#I directly eyedropped the colors of them from their skins

[watcheraurora]

The Listener’s Agent and the Watcher

Sooo… this was mostly meant as an attempt to practice a more dynamic pose. I am a writer. I’ve been teaching myself how to draw for two years and it’s not consistent and it’s a slow process so obviously it’s not that great. But I’m still super proud of it despite that. And I didn’t bother with a background because IbisPaint had this one pre-loaded and it was 1:30AM by the time I finished this

[smallsimmer]

Hi! I've been a follower for awhile of you and Sara as I play TS3!

I started becoming a creator and learning to Convert 4to3 items in my game which has been so fun for me.

I tend to love a certain style that I can't find in most cc creators so I want to make my own eyes, skins, skin details/ tattoos etc. to make my sims.

To keep it short is there any tutorials you learned from on how to make skin and eyes and tattoos? Any tips you could give to help out someone who is trying to learn themselves and start a simblr?

Hello!! That is definitely why Sara and I started making stuff, it makes your sims feel more like your own characters when you can add the personalized touches yourself. Sara and I have been skin blending for a long time (around since 2016 I wanna say) and we're mostly self taught, I don't remember a lot of people wanting to share their skin blending techniques back in the day. The most I can do is to link you to here and browse through their tutorials they have shared. The other basic tips I can share is that Sara and I use the 3D mode in photoshop for all of our skins, you'll need to get .dae files to open in photoshop which you can find here, find a base skin, doesn't have to be terribly detailed just so you know where the eyelids, nose, and mouth should go as well as the ears. Make sure you make a new layer before pasting whatever details you want to add otherwise when you merge it down on the 3D side it'll go onto whichever layer you were on (then you gotta completely redo it and it's a pain in the ass). ALSO! You can use liquify to move stuff around better in the 3d mode, I use multiply when placing stuff first so I can line it up where it needs to go. I've also seen some skins where people haven't matched the scalp correctly or there's a line where the body and the head meet, my trade secret is to use the eyedrop tool and grab the color on the face dds then just paste it completely in the scalp and on the body I use a soft brush and drag it over the very top of the neck on the body dds. As for eyes and tattoos, eyes are definitely like making makeup in the regard that you can make them recolorable and they go in the makeup category so if you have any experience with that it's not too hard, just make sure if they're not recolorable to set the color in TSRW to white so they show up properly in game. Tattoos I always add directly to my sims skins, accessory tattoos look awful in game, they glare under the light and they're blurry, easier to just add them to the skin, for the body you can just paste them on in 2D but for face tats I recommend using the 3D mode instead because of warping, black tattoo with a white background I tend most of the time to set the layer to multiply and it looks fine.

For examples of tattoos warping:

You want the tattoo to be here so if we place it like so in the 2D mode it looks fine right?

Wrong because it is going to look like this in game

So instead paste it in 3D mode like so and then merge it down

It'll look like this in the 2D mode but it's fine! It'll look correct in game!

I was kinda spit balling but I hope this helps even a tiny tiny bit!

[queerdraws]

HELLOOOO I hope you've had a good day :D I was just wondering how you end up with the colours for ur compositions :O? Are you the type to use a lot of colour adjustment layers (multiply, overlay, etc) to get at a satisfying hue, or do you just eyeball directly from the colour wheel? I remember you saying for one of ur pieces that u eyedropped directly from like,,, a dead corpse of some animal XD but i assume that isnt ur process for everything hahaha. Do you use a lot of references for the specific vibe you wanna convey?

ANYWAYS keep up the amazing work!!!

YOOO!!! I didn't recognize u at first omg (p.s. ty!)

The way I made the zolu playlist drawings isn't my Usual drawing / coloring process but I formed some sort of Strategy for it

Actually I think sharing the literal refs I used for each image would be fun and maybe demystify the art process

Pics below cut! 😊

I mostly eyeballed from the colorwheel. I think I only used color adjustment layers on Chikai and Around the World to get a soft glowy effect in the clouds. BUT!! I'll frequently play around with adjusting the colors through the hue/saturation/luminosity sliders, or I'll go in to Tone Curve and play around with the levels until things are looking how I want. Especially for backgrounds

I also colorpicked from ref photos (like you mentioned w the lion eating a carcass). I GENERALLY tried to avoid overly referencing any one pic, but Simple song and Around the World were the two worst offenders 😓

---Color Choice---

I went by pure gut feeling at first while listening to the song, how the instruments sounded and what color they were

And then after that, I'd try and refine it a little more by Overall Vibes (making it feel more Glowy) (adjusting how colors interact w eachother like toning down a too-saturated color or making skin tones warmer or cooler to contrast w the background)

And then i gathered references n either colorpicked from them or I used them as vibe inspiration as i was painting

---More General Color Stuff...?--- This section is riddled with over-explanation.

-> To make a color stand out as Really Saturated, I surround it w neutral colors, esp contrasting ones (e.g. if I want a red to pop, I put it next to a cool gray)

-> if the overall painting is really warm (like, everything seems cast in a warm light) and i need to have a specific cool-tone color (like green), I take one of the warm colors and drag it a ways Towards the cool color I need (so , colorpick a red, and drag the slider until it's on yellow) and then desaturate it a lot. I then test that color on the piece and see if it Looks green. Same goes in reverse (cool-tone paintings that need a warm color) So, Like...for example: Zoro's hair is some really weird colors.

-> I try to limit eyebuzz (places where two colors meet, where the hue [tone] is different, but the brightness [value] of the color is almost exactly the same. Basically, if you made everything grayscale, you dont want two grays of the same color right next to eachother [or, you want to do it intentionally?]) (called eyebuzz bc at really high saturation, two colors of the same value almost vibrate next to eachother)

(Sidenote: I think "eyebuzz" mustve just been a term my high school art teacher used bc i don't see any relevant results for it on google... there's probably a more professional term for this lol)

Examples:

I esp try to limit eyebuzz between foreground and background objects

I know some artists are intense enough about contrast that they toggle grayscale on n off as they're painting. I just kinda eyeball it.

-------

This ended up really long again oh my goddd I think those are the main things on my mind when choosing colors...?

Hope this is helpful 😅

[bunsblr]

Allright, finally got around to writing another part of my tutorial. In this part I will go over how I paint shadows on the body and some other stuff. Let’s just get into it!

Open this in dashboard for best view of the screenshots.

Disclaimer: I have no formal training for any kind of graphics stuff, I work in an office as a receptionist - I serve coffee for a living. I am absolutely self taught and while I consider myself pretty comfortable with photoshop, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t about a gazillion of other things that can be done that I have no idea about. There are people far superior than me in the Sims community. This is just how I do it, with techniques I have picked up through the years. Some things I go over in these will be pretty basic, some things a little more unorthodox. Disclaimer 2: My edits take time. This is what I do to relax, one edit takes several hours for me. Sometimes days :))) Disclaimer 3: My photoshop is in Swedish, which is my first language. I tried my best to find the English translations for every step that I do.

Tools used: The Sims 4, Adobe Photoshop 2020, One by Wacom Pen Tablet (very basic and unfancy).

When we stopped the last time we had just painted some shadows on the face and chest area. Now I continue with all other parts that’s showing skin. The hand has some of that wrongly places highlight thing going on, so I use the pen tool to section the hand out.

On the Sim layer, I choose a color of the hand that suits my purpose and I go over the area I want to "correct". I also removed the shadow on the wrist because I wanted to add my own.

Going back to the shadow layer, I use my shadow color and go over the part of the hand that would be facing away from our imaginary light source, as well as the part just under the clothing line. Then I blend by going over with a low opacity eraser brush again.

Between and around the fingers I usually add some extra definition with a smaller soft brush, using the same shadow color. Any uneven parts gets blended with the smudge tool.

The other hand just needed some shadow.

She's got leeeegs… Anyone else old enough to remember ZZ Top? No? Just me? Ok. I section out one of the legs, yes, using pen tool again.

I "color correct" the highlighted part on the front of the leg that I feel is in the wrong place.

I add my shadows on the front of the legs and under the skirt. Then I reverse my selection by clicking the Marquee tool, and right clicking in my picture. The english option should be called "Inverse Selection" or something like that.

I paint my shadow on the other leg, building up a little more color closest to the other leg to add separation between the two. And now since my selection didn´t section off the leg from the dress we've got some bleeding because I can´t be bothered by being precise.

I deselect and use the eraser tool with a hard brush and 100% opacity and start erasing the shadow parts I don't want, I'm careful not to go over any skin parts on the leg and hand. So this is a perfectly good method to use if you don’t want to section off using the pen tool all the time. I switch between the two depending on the size of the area.

I blend the parts of the shadows that I feel are too harsh with a low opacity soft eraser brush.

The foot had a little of that mucky highlight thing going on as well, so I mark that part of (pen tool) and go to my Sim layer.

I go over with an eyedropped color, and go back to my Shadow layer to start adding shadow with my shadow color. I draw shadows along the shoe part and underneath the sole of the foot. This is just to add some dept. Since this was such a small area I opted to not section the skin parts off, I just painted over the whole damn thing and went back in with an eraser to remove any unwanted shadow from the shoe parts.

I make a new layer for my Clothing Shadow, and copies the Sim layer mask onto this one as well by holding Alt, grabbing the layer mask and dropping it onto my new layer.

I eyedrop a color from the darker part of her dress and choose a darker more saturated version of that color. Usually I go with black for the clothing shadow, but it depends on the original colors of the clothes. With bright colors like this dress I go for a darker version of that color.

I definitely did not do myself any favours when I decided to have the light come from the back of this sim. Straight from the front is always easiest but hey, challenges is how we grow. I use a big ass soft brush and go over the front of the dress.

Aaaaand the pen tool is back again. I section off the arm of the dress.

I chose a slightly smaller brush than before (still pretty big though) and go over the part of the arm that´s facing away from the light. Then I invert the selection and paint shadows on the body under the arm, I build up a little more color here.

I deselect and now we´ve got a pretty sharp line around the shoulder where there naturally would not be. I go in with the eraser brush (low opacity, soft brush) and blend it out. I also blend the shadow that was on the front of the body since it was to harsh.

Now I realized that the light would not hit the hip that directly since the lower part of the arm is in the way, so I section off a big of the hip.

Since I don't work with especially harsh shadows, and since the arm is not directly in touch with the hip, I draw sort of a cone shaped shadow here. Not letting the tip of the cone reach all the way to the edge of the back.

I clean up a little more using smudge and eraser tool. She´s starting to look pretty good eh?

Now I want to merge all my Sim layers, but since I suffer from anxiety and can´t committ fully I want to keep all the layers as well. So I mark the Sim layer group and duplicate it (ctrl+ J), and hide the original Sim layer group.

I select all the layers in my new Sim layer group and merge them by pressing ctrl + E.

Now they´re one layer, without any layer masks. For the purpose of this tutorial I rename this layer Sim (when merging the way I do the new layer will take the name of the top Layer). Now this is our new Sim base layer, the old one is hidden away and hopefully we don´t have to touch that again because that would mean I would have made a major mistake somewhere that I can´t correct on this new layer. It’s very unlikely, but it feels nice still having those other layers as backup.

Since Sims is a video game we have some parts that are pretty square in our picture even though they wouldn´t be in real life. Time to smooth things out.

I go to Filter -> Liquify. This is like the smudge tool on crack. There´s a lot of things that can be done in here but in this particular case I'm going pretty simple. I use the smudge and go over any pointy bits that are'nt supposed to be pointy. I change the brush sizes to fit the area I'm working on. Some places need smaller brushes, some benefit from bigger ones.

Here's a comparison before and after of some of the things I corrected in Liquify. It's not a huge difference but it does looks nicer.

And that concludes part 4 of this tutorial. Don’t hesitate to message me if you have any questions.

[kanene-yaaay]

Sleep

Kanene’s note: Heya! It’s me, Mario!!! dfghjkrgthjk jk jk. Okay, that idea hit me in the middle of the night and I think it’s very cute!! So have a bit of tickles and fluff and teases today! 

Warnings, fun facts, random things and stuff:

* This characters don’t belongs to me! They all belong to the anime/manga Boku no Hero.

* This is a SFW tickle fanfic, so, if you don’t appreciate this kind of content, please, look for another blog. There are a plenty of fabulous arts in this site!!  ^w^)b

* This is Switch!Yamada with Switch!Aizawa. They’re in a romantic relationship. Around 2.200 words.

* The Ler!Aizawa part was inspired by these tickle-headcanons! They’re absolutely amazing!!!!

* Sorry for any spelling, pontuation and grammar mistakes! Any and every advice is very very welcome! \(-w-)/

* Consume some of your comfort content! Fanfic, series, movies... anything that makes u happy! Drink water, sleep, eat and love! Today is another day and I’m proud that we’re both still here.

[~*~]

Yamada woke up to complete darkness.

 Which wasn't such a rare occurrence. With both his and his husband’s tendencies of having migraines their room was often bathed in a total lack of light, and that,  together with the fact of Aizawa being an incorrigible cuddle bug who soaked his ‘daily dose of morning snuggles’ – as Hizashi loved to call them and loved even more the other’s blushed face and deadly glare directed at him every time he dared to say such thing -  was enough for him to find no surprise at all in feeling the pressure of Aizawa basically using him as his own personal bed.

 “Morning, babe.” He maneuvered himself to gently kick Shouta’s legs off him, which resulted in the immediate locking of arms on the blonde’s waist, Shouta mumbling whatevers as he nuzzles his chest, making Yamada giggles quietly. He began to comb Aizawa’s hair with his fingers, both out of adoration with how much adorable his husband could be and to take it from his own face so he would be able to see what time it was.

 Eight in the morning. Yep. Time to start getting ready for their meeting with Nedzu and his usual Saturday patrol. He would also need some time in between those to call the Radio’s station and see if everything was ok with today’s interviewed, get a couple more of songs to play tonight and make sure to come back at two in the afternoon so he and Eri could have some quality time as Shouta slept a bit to not pass out on his night patrol.

 OK. That sounds like a plan! Time to begin the day with a proper breakfast since both were equally horrible in keeping a healthy routine and he would probably forget to eat lunch since Eri wouldn’t be there with him serving as an adorable, lovely reminder that humans have basic needs in order to be alive.

 He tried to move, receiving an annoyed growl as an answer, the arms squeezing a bit firmer. Hizashi snorted.

“Sho, I need to make breakfast and wake up Eri, okay?” He kissed the top of his head and traced an imaginary flower on his cheek, voice soft, feeling the other melt on him, humming happily. “You can sleep a few minutes more.”

 “No. Warm.”

 “I will bring you our cats, you can show your undying love to them, then.” Hizashi tried to pry the other’s grip from him, unsuccessfully. “Come on, let me go. We have a meeting to attend with Nedzu today, remember?”

 “Fuck ‘im.”

 Hizashi controlled himself to not bark a laughter, fingers itching to get his phone and amplify his blackmail treasures. “Shh, he will hear you.”

 “’don’t wanna cats,” Aizawa’s tune was slurred and he deposited a tired kiss on his bare shoulder, “I wan’ you.”

 And damn if that didn’t turn his weak heart in a happy gooey puddle, his smile going from one ear to another and his resolve to be a responsible adult and get out of the bed was almost burned to total inexistence.

 Key word: Almost.

 Especially when the raven haired adult sighs contently, his breath lightly tickling his neck and leading to a quite evil idea to gain form and color on his mind. His smile got wider, eviller.

 “Okay, babe.” Yamada’s hands rested on the other’s sides, going up, fingers smoothly running across his ribs, his nails barely grazing the skin as they went slowly back and forth, back and forth. A soft ‘tsk’ flew on the air as the smaller began to squirm. “Let’s have some fun then, shall we?”

 His index fingers stopped their dance to focus on his lowest rib, circling that sweet spot in the middle of it while the other fingers concentrated in clawing the horribly sensitive skin around it, staying firm on their task even when Aizawa jumped with the ticklish jolts that hit him.

 “H-hi-hizasshhhi.” His tone was low, warning. His brain still trying to wake up enough while his body wobbly fought to escape from the sensations, his struggles increasing specifically when his husband adjusted him so he would be laying on his back on the top of him, arms criss crossed on his chest.

 “Oh, is someone finally waking up? ~” Aizawa scrunched, Yamada’s breath hitting his ears. However, his attempts proved themselves futile as the other took as his duty to nibble, huff and puff on the ticklish spot, going from one ear to another with ease, finally breaking his husband’s barriers and being rewarded by a low, fast giggly fit. “I wonder what I did to deserve that my incredible, handsome decided to bless my morning with his sunny presence today!”

 “Hizashi, I am going to k-ILL” His snickers suddenly raised an octave as the blonde gave a quick squeeze on his hips that made his waist jerk instinctively.

 “Now, now, is that way to greet the love of your life?” Hizashi whined. “Stop laughing, Sho! I’m trying to hold a serious conversation here but something tells me you’re distracted.” Yamada kept lazily poking him, slow enough to leave him breathing properly, but quick enough to tear snorts and chuckles from his firmly pressed lips.

  “D-d-don’t.” His face was in flames as a barely muffled squeak fell from his mouth as Hizashi gave a quick nip right behind his left ear, letting out an adoring ‘Awww. Isn’t he adorableee?~’ in the process.

 “I am- I am going to get you back for that! You know I will!”

 “So grumpy, so cutee. ~”

 He tried to turn in order to give his beloved a deadly glare which usually made his students and villains fear for their lives, his eyes only barely catching his husband’s bright smile before his breath was stole when his partner resolved to attack, unmerciful squeezes mixed with a couple of thumbs digging energetically on his hips, kneading, tickling.

 His laughter filled the room.

 “HIZASHI!!” He kicked and trashed, but in vain.

 “What is it, babe?” The other started to switch between his tickle spots, knowing he couldn’t take it too long or they would be late. “Wow! I didn’t know you could be so alive in the mornings, love!! Have you been hiding that from your awesome husband all along?” Nails scratching on his armpits, fingers prodding his ribs, wriggling on his waistline, drumming on his belly. “All that beautiful laughter? All that wonderful snorts? And giggles? And squeals? Now, I am wounded, Sho! I thought we didn’t keep secrets from each other!”

 When nothing except laughter and squirming answered him, he decided to stop, deciding the few minutes of fun were already enough adrenaline to maintain Shouta conscious enough until he prepared his coffee. He quickly laid the other on the mattress, resting some kisses on his face as his husband got his breath back.

 “You-” He gasped, hiding his smile behind his hand. “You better run.”

 In a second Hizashi was out of their bed, “OkayloveyousomuchbabeI’mgoingtowakeEriupdon’tkillmeIloveyousosomuchbye.”

 And run he did.

 [~*~]

 Shouta dumped his capture weapon on the couch, immediately seeing three blurs of fur dashing from his peripheral vision directly to the object, meowing and getting tangled as they fiercely ‘fought’ with it. Shouta knew that this being his weapon and therefore an important part of his work, he shouldn’t let his cats play with it. However, as he petted two fluffy heads that popped from the cloth and the exhaustion started to totally take over his body and actions, he couldn’t bring himself to care. He had some spare scarves somewhere, he was sure.

 “Dumb cats.” He fondly remarked, scratching their newest kitten under her chin before adventuring to his room, stopping only to check on Eri and relax as he found her calmly sleeping on her bed. Good.

 His eyes narrowed as he noticed the light coming from under his bedroom, sighing and putting his eyedrops, already aware of the other fight he would have to face.

 “Hizashi,” it’s his greeting. The blonde hums, glare still clued on the screen in front of him, head resting on one of his hands, “it’s three in the morning and we have classes tomorrow. Turn that thing off.”

 “Hypocrisy, hypocrisy.” Yamada sings, hand rocking in the beat of his imaginary melody, the tiredness dripping from his words. Yet he took off his headphones, turning on his direction with alert eyes. “Are you hurt?”

 “Nah, slow night.”

 “Good.” Hizashi smiled. A small, true smile that spread a warm feeling across his chest and only made his resolute to protect his husband from every bad thing in the world grew stronger, even if the ‘bad thing’ which threatened him right now was his horrible sleep schedule. “We saved some dango for you.  It’s on the fridge.”

 Aizawa nodded, watching him turn back to his computer. “I’m going to grade 1-A tests when I am back.” And that perked the other’s attention, since both had the habit of grading tests together in order to get some quality time on their incredibly busy lives.

 That is why the taller was sitting on the bed with a pack of papers in his hands when Shouta came back, falling on the mattress face first, relaxing on the soft fabric. But, he couldn’t concentrate on that feeling now, turning to his left and trapping Yamada with his arms around his sides, legs entangling.

 “Sleep.” He clued his face on the other’s stomach, his voice vibrating across the skin and gathering a mix of snort and squeal, probably because of the ticklish sensation.

 Oh. Ticklish.

 “Babe, I really can’t right now. There are those videos I asked for my students to do and I really need to analyze and give them the results before the weekend.” Aizawa scolded his expression so his devil smirk wouldn’t be noticed by Hizashi, instead he looked up, locking their eyes, his features inexpressive as ever.

 Hizashi bit his lower lip.

 He frowned, intense glares.

 “Okay, okay! You know I am weak for those kitten eyes, your cheater.” The blonde pouted and pointedly ignored the smug shining on his partner’s face. “But this is only a break, ok? Just some cuddles and then I’m going to finish my work.”

 Aizawa hummed, not quite agreeing, not disagreeing. Yamada laid down and chuckled as the raven haired adult quickly hid his face on his neck, a hand absently running on his back and melting his strict pose.

 “Cuddlebug.”

 A yelp escaped from his lips as Aizawa used a thumb to prod the so, so sensitive skin between his shoulder blades. The morning events from yesterday fell on him as a bucket of cold water, sending shivers down on his spine, essentially when Yamada tried to wiggle away, finding his form very well secured on his love’s arms.

 “Shouta, no.” Shouta hummed, his voice vibrating on the sweet spot that was his neck, his stubble helping in nothing the giggles which already began to bubble on his throat. “Shouta, please, my love, light of my life,” he could almost feel the other’s wicked grin grow, the hand tensing behind him, “no, no, no! I can’t! You know I can’t! Shouta, I-”

 And with no warning a loud shriek - which didn’t break their windows due how fast Aizawa activated his own quirk - dashed from his mouth, laughter blooming as a mix of pokes, scratches and kneading along the whole extent of his upper back, even giving some special attention to his ribs and spine, kept him in stitches.

 His back arched at the tickly tickles, sending him directly to the unbearable nuzzles of his husband, the main reason for so many squeaks and squeals make themselves present on his uncontrollable laughter.

 “Tsk, tsk. One would think that such a known pro-hero would be able to put up with a better fight.” Nuzzle. Scribble. Unintelligible pleas of mercy. Raspberry. “Always so easy to read…You could at least try to pretend you aren’t loving every. Second. Of. It.”

 “Shouta! Nono! Shuhuhut up! Shut up!”

 “It’s not my fault you were always so defenseless to teases. What about we train you to endure them?”

 Hizashi shook his head, laughing and shrieking too much to gather a real answer.

 And, as sudden the attack came, it was gone. The hand went up to gently massage his scalp, tearing a relaxed sigh from Yamada as he fought to get his breath back, high-pitched giggles still tripping from his lips since the light tickles continued on his poor neck, sporadic kisses and eventual nibbles on the spot right under his chin maintaining his gigantic, bright smile.

 “So ticklish, so helpless. Just a few well placed touches and I can already defeat you.”

 “You talk as if you were any less susceptible.” A squeeze on his knee warned him about the possible consequence of his words. Hizashi pinched his thigh in retaliation, although much less energetic.

 “Don’t. Different from you, I want to get some real sleep.” And then he started to comb the blonde hair, Yamada’s eyelids began to drop, his tiredness now being much more present as the other used his number one melt spot against him.

 “Cheater…”

 “You will survive.” Shouta tilted his head up and kissed his husband’s lips, also starting to drift away as Hizashi’s arms pulled him closer.

 “Good night, babe.”

 “Night.”

[nohmercy]

I manually ripped these from the game and made palettes out of them. 

It took five hours. 

Not a Single eyedrop on any of these mercs pops above a 210 on the value scale, which is scouts highlight:

but I consistently see the mercs in the upper 200s. These are color picks from tf2 art in the tag:

That brown one? is lighter than scouts forehead on the value scale. And it’s Demoman. Most of the TF2 art I have seen and double checked has had their flat colors, no filters or bright lights or anything, jump into the 250s.

I ripped these directly from the game files to insure no interference with lighting or shadows or filters or “artistic interpretations” like every merc having the same pale 247 skin tone in the fucking comics:

Do you see the ripped game files and the diversity of hue, value, and saturation? Do you see how lazy the comic colors are for making everyone the same washed out pink??

Please, stop.