rainbowsplashstudios

[rainbowsplashstudios]

F2U ARTFIGHT THUMBNAILS!!!

[rainbowsplashstudios]

It is time, Ive still got a lot of refs to finish but it'll be fiiinnnneeee

[rainbowsplashstudios]

Zoom In, Don’t Glaze Over: How to Describe Appearance Without Losing the Plot

You’ve met her before. The girl with “flowing ebony hair,” “emerald eyes,” and “lips like rose petals.” Or him, with “chiseled jawlines,” “stormy gray eyes,” and “shoulders like a Greek statue.”

We don’t know them.

We’ve just met their tropes.

Describing physical appearance is one of the trickiest — and most overdone — parts of character writing. It’s tempting to reach for shorthand: hair color, eye color, maybe a quick body scan. But if we want a reader to see someone — to feel the charge in the air when they enter a room — we need to stop writing mannequins and start writing people.

So let’s get granular. Here’s how to write physical appearance in a way that’s textured, meaningful, and deeply character-driven.

1. Hair: It’s About Story, Texture, and Care

Hair says a lot — not just about genetics, but about choices. Does your character tame it? Let it run wild? Is it dyed, greying, braided, buzzed, or piled on top of her head in a hurry?

Good hair description considers:

Texture (fine, coiled, wiry, limp, soft)

Context (windblown, sweat-damp, scorched by bleach)

Emotion (does she twist it when nervous? Is he ashamed of losing it?)

Flat: “Her long brown hair framed her face.”

Better: “Her ponytail was too tight, the kind that whispered of control issues and caffeine-fueled 4 a.m. library shifts.”

You don’t need to romanticise it. You need to make it feel real.

2. Eyes: Less Color, More Connection

We get it: her eyes are violet. Cool. But that doesn’t tell us much.

Instead of focusing solely on eye color, think about:

What the eyes do (do they dart, linger, harden?)

What others feel under them (seen, judged, safe?)

The surrounding features (dark circles, crow’s feet, smudged mascara)

Flat: “His piercing blue eyes locked on hers.”

Better: “His gaze was the kind that looked through you — like it had already weighed your worth and moved on.”

You’re not describing a passport photo. You’re describing what it feels like to be seen by them.

3. Facial Features: Use Contrast and Texture

Faces are not symmetrical ovals with random features. They’re full of tension, softness, age, emotion, and life.

Things to look for:

Asymmetry and character (a crooked nose, a scar)

Expression patterns (smiling without the eyes, habitual frowns)

Evidence of lifestyle (laugh lines, sun spots, stress acne)

Flat: “She had a delicate face.”

Better: “There was something unfinished about her face — as if her cheekbones hadn’t quite agreed on where to settle, and her mouth always seemed on the verge of disagreement.”

Let the face be a map of experience.

4. Bodies: Movement > Measurement

Forget dress sizes and six packs. Think about how bodies occupy space. How do they move? What are they hiding or showing? How do they wear their clothes — or how do the clothes wear them?

Ask:

What do others notice first? (a presence, a posture, a sound?)

How does their body express emotion? (do they go rigid, fold inwards, puff up?)

Flat: “He was tall and muscular.”

Better: “He had the kind of height that made ceilings nervous — but he moved like he was trying not to take up too much space.”

Describing someone’s body isn’t about cataloguing. It’s about showing how they exist in the world.

5. Let Emotion Tint the Lens

Who’s doing the describing? A lover? An enemy? A tired narrator? The emotional lens will shape what’s noticed and how it’s described.

In love: The chipped tooth becomes charming.

In rivalry: The smirk becomes smug.

In mourning: The face becomes blurred with memory.

Same person. Different lens. Different description.

6. Specificity is Your Superpower

Generic description = generic character. One well-chosen detail creates intimacy. Let us feel the scratch of their scarf, the clink of her earrings, the smudge of ink on their fingertips.

Examples:

“He had a habit of adjusting his collar when he lied — always clockwise, always twice.”

“Her nail polish was always chipped, but never accidentally.”

Make the reader feel like they’re the only one close enough to notice.

Describing appearance isn’t just about what your character looks like. It’s about what their appearance says — about how they move through the world, how others see them, and how they see themselves.

Zoom in on the details that matter. Skip the clichés. Let each description carry weight, story, and emotion. Because you’re not building paper dolls. You’re building people.

[rainbowsplashstudios]

I keep forgetting I have a tumblr account I should post on-

Body is traced from this image because I couldnt figure out the pose by myself and got mad: https://sprite-jp.tumblr.com/post/138953714776

Also I put her scar in the wrong place in her portrait and Im SUPER mad at myself for doing that,I had the ref up and everything and I STILL GOT IT WRONG. Im dumb >:[

Uh anyways this is a character I created for a series I started in 2018 and am just now getting around to reviving called Mary Sue Monday! I basically take traits listed in those "Is your oc a mary sue" quizzes and make a character using a list I compile. The goal is to write a fun, well written, well rounded character to show that the things listed in these old mary sue quizzes dont automatically make your character bad.

This series is mostly just for fun, and its good writing and character design practice for me! Which is always nice. Honestly I encourage everyone to try this its so fun and you can write some BOMB ass characters using this ridiculous method XD

For this brand new episode of MSM I created an Avatar The Last Airbender oc, Avatar Achara. The triats I used are as follows:

Is a living airbender in Aangs timeline

got frozen with Aang and Appa

Is the Avatar alongside Aang, so you have two avatars at the same time, can also bend all the other elements while outside the avatar state

was able to achieve the ability to fly (think Zaheer from Korra)

Doesnt wear traditional Air Nomad Robes

Doesnt like Katara because shes Aangs love interest

Now heres a bit about the character I wrote with these things in mind:

Achara is 12 years old, and was born at the Southern Air Temple with Aang, and the two grew up together as best friends. When Aang was announced as the Avatar, Achara was the only one who didn't completely abandon him. Them being best friends, she actually ends up running away with him after catching about to leave, they fly away together on their bisons (Her bisons name is Shoo-Shoo). When the storm hits, Achara and Shoo-Shoo are the first to go down, Achara takes in too much water and passes out. Aang enters the avatar state and finds Achara and Shoo-Shoo, Achara isn't breathing when he finds her, so he bends the water out of her lungs but it doesn't help. He places his forehead on hers, trying to pull her spirit back into her body before they're frozen. This even actually causes a piece of the Avatar Spirit to slip into Achara which effectively makes her a second Avatar (although a much weaker one compared to Aang) she can only enter the Avatar State when Aang does, but the longer the sliver of the Avatar spirit stays in Achara the stronger she gets, and the more time the two pieces stay separated the less likely it becomes for them to rejoin. So there will be TWO Avatars the next Cycle if Acharas piece of the Avatar Sprit doesn't return to Aang, but if that happens Achara will die because its the only thing keeping her soul tethered to her body.

You can watch the video here to learn more about her and the story idea I drafted up for her

[rainbowsplashstudios]

Hey! Thats me :D

A couple of thumbnails I did for my friend’s youtube channel! Go check them out! They play a lot of indie horror games if that’s your thing

You can find the videos here:

[rainbowsplashstudios]

So, Discord has added a feature that lets other people "enhance" or "edit" your images with different AI apps. It looks like this:

Currently, you can't opt out from this at all. But here's few things you can do as a protest.

FOR SERVERS YOU ARE AN ADMIN IN

Go to Roles -> @/everyone roles -> Scroll all the way down to External Apps, and disable it. This won't delete the option, but it will make people receive a private message instead when they use it, protecting your users:

You should also make it a bannable offense to edit other user's images with AI. Here's how I worded it in my server, feel free to copypaste:

Do not modify other people's images with AI under ANY circumstances, such as with the Discord "enhancement" features, amidst others. This is a bannable offense.

COMPLAIN TO DISCORD

There's few ways to go around this. First, you can go to https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/requests/new , select Help and Support -> Feedback/New Feature Request, and write your message, as seen in the screenshot below.

For the message, here's some points you can bring up:

Concerns about harassment (such as people using this feature to bully others)

Concerns about privacy (concerns on how External Apps may break privacy or handle the data in the images, and how it may break some legislations, such as GDPR)

Concerns about how this may impact minors (these features could be used with pictures of irl minors shared in servers, for deeply nefarious purposes)

BE VERY CLEAR about "I will refuse to buy Nitro and will cancel my subscription if this feature remains as it is", since they only care about fucking money

Word them as you'd like, add onto them as you need. They sometimes filter messages that are copypasted templates, so finding ways to word them on your own is helpful.

ADDING: You WILL NEED to reply to the mail you receive afterwards for the message to get sent to an actual human! Otherwise it won't reach anyone

UNSUSCRIBE FROM NITRO

This is what they care about the most. Unsuscribe from Nitro. Tell them why you unsuscribed on the way out. DO NOT GIVE THEM MONEY. They're a company. They take actions for profit. If these actions do not get them profit, they will need to backtrack. Mass-unsuscribing from WOTC's DnD beyond forced them to back down with the OGL, this works.

LEAVE A ONE-STAR REVIEW ON THE APP

This impacts their visibility on the App store. Write why are you leaving the one-star review too.

_

Regardless of your stance on AI, I think we can agree that having no way for users to opt out of these pictures is deeply concerning, specially when Discord is often used to share selfies. It's also a good time to remember internet privacy and safety- Maybe don't post your photos in big open public servers, if you don't want to risk people doing edits or modifications of them with AI (or any other way). Once it's posted, it's out of your control.

Anyways, please reblog for visibility- This is a deeply concerning topic!

[rainbowsplashstudios]

Dear authors, you should really stop putting "x reader" in your OC insert fics because it's a self insert of YOUR character and not that of the reader. I understand you want attention on the post, but it's completely misstagging the story and is quite frankly frustrating and annoying. Yeah, some readers may adapt to it, but some absolutely can not. Thank you very much

[rainbowsplashstudios]

autistic anger issues are So Much. i have my temper more under control now in that i rly dont yell/lash out anymore but i do regularly boil inside with incandescent uncontainable rage over something inconsequential and then it evaporates in the span of ten minutes. incomparable

[rainbowsplashstudios]

Forgot to share this here because Im stupid.

I have a friend who needs help, hes currently living in an extremely abusive house hold with a crazy ass mother who is threatening to kill his cat (which she has killed his animals before to keep him in line) and he needs help getting out of there safely with his cat, we're shooting for about 10,000$ because he will have to live in a hotel for a while by the looks of things. Watch the video for more information, if you can donate that would be amazing, anything helps.

I have a ko-fi you can donate to, or you can just directly donate to my paypal (either works, anything donated to my ko-fi goes directly into my paypal anyways) I also have commissions open and I have a threadless account (think redbubble but not stupid) I dont have much up on that right now but I plan on updating it soon.

https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/ugrimdark539

[rainbowsplashstudios]

Revenge for @rainbowsplashstudios

[rainbowsplashstudios]

back in the 00s a single dancing anime chibi gif would feed us for months on end

[rainbowsplashstudios]

She Who Forged the Stars

This is from this year's Artfight! Yes, I know I'm over a month late, but I'm so proud of a lot of the drawings I did that I want to post my favorites here.

This one is my good friend @rainbowsplashstudios's OC UG!

[rainbowsplashstudios]

[rainbowsplashstudios]

attacking @rainbowsplashstudios

[rainbowsplashstudios]

Pleaaaassee

Pretty pretty please commission me I need money I'm just a silly lil guy 🙏🙏🙏🙏

And I think my commissions are fairly cheap

Just message me pretty please 🙏

And it's gonna be June soon.... support a queer artist directly...? 🥺

[rainbowsplashstudios]

Whenever I’m sad I think about the fact that Michael Myers does have a sense of humor because this fucker absolutely put on a sheet and some glasses and was like ‘this will be the greatest prank on planet earth just u fuckin wait’

AND IT WORKED SHE HAD NO FUCKIN CLUE

[rainbowsplashstudios]

Jim and you are sitting in the library doing Trollhunter homework with Claire and Toby

Jim: We should get a divorce.

(Y/N) starts chuckling stopping what their reading while Claire continues her work and Toby snorts

(Y/N): What are you doing?

Jim shrugs

Jim: Just practicing.

(Y/N): Why are you practicing your hypothetical divorce?

Jim: ... I don't know I'm the Trollhunter, I'm sixteen. I think I'm having a quarter life crisis.

(Y/N): You don't even have a girlfriend Jim.

Claire and Toby are giggling now while Jim smiles

Jim: Hypthetically divorce me?

(Y/N): Okay... than hypothetically I'm taking half of your assests.

Jim: Well you didn't sign the hypothetical prenup. P-pre... Its called a prenup right?

Claire deciding to join in

Claire: Yes its a prenup and you did hypothetically sign one so...

(Y/N) cracking their ass up

(Y/N): Who the fuck is this guy?

Claire: I'm his hypothetical divorce lawyer in this divorce case.

(Y/N): Than I'm taking the hypothetical kids. So...

(Y/N) pauses.

(Y/N): Right we can get those?

Toby scooting closer and joining in

Toby: Yes we can defiently get those hypothetical kids. Don't worry about it.

Jim: Who the fuck is this hypothetical nerd? Glasses wearing nerd...

(Y/N): Woah that is a alot of hypothetical insults.

Toby: I'm wearing glasses to look the role. I'm not just a hypothetical divorce lawyer but also a troll lawyer Mr. Trollhunter. Now about the assest division.

(Y/N): This is my hypothetical divorce lawyer.

Pulling Toby close you chuckle

(Y/N): We've hypothetically been sleeping together so-

Jim holding back laughter

Jim: How could you hypthetically-

Jim taking a deep breath still holding back laughter

Jim: Ho-how could you hypothetically do this to me?

(Y/N) also laughing

(Y/N): Because you are hypothetically an alcoholic so...

Blinkous: Great Gorgons what's happening?

The Trolhunter crew bursts out laughing.