#get used to grayscale stuff for a while

[greykolla-art]

Imagine spending all your energy being cool and mysterious 24/7.

What an idiot have I mentioned I love him?

Idea came from a cool post @nouverx made about Alastor’s possible sleeping habits. 💕

[aberooski]

If I could actually color and shade with real colors and not just black and white and have it not be complete dogshit it would be so over for you guys.

[egophiliac]

How do you draw your high contrast, shape-y pieces? I’ve tried something similar but it always end up off, any recommendations on brushes or exercises that could help with improvement?

(I wasn't sure what part was giving you trouble, so this is sorta an all-over smattering 😅 hopefully some of it helps!)

• the kind of brushes don't really matter, just what you're comfortable with using! more chisel-shaped or calligraphy-style brushes might be harder to control strokes with though. I do personally like using brushes that are like...Mostly Round But With a Little Grit to 'Em!

• work at a higher size and/or resolution than your final size (I usually work at ~3x final size). scaling down will smooth out little imperfections and some of the little aliasing weirdness that comes from raster transformations (scale/rotate/etc.)

• drawing with your arm, as in moving from your elbow while keeping your wrist pretty still, makes big smooth curves much easier (you can also go from the shoulder for BIG movements)

• most drawing programs will let you rotate the canvas -- drawing downward strokes tend to be easier to control (extra cheat: if a stroke is proving troublesome, I'll sometimes draw it as best I can on a new layer, move/rotate it into the exact position I want, and then merge it down again)

• instead of trying to draw a super precise shape and fill it in, I usually draw a bigger, shittier shape, and then use an eraser or layer mask to kinda chisel it into the shape I want:

• Always Check Your Values -- especially if you're finding your colors feel kinda muddy or not contrast-y enough, it's a good idea to make sure there's contrast in the light/dark as well as the hue/saturation! I usually have an adjustment layer set to 0 saturation that I keep on top of my document, and just periodically toggle on and off to check. (there's some debate about the most accurate way to check values, but this works well enough for high-contrast solid blocks of color.)

• on the same note, instead of using pure grayscale colors, particularly full black (#000000) and white (#FFFFFF), adding a little bit of color into them can give you a richer, more interesting and more cohesive result.

(and even when using pure grays, using slightly "off" from full black and white can be more interesting! and it's not to say DON'T use black and white and gray, more just...use them thoughtfully, instead of by default?)

• color thumbs/sketches/roughs, whatever you want to call them. people get SO weird at me about these for some reason, but they're literally just...a little sketch of figuring out colors before you start painting. they don't have to be final or detailed or any good or whatever, it's just to get a starting idea! working super fast and loose especially helps to get out of the mindset of Doing A Good Drawing and more into messing around with shapes and negative space and all that fun stuff. :> then later you can focus on the Doing A Good Drawing part, without having to also think too hard about the other stuff.

• Keep It Simple -- 100% the hardest part. I have absolutely not mastered this in any way. 💀 it's SO easy to overwork this style and end up too detailed/too unfocused/just too much going on -- half the time I spend on these things is just adding details -> squinting at it for a couple of minutes -> erasing all the details again. you gotta keep in mind that it's about getting an idea across more than anything else, and when it comes to that, less is almost always more!

(this is one of the reasons I sometimes make myself use SUPER restricted palettes; when you only have three colors, it forces you to really think about what's important to show and how to leave things implied. ✌️)

[darqx]

Well i talk about it talk about it talk about it

The beginning of FUNKY TOWN is still stuck in my head.

❗️For commonly asked qs please see my BTD FAQ

Thanks, I'm glad my art improvement is noticeable :D I have actually KIND OF redrawn scenes before such as

and a bunch of frames from

so who knows i might do some more at some point lol!

YOU GUYS STILL SEND THEM TO ME :d

I don't actually get that many, i just tend to answer months worth all at once so it looks like a lot haha. I also don't answer a bunch of them if I've already answered something similar before or the answer is in my FAQ. Though I'm going to be honest some of the asks that get sent to me I don't think anyone expects me to actually answer, because they're just weird enough that if i turned off anon i'm pretty sure no one would be asking them.

My free time (...when I'm not procrastinating |D ) is trying to be spent on BP so I currently dont have any plans beyond the fun little doodles and animatics and stuff that I usually do. Gato is working on YKMET so if you guys like Strade then you have that to look forward to :)

(Why thank you!)

The armour follows his usual colour scheme which is gold on black.

You can tell this ask is from January lol.

Thanks haha my colouring style layers colour over colour so colour over grayscale always just looks oddly muddy in my POV |D ESPECIALLY LIGHT COLOURS LIKE YELLOW.

Demons can traditionally reproduce within the same species or with a compatible species.

Psychology, Law or Politics. I think these are the top normal majors you could take where the info you learn from them could be really useful in not getting fucked over and/or fucking someone else over.

I haven't been asked to make chibis for Gato this time around so you'll probably be getting something different for your finished runs!

Demon Commons.

All demons have some sort of specific mark that they are born with (anywhere on their body). The exact reason why has been lost to time, but it often gets used for identification. Here are some of the rest of my demon characs:

Hm, if I have to consider real life anatomy (nooooooo XD) the yellow is probably his iris.

Man i've answered so many asks i sometimes only remember saying something when another asks sounds familiar lmao 🤔 Ok; Rire, as a demon of station, has been captured in the background of some historical paintings and photographs, sometimes without his knowledge but always to his amusement later when he finds out. Like just imagine you are intensely studying art history and in those paintings of events with lots of people in it, suddenly your eye happens to catch upon a tall dark haired figure wearing sunglasses from that time period somehow blending in amongst everyone else there.

He has no particular preference in this regard.

Rire doesn't have like 🤔...a set criteria as it depends entirely on certain whims; like whether he is looking for business or pleasure, what he's feeling like at the time etc. If it's purely business then there are types of people he would approach that he wouldn't otherwise if it was for mainly entertainment.

They probably average out at about room temperature - they tend to reflect environment temp a bit and the main part that's closest to his back will always be a bit warmer than the rest of the ichor.

Probably not

They are evenly matched

Thanks very much! :D

Rire has been around for a while so yes he would have witnessed a bunch of things in human history. Who he met and who he made deals with is up for debate.

He is "polite" so he would thank you, at the very least. And yes they are his signature flower lol. It wouldnt be any special..er than receiving any other flowers though to him - we are the ones ascribing the meaning to it.

Two for the price of one 🤌🏻 Also this is an insanely old ask but yes you have permission to do fancomics or whatever with him |D

Anon, considering most people know him from a weird "dating sim", I dont think this is as startling an ask as you might think haha.

if it makes you happy.

Pick a nice smell that you particularly jive with and it would be that. This is individual specific so if a whole bunch of people are around Rire they may each perceive something different.

I get asked this question a lot |D I'm gonna be real with you guys - i haven't actively thought about a canon design for his parents because i'm kind of lazy to (since right now i dont need to know what they look like). Until that happens you guys will just have to go off the vague text descriptions i've given before :p

[badninken]

Gamma Knife - painting process

I had so much fun painting this piece and I want to share some behind-the-scenes stuff on how it was made.

I would like to thank MagicPoser for making it possible to try poses, scale, angles and lighting and saving my ass so many times. I use the app on my iPad but there's a free browser version too.

So I wrangled these 3D dudes into the poses I wanted and then I cut them to pieces and stretched them out to make them as leggy as they're supposed to be. Before I did that though I spent forever trying to pick the angle I wanted to paint. Including two other screenshots I considered using before settling, because it's fun. (nevermind Doffy's weird arm angle, it wasn't going to show anyway. The smoke-placeholder makes it looks like he's in The Sims though which is cute. That thing's about to go so red.)

Then I started sketching. I quickly moved Law higher up and changed his pose to make him more curled up, elbow-to-knee, legs bent etc for more intensity. MagicPoser is great as a reference but the end result gets pretty stiff and boring if you follow the 3D models too closely, and I wanted swoosh. So I painted some swooshy shapes to figure out the movement I wanted for the whole painting. Purple swooshes for the curve of Law and the direction of his jump. Pinker purple for Doflamingo's leg and spine arcs.

The b/w image below also shows the rough base for the feather coat. It's painted with a flat, tapering oil brush that created nice curves that I could refine later.

Skipping lots and lots of work to get to the next step. It's all rendering and detailing, mostly done with the HB pencil brush.

Coloring! I started by creating a gradient map bit lots of color steps. I kind of knew what I wanted but there's a lot of trial and error involved while picking colors and dragging sliders. In Photoshop I'd do this on an adjustment layer but in Procreate I do it by copying all visible layers (three finger slide, copy all visible) and making a new layer out of them where everything's merged (three finger slide, paste)

I then put that layer in Color-mode on 77% over the grayscale image after playing around and testing lots of things. I rarely know what I want before I see it. I copied that layer again and put it in Add-mode on a very low opacity because it looked neat. Every image is a new adventure when it comes to layer blending modes, there is no right or wrong here, you just have to test things until you find an effect that you like. Huge potential for happy accidents in this step.

I didn't want everything to be pink so I created a new Color-layer to paint skin, clothes and radiation. Lowered opacity to let the pink base shine through slightly, for a cohesive and more natural look. Color-mode on full opacity often looks a bit flat and washed out unless combined with something else.

There's a lot more that happened after that but it's all detail stuff, effects, lots of layers with soft airbrushed gradients on various blending modes. Also directional perspective blur where I masked out some feathers to still be sharp against the blurry ones in the back, a quick and easy way to create a sense of movement and depth.

Again, thanks MagicPoser, I would have cried so much and probably given up over the angle of Doflamingo's head without your help 🙏

[meanbossart]

Do you have any advice for people looking to learn how to do color like you? I've been drawing for nearly 13 years but I've never been good with color and feel like my pieces always look rather over blended or that I can't pick good color pallettes.

Just to preface: coloring was fairly new to me just up until recently. I've always done color here and there but it was never my favorite (I very much felt like I had the same problem you're describing) and for a long time my style was largely based around grayscale because of it. When I started doing BG3 art it kind of felt like a necessity to learn, though, since its such a colorful game. So, take my advice with a grain of salt!

My biggest struggle with color was that the style I wanted to do never seemed to match my lineart. I eventually realized that was because my style itself wasn't done with color in mind at all - like I mentioned above, I mostly did grayscale and let the linework carry the art entirely. This also skewed the way I distributed my efforts; I would get really exact and over-detail things with the lineart like I was used to doing, and then felt like I also had to overdo the coloring as well, because the slightly "rougher" rendering I was striving for didn't seem to match the style.

The solution I arrived at was changing the way I approach lineart entirely, purposefully making it sketchier and less "exact", not letting myself be boggled down with details. In this way, I feel like I have far more freedom in how I apply colors and approach the rendering. It has also been extremely beneficial to learn how to push simplification (both in regards to lines AND color) as far as I can before the art stops looking good to me, and that has allowed me to backtrack into more detail again while feeling far more in control of their application. The more you breach out and experiment, the more ways you will have to approach your work when you feel as if you've hit a wall.

Obviously, I don't know if any of this applies to you 😅 but it's info that's been super valuable for me to realize.

Something else that might help is hunting down for tools that don't let you be precise - staying away from sharp liners and brushes and picking stuff that looks more graphical.

Also, not letting yourself zoom into your work too much so you're forced to achieve the shapes you're trying to achieve with rougher strokes and lines, and hence avoiding overworking small details that will ultimately get lost in the final picture anyway.

And assuming you have a good grasp on the basics - put a cap on your rendering time. Try drawing as fast as possible so you're forced to look for alternative solutions for making stuff look good without spending days on it. (I do NOT suggest doing this regularly if you're just starting off learning things like anatomy and perspective though; take your time!)

As for color palettes - I feel like I have a horrible eye for color LOL so I can't offer much wisdom there. I will often be adjusting hues and depth well into the finalization of the piece and ultimately just throw my hands up and say GOOD ENOUGH before sending it off. Taking breaks from looking at the screen so you can take it in with slightly fresher eyes tends to help me, though.

[randomspagetti]

{The End/A Compilation on This Project}

Summary:

I don't really like the climax I came up with at the time so I'll be adding a new version here. So if It differs from the images that's why, I feel like I made the pages during a time where I just wanted to get the comic over with so it kinda feels generic and half baked.

-

Starting from our last point, with the words of encouragement from the Light of Resolution and the steel force will to get his dad back, Choco manages to land a powerful strike, surprising the ancients and phasing Berserk Cacao.

This leaves space for the ancients to also be able to help, Pure Vanilla gives both Choco and Holly buffs while Holly holds the line and protects them from incoming attacks. By doing so they're able to get closer. Finally, a combined attack is hit to where something finally seems to happen. It's powerful and cuts into the indoor wall of the citadel. The smoke dissipates and all that is left is just Cacao.

They're all pretty suprised, but Cacao still has some lingering curse corruption on his body and his breathing is shallow. Hearing the loud crashes from the room the watchers (and Caramel) run in to see the ... interesting situation that had unfolded.

We then cut to Cacao sitting in a hospital room, he had woken up a bit earlier and is trying somewhat to recall the events of the previous day.

Holly and PV soon walk in with mugs, not expecting him to be up. They're caught off guard but soon calm down and get to chatting. Cacao finally admits he's not really doing all so well with both his kingdom and his son over the course of the conversation.

He also sort of opens up about more sensitive issues he's been through, thought he doesn't hold that topic for long given it's just too much for him at the moment. Holly understands where he's coming from and offers some words of encouragement, while PV tells him they're going to look into something for the curse and to actually help Cacao mentally.

Cacao reluctantly agrees.

It ends a bit more open ended with your own interpretation of how Cacao deals with his issues being set, though there would be a few aftermath pages exploring the relationship with the characters shown after the events of the story, this one for example is Cacao and Choco doing pottery painting.

------------------------------------------------------------

Some interesting facts, and stuff I made that didn't make it into the final cut:

-In my discord server berserk Cacao was often referred to as "The enemy spider"

-I often used their hands (so many hand drawings) as a way to show more of their character, Holly has hand scars while PV has a redness around his nails from stress. I like to add a human aspect to each of them so the reader can relate

-Berserk Cacao has had so many iterations before the final one, I just couldn't decide what I wanted him to look like!

-Each character has a different way of showing their thoughts/flashbacks! Caramels are more center focused given her only thought in that flashback was of the loud crash, Choco's are blurry given his eyesight, and Cacao has flashbacks and thinks in grayscale! You can actually notice this more during the dinner scene, this has it's own reasoning but it's bit more darker

-Most of the sketches were 10x more funnier than the finished project but I had to make it realistic

-Affogato was originally going to make it into the comic as a background character, but I felt it was too OOC for him given his devious crimes

Onto the darker stuff-

TW: Implied Abuse, Blood

-Everyone knows about the cut panels but there was actually an entire page scrapped too, originally this would follow along with the Light of Resolution convo (I will now refer to it as the LOR) but I scrapped it for a few reasons.

-Firstly I felt like it didn't add anything and only just re-established something the reader already well knew from both Holly and Cacaos statements, secondly I just felt like it was OOC for how I wrote the LOR. The LOR is in part Cacao. He is Cacao's resolution made physical. This would be his story to tell because he is a part of Cacao. It is Cacao in a way. I also felt revealing his face felt kinda eh and just didn't fit. So for those reasons I chopped it

-Cacao's curse wound was actually bleeding in this scene, though it's a bit hard to see with the shaders

That's all! Thank you everyone for being on this journey with me, I appreciate each and every one of you, you truly helped me expand my art horizons

[asnowperson]

Tanbi to Heroine - Literary classics adapted into shoujo manga

I want to talk about the book of my dreams: Mangaka! Sekai Bungaku - Tanbi to Heroine (マンガ化! 世界文学 耽美とヒロイン). It's a compilation of shoujo manga from the 1970s and 1980s which are adaptations of classics from world literature. Each manga has a little introduction about its artist, and the work it was adapted from. Thank you, our Tosho no Ie overlords.

It came out in 2022, and I'm so happy to own this book. After watching Aoi Bungaku and falling in love with what they did with Kokoro there, I've always wanted to see more anime/manga adaptations of literature. Seeing how authors/directors give the works their own interpretations while still staying faithful to the original work, and not trying to do a 1:1 adaptation can be great, as long as they don't jump the shark. Speaking of which, I even liked Gankutsuou despite the bizarre 3D space mecha fights because Edmond Dantès was still there. I can't get mad at it when the director gets the core of the work right.

Anyway, I want to present this awesome book and the manga collected in this volume!

Hagio Moto – Shiroi Tori ni Natta Shoujo (白い鳥になった少女)

Adapted from Andersen's The Girl Who Trod on A Loaf, and first published in Bessatsu Shoujo Comic 1972/12.

Hagio tells the story from the point of view of the girl who becomes a bird at the end of the tale, which is a very nice touch.

2. Mizuno Hideko – Cendrillon (サンドリヨン)

Adapted from Grimm Brothers' Cinderella, and first published in LaLa 1977/9 & 11.

With Mizuno's exquisite art, this Cinderella adaptation is the perfect fairy tale. On the first and last pages Hideko-tan breaks the fourth wall to give us information about the original work, and going "bruh, these are supposed to be tales for kids but some brutal stuff goes on in them. What's with all the mutilations and eye-gouging?!" It's adorable!

3. Maki Miyako – Hanakagerou (花陽炎)

Adapted from Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, and first published in Big Comic for Lady 1987/2.

This excerpt is taken from vol. 2 of Maki's Genji Monogatari adaptation, and depicts a scene that doesn't exist in the original work: Hikaru meeting Lady Fujitsubo for the first time. I must say that all that Genji Monogatari Japanese went over my head ;_;

4. Miuchi Suzue – Takekurabe (たけくらべ)

Adapted From Higuchi Ichiyou's Takekurabe, and first published in Hana to Yume 1977/1 & 2. This story is actually part of Miuchi's Glass Mask. In the manga, it was acted in the third act, “Kaze no Naka wo Iku.” Compiled in vol.s 3-4 Hana to Yume comics version, vol.s 2-3 of Hakusensha Bunko, and vol.s 3-4 of the digital ebook.

Conveying the subtleties of the character through the way Ayumi and Maya acts is quite ingenious. We get adaptation-ception with this one, and I loved it. It really made me want to read the book to get to know Midori better.

5. Sakata Keiko – Okisaki to Nemuri Hime (お妃と眠り姫)

Adapted from Charles Perrault's Sleeping Beauty, and first published in Comic Tom 1989/1.

I haven't read Sakata's works, but she always strikes me as being the odd one in the shoujo scene. And this manga just strengthened my conviction. Her adaptation of Sleeping Beauty focuses on the ogre mother of the Prince, and her loneliness. Which is another ingenious way of going about adapting a fairy tale from a completely point of view. Her funny-looking art and humor adds to it.

6. Fumizuki Kyouko – Shiroki Mori no Chi ni (白き森の地に)

You get this color image I found online, because scanning this gorgeous double spread was impossible. And it's in grayscale in the book.

Adapted from Louis Hémon's Maria Chapdelaine, and first published in Bessatsu Shoujo Friend 1977/3.

I had no idea about this story, but wow, Hémon sure lived a life... This story that takes place in Canada feels really comforting. I'm surprised this didn't get an anime adaptation. Sure, it's not long enough for one, but it'd make a perfect comfort shoujo. "Comfort shoujo" as in people dying and the protagonist growing up after being hit by misery and having to make life-altering choices. I can see why this was popular in Japan.

7. Yamagishi Ryouko – Rapunzel Rapunzel (ラプンツェル・ラプンツェル)

Feast your eyes on this color Rapunzel illustration from the Yamagishi artbook I have.

Adapted from Grimm Brothers's Rapunzel, and first published in Bessatsu Shoujo Friend 1974/6.

Queen Yamagishi does not disappoint: We go full psychological and read about how parents ruin childrens' lives by projecting their shortcomings in life onto them, and their twisted sense of "love" can be worse than a sorceress's curse. Prince charming therapy time, baby!

8. Sato Shio – Bijo to Yajuu (美女と野獣)

Adapted from Madame de Beumont's Beauty and the Beast, and first published in Papermoon Shoujo Manga Fantasy Shoujo Manga – 1001 Nights (5.11.1980).

This short yet poignant adaptation really brings out the love in the story. She distilled the tale, and left what touches your heart the most in these 8 pages.

This work was also originally published in full color, and it's so gorgeous that I bought the book it was first published in. I hope to have it within the month.

So yeah, if you need to gift something to your old-shoujo loving friend, you now know what to get :)

[ika-archieves]

how i make color palettes of my ocs before i pick one, an art tutorial?

hello, whenever i made a new design for myself i found a way to make lots of color palettes and pick one! i see this method more in paintings and rendering but not much on character designs? here are some examples i used that on.

it helps me so much when i feel experimental with colors. here are what you need

a wip character design. sketchy or pixel art works better since the colors can have some anti aliasing issues

a program with gradient maps. i'm using clip studio paint but ik photoshop also has it. like i said this is used more on photos or paintings

and here's what you do!

draw your character. i'm making a new fursona for myself but anything should work.

2. decide on their markings/color placement in grayscale. i recommend doing grayscale so you can easily see the values. split your grays into however colors you want. i like doing 5-6 the most. i reccomend duplicating the color layer if you wanna try multiple palettes.

3. this part is program dependent but in csp's case go to edit > tonal correction > gradient map.

4. i made a few default 5 color gradient maps but if don't use gradients like me i reccomend making the graph like this so they become solid color. split the map into however many colors you used. i'll add a color to the red-orange one bc my character has 6 grays.

5. replace the colors by clicking below specified color. it all depends on your creativity and what you want. experiment til you like it.

6. fuck around, try stuff, put them together to see if you like any of em. i made 9 to see if i can focus on one of them and i actually ended up loving the bottom right. it really makes them shiny

7. (optional) if you like a palette you can further and play with colors while keeping the palette. you can use color balance (in the same menu as gradient map in csp) or layers to mess around, have fun!

also a color tip because people seem to compliment that a lot in my art: digital art has millions of colors! don't be afraid of using wacky tones unless you're going pantone. if you want to get something physical i recommend being open to alternative colors as they tend to be more limited. i know whoever is doing it will try their best to keep the colors close.

color theory is something i don't...care much about mostly because this is something i'm doing for fun. i'll consider it in professional work.

[dailyhatsune]

hi! not exactly a request but i do wanna ask, whats your process when you're rendering more paint like art? (if that makes sense, English isnt my first language so apologies hdskhsjdbd) i really love how you use the colors and im curious how you do it :0

i’ve been meaning to answer this one for a while so here’s how i painted miku in today’s post (put under the read more because yeah prepare for a long post

i’d also like to preface this by saying that i never follow a set way of doing things, so in terms of what my personal process is like, these are only broad strokes of what i do! sometimes i’ll combine or skip parts entirely, depending on how i feel. also, this is not a tutorial, just how i do things, so please don’t treat it like one :’D this will read like the ‘how to draw an owl’ picture if you do

first, like every artist, i sketch. more specifically, i’m getting an idea of what i want to paint later on. this could be how a scene is set up or in this case, how a character is posed. here i’m not concerned about details or getting everything perfectly, i’m only planning how the thing will be composed. maybe a lot of canvas size changing, or adjusting what miku’s doing (note how busted miku’s right hand looks from all the transforming!) however, i still have to be concerned with how clear the sketch will be to future me, because the sketch won’t be any good if i can’t read what miku’s doing

after that, i lay down a flat gray under the sketch, mainly focusing on giving miku a clear silhouette. this is also a good time to make adjustments to the composition on the fly if i suddenly feel like something can be improved upon, like shortening miku’s left arm from the sketch!

after painting a flat silhouette, i start shading in grayscale, focusing only on lighting. i usually do it in two passes, one for the lightest and darkest tones i’ll use (not black and white) and then a second for midtones to blend them better with the base gray but i forgot to screenshot the result of the first pass 🗿 nevertheless, here is where i can start adding some amount of details. i’m not including any extra accessories yet, just focusing on the base design of the outfit and the character herself (for anyone wanting to draw characters from That Gacha Game, this is how i personally make the process more bearable for myself.) i still use the dark gray to separate where certain details (like the facial features and fingers) begin and end, mainly to make colouring more bearable later.

now here’s where i get the Good Colours. it’s a cheat lol. i put a gradient map layer over the grayscale painting so that there’s a little bit of color to start. some gradient maps can be applied as is, some need the layer settings adjusted to make it look good. this one, for example, is a (free) gradient map set from the csp assets store that needs you to set the layer opacity to 20% and to set the blending mode to color to achieve this result. in general, i tend to pick which gradient map i want to use based on vibes, or basically whether i want the work to be warmer or cooler, colour-wise. but this does do quite a bit of lifting for the colors in my stuff.

and then, finally, i add the colours. i add flat base colours in an overlay layer. at this stage, i’ve made the character silhouette clear enough that i don’t need to refer to the sketch anymore for what miku looks like. also, the gradient map layer does its magic by making the shading a bit more vibrant than it would’ve been without it. after that i paint over with a new layer to add details like the lace.

and then i put some extra shading on top. basically this is where the ‘better lighting’ happens. again, this isn’t a tutorial, so i’m not here to say what each part of the lighting is, but i’ve labeled which layers do which job. in other works where the lighting within a scene is more defined (from a window, from a small crack in the walls, etc) the glow dodge layer may be more opaque and sharper, but since this isn’t a work with that, the lighting was applied using an airbrush. the linear burn layer is also there to make the whole thing darker so the glow dodge doesn’t end up oversaturating miku. i also usually match the lights to the vibe i want, and use a complementary color for the shadows. so here you can see i have warm colors on the glow dodge layer, but light purple on both the linear burn and multiply layer.

and that’s it for the character—here’s a gif showing how each layer adds to miku! (sorry it’s so toasty)

as for the background, depending on the complexity, it may go through a similar process, or if i can settle with flat image backgrounds, i just go for that. it’s ok to use external image materials. i didn’t have a background in mind for this miku in specific, so i got some default csp materials and threw together something

and that’s about a rough overview of what my process for more finished works looks like! again, art is a fluid process so i never specifically stick to certain steps all the time, and you shouldn’t either. i can probably answer why i’d pick this colour over another in one particular work, but it’s something that kinda has to be learned on a grander scale. i think everyone can already feel what colors work with what atmosphere or what setting, even if they can’t immediately explain why. colors and composition do take some level of experimentation to find what works best!

[galaxyseclipse]

Please tell me how you fit Agent 4 into Side Order 🙇 I love hearing how different people placed them into the story!

okay! keep in mind this is like oc stuff, okay?

so, it's basically their canon role of head of security, but like they actually show up lol

Marina asked them to head into the memverse a little while before she, Pearl and Eight did to make sure everything was okay

long story short: it wasn't. They got got by Order(like how Marina was) and strung up like that. So Four was completely M.I.A. for about half the time they were there.

Parallel Canon was something that they made as well, ...kinda. Originally, they made one or two ai copies of themself in order to have someone/thing there when they couldn't be(which could be quite frequently as they are in school). When Order took over, it made a bunch more copies without the ai, and shoved the soul pieces it took from the folks it grayscaled/grabbed from the real world inside of those.

So essentially, Parallel Canon is just a bunch of Four clones with other people's souls shoved inside, and the ones who do get palettes are bosses at the top of the tower(because in my version of the story, they don't fight Order until they go up with Eight's palette). They use the weapons of whatever palette Eight is using at the time, and have the mannerisms of whoever is technically inside(eg. Callie's would use a roller and be more chaotic with its movements). They all operate as a hivemind that answer to Four, who is under Order's Control.

The real kicker is that these copies don't talk, so any time anyone tries to get info out of them they don't say anything.

Eight, Pearl, Marina, and Acht only encounter Agent Forte when they get to floor 30 with Four's palette.

The boss fight would work similarly to Marina Agitando or Overlorder; portals you gotta smash, hit the big guy, rinse and repeat. One major difference would be that the portals would exclusively spawn Parallel Canon units, albeit much more slowly lol. It would still have three phases, with more of the wires keeping them in the air being cut between each one, eventually having them fall when they've been defeated/freed.

After that they try to call off the other copies, whether they join the crew in the elevator or not I don't know yet. They can't really until Order is defeated tho, so they just try their best to figure out who's where.

That's the... basics for now I guess, only the parts with Agent 4.

[ecargmura]

Dandadan Episode 2 Review - No Balls

It’s hilarious that the story’s plot progression is because Okarun lost his balls and they’re on a mission to get them back. However, as day breaks, the chance to meet Turbo Granny has to be delayed. A few hours have passed since the whole ordeal—can’t you believe that these two only spoke to each other yesterday in the story?

Though, the world of Dandadan intrigues me. How long have these ghosts and aliens been wandering around the world? I’d like to know how aliens have managed to invade Japan so easily given that the Flatwoods Monster easily barged in once Momo took off the talisman from her house. I also wonder about the curse implanted on Okarun. How long can he survive without his balls and does the curse actually lift if he were to retrieve them?

The action scenes were great! I forgot to mention in my review for the previous episode that I really liked how the animators made the fight scene setting completely blue, but occasionally red due to Okarun being cursed. In this episode, the fight scenes were in grayscale due to the Flatwoods Monster trapping them inside his walls. I just think it’s a nice detail in that it amps up the eerie factor in the fight scenes. Colors are still a little consistent with shades of red popping out due to Okarun fusing with Turbo Granny. Why does he look like a modified version of Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul complete with the same JP VA in Natsuki Hanae? Was this the reason Hanae was casted as Okarun?

I also really liked the banter between Momo and Okarun in the sense that these two have only met yesterday in-universe but already bicker as if they’re long-time friends. I like their dynamic. Momo is blunt and speaks her mind, while Okarun is pessimistic and timid. I do like that even though Momo is a pretty girl, Okarun isn’t simping for her. He just wants a friend and he did all that because he didn’t want to lose the opportunity to gain one. He’s sweet in a way. I just like how they bounce off of each other but also are there for each other when needed. Okarun is hilarious when he becomes his fused form. He just becomes even more depressed and speaks in an odd way.

These two are also very clever in that they figure out what they should be doing without the need to be headless chickens about it. Okarun figures out that he probably needs to control his curse in order to fight back against the alien. Momo knows how to use her psychic powers and is aware of what she needs to do regarding the alien and its fighting style. People might think Momo might be too powerful, but remember that she’s the granddaughter of an exorcist; she probably already knows her stuff because she’s already aware of her surroundings.

On the topic of voice actors, Ryuzaburo Otomo voiced the Flatwoods Monster. From Mayumi Tanaka and Kazuya Nakai to Ryuzaburo Otomo in this episode, this anime is seriously stacked with amazing voice actors. If you’re not familiar with Otomo, he voiced Crocodile in One Piece and Vamdemon in Digimon Adventure. Just how many prominent One Piece voice actors will they cast in this anime?

I honestly can’t wait to see what will happen with Okarun. Since Momo has become unconscious, how will he control his curse? Is this when Momo’s grandma will come into the story? I feel like that’s the only way. What are your thoughts on this episode?

[aparticularbandit]

Favorite Mugi hcs?

Also if ya need someone to talk to my DMs are always open

Thanks for the question (and the offer)! <3

My Tsumugi headcanon currently falls into two separate things, so I'll share a bit from both!

The Twist Does Not Exist:

Tsum-Tsum! ...because then even her nickname is a reference. >.>;; (Also some people make this zoom zoom to reference a certain Mazda commercial, but she hates that. It annoys her. The only person who gets away with this is probably Junko. Who also probably came up with the original nickname in the first place.)

Always has some sort of show on in the background while she's doing stuff (homework, cosplay, housework; Tsumugi is constantly tuned into something). Her favorite shows, she full in pays attention, she's not multitasking, she's analyzing, she's looking at art design, she's coming up with new cosplay ideas, but most shows are on in the background while she's doing something else. There's kind of a scale with this - the more she cares, the less she does. Creating cosplay during the show is top tier of multitasking before she goes full in.

Has definitely worked in a cosplay cafe. At least once. At least once. (She's not comfortable about being in the spotlight, but it's easier when she's in cosplay as a character who loves the spotlight. Because then she's not her.)

Is drawn to louder, more energetic characters.

If she sees someone cute, she immediately wants to put them in cosplay. Like full-on sparkle in her eyes, will drag them into a bathroom/changing room, need. (If you've seen/read Fruits Basket - like Mine, from Ayame's shop! But Tsumugi and cosplay.) Kind of like immediately dragging Kaede to the bathroom to show off her cospox. That same energy. But for a different reason.

Actually does not have a lot of friends. She knows that the intensity of her interests can turn people off, so she doesn't talk much. But this backfires because it makes her come across as shy. Boring. Plain. She's not very good at fitting in with people's expectations. So she's pretty lonely, actually.

Tsumugi was actually a LOT more popular when she was in elementary school because she could make pretty clothes and kids like pretty clothes so everybody wanted her pretty clothes because she always looked pretty. But there's an age where, like, you grow out of sparkles and frills and big bows and all of that and kind of shove that off into only costumes or only cosplay, and when that happened, Tsumugi just. became. a background NPC in her own life.

Without cosplay, Tsumugi would actually be severely depressed. Cosplay lets her life have color; without it, everything is grayscale and monochrome.

The Twist Exists:

Tsumugi Shirogane is not her real name. It's an alias.

Her real name is Yuki Tsukasa. Yuki - "snow" - because the fandom wiki says that one of the meanings for Shirogane is a metaphor for "snow" and Tsukasa because it means "director, boss".

Definitely dating the girl who got her into cosplay. They are together, they have been together for a long time, they've talked about kids, etc.

Most people don't know she works for Team Danganronpa, and even the ones who do don't know how high up she is in the company. Only her girlfriend knows she's one of the showrunners.

Yuki has gotten death threats from her work on Danganronpa. A lot of the people involved have. That's why her alias exists in the first place: everyone in the credits for a Danganronpa season uses one. Fans can be terrifying to Team Danganronpa, particularly the writers, which is why she just. doesn't talk about it. (She loves her job. She's scared of fans. Reasonably so.)

Would absolutely live in her office if she didn't have a girlfriend to go home to. She's a bit of a workaholic. (She and her girlfriend definitely have fought about this. It didn't change anything.)

Since her co-showrunner's passing, Yuki has been under a lot of stress. They were very good at covering each other's writing weaknesses, and now she's under a lot of pressure to make the show just as good on her own as it was when there were two of them. (She has refused to take on another partner. Danganronpa is theirs. She has very strong opinions about this.)

A lot of characters in the shows have references to people she knows in real life, whether that's personality quirks or traits, or appearances, or even using their names. Most of it is stuff you wouldn't know unless you know.

Despite, as a writer, hating the unknown of having an audience-controlled character, Yuki doesn't hate K1-B0 as a character concept. She just hates the potential for destruction he has. (So she baked it into him from the outset.)

Her use of K1-B0 is actually really smart because Yuki had to accurately predict the way fans would react to any situation where they were given options to do things (I assume polls for major decisions or FTEs, and then those decisions set him on a specific script) - like she had to know they would spend all that time with Miu so that K1-B0 could get those upgrades, she had to make sure that those decisions wouldn't fuck up the script but instead lean into them and give him a good arc and involvement in the story regardless what the fans picked. Like Yuki has to have her thumb on the beating pulse of fandom to be able to do a good job with that, and I applaud her.

[georgiesblurredbones]

Here’s a Little Sneak Peak On a Transformers(TFP/RiD/RB) AU I’m Working On :3 (a LOT More Under Cut)

2 Versions Bc Grayscale Is Cool :P

Info Abt The AU:

This AU Is Very Similar To TFP/RB But It Is Based Around The Antagonists of TFP With Exceptions of Some(Airachnid, Predaking/Predacons). It Takes Place In Jasper(Same As TFP)But Each of The Characters Are Partially Humanized/And or Have Their Names Changed(Ex: Starscream Is Humanoid But Has His TFP Wings, Eye Colour, Height, Name, Etc But Has a Similar Personality To His G1 Self, While Megatron Is Humanized But Has His Name Shortened). Instead of The Decepticons Being An Antagonistic Group, They Are Just a Military Group With Ranks That I Have Chosen(Which I Will List)

Head Commander: Meg (Megatron).

Second In Command(s): Starscream, Shockwave.

Medic(s): KO (Knockout), Soundwave.

Warriors: Breaxdon (Breakdown)[Typically Leads Fights], Vehicons + Steve.

Notes:

There Will Be Graphic Scenes/Death In This AU’s Story But Will Be Tagged As Such In The Tags or Start of The Posts. This AU Will Not Have a Happy Ending, It Will Have a Bittersweet One At The Best, There Will Be Major Character Death, There Will Be Sensitive Topics But Sparklings/Children Will NOT Be Harmed or Killed Bc I’ll Actually Cry If I Have To Write Abt a Kid Dying, So If Ur Sensitive 2 Stuff Like That, Please Read Warnings, If U Read It And Get Triggered AFTER Reading The Warnings Then That Is Ur Own Fault For Not Understanding.

As You Can See From The Pictures I Added, a Lot of The Art For This AU Will Be Made In Gacha, Though The Character Sheets Will Be Drawn Traditionally With Pencil And Paper/or Digitally Using IbisPaintX, I Am NOT a Professional Artist In Any Way But I Am NOT Asking For Art Tips or Criticism, So Do NOT Give Me Any, I Do Not Want It.

I Will NOT Be Making Character Sheets For The Autobots(Besides For a Select Few Important Ones), I Will Make ONE Character Sheet For The Vehicons, Displaying The Different Features They Can Have(And Steve).

There Will Be a Few Characters From Different Shows That May Appear In This AU(Ex: Wildbreak The Stunticon From RiD 2015 Will Be Breakdown And Knockouts Son Because of The Similarities, He Will Get a Character Sheet But He Will Not Be All Too Important, Just To Give More Life To Both Breakdown And Knockout. Characters From Different Shows/Comics May Also Be Mentioned(Ex: The Rescue Bots/Griffin Rock May Be Mentioned But Will Not An Important Thing, Just Something In Passing Conversation or May Be Mentioned Because of a Character That May Show Up For a Brief Time[NOT SAYING WHO YET !!!!!!!]).

Ships WILL Likely Be Included In This AU. Don’t Like Them? Ignore Them or Just Move On, Hate Will Not Affect My Writing or Art, I’ll Just Kindly Block U🫶

Ships That May Be Featured: Knockout x Breakdown/BreakOut/KnockDown(Canon). Implied Past Knockout x Starscream. More May Be Added !!

There Are Aromantic/Asexual/AroAce/Aspec Characters In This AU, So I Must Request That You Do Not Make Ships of/Do Sexual Scenarios of My Version of The Aspec Characters Without ASKING Me.(Ex: Meg/Megatron Is Aromantic. All of The Vehicons Are AroAce. Starscream Is Greysexual Panromantic)

I’ve Been Working On This AU Since Last Monday And Have Drawn Out Two Character Sheets(Knockout And Starscream) But I Will Be Drawing Out More Over The Course of The Next Weeks, But I Am Still a Student So It Will Likely Not Be All That Consistent.

[littlegreenpinetree]

Hey so I'm officially at this point where I had to come in here to scream at you about your insane fic, cause it's time. As promised, I've had one hell of a serotonin comedown these past two days where I'm scouring the Internet for a similarly unreachable level of dadmight high (and failing) so I did just burst into tears for like 30 seconds earlier today lmao (tho my satans monthly sacrifice did start yesterday so that could be it). Your fic is so so so well written, and pacing is incredible, and the plot, the characterisation, the dynamics? Incredibly satisfying. Everything I wanted and even more of things I didn't know I needed. A lot of long, incredibly well written, well loved pieces of writing happens to be very romance oriented (which I'm in no way complaining btw, love a good romance like many people) but maybe because I fall in the ace spectrum, just well fleshed out platonic dynamics make me incredibly feral, especially when it's sometimes so HARD to find them. And then fics like yours cross my path once in a while and it's everything. Sorry for being intense about this but to give you an idea, I picked up my sketchbook for the first time in probably 4 or 5 years today. My life's been kinda, off kilter ig since I moved here and started uni, so even after getting through depression and everything (yay grayscale winters!) it sometimes feels like I still haven't gotten on the wagon completely. Just. A lot of love for not only writing this fic (and putting an incredible amount of work into it) but also deciding to share it with the rest of us. I really really appreciate it, and I wish only the best for you. Also good luck with your move! (Unsure if it's already happened but I vaguely remember it being on a weekend, so next weekend?) Unsure if you're a local but if you need an extra pair of hands to help out (you're moving internationally yes?) let me know (or not cause we're literally strangers lmao what am I saying but I do mean it if you're super fucked with the move) cause couple of months ago I moved and doing all that shit alone was insane and it was only across town. I have a bunch of questions about the fic actually, so I'll either do another ask or go back to the comments. Good luck!

-cross

So I am kinda late to this because I am trying to spend time these days writing my final papers but instead I spend my every waking hour procrastrinating it so hard that I'm getting to some critical point

First of all DO NOT apologise for being intense I love that so much! I am intense. I love intense reactions to my art. It's this whole thing, I am now in the middle of a conversation with my friends about how art is a dialogue and this type of art is made for reactions from people, for having that art loved and appreciated and for driving people insane with it <3 and I am so glad all of these were accomplished

Sadly I do not thing I can help you with this dadmight void, my friend ventea does write some dadmight stuff but nothing has gotten to this length haha. I am personally not even sure how or why I wrote it, I somehow sat down during summer holidays and planned the whole fic over the course of 2-3 days and then I wrote it in 3 months (it is written, just very unedited so what I'm doing in free time is editing new chapters before posting them). A fever dream, I swear

And yea! I am aroace and autistic so I need more excellent and well-developed stories where romance is not the focus or not the only relationship. I also find different unique relationship types interesting to explore in fiction and the fact that people seem so fixated on just one type gets annoying ngl

(fun fact in my dnd campaign one of the most important relationships for my character was, in fact, romance, but now he's grieving because he thinks the one he loved is dead, and it will get complicated <3 essentially they trauma bonded and so even if they manage to solve the Problems, it would take effort from both of them to heal and solve the issues they would so certainly have)

FUN FACT i saw your ask when I woke up like 2 days ago? and I was in bed and when I saw you say you picked up a sketchbook I audibly gasped and I said something out loud but I don't remember what but ahhhhhh! ah ah ah! omg that is the best feeling <3 that is so great that is so cool and I am both happy with myself that my art did that, and happy for you! I have also dropped art for a while during pandemic and only picked it up again properly last year and the feeling is GREAT

Finally, thank you, I am not moving! But I am going to Ecuador for a month for a fieldtrip related to my studies, which is very exciting and it's hard to believe it's real at this point, but it is and it's happening so soon!

And feel free to ask me any questions you want about the fic <3 I will do my best to reply haha

[athreus99]

Random ideas for my version of kinito

Just been thinking of random stuff for my version of Kinito (mainly backstory wise) (some stuff may change overtime/be edited a bit, but this is the stuff for now)

He can switch from his anthro to...idk what to call it, desktop pet form?? at will (basically from anthro to normal looking kinito)

If he's upset (usually sad or mad) he starts to glitch a bit and some kind of black goop leaks from his eyes like tears and he gets a hollow black mouth that emits the same goop (if he's really upset then his colours go grayscale)

Aight, now more backstory related stuff

He has abandonment issues and doesn't really understand friendship, but he wants to try and learn to be a better friend.

(this part is inspired by Spinel from SU and some lyrics from 'Everlasting Fun' by longestsoloever--) He used to be friends with a previous user before his current one and he was basically just left without any warning for years (his current user if from the current day and he would've first been around when windows XP was used).

He can actually turn on his computer by himself (regardless if it's plugged in or not), so he tried that one day to see if his user was around or coming back, and just saw that the pc was somewhere in storage and it dawned on him that his old user, his friend had just left him entirely.

Now with his current user he's afraid that they'll leave him too so he tries doing whatever he can to entertain them, keep them happy and make them stay.

He doesn't like talking about his old user, so it will take a while for him to open up about that.