#edit: fixed colouring error

[tracingpapier]

sallicole bone = thrown 😈

[peachypine]

HESOKURI WARS WHITE DAY PRINCE SET U WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS!!! osoanzu redraw based on oso's sprite with totoko in this set (feat. @beejoco's oso!)

bonus closeup of anzu bc ummm she's cute and i like her :)

[b-blushes]

feeling pretty wretched but today i made some images 👍

[hemo-rainbow-completionist]

Rust, Iron, Teal, Cobalt, Fuchsia.

[5/12]

Girl Colours: [4/6]

Boy Colours: [1/6]

join us join us join us join us join us join us join us join us join us join us join us join us join us join us join us join us join us join us join us join us

[aristoteliancomplacency]

If you’re not a knitter then you probably won’t understand exactly how batshit doing this was. That’s fine, but I’ll explain under the cut for anyone who’s interested. The pattern is Guðrún Herdís Arnarsdóttir's modification of Lyle Stafford’s one ring scarf (both are free).

The eye at each end I wrote the pattern for myself based on a design on the cover of the editions of the Lord of the Ring I grew up with (i.e., my dad’s, for whom the scarf was a present).

The scarf is done using a technique called double knitting, which means you’re working both sides of the scarf literally at the same time, carrying two yarns forward and back to alternately knit and purl and alternating which colour you’re using (work the knits with colour A, purl with colour B, swap for the other side). This gives you something which has two sides that are stockinette, but different colours.

The technique allows you to make an identical pattern on both sides by switching which colour you’re using for the knit and purl stitches. The advantage of this is that you end up with the two sides woven together rather than a tube and don’t have to carry the yarn as with stranded colour work.

The problem with this is when you’re working a non-symmetrical pattern where it matters which way around the writing is. The writing will be the correct way around on one side, but backwards on the other side.

Guðrún’s modification fixes this, but the trade-off is that because you’re no longer working the pattern the same on both sides you now have four potential stitch combinations instead of two (AB, BA, AA, and BB).

Just to make it even more complicated for my project the pattern colour-coded the stitch combos and uses black and red for two of the combos, but not for what for my scarf would be black-black and red-red. This caused more than one error. I have undone and redone a lot of rows.

[yiiyiiwrites]

🗡️ | Relics and Ruins | 3 |

Part Three [series masterlist]

summary: you're a mender in the dawn court, tasked with fixing cursed and broken relics. Azriel x dawn court reader

2318words, not edited and wrote on my phone so might be some errors

The in-between moments of winnowing was always something you never got used to. You could never stick the landing doing it yourself, a tangled mess of limbs as you bring Eris down with you. He rose, straightening his long velvet overcoat, smoothing the creases from his trousers.

Golden rays of light bathed the marbled floors, veiled drapes fluttering between columns opening up to the dawn courts balcony. A summoning platform, the only place that allowed Eris to enter without an invitation.

Your court suited the autumn general, long red hair glimmering in the sun as if it too were made of fire. His skin a tad pale, you wondered what a month in the dawn court would do to his complexion.

There was never much space between the two of you, two opposites attracting like a magnet. You found it difficult to retreat from his energy.

Eris traced the side of your face with the back of his hand, you couldn't help but melt into his touch. Like a moth to a flame, you chased the dancing flickers of his movements. You didn't know if it was the power of the bond or if it was his natural charm.

“I like what you’ve done to your hair,” Eris whispered breath on your lips, his hand twisted in your hair and tilted your head back, neck aching as you gazed up at him.

You closed your eyes, humming at the heat rolling off of him.

“But I suppose, in this court you are not mine,” he said, releasing his hold on your hair and pushing you away. “Only under the mountain.”

Eris Vanserra was every bit like the autumn court, hot one minute and cold the next. You'd been burnt more than you'd like to admit though, forever searching for the warmth to escape under the mountain. To escape them.

You reminded yourself that you were safe, no longer under the mountain. No longer in need of someone to seek help in. You could look after yourself.

"I should get cleaned up," you said, wincing at the dirt clinging to your trousers and caking your boots. Bowing your head in goodbye, you're yanked back by your elbow and Eris's arms wrapped around you.

He traced your arms, the thick layers of your jacket and trousers flickered, flames licking the fabric and replacing it with shining silks, skirt pooling down to the floor. A bronzed bodice hugged the top of your body, wide neck line accentuating your collar bone, but not revealing too much.

Burgundy and gold sheer panels fell from your broad shoulders like a cape, a merge of autumn and dawn colours. The dress light and flowing, moved as if it had a life of its own in the early morning breeze.

The tattoo snaking up your right arm on full display for everyone to see. Roots stretching around your wrist, tree with spindly branches wrapping around your forearm. Lighter patches of puckered skin marred your flesh, part of the ink lost to getting too close to the flames.

"How did you know I was under the mountain?" It's all you could think about since he'd appeared and helped you summon the spirit back into its box. You swayed in his embrace, back of your head pressed to his firm chest.

"I charmed the box to tell me if you ever touched it," he paused, his thumb dragging along the burns on your arm. "so that if you ever did open it, I could be there for you." He pecked your cheek, part of you longing for more.

"You did?" The spark reigniting in your chest, the weight of his words making you relax in his hold. He was always so good when it came to talking, smooth but direct with you.

"Mmmm, never thought you'd use it though," he hummed, his nose nudging your neck. You leant to the side, allowing him more skin to touch.

You hadn’t seen him since Amarantha’s reign, some nights you felt the ache of his absence. It seemed you were both caught up with the memories, not yet wanting to let each other go.

A guard appeared from the archway, he paused a few feet away before requesting both of your presence in the throne room. You followed him in, Eris slipping his hand in yours and giving it a reassuring squeeze.

The doors opened, camellia's hung from the glass domed ceiling and cascaded down the columns, orange and pink petals that rivalled the sun rising in the morning. Dewy raindrops trickled from the plants, landing into the fountain bed below them.

To your surprise Rhys and Cassian were waiting in the throne room. Thesan talking to them in hushed tones, Azriel nowhere to be seen. His absence leaving an ache in your chest, you had no idea why it bothered you so much. Then you remembered the way he looked at you under the mountain.

“Ah there you are,” Thesan said turning around, lips pursed as he eyed your held hands. “Vanserra.” He nodded his head, not bowing to Eris.

“High lords,”You were quick to bow to Thesan and Rhys. “General,” you said, facing Cassian, but before you could bow Eris tugged your hand to him, stopping you in your greeting.

Cassian’s gaze was still locked onto your joined hands, no, he was staring at the marks binding you to Eris. Now you knew why the autumn general still held onto you, he wanted them to know his claim. The promise or bargain tying you to him. That you are not your own.

It’s times like this that you felt the burn, the calculated touch he used, to give himself the upper hand. Always plotting something, three steps ahead of you and oh so predictable he’d told you many times before.

You slipped out of his grasp, hating the way you wanted to return to him for a little security.

“Why were your men attacking us?” Cassian demanded, his booming voice kept you from moving from your place. You glanced out of the corner of your eye at Eris, his attention on the dirt underneath his nails and his amber eyes slid to Rhys as if it were him who spoke.

"They were my father's guards."

"Why were you under the mountain?" Rhys asked, he was the only one sitting at the table, elbow leant against the edge. Cassian's stance wide and clenched fists by his side, as if he was trying to stop himself launching into Eris. Thick brows furrowed, nose scrunched in pure hatred for the redhead.

Thesan remained at the bottom of the tiled steps of his throne, watching the scene play out. Letting them shred light on the situation, keeping back to draw up his own conclusion of whatever was going on.

You felt the weight clamp down on your shoulder, fingers digging into your flesh. Another anchor to shackle you, Eris playing the part and orchestrating the meeting to go in his own favour.

"I was there for my little mender," Eris said, framing your face with his hands. Your lips parted, breath faltering as he inched closer. Nose brushing against yours, you almost forgot where you were in the heat of his hold. Earthy scent invading your senses, smokey wood of a crackling fire and warm vanilla overpowered by cinnamon.

"Enough, Vanserra. We get your point," Thesan said, clicking at you to shake you out of whatever trance you'd slipped into. His face softened as you focused on him, blurred vision dropping like Eris had veiled you to only see him.

Shame knotted in your stomach, the way you fell into him and laid everything down for him. A sudden wave of anger washed over you, the feeling foreign to you, but it stung the back of your throat, all the unsaid words coating your tongue like poison. A tiny black wisp danced around your ear in a frenzy, murmurs of something you couldn't quite make out. You scanned the room, looking for their source only to find nothing, no one. Untucking the hair from your ear, you hide the pesky shadow undecided of what to do with it.

You were too busy trying to decipher what the wisp was mumbling in your ear, that you'd missed the conversation going on around you. Thesan called your name, deep voice filtering through the shadows and beckoning you towards him.

"An alliance has already been drawn up with you and the night court, you'll be working closely with them for some time. It's only natural that you put your alliance with Vanserra to good use," Thesan paused, he picked up more ink with his pen and scribbled on the parchment in front of him. "You will be the Dawn courts first point of contact for Vanserra."

Thesan's words cut into you, put you to good use. You know he didn't mean to harm, but it hurt none the less. A relic to command and discard for another few hundred years.

"Cassian will accompany you on these meetings for extra protection," Rhys offered, his head nodding in his generals direction.

Eris scoffed, "what are you tethered to that dog too."

The table flipped, cassian flinging it out of his path as he stormed towards Eris. Rhys struggled to hold him back, his snarling words were muffled behind you.

You whipped around, shadow escaping the strands of your hair. "Vanserra," you snapped, but he cut you off.

"General." The playful glint lightened his amber eyes, as if daring you to step out of line. Under the mountain and alone with him he was Vanserra, in front of the eyes of others he was his title. Dutiful to his role in the court and putting those in their place that disrespected him. You shivered, hoping never to go to the autumn court.

That damned tug, the deep rooted need to close the distance between you and him. You fought it, "don't be so cruel, general."

"I thought you liked that about me."

"Vanserra, sit down before I change my mind." Thesan interrupted your two heated gazes, his arm linking with yours as he pulled out a chair for you, table back in its rightful place.

The meeting was brief, no mention of the relic you found under the mountain or the night courts shadowy friend. Your mind kept wandering back to him, it had been sometime since another person had occupied your mind and intrigued you. You put it down to familiarising your energy with the truth-teller, an extension of the Illyrian.

Thesan took you aside at the end, "you will be leaving for Velaris now, Alondra has already packed your belongings."

"What, no. I'll get more done here," you argued, but he shushed you before you could list all the reasons for you to stay. You'd get Alondra later, your best friend and roommate packing your bag, the dirty rat.

Hand on your shoulder, another weight to add. "They have more scriptures on certain history than we do, what you are doing needs to be guarded so it's only logical to go with them. You are bright and capable of doing this, even if I do need to give you a little nudge." Thesan's smile lit up his face, golden hair falling into his eyes as he leant down to hug you.

Alondra and Thesan had been trying to get you to resume your visits to the friendly courts again. You used to study wherever you could before under the mountain, but now you stuck to what was known and safe. The same routine and walls, hoards of relics to distract from the thoughts, the memories.

You bid your high lord goodbye, calling upon every scrap of courage as you walked through the corridor of billowing drapes. The red tiled roofs beyond the archways curved like the spine of a dragon, you could follow the lines for ages until the tail end pointed to the balcony.

Three sets of Illyrian wings stretched before you, Cassian playfully shoving azriel and his gaze flitted to you as you stepped out onto the balcony. Heart hammering in your chest as you took tentative steps towards them. The glistening sun breaking through the clouds shone through his shadows, they curled around his shoulders taking refuge behind the shade of his wings.

"You'll be travelling with Azriel," Rhys said, but you didn't get a chance to protest as he grabbed Cassian's arm and winnowed away. You stared at his vacant spot, eyes sweeping the area in search of Eris who had already left. Damn you for that spec of disappointment of no goodbye.

A gloved hand appeared, "Ready?" His low smooth voice drew your attention and you found yourself putting your hand in his. He hooked one arm under your legs and back, hoisting you up against his chest. The cobalt siphons on his clothes flashing, darkness shifted around you and you wrapped your arms around his neck, fingers clutching the back of his hair.

Shadows trailed over your bare arms like a sheet of ice, you shivered trying to get closer to Azriel. You'd never travelled between the planes of darkness, his shadows whirling around you, if you fell you wondered if they would catch you. As if he knew what you were thinking Azriel adjusted his grip on you.

Azriels wings flared, you both dropped suddenly before they stretched and it wasn't till you could feel the dewy mist of clouds, did you realise you were no longer in the shadows. Stars blanketed the sky, you'd never seen so many that your gaze stayed above. Hadn't realised that Azriel had landed till he set you down on your feet. His hand remained on your back, steadying you.

"Welcome to Velaris," Azriel said, smile gracing his lips and you almost felt yourself leaning into him. You couldn't help but mirror his smile.

[Part Four]

taglist:@rcarbo1, @st4r-girl-official,@azrielswhore, @cynthiesjmxazrielslover, @shizukestar, @wolfbc97, @thecraziestcrayon

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my previous posts :) There will be more of Azriel in the next parts, hope you enjoy! - Yiiyii

Ps- I love Eris and he’s such a complicated character, so just wait ;)

[themeasureofasim]

More overlays? More overlays! Specifically, 40 (40!) correlated body hair overlays for teens to elders of both genders, brought to you by the wonderful @episims and a little help from myself. There are different hair textures for each part of the body (arms, underarms, chest, stomach, back, cheeks, happy trail, pubis and legs), and you can combine them as you like. There are a lot of possible combinations!

Textures were made by Epi, based on Inky-Fish's textures (aside from the happy trail, which was stolen from @platinumaspiration). They come in the five natural colours, and will have the colour of your sims hair/eyebrows. Body hair goes grey when sims age into elders. The box is a 4t2 bath basket by Veranka, found in Misc/Dressers for 0§ (right next to this box by Nikki and my edit of Inky-Fish's box).

Besides making 200 textures, Epi cleaned unnecessary code from the "add/remove overlay" BHAVs, and also made an universal remove option for each part of the body, so you don't need to remember which specific overlay you've applied (*standing ovation*). Cute preview is also by Epi! You can see a swatch here/here and there's more info about the overlays in this post.

Download SFS | MEGA

Credit goes to Epi, Inky-Fish, PlatAsp, Veranka and Morague. As usual, I only did the copy-pasting in SimPE. You can use the body hair textures for whatever you want, but DO NOT credit me! If you do, I will break into your house and kill your sims 💀

Update 24/06/25: I've fixed an error in the overlay Arms_5Medium, please redownload if you were having face issues (shouldn't happen unless you've deleted the previous overlay file).

Update 24/07/23: I've fixed an error in the overlay Arms_3&4Light, please redownload if you were having face issues.

Update 24/09/02: I included my personal version of the box, which is collection only, in the previous update (facepalm). Now you should be able to find the box in the catalogue again.

[soficraft]

CONSIDER:

etho is a revolutionary who’s been tasked with killing the princess

gem is the princess who is much harder to kill than etho originally planned

THIS.

I Really Wish I Hated You

Title is the name of Blink 182 song (go listen to it, is SOO GOOD)

edit: I tried my best to fix errors, so this should be better now.

credits: figure 1 by Pierre Auguste Cot, figure 2 by Claude Monet, figure 3 by Frank Dicksee.

Tw: idk, etho trys to kill gem. Bad king. Bad dad. If there is anything more let me know!

Sinopsis (?): Etho is a revolutionary who is an assassin and gets assigned the job to kill the princess. It turns out the princess is more then just a fragile girl.

Pt.1 | Pt.2 | Pt.3

Etho didn't expect any of this.

When he got the task of killing the princess, he thought the work would be done in a second, but boy was he wrong.

The princess was way harder to kill than what he expected. Don't blame him for underestimating the princess. She had the image of a fragile vase. With red hair, green eyes that sparkled when she was outside, surrounded by nature. Her pale skin reminded him of porcelain, another fragile material.

So yeah, Etho had imagined that just one arrow to the heart would do the job, but it didn't.

The first time he tried killing her, somehow she had noticed him following her.

Which was shocking because he was the best at his job. And everyone who was part of the underworld knew that.

But he wasn't impressed. He was just shocked that she had turned around and looked directly at the tree he was hiding in. Of course, when that happened, Etho knew that the smart thing to do was run away because with her, all of her guards did the same thing and started walking to his hiding spot.

That led to him following her and learning her schedule for two weeks. Two weeks.

For Etho, that was a long time.

He did four other jobs while watching the princess. Which made him question if the job was worthy.

But a part of him was already invested in this, so he couldn't turn his back.

Also, he was surprised to learn that the princess had sparring lessons, with martial arts and archery. And inevitably, he got a little too curious about the beautiful girl he was paid to kill.

Maybe that was one reason why it had taken him two weeks to plan his next attempt, but he was never going to admit that.

Instead of thinking about it, he made the conclusion that it was time to kill her, so she wouldn't mess up with his head.

His second attempt happened on a Monday afternoon. The sky was reaching its orange colours, some flowers were closing and some animals were going to bed. Meanwhile, Etho was hiding between the shadows, waiting for his princess to appear.

He had learned that after her social etiquette and manners classes, she would hang out by the lake in the palace interior forest. And she would take only one of her guards. Amazing.

He saw her appear in all her glory. She really was a sight to behold. Delicate and beautiful. The ribbon on her hair always matched her dresses, her hair always falling in a perfect cascade, and her smile always shining brighter than the sun.

But today that smile wasn't there.

It disconcerted him.

"I don't understand why he doesn't let me practice with you!" She was saying, and Etho couldn't help himself from eavesdropping to the princess in distress.

She seemed angry. Her face was a little red, matching her hair, and her hands were moving with the words she spoke in a frustrated manner.

"Princess, you need to understand the king. He is worried about you" The guard told her with a hint of sympathy.

She gave him a look that even had Etho intimidated. It didn't match the princess he knew, and the cold tone of her next words didn't match her sweet voice.

"If he was worried about me, he would at least give me a minute of his day, Joel"

He didn't understand the answer. It was known in the kingdom that the princess and the king have a great relationship. At least, that's what they always show.

The guard, that now he knew was named Joel, let out a sight, seeming defeated.

"And also, he is always talking about me becoming queen and how important is that I have this perfect image" her voice got louder as she kept on talking "but he never shares anything with me! How am I supposed to know what my people need when he doesn't share anything? He doesn't even let me out of this stupid castle!"

Etho was shocked with the new information.

The princess and the king didn't have the perfect relationship after all. More importantly, it seems the princess knew nothing about her dad's dirty work.

He found himself with a dilemma.

He was a revolutionary. He was given this job not only because he was a great assassin but also because he hated the king and the princess as much as everyone in the lower districts.

And now he just happens to hear her saying something that implies her innocence in all of the mistreatment and damage her father has done, so was it really fair to kill her?

But when has he cared about fairness? For voids sake, he is an assassin! He kills for money and never questions it. What was wrong with him? Why did it felt so wrong now?

He really needs to kill this princess.

Taking one arrow, he prepares to shoot. He sees her, perfectly aline with the arrow. She keeps on talking, her mouth moving, her nose wrinkling as her guards say something she doesn't like, and her pretty green eyes burn with passion as she keeps on expressing herself.

Etho's heart beats ring in his ears, and he wants to take his eyes away from her so he doesn't have to see the end of his actions, but he can't do that, he needs to have his target in sight.

So, taking a breath, he finally let the arrow fly to its destination.

It's done, he tells himself, feeling a lot of emotions that he thought were impossible for him to feel.

But the arrow never hits the princess.

Etho can just watch as the princess takes the sword of her guard's belt and, in a swift move, cuts the arrow in mid-air.

He is not only surprised this time, he is also impressed. So impressed that even when her guard gets out of his state of shock and the princess starts walking in his direction, he just stays there, mouth hanging open behind his mask, heart beating a mile per hour and mind stuck in her body moving fast as a light.

When he finally gets out of it, he runs as fast as he can, thinking about what the hell is he going to do now.

And a little bit happy that his attempt didn't work out. Just a little.

Hell, there was something wrong with him. Something really wrong. He needs to get the princess killed.

They say the third time's a charm, right?

He will have to find another way to kill her.

But not now, maybe tomorrow, or maybe in a week.

After all, the princess isn't easy to kill.

And that's what he tells his employer, asking for more time.

Time that he knows would make no difference.

__________________

So... this is the first thing i write that i share here. I'm a little embarrassed and nervous cause english isn't my first language.

If there are any mistakes, please let me know so i can change them.

Thank you sooo much for reading this, and if you liked it and want a part two, just let me know!!

[crepes-suzette-373]

Is this an error or on purpose?? It's driving me insane!!!

(I'm just parsing through my own theory and doubts, you don't have to read this)

Ichiji's eyebrow that's under the bangs is the subject of fans' theories, and I wrote about it too, but I really just... sometimes have very strong doubts about it. With the insane time crunch of Shounen Jump schedule, what if it's really just a mistake that nobody caught?

One of my line of thinking was "this panel is so big, surely sensei can't possibly screw it up?" But the answer is, yes, he can screw up a panel that's that big.

When Venus blocked Zoro's attack, not only is he holding the sword in the wrong hand, but the sword is also missing its iconic Kitetsu cross-shaped guard. That Venus vs Zoro panel takes up half a page. On the manuscript paper, that would've been massive, and yet there it is.

As far as I can tell, this was not edited, changed, or fixed in the final volume version. So, I dunno, maybe all the weird eyebrows is literally nothing and he just messed up.

If I may use myself as an example, I have drawn their eyebrows facing wrong directions multiple times, and sometimes I never noticed there was anything wrong until days or even weeks later.

I not only drew the lines, but also rendered the colours in detail. I didn't do it all in one sitting. I went over the image multiple times with fresh eyes, across many days, and not for a single moment did I notice the eyebrow was wrong. It's not impossible that sensei experienced the same thing.

The anime scene cannot be used as reference because I don't think the anime staff are privy to any future lore or backstories from sensei. I would assume that they often had to fill in the gaps with educated guesses on their parts.

Pre-timeskip the anime have once displayed Sanji's other eyebrow facing the wrong direction and/or simply missing its curl.

Also in Whole Cake's finale episodes, the anime included a short filler bit where all of Sanji's bros made it safely back to the Germa ships. This is proven to be wrong when the cover story revealed Niji and Yonji got caught while still on land by Big Mum and didn't manage to escape.

The only way you can reconcile these is if you imagine a scenario where Niji and Yonji initially made it out just fine, but had to jump off the ship to fight Big Mum. Otherwise there's just a flat out discrepancy between manga and anime.

I don't think the Pirate Warriors 3D model rips are also any solid confirmation that Ichiji and Reiju's eyebrows are different either, because I found what is purportedly a model from the first game, where Sanji also has the eyebrows facing wrong directions:

(left: all siblings from Pirate Warriors 4, right: Sanji from Pirates Warriors 1)

In my guess, what happened was that they just made half a face (and body), which is then mirrored to create the other half. See below for what I mean:

In my opinion what happened was that with Ichiji and Reiju they just left the brows in mirrored state because they didn't know for sure. Look at Reiju's irises. The highlights are also mirrored. It really looks like they just created one half of the face and copy + flipped it:

The eyebrows are modelled onto the polygons and not just textures, so they really could've just copy + flipped the half model and never bothered changing it afterwards.

Or, if not, maybe they saw the anime scenes, thought that Ichiji and Reiju's eyebrows are facing different directions, and then followed suit. The Pirate Warriors models are made based on the anime rather than the manga (as you can see with Reiju's eyes being blue and not purple).

Whereas with Niji, Sanji, and Yonji they might have went through the trouble to edit the eyebrows to be more accurate to the series since they know for a fact what their brows look like.

So yeah, I don't know, this thing has no answer at all until Germa shows up in the series again (or revealed in Vivre Cards).

[madbalalaika]

Your pirates of the Caribbean fanart is so beautiful! Please, please share tips for how to do that beautiful painting technique you used! <3

Hi, anon! Thank you so much, both for the compliment, and for the question💗✨

Edit: I've reached the 30 pics per post limit and will have to make a part 2, oopsie daisies. But I'm sure it won't be as long as this :"D

In terms of technique, I guess it depends which part exactly you're talking about, because most of it is just oil painting+pencil drawing made digital, where I sort of block my colours first, then blend as I see fit (or in some parts don't blend at all, which is what some classical painters do; it's really just habits and preferences from years of experience) and add details using a pencil brush.

If you're interested, stay tuned as I try and give some tips while showing my whole process using this lovely photo of Commodore as an example:

Part 1. The basics

I usually only use these 2 brushes, just because I like them a lot, rarely more than that; and I've changed the settings on the second one so it rotates in the direction of a stroke instead of being at a fixed angle.

SO, firstly I just make a sketch of course, then make a very rough base colour layer underneath it, not too dark, not too light, and fill in the background with a solid colour.

(don't be fooled, I don't actually name my layers cause I'm way too lazy for that)

Since we're talking about digital painting here, my biggest tip would be to make a habit of picking the right colours manually, like you would an for an actual oil painting, instead of using the eyedropper tool on the source. Colour matching is an insanely useful skill, it's like relative pitch in music, or an accurate eye in architecture; while it's not absolutely necessary to have it, you'll want it if you want less burden on your brain and more freedom of expression. "Learn the rules to learn to break them" kind of thing (and you'll be able to match the colours to the picture in your head as well, how cool is that? Hehe) I've done this so much that at this point I just do it for the hell of it. It's very fun :D And, as you might've guessed, I do it for the entirety of the process, with some rare exceptions. While I used to do so in the past, I don't like to use blending modes (eg. soft light, overlay, multiply, etc.) for shading anymore. I find it takes all the excitement out of the whole process for the sake of cheap dopamine, and it used to hinder my skill development because I wasn't learning to "speak the language" of art, I just "used google translate", so to speak.

Anyways... A sketch, then a rough midtone colour layer underneath + background:

Another great tip: I learned it from a video on good costume design in fantasy, which is so unrelated to painting that you're probably like "wha- what..?", BUT... the tip was "the costumes don't have to be historically accurate, they just have to make sense in the story". Your colours don't have to match your reference perfectly, they just have to make sense inside the painting, and that's what will make your art feel alive (along with other things ofc).

Next I create another layer on top of all that and get to actually paint, and this is where the blocking part comes in.

There is a really good video on this subject if you want to learn this kind of technique, and an Instagram page of a different artist that I've been immensely admiring for some time now. Although now that I think about it, neither of them use midtones as a base... Anyway,

I start with the darkest shadows, moving on towards lighter ones, noting some places where the they reflect more blueish/grayish tones of his uniform on his neck and jawline, and where they reflect the reddish environment on his nose, temple, cheek, ear, and neck.

Another great artist to help improve lighting skills.

I frequently make new layers on top of everything as I go, just so that I have some room for error and can delete them later if I'm not satisfied, and then merge them down if I am, because I hate being indecisive with too many changes, and having unnecessary clutter.

Sometimes if I don't like how a certain colour looks on the painting, I undo the stroke (or paint on top, if it's too late to undo) and just tweak it on the wheel until it looks right to my eye and move on. Eg. on the next screenshot, I didn't like how that blue from the sketch looked one the screenshot before, so I adjusted it a little with Hue/Saturation.

I also like to slightly exaggerate the palette so that it looks a bit more interesting:

The last thing I usually do is light, with tiny highlights being the absolute last, because both are very easy to overdo. I manually pick the colour from the colour wheel, make a few strokes where it's supposed to be the brightest, and then use eyedropper tool to sample different spots from the freshly-painted areas to make it easier to blend.

Now while that colour might look pretty light, it isn't light at all. To be fair, the difference between light and shadow isn't even that big sometimes. I used to overshoot with either of them in the past, picking either too light or too dark, and was frustrated and baffled why my painting was looking as shit as it was.

So I guess another tip: for lights, pick the colour much closer to your midtone than you think you need, and then adjust accordingly. The reason being: your eyes and brain are partners in crime and are constantly lying to you.

The (I guess second) base is done, and at this point, it's just a matter of staring at his face for 2, or however long, hours and adding more and more strokes, sampling different spots between them, until I like how it looks.

Sometimes, if I realize that either the proportions are a bit off or some lines don't look the way they're supposed to, I use some Photoshop tools to my advantage. I merge everything together (cause at this point I really don't plan on changing the sketch itself or the background), and use Liquify to move things around. So now it's a one-layer painting, just like the real deal lol

And then I continue doing the same thing I'd done before with all the other parts.

Liquify on his face:

I only lightly paint over most sketch lines because I'm really not that concerned about some of them peeking out, especially at this stage, nor am I very pedantic.

Don't forget about subsurface scattering in areas where light meets shadow, of course:

If I see a place like this where I need a smooth gradient but don't feel like actually doing it cause it'll ruin the ~vibe~, and really, I just wanna add more a bit more pizzazz, I just take the pencil brush and hatch over it instead, alternating the darker and the lighter tones.

The caravat:

A lot of the time professional artists will advise you to look for simple shapes in things - squares, circles, triangles, rhombuses, etc. I'm no exception. Simple shapes will let you see patterns and some sort of order. It's easier to understand complex shapes that way, whether it be fabric, faces/bodies, or inanimate objects.

As you can see here, my brain mostly likes to look for triangles, or half-circles. It just feels right 👌

The wig:

I learned to use translucency, with hair and light fabrics fading into background, from watching and doing watercolour. Here's one of my all-time favourite watercolour artists that does that sometimes, and it looks absolutely stunning: 미술부화실 misulbu

The waistcoat and the jacket:

The hat:

Another thing to point out, if you haven't noticed already, I really like my stokes straight unlike myself, with exceptions, of course. It's another habit I picked up from watching other people draw, as well as my years of studying art professionally. Teachers taught me to use straight criss-crossing hatches to indicate form, instead of curved ones (there was a really cool tiktok showing that kind of technique, but I can't find it :(). Not that I follow their advice in its intended way majority of the time lololol but um... yeah...

So anyway, this is the end of part 1, I'll try to finish the second part tomorrow. It will be about smaller details, texture, and an tiiiny bit of 🔥grime🔥

[lemonberyl]

ggHaCKkK pesterquest sprite edit i can't physically help myself

I just. I love. Calliope she's everything to me??

No shading tho didn't feel like it...

other stuff under cut 👍💐

oooraahh. hello there 😈

lineart. yeah there's an error on it. no im not revising i fixed it in post

just ur average transparent tbh. no silly nonsense here completely serious

unused bg. . .

here she is w it. Idk I think it washes her out? It's so Loud, and if this was a louder or more cherubic callie I'd probably be fine w it

it's lowkey screaming at me idk

this was funny. i flipped on my black layer while still colouring and it turned her into a shitty mascot horror character. Sometimes I use nonblack lineart for this exact reason LMAOOOO

here's the murder victim

here's the overlay because it's Funny to me

[midnight-bay-if]

I played the demo today, and so far I love it!

As expected, Taj is my favorite character so far, and it's unlikely this will change anytime soon!

But one character that has me very intrigued too and that isn't among the ROs is Hunter. I don't know what to make of him, and I feel like he isn't just a rando... Makes me curious about how important or not of a choice is agreeing ouright to the "date" or refusing first and the MC agreeing only for a lack of choice... Any hints or facts you could drop about him? Because I'm equally wary and intrigued atm!

Other than that, I had a small issue on my playthrough that may or may not be a coding error: at the crime scene, when Alek finds MC is there, if I pick the option to apologize, it directly skips to Rain stepping between Alek and MC, and I feel like something is missing there? Especially considering the other options actually elaborate on what happens / what is said.

And that aside, I was also wondering if you'd consider rephrasing a bit the segment that sets off the character customization? I know it may come off as very nitpicky, but the narration says MC looks at their reflection and sees their 7 years old self. But it bothers me a bit that it implies MC's hair didn't change length in all these years, as it's pretty common to cut or let your hair grow between the time you're a kid and the time you're an adult. I sure know I had always long hair as a kid but now I never let it grow past ear length. And since we can decide if MC dyed their hair, it would only make sense to decide what is their current hair length, I think?

Sorry if it seems TOO nitpicky - I just couldn't help but be a bit bothered by that!

I'm really glad you enjoyed the demo! It means a lot to me that anyone would consider playing and then sharing their thoughts. it's very much appreciated.

Taj is definitely fun to write, so I can see why so many people are drawn to them, too.

Hunter is definitely an interesting one, but their story will be important, so your instincts are right, haha. What are some facts about Hunter I can share without being spoilery... hmm...

Hunter enjoys it when you're combative. The angrier you get, the happier he gets.

He genuinely enjoys the MC.

He's older than he looks.

He's not from Albach Bay, and he hates it there.

He's often a contrarian, not out of any genuine belief but out of amusement.

Hopefully, this will help you gather some more thoughts on Hunter, lol.

Thank you so much for pointing out the issue you mentioned. Unfortunately, it was just the result of my awful ADHD brain. I added that choice pretty last minute because I felt the other choices weren't sincere enough for the reader who was playing as a kind MC. In the midst of editing, I added that choice, intending to go back to it and add the rest. Like a dummy, I completely forgot, haha. It's fixed now, though. Thanks!

And as for your suggestion, it isn't too nitpicky to point out what you didn't gel with, haha. When writing it, I concentrated more on players who would choose to dye their hair, having a clear distinction between that and their natural hair colour. It just made sense to group the hair customisation together at that time. However, as a compromise, perhaps I can make it clear that the reflection the MC is looking at may not be an accurate depiction of what they looked like as a child, but instead an image based on how they look now since their memories of childhood are skewed.

Let me know.

Anyway, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts :)

[classongoing]

"School is back in session, but the dark events in Shoreditch are far from over. With the kids' relationships hanging by a thread and a rogue soul on the streets of Shoreditch, will they find it before it’s too late?"

Today, seven years after the premiere of the first two episodes of Class, we begin the Ongoing journey again!

Over the next few months, we will be regularly re-releasing each Class: Ongoing installment so far, as we prepare to finally continue our story.

Each main episode will release fortnightly on Sundays, with our side stories being posted in the alternating weeks, each on the anniversary of the release of episodes of the original series.

Along with providing a chance to catch up on the story so far, for readers both new and old, each main episode has also been updated as a new edition (check out that tweaked cover art, with fancy new DW logo and adjusted colour grading!), fixing some small errors we missed while editing the first time round, as well as making a few other updates.

Expect also to see some new content, with a new multipart side story arc beginning next week!

This story was written by Ally Chancellor (@tinybookgirl) and illustrated by Anne-Laure Tuduri (@liria10) and Matt Jordan (@intuitive-revelations).

Available here.

[shadowduel]

don't talk to me about editing amvs if you're not fixing colouring errors that appear for one single frame for a scene that you want to use

[losergames]

patch 1.0.1 - 18th aug '23

hello!! i hope you're all enjoying the relaunch and new twine build -- i've been so excited about it for so long and it honestly feels like a relief to have it out there lmao.

this patch shouldn't cause save errors unless stated otherwise. please read the following carefully!

the $friendly stat bug, where it would set the Social/Distant bar to 1%, has now been fixed. (if you're on the jax friend route/ had breakfast in the morning of episode 1, and selected the "Absolutely you can!" choice, you will have to make a new save.)

stat percentages have been added - no more guessing if you're hitting the thresholds or not.

the stat bars now change colour alongside whatever theme you're using. (because i could not for the life of me figure it out before)

the light mode 'Skyline' has been toned down slightly - now a bright grey instead of a white to reduce eye strain and contrast.

minor UI edits.

minor story edits.

typo and grammar fixes.

if you come across any other errors please let me know or submit them to bug report. thanks and happy gaming! 🏁

[nokingsonlyfooles]

To Do Today!

OK, I am gonna try to do laundry AND start reformatting the site. Obvs, one must do laundry. However, the site issues are more complicated.

Basically, WordPress is pushing out another interface change. The last major one was the block editor, that's taken years to be usable, and it still breaks sometimes. But it is more versatile than the old editor, so I get why they hafta. The new thing is some kinda universal site editor and last time I checked it was awful. You don't HAVE to use it, much like the block editor, but all the themes are scrambling to work with its new features. One of these is "global colours." My theme is really struggling with them. They keep changing, overriding my pathetic coding skills, and making things impossible to read. I either need a theme where the dang colours actually work, or one without global colours that's gonna stay that way. The former is slightly more likely.

I also have issues with ALL my custom blocks. You're supposed to be able to save a block and use it like a rubber stamp, forever, but the updates have left all of them coughing up errors. They'll usually stay legible unless I open the page they're on in the editor, and then all hell breaks loose. I need to figure if I'm going to update them all or simplify. I should probably simplify anyway, I think I get really annoying trying to make sure people understand me. Maybe that scares off potential readers?

So, first order of business, change the theme. That will change the whole look of the site, live, and it'll barely work until I find everything that broke and fix it. I'll also need to redesign the front page, and maybe the menus, header, footer, background - all kinds of stuff. When I've done that, I gotta go page by page and find/replace the blocks. That'll take me a few days. 😅I've found some more typos and errors to fix along the way too - including one major continuity error. (Mordecai doesn't seem to recognize someone he should, and I'm bringing that guy back way later, so I hadda add a couple words. It was a math thing. When I wrote it, I thought, "That can't be X it must be Y and he wouldn't know Y..." But when I went into my notes recently and added up the years, "Aw, crap, no, that MUST be X!")

They do say it's super important to know when to stop working on your art, lest you cough up a travesty like the Star Wars Special Edition that obliterates the original. I have obliterated the original, but parts of it needed to die. I've also over-edited in a lot of places - I'm trying to catch those and un-fix them! It's never going to be perfect. Even "real professionals" cough up typos and errors that go live and stay that way, but I have a real terror of being misunderstood and hurting someone. Even just confusing them. Anything that might make them not like me.

So, yeah, I gotta throw in some laundry and go kill my ego. And fix a website! Probably no feed for a while, at least not until I get frustrated and need a break.

Ah, yes, and Patreon still hasn't deleted my data so I'm yelling at them. I'm not going to worry about setting up at Ko-Fi until I'm ready to publish the next six, but I'll keep you posted. I took down my page and I didn't want to charge you for January, so check your records, my few supporters. If they charged you anyway, you need to yell at Patreon too.