#ask-a-trilo

First I make sure the outside lines are extra thick. It serves as a buffer so I have some allowance when I cut things.

From there I use a modeling knife and cut things out by pieces. Straight lines are easier to trim if you cut down by shapes.

For curved lines, I go more slowly, but I still aim to break things down into smaller pieces to clear out the blank space little by little.

It's just a lot of trimming down, but once I have all the white cut out, I trim a little closer to the lines if I've cut too wide.

Lastly after they're all cut out, I go over the edges with a black marker so they'll "blend" more into the background.

....

I don't know why the first thing I thought of was them gnawing on each other. Asked my sister for an idea and she said the same thing so.

Hallo~

I'm quite open to roleplaying. Unfortunately my brain's turtle-phase is firmly routed in 2018's series and occupied by one particular turtle.

I have been going around asking my counterparts about uranium. Not asking you to share just wanting to know where you retrieved it (if you have some)

Aw, thank you! I haven't watched any Pokemon in a bajillion years and never really got into it so that's kind of funny XD But then prior to this revisited Turtle phase all I used to draw was manga/anime style stuff so maybe that's it in general.

I guess the first would be closer to it. The game's setting is basically that characters were summoned to this other world that's kind of falling apart because something something chaotic moon magic and it's affecting everything there, including the people and creatures. They're slowly piecing together information about the moon business but still don't have anything solid, and everything they've found out so far isn't great.

But everyone's basically turning into monsters of some sort or another. When we app into the game we can pick a monster and its traits or mix things up, so I thought a harpy'd be fun. My second choice was a cerberus, which I decided to dabble with during the event we had last month since we could switch things up.

So at one point he got kinda stuck in between forms, and then another time he was just all skull-puppy (I JUST LOVE DRAWING SKULLS OKAY)

He's going to find out at some point he can still change into skull-puppy and not because he's stuck in a creepy ghost-circus. So that should be fun.

They're not too difficult! I use a cardstock-type of paper and draw a thing first, and then outline it. My usual go-to has been an 02 Micron, and I use an 01 for line shading here and there. I go over some of the lines again for some weight variation, and then we get rid of my mess of sketch lines!

Then it's time to color~ I use alcohol markers since they blend pretty nicely so you don't get those streaky marks that show where you've colored.

I could've probably done it earlier but I went over the outside lines with a thicker Micron (05) just to give me something of a space for when I trim. Don't know if you can see the difference...

ANYWAY then we cut! Usually I use scissors but a craft knife does make it a lot easier for cleaner cuts, especially around the corners and the blank space in between colored sections when you have them. Whichever method you opt for, I've found it easier to cut in sections, trimming away bit by bit rather than trying to cut all the way around.

Laaaastly is maybe the most important part to really sell the illusion of integrating them into the background of wherever you decide to hang or stick them. It's kind of like when you do digital and 'stroke' the external lines of an image with a transparent background (do people still do that anymore...) so there aren't any white artifacts that show up when they come up over dark backgrounds. Same idea here.

I go over the edges with black. This helps blend your cutout in with wherever it is. You can also touch-up your outer lines if there's any bit of white from when you cut things out. But that's all there is to it!

And now....we stick this boy somewhere.

You could do this digitally too if drawing and coloring it directly on paper isn't your thing. The main step to follow would be the last one with the black edging.