot of type and want to have the full suite of effects, photoshop is like. idk. $48 or something a month via CC subscription? Basically you can try it and see if you like it, though uhhh in my experience fuckin nobody likes photoshop right at the start bc it is v much expecting u to know what you’re doing 

either way, don’t get discouraged if shit comes out weird! any new medium takes time to master, and practice is the only way forward. it took me a solid year to get as good digitally as i was at the time with traditional materials, and i’m still learning!  GOOD LUCK

[darthputa]

So here’s a quick tutorial on practicing rendering especially when it comes to light and “shiny” skin.

I personally believe the best way to learn and learn quickly is using references, wether it be in real life or online.

One way you can use reference is through tracing. There is NOTHING wrong with tracing. Everyones done it, everyone does it and any pretending that they dont is lyin lmao.

Of course you have to do so responsibley, don’t claim it’s your own work and credit the ref when you can. When I first started learning to draw I like so many others, I traced. So don’t feel bad! You are learning and practicing!

Even now everynow and then I’ll do tracing exercises to help me understand how an artist does something, or to build up muscle memory. I even trace or repaint my own art sometimes!

I also have a quick timelaspe to help you see what I’m doing more visually:

So here’s a break down of the process:

Google is your friend! To find this image I typed shiny skin. Open up your ref in the program of your choice

Lower the opacity of the ref and on a new layer trace over the CONTOURS of light and shadow in the color of your choice. To really push your learning skip the outlines and go straight into color by color picking your tones. You can have strictly outlines but to really push your learning you should try to not use them.

If you are having trouble seeing the contours in color try putitng your ref into grayscale.

To help you further, color code your lines. In this example I made my brightest highlights yellow, my lights pink and kept my shadows black. Everything not lined you would use midtone.

Now that we have our contours its time to put down color. Use the color picker tool to pick a midtone first. Common places to find a midtone on a persons face are the forehead, temples, nose or jaw. In this instance I used a part of her under eye fat. From there you pick light and dark tones. I did one set for skin and one set for her lips. Once you have these tones block in the midtone first. From there you can choose to do shadows or lights first. In this example i started with light to do something different as i usually block in shadows first. I am using a big round brush at about 30% opacity to start, chaning it as i go. I dont go above 50% opacity when I paint. I started with the darker light first and then I push the lights further with brighter highlights. Use your guidlines and your reference to help you.

Now I have started to block in shadows. Using the ref and my familiarity with color blending I start with lighter shadows and then build darkness. To blend I simply put down the color and then go over it with the color its blending into at a very low opacity and with a larger brush. Trust your guidlines but refer to the ref as needed.

Now that youve done a good amount of blocking you can start erasing lines you no longer need. You never want to rely on line when it comes to painting.

Keep rendering. At this point I feel her skin is too flat, so I refer to my ref to see whats missing. I notice she has a bit of blush on her cheeks. To mimic this I grab a warm red and smack it over her cheek and jaw on a new layer. I use the gaussian blur tool to smooth it out, and i set the layer to darken in procreate. You can also use multiply or overlay depending on skintone. This makes her skin look more like flesh. I push the darker tones even more, this means adding more range of value. I put these in places id imagine would be darker, crevices of her neck, back of her head etc. I also push and define the highlights by intensitiying the color where the light is the brightess as portrayed by the reference( her temple, forehead, her right our left cheek).

Im continuing to render. The image despite my blocking still seems flat. I look at the ref and realize that her neck is darker than her face. On a new layer I take a brown color and paint over her neck and set that to multiply. I take my eraser tool and lower its opacity to about 25% and make it very large to start. I softly erase the brown in areas where theres more light, making the brush smaller as I apply more pressure and for smaller highlight areas.

At this point if this were a proper painting I would now place all my layers either into a group or flatten them depending on how confident i feel, and on a new layer begin to paint over the lines and continue to push my values and blend. Once Im happy with that I flatten everything and make adjustments using the curves tool as I see fit.

So hopefully that helps someone!

A great way to continue practice is doing all these steps over again but this time drawing from reference instead of tracing and NOT using color picker!

If you ever have any questions about how I do somethinf or want a tutorial on a concept just let me know, I cant make any promises bc im still learning myself but Im always down to help when I can!

[archieviscom]

PROJECT EVALUATION

WHY - With this brief, my original question for was ‘Why are we scared of blood’. Once I started looking into it, I wasn’t sure on where to take it but one thing that kept showing up was the colour red and the reasons behind that being perceived as the colour of danger. I had more initial ideas for this then I did my original thought idea. I changed the question and was able to put something together. I wanted to focus to colour perception more than anything else and how this effects people. I had a few ideas that involved a more illustrative approach, something I am not the best at so when I had the idea of a short animation, I thought this would be more interesting for me and doable. 

From the start of the year, I wanted to develop my animation skills. It’s something we did in 1st year and as much as I enjoyed it, the frustration for me was my lack of knowledge on how to use After Effects. With this project however, I did not use After Effects for the main animation, it still helped progress my knowledge. I used ProCreate for the danger signs part as I had a technique being used in the past that I thought would help with the perception side of things. I used the Glitch effect to symbolise the message of the signs breaking down and ‘glitching out’ once the colour had changed. This is something I wouldn’t know how to do using After Effects.

This was a short brief so managing my time well was essential, it took a little while to get back into the grove as it was our first project of the term but once I found that grove, I think I managed my time well, by the time I had changed my question and had a plan of action, I only had two days to execute it. The pressure of this wasn’t necessary a bad thing as it did make focus and carry out my plan. 

Upon reflection, I would have liked to have upped the frame rate on procreate as it’s a little jumpy, for some reason decided 4 fps would be fine. It would have taken longer to do if the frame rate was higher but it would have been much smoother and cleaner. 

COLLECTION AND INTERPRETATION - With this project, similar to the first one, I made a bit of a U-turn halfway through. This time however, it was my fault for not fully reading the brief. 

Once I had figured out a new plan with a new idea, I was able to carry on. The one thing that motivated me for this time was keeping things authentic. From my research of Album Receipts and Receiptify I found that making the final result have the right feel and look was essential to making it work. Finding the right typeface, the dimensions, the texture were all key elements to the design. It worked out quite well as I was able to constantly refer back to the receipts I had collected to check that they had a similar feel. 

Once I had collected my data over my three shifts, I was able to work effectively. There wasn’t much I could do until the all the data was collected other get the general layout sorted. Once I had everything, I could input the data and iron out any issues. 

I would have liked to have improved on the texture for my final outcomes. Although I added a paper-like grain to it, it would have aided the authenticity of the outcome if it had more. I wasn’t quite sure how I would have achieved this so that’s something I need to work on should I do a similar project in the future. Also, as much I had do like the spider diagram-style maps, I’m not sure they fit with the rest of the look. Maybe instead of having the maps I could gone with with a more text-based approach. I could have used the coordinates instead, I think this would have looked better and tied in nicely with the rest of it. 

INTERVENTION INTERPRETATION - This was by far my favourite project this term. I didn’t think it would be but once I got into it, it was extremely enjoyable. There was a bit of software learning curve as I decided to use Glyphs which made it a bit more time consuming but I am very glad I went down this route regardless. I still have a lot to learn in this department, with software and general knowledge on type design but it’s something I definitely want to pursue. Once I had the idea of using my Morris Minor, I thought the best place to start for this would be to look more at the history of car design and more specifically Sir Alec Issigonis, the designer behind many classic British cars including the Morris Minor. This helped inform and motivate my design decisions throughout my process. Something that also motivated my design decisions was the idea of making the typeface a classic and vintage feel to it. I think if the typeface had a sleek, modern design, it wouldn’t have been true to its inspiration. I was influenced by art deco-style design for this. I know that the eras don’t quite match up but the decorative design elements from this period guided me though some decisions.  

This along with the other two projects had a much shorter time line to anything I was used to. As stressful as this can be at points, I much prefer doing it this way as the pressure really helped me knuckle down, it helped me make quick decisions instead of procrastinating and putting tasks off. 

I did struggle greatly with the posters, I am still not 100% on how any of them turned out but I just couldn’t get anymore out of them. I did plan on using the week or so  period at the end of the projects to focus on them but I had other tasks to complete that were necessary for hand-in. I also needed to focus a bit more time on the numbers on my font, they are functional but they could most definitely do with some adjustments. Again, if I hadn’t left other parts to the last minute, this would have been achievable. 

15 MINUTE CITY - This project was a weird one for me. The project itself is great but I just couldn’t connect with it and I’m not sure why. But regardless, it needed to be done and it’s good practice for industry. 

I was able to come to a decision on what I wanted to create for this project fairly quickly, I think working as a team at the start was extremely beneficial, I don’t think I would have arrived at my idea if I were doing it alone. Once I had decided on creating the parks, I just had to focus on the visual system. My main inspiration for this project was Porto. From the presentation, it really stuck with me and it guided me through my design process. 

This project, as well as all the others however, could have benefited from more research. I had a similar problem in 1st year. I do jump the gun almost and start on the practical side of things too soon. I think more research for all projects would have helped make more informed design decisions and would have given me greater knowledge to work with. Moving forward I need put a bigger focus on the this, I think the results of doing this would be almost priceless and would be reflected in my final outcomes. 

With this project, I was able to develop my skills within animation, something I really wanted to do at the start of the year. I am still a long way off from where I want to be in regards to my skill set but this was extremely beneficial. 

I was very grateful that even during all this Covid drama, we could still go on to campus and Ben was on hand to assist us with any questions and problems. This, along with YouTube tutorials on After Effects greatly helped me to achieve my goals.

We had much longer to complete this project then the previous ones. This was beneficial and allowed me to take my foot off the gas ever so slightly. This is was good but also bad in ways. Pressure makes most people perform better and I felt that with the previous projects, as mentioned previously, it stopped me from procrastinating and urged me to make quicker decisions. This was lost on this project, I later paid the price for this as everything came down to the last minute,something that I feel is reflected in my work. 

Overall, I am happy with what I was able to create for this project but I wouldn’t consider it my best work to date. I would have liked to have created a larger body of work and have it to a higher standard.