#asks for bee

Cell shading babeeeee! I found that its easier/faster for me to take my experience painting backdrops and stick it into digital art than it is trying to have a more painterly style within the bounds of Clip Studio. Most backdrops for theatre (and film) are usually blocks of color that aren't blended together because it's faster to do it that way and prevents things from getting muddy depending on where the audience is. The best way I found to figure out what sections are what color is to focus on the effect and not the object itself [this is a good video on how to do that]

Here's a little closer up version of it with the layers I didn't merge! 'pot' is the inkwell. It's relatively small on the canvas and isn't the focal point of the finished piece so I wasn't super precise with it. (in comparison to something like Desdemona's hair which I was very careful not having any squiggling lines for since her face is what people will be looking at when she's on screen) The first thing I did is sketch it out to make sure it's as proportional/perspectivey as I can get it and then I ink it like this

Then I flat color it, usually I do one color for the whole element but since this is glass and close to the light source, I broke down in three base sections, then while keeping the hue the same I'll go and change the croma or value to add more detail. Since the light source is coming from the left most of the brighter colors will be towards that

I do the same thing with the bounce light. One way to get good contrast is to pick a triad color of the base for it, for the inkwell the base is a slate/green so the triad colors are purple and yellow. I picked yellow because that's closer to the light of the candle flame. The ink spill itself is a lot smaller and since I wasn't expecting anyone to focus on this part I just blocked out the purple and then blurred them together with the smudge tool then went back and added some detail

To keep every element of the drawing looking like they come from the same picture I add an overlay gradient to each of them (for this little guy the gradients all go from a yellow to blue) and adjust it according to where the light in the shadows are

Once every bit of the drawing is done I copy all the layers and then merge them so can I tweak the overall levels as one cohesive piece (^人^)

I don't think Rookanis is supposed to be steamy. I think it's supposed to be mundane and gentle and sweet and kind and slow. I think it's a love born out of admiration and friendship. I think it's clumsy and that Rook and Lucanis' teeth clinked into each other and their noses bumped the first time they kissed. I think they laugh as they learn how to fit together. I think Lucanis stands every time Rook walks into a room and he always opens doors for them and Rook softly shakes their head with a smile each time. Their love isn't a dramatic fight in the rain, its two cups of coffee cooling while they make their bed in the morning.

I think Rook reminds Spite not to squeeze their hand so tightly cause people are fragile, I think Rook reads to Spite, I think Spite guards both of them while they sleep, I think the three of them dream together