#savenkey

[koruneru]

2019 vs 2021 GRIMOIRE template by savenkey ♥

[snobgoblin]

saw you were looking for crit on your arcana oc and thought i’d weigh in as someone who also struggled with recreating the arcana style. the first thing that stuck out to me as being different from the arcana style was the brushes you used, your lineweight and the shading.

the arcana game uses a pretty distinct brush set which was once available by a user called like savenkey or something?? you might be able to find the brush set just by looking around online but it definitely comes in handy when getting that slightly textured & tapered linework. as it currently stands, your lines are quite thin, made of a pretty smooth brush, can be a teensy bit wobbly in some places and dont have any tapering towards the ends. to make this close to the arcana style i’d recommend upping the thickness a little bit (if you’re struggling with space between pixels just bump up the canvas size a bit) and increasing the amount of stabilisation. the tapering could potentially be done by hand (ie erasing the ends of lines to make them thinner) but it’s super time consuming so i’d recommend just using the arcana lineart brush (on a side note, if you don’t manage to find the set but are still interested i could try work out how to send them over?). another thing to note when drawing lineart is that the arcana game uses a lot of sharp edges, especially around the elbows, jawlines and fabric folds, don’t be afraid to thicken those approaching edges up, just to create a spike where the two lines intersect

as for the shading, the whole brush thing also comes into play as the arcana style shading brush has a bit of roughness and is on a slight angle, that’s what creates these areas on the in-game sprites. i can also see you’ve begun to alternate between hard and soft shaded edges but i think a few harder, more definitive edges would help it look closer to in-game art. the arcana shading is also all done in a pale lavender colour on a multiply layer. it looks like you’ve done it on the face but it’s also the case for the rest of the body and clothes too & really helps make that distinctive arcana vibe. it can definitely be difficult shading curly hair and i also struggle with it, but curly haired ingame characters (especially those with shorter hair) do still have big blocks of highlights, doing one big swathe across the side of the skull would better mimic the style, with additional smaller highlights (sometimes less is more) to denote extra curls

and then a few extra details that might come in handy:

- the arcana game uses a textured overlay over their characters’ images, i don’t know if this is the exact one they use but it definitely works! slap it over your character as a clipping mask with the overlay layer filter (you might need to lighten or darken the grey to ensure it doesn’t mess with your characters colours too much) and then just drop the opacity to wherever you think looks best

- (as far as i’m aware) all arcana characters have fingernails drawn on, adding some to your character (whether they’re painted or not) might be a nice touch

- no matter how small or thin, generally all smaller details like tassels/string ties/jewellery or other metal details are all given lineart and coloured, the details are such a pain in the arse to draw but it definitely makes the final look worth it imo

- i’m not 100% sure how you’ve drawn on the blue details but in-game, they’re usually drawn using a screen layer with slightly lowered opacity over both the colour and lineart, and some of the edges are slightly shaded out

however, as far as art style mimicry goes i can’t recommend bast_art13’s tutorials enough, i’m not entirely sure if they’re still active in the community either (i was mainly active in 2020 and have only just started crawling back in💀) but their tutorials are still up on tumblr i think (somewhere). they really break down how the arcana artists draw faces/facial features and explain recurring stylistic choices, for example, how metal is shaded

anyway! that was a lot and i do want to say that you’ve made a really brilliant effort, the style is really difficult to emulate and the way you’ve drawn your oc is really nice!! you did so well, especially when seeing the improvement between this one and your previous drawing. and ofc it’s needless to say i’m a stranger on the internet, take what i say with a pinch of salt or just completely ignore the bits you think are stupid if you want ! it’s a perfectly acceptable response to unwanted pieces of criticism :]

while i’m here i also want to say that i’m obsessed with ur valdemar fanart + you’re doing the lords work with the amount of content you make for them. with that aside, good luck on your future drawings in the arcana style!! i’m sure you’ll do great & apologies if my handwriting was unreadable! also if you have any further questions feel free to ask :3

ohhhhh thank you! this is all very helpful and I'm grateful you took the time out of your day to share with me what you've learned, I'll definitely be taking this to heart for my future efforts

[candycolor-tortoise]

This is what I said.

[herbalisia]

Disney Ollucio -> Giselle and Edward

(Edited by @savenkey )

[artsyaprilmr]

For @savenkey !! Thank you for commissioning me!

[glimmerblossoms]

Mermay (6/31) 

Today’s Mermaid is dedicated to my friend @gemarcana/ @savenkey with her gorgeous MC Eris. The colors seemed all too perfect of her :3

[mxsxki]

So yea I tried to do savenkey's art (I meant MASTERPIECE) and yea I'm a fan of Savenkey~ owo 🔮

[scaredy-apprentice]

I got inspired by @savenkey and their wonderful Disney Arcana post and tried to made a version with my apprentice Miena.

[heartofnopal]

Very late into contributing original Apprentice artwork. Introducing Quetzalli Anahuac (of Anahuac, her home), She’s a long way from home. Despite training to be a warrior, she was pushed to follow the path of a priestess when her magical connection to nature surfaced. Desperate to prove she could be a better warrior, Quetzalli recklessly lead an attack upon a pirate ship anchored ashore. As another ship entered the fight, she helped her friends escape, only to become trapped upon the ship herself as it sailed away. She hid until her worsening injuries forced her to search for medical supplies, but was soon found by the ship’s doctor, Ilya Devorak. He treated her injuries and she demanded to learn of his medicines and methods. In return, she would teach him of hers. But her unstable magic surfaced again, and upon landing ashore, Ilya introduced her to Asra who could help her control it. She settled in Nopal where the land was more familiar to her. There she learned from Asra until she surpassed him and also continued to study medicinal flora of the region. And when she got really lucky, invaders and a certain mercenary would show up to brighten her day and bloody her macuahuitl. Art by me (Heart of Nopal, Cycloprax) Arcana Template by @savenkey

[superlemonsweet]

Disney AU edit like…..just came in and kicked my ass.

@savenkey, ARE YOU PROUD???? I LOVED YOUR VERSION TO BITS

[candycolor-tortoise]

Woke up to a few white kids telling me that saying “don’t be racist” is really upsetting the upstairs neighbors which is ruining the quality of life for everyone, will I please stop saying it if I care about the community?

Lmao

No❤️

Note: The original girl who made the treaty contacted me to clarify her intention when originally making it wasn’t to say “don’t be racist” etc is what she constitutes as drama, but people spreading it around are adding that message for some reason. I know I block out her name here but if you know who she is, please don’t give her any snark over this. It’s not her fault people are misrepresenting her

[mirablake]

grimoire template was made by @savenkey

[herbalisia]

On the subject of the recent ART THEFT that occurred with my good friend, @savenkey, it has come to my attention that @apprentice-chris is actively changing their username and attempting to find one that sticks.

Recently, if you go to rowdyravenrattles.tumblr.com, you'll see that she has taken MY OLD TUMBLR HANDLE. Let me be 100% clear, I did not give permission for this, and I have no affiliation with this thief, nor do I approve AT ALL of what she is doing.

My guess is that she is trying to ride the coattails of my old handle because there are past pieces and projects Sav and I collaborated on together that still have that name to tag me, and she will use it as her "permission" to use it. Rest assured, if you click on it, it will come to MY blog, not hers.

The blog is not public yet, it is still password protected, but I wanted to put this disclaimer forward, and also use it as a warning. If you have been in the fandom for a while (like I have) and have changed your handle, and if your old handle suddenly pops up again, it is most likely this ART THIEF.

[strawberrydemonart]

I’ve been seeing alot of Disney style apprentice art inspired by @savenkey’s Beautiful Edits. So I tried drawing my Arcana MCs as Disney Characters too, as usual I’m probably late :c. I used a few references to try and nail down the style while maintaining the appearances of my MCs ;w;. It was very good practice.

From right to left we have Fae,Divya and Faun.

I used Phoebus from Hunchback of Notrdam as a primary reference for Faun. He’s a lot like Phoebus in personality.

Backgrounds belong to Nix Hydra’s The Arcana game.

[veracity-voracity-violence]

So @savenkey has started a trend of making the apprentice's in a Disney style or edit a Disney character to look like yours. And I decided to join in. So Aiselin is drawn as Jasmine from Aladdin, Caspian is drawn as Captain Pheobus from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Iskra is drawn as Captain Amelia from Treasure Planet.

[glimmerblossoms]

Arcana/Sinbad AU 

I made this as (VERY) belated birthday gift to the lovely @savenkey

Her MC Eris fits Marina to a ‘t’ and I love her so much~