I haven't seen any posts about this yet but l've seen some fan art that makes me feel this needs to be said:
Don't forget Leah Sava Jeffries has darker skin when making Annabeth Chase fan art!
She is much closer to Lupita Nyong'o than Zoe Kravitz when it comes to shading, reflection, and complementary color usage :).
Lighting for dark skin is different on light skin. Light skin gets changed by lighting, and dark skin reflects the lighting. Below is a lovely shot of Nyong'o's character from Wakanda Forever in mourning. The filmmakers emphasize the umber qualities of her skin in contrast to the funereal white and (arguably harsh) light across her shoulder below.
Try to pick spots that aren't directly in or near the light, and try mixing 3 or more! You can put it into a color mixer online, or even color pick, lower the opacity, and lay the shades over each other until you find one that fits. And of course, the more 'realistic' you want to go with shading and lighting, the more shades you're going to want to be able to explore vivaciously :D.
Let's take a look at the same 3 beautiful actresses I mentioned at the beginning, with a bad color picked area and a better-ish color picked area. (Please keep in mind, these are not perfect comparisons, as I was not able to find pictures of all 3 actresses under the same kind of lighting.)
Kravitz's has a clear difference between the two, but they aren't too far apart, in comparison to Nyong’o’s and Jeffries’s. Note the dullness in the poorly picked shades as opposed to the better ones. Also keep in mind that while Kravitz has a rosy undertone (at least in that picture - it’s from The Batman, which has stylized coloring) Nyong’o has a slight cool undertone (I can’t pin down quite what, but the picture is definitely not stylized like Kravitz’s).
Jeffries runs more ochre or russet, but neither of those are pink. They are more red than terracotta or umber, but to call Jeffries’s face rosy would be wrong. Err more towards the golden when drawing her.
^^saved an image from a writing tutorial long ago, but can’t seem to find it. If someone recognizes it, I’ll link it.
EDIT: it’s from this post. Thanks @autumnrowancollector ! <3
And also, the darker skin gets, the less likely warm undertones are going to appear. Don't be afraid to use blue or purple or even green on occasion!
Additionally, cool lighting on dark skin is always a win imo.
(I was going to use that picture of Jeffries as Annabeth by the lightning bolt, but then I realized the lighting on her face doesn’t quite match up with where it should hit from that angle, and I realized they kind of just turned everything bluer, so screenshot time!)
(Also if you want another really great live action example, check out anything Aldis Hodge is in, like Leverage and Black Adam)(and of course there’s Spiderverse <3 but I want to post pictures of Hodge)
Now, to here’s a list of more experienced people’s advice:
Black facial features & hair
Shading digitally for a (somewhat) monotone Black character
Stylistic choices and places to start looking for inspiration (besides a search engine).
Coloring Black people’s lips
A better coloration tutorial
Also a nice tutorial for Indigenous skin tones, just in case yall want to draw Piper or use this information for other dark skinned characters :).
EDIT: Some actresses who are closer in skintone to use for Annabeth, provided by the lovely @blackfemmecharacterdependency ! If you can’t find a reference for Jeffries in a specific lighting, maybe check out these ladies’ pictures! It’s a reblog, so scroll down.
TLDR: Don’t make Annabeth pink and pale, make her dark and golden.
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I always though Mal's mom was meant to be like "Eleanor" but they stuck an M at the start honestly, Sobbing Emoji. But "Maleanor" also makes me feel less insane since in that scene where she's just handed egg Malleus to Lilia and went to battle, it sounds more like Lilia is saying "Maleanor" than "Meleanor" (Japanese accent pending). Mayhaps they went more with what it sounded like the characters were saying :0 (we don't talk about Doodle Suit to Paint The Roses)
the transliteration of her name is Marenoa (マレノア), which is what all the voice lines are saying! all the Draconias' names start with マレ (Malleus' grandma is Maleficia/マレフィシア) as a nod to Maleficent. :D it's almost certainly a take on Eleanor, which is Erenoa (エレノア), but her name is written in English at a couple points, and I was pretty surprised to see it was Mel instead of Mal!
and, like, that's fine, it wouldn't be first Twst romanization that's tripped me up (like Keito for Cater, I know that's something to do with the loanword specific to playing cards(?) but it's just not how my brain wants to read it). but now Eng has given us Maleanor! and someone else said it was spelled inconsistently between Maleanor and Maeleanor??????? so WHO KNOWS it's a SPELLING FREE-FOR-ALL
I AM torn on which I want to use, because Mel just sounds so cute to me (and is what I'm used to now), but...the Mal consistency is kinda too good to pass up. alas, alas, truly these are the most difficult conundrums of our times. 😔
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How do the researchers react to the clan cats leaving the lake for a time?
You mean the little patrols they send out?
They aren't aware of them, EXCEPT for the Beaver Expedition that Dovepaw was on. They found out about that one because they got a phone call from the team in charge of the beaver introduction.
It was NERVE WRACKING. Both teams were terrified the other would injure their subjects. They were horrified when the cats dug out the top of the dam and pulled the squealing baby beavers out, thinking this was going to end BADLY, but practically cried in relief and excitement when the Clan cats baited the parents towards the lake.
(I like to imagine someone on the beaver team ended up hitting it off with someone on the Clan cat team. The wedding cake was cats and beavers.)
But generally? They don't know about expeditions. Sometimes they catch them leaving, but don't have the funding to chase them down.
Clan cats are also not under constant surveillance. Very important to understand this. Clan cats will attack anything that upsets them and good cameras are expensive; they snuck one into the ThunderClan Camp once in like 2009, and Firestar dug it up at the stake and dropped it down the WindClan border ravine because it was freaking his warriors out.
(The cats don't understand that the cameras watch; they just don't like the Freaky Human Thing)
So the team has to be careful, not install too many, and hide the ones they do have. They don't want the cats to move again.
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no one:
absolutely fucking no one:
my brain, at 4am: what is the kryn dynasty up to in this trying time (perpetual moon solstice). have they noticed a sudden lack of activity from the children of malice if even asmodeus considers this a moment of truce and change in priorities. is bazzoxan a hotspot of demonic activity like the grey valley, or the opposite. how aggressive are their prejudices against ruidusborn on a cultural level, given ruidus's historical association with the betrayer gods. given the beacons' demonstrated capacity to negate long-standing generational curses, would being born within range of one prevent ruidusborn from growing up as exaltants altogether. is the luxon awake and sending anyone visions like the pantheon. does leylas see this as superceding the dynasty's missionary efforts, or have those efforts been doubled to take advantage of the chaos. are dunamantic researchers able to register a significant change in activity from the malleus key. where is verin thelyss.
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This is kinda relating to my last post but I think some of you are mistaking Shen for an albino peacock.. cause he’s not
I mean, I don’t really blame you if you mistook him as one cause honestly I’m just a weirdo who reads wikis.
(skip everything and just read the bottom if you don’t wanna read my explanation)
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Shen is a peacock with leucism, not albinism.
(Leucism definition on the left, albinism on the right)
Here’s him compared to an actual albino peacock. As you can see, the albino has a pink and white pigmentation due to a lack of melanin, whereas Shen despite being mostly white is still full of color.
(And no, it’s not because it’s a silly cartoon. The creators of KFP had originally intended to make him albino to make him look “sickly” which would explain why he was neglected by his parents. They made the decision to scrap that in favor of having him be a peacock with leucism so there was no excuse or tragic backstory to justify his entitlement and actions)
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And if you REALLY don’t believe my explanation, here’s the KFP wiki page backing me up!
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[Podfic of] lena luthor vs. the outdoors
A Supercorp podfic.
Summary:
Kara loves to go camping, but hasn’t quite grasped the fine details. Lena, smitten as she is, agrees to go with her. Hijinks, feelings, and bears ensue.
Rating: Explicit
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Length: 1:27:41
A podfic of lena luthor vs. the outdoors by @jazzfordshire, with cover art by @shakespearestolemyurl
Listen to it on AO3!
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