That's neat. ( ╯◡╰ )

Rdr2 + Dinosaurs!

Felt like combining two of my interests so that I could practice drawing both! (And develop a style with lineart because that's something I'm still getting used to lol). Wanted to add some explanations for each choice too in case you guys were curious!

Arthur and The Shire | Yutyrannus

I wasn't entirely sure where I wanted to go with him at first. High honor, low honor - in these cases he might have something different - but I wanted to make the dinosaur somewhat 'universal.' Since I started playing Rdr2 for a third time, my choice was definitely influenced by the general Ambarino environment. But it was also determined by 'first impressions.' What did Thomas Downes think when first seeing Arthur? What about Jimmy Brooks? While you can redeem (haha) Arthur later on, there's no denying he's a bit more intimidating/aggressive at the start of the game. I went with the Yutyrannus based on that - he's the gang's scary muscle (allll those Strauss missions), and he would need a dino of a similar type to match that!!

Bill and Brown Jack | Ankylosaurus

While I was thinking about Bill too, I knew EXACTLY which dinosaur I wanted to go for when I looked at Brown Jack. That horse would've been an Ankylosaurus in another life.

Charles and Taima | Styracosaurus

Charles was easy - I knew I wanted Taima to be within the Ceratopsidae family (they felt kinda similar to bison, in a way?), and I landed on the Styracosaurus because I really wanted to draw those fun horns :D

Dutch and The Count | Quetzalcoatlus

OKAY YES NOT A DINOSAUR. But I NEEDED Dutch to have a Quetzalcoatlus. Dutch would want something flashy (thinking about how you have to upgrade his tent first before anyone else's for 'morale'), so I know for a fact he'd go for the largest flying reptile ever... maybe getting to Tahiti isn't a crazy idea after all.

Hosea and Silver Dollar | Maiasaura

Maiasaura means 'good mother' (lizard) - pretty self-explanatory I'd say :')

Javier and Boaz | Maip Macrothorax

UH. Honestly. I don't know why. This one was purely about vibes and these were the vibes I went with.

John and Old Boy | Carnotaurus

Carnotaurus means "meat-eating bull" - I was thinking a bit about the epilogue (farming for beginners), and John trying out ranching in general. Also! I think it fits Old Boy too.

Karen and Old Belle | Stegosaurus

I love Karen SO MUCH. She's a little prickly on the outside, but with her reaction to Molly and some of her conversations with the other girls - idk. I felt like a spiky herbivore was the best pick for her.

Kieran and Branwen | Parasaurolophus

His was what started this whole thing! (Can you tell he's my favorite I draw him so much). I knew I wanted to draw him with a Parasaurolophus so quickly that I had to make searches like 'duck-billed dino with horn thing?' 'duck-billed dino that makes noise with head?' Don't ask me wtf those searches are, I completely forgot the name, I only had the vision LOL.

Lenny and Maggie | Gallimimus

I wanted something that felt playful? For Lenny. And while we don't know how "playful" dinosaurs were, they're animals, animals are playful, and I know that I can watch birds do whatever the hell they want all day, so I went with a dinosaur that felt a bit closer to its later evolutionary counterparts - the Gallimimus!

Micah and Baylock | Utahraptor

Yeahh this one was easy too. I just kept thinking about which dinosaur would encapsulate that blue-eyed stare. I love Baylock too, nearly as much as I love raptors in general, so I had to match them up.

Sadie and Bob | Dilophosaurus

I felt like she'd have a smaller carnivore of some type - swift and fierce. I also think Bob, the horse, worked really well as a Dilophosaurus? He was one of the easiest ones to draw because the patterns of the horse were SO pleasing to work with.

Sean and Ennis | Spinosaurus

I debated what to do for Sean A LOT. Then I thought about his interactions with Arthur and how his choice of dinosaur might be influenced by that - sort of a, following in his footsteps thing.

Trelawny and Gwydion | Kelenken

He would 100% travel around with his terror bird and put on (con) shows. I figured he'd accessorize Gwydion a lot too, make him flashy and unassuming to any of his future targets.

Uncle and Nell II | Deinocheirus

A couple people asked how I make these sorts of golden/colorful patterns

on artworks like these:

I work in Photoshop so my advice might be PS-specific in places, but I am 100% sure you can do at least the first 2 in other programs as well.

There's a couple methods I use depending on what effect I'm after:

1. Just Painting:

sometimes I just paint them by hand. I like to use brushes that have visible texture for this and use the dissolve brush mode (it creates a speckled/grainy effect).

To achieve color variation between the dots easily, I recommend enabling Color Dynamics for your brush of choice and unchecking Apply Per Tip - this makes it so color dynamics only change the color of the brush tip once you finish a stroke and lift your pen. It's super easy to paint a bunch of varied dots this way :D

2. Custom Brushes:

If I know I use a certain pattern/shape a lot I'll just make a custom brush in that shape, like so:

To achieve this look you just have to make shape that will be the tip of the brush, make it into a brush in your specific software and then increase the spacing in brush settings to your liking.

Making brushes in PS is super easy, you can find a million tutorials for it - or follow my ancient one here haha -> https://www.tumblr.com/zuzartii/179635817705/some-photoshop-tips

For extra juicy effects you can layer textures on top of your layer with the brush pattern, and try out different layer effects.

This one for example is a gold texture clipped to my dots layer, with the dots layer itself set to Lighter Color

3. Shapes + Patterns

(This might be just Photoshop specific, I'm not sure)

Another fun option is to play with the Shape and Pattern options in Photoshop. Create a Shape from the available options (I use this a lot for circles), and then choose a pattern from your library for the Stroke option and adjust the scale/angle. Patterns are just as easy as brushes to create, so this option is really handy :D

If your software doesn't have Shapes, you can achieve the same effect just by drawing/making a circle and clipping a texture of your choice to it. You won't be able to adjust the circle size/thickness as easily as with a shape, but it's an easy workaround.

4. Paths and custom brushes

This is my fave option for many of these patterns :D

It's very similiar to number 3, but instead of a Shape you create a Path. Paths are vector-based outlines and aren't part of the image untill you use them to create a shape or drawing. Paths don't come with an instant fill/stroke option like Shapes do, but you can use your brushes on them by using the Stroke Path command.

You can easily ctrl z the stroke and retry it with a different brush or a differently sized one. You can also check or uncheck the "Simulate pressure" option, which will give you different results:

I use this aaaaalllll the time for trying out different patterns on my illustrations (especially all the circles everywhere, since this way I can make the brushes bigger/smaller depending on the circle placement).

I also often mix and match between all the options I mentioned. I will typically slap on some extra texture + paint in extra bits by hand on my created shapes to achieve that more traditional look

That's the most of it, I hope it's helpful to the ppl who asked :DD

The cuts, the slow ramp-ups, how it matches his dance moves.

there's a stoat hiding in that last one