#graphic making

When I first started making my own graphics, i take a look at others graphics for general examples and inspirations. Then, maybe after awhile of taking a look, you might as well spark up an idea in your head on how you visualise your graphic to be like. It could honestly be whatever you want it to be, either just for yourself or others, it can be anything!

Back onto the topic, you also should grab some pngs and overlays as well as masks to create your very own graphic. If youre creating a graphic based off a character, dont forget to download resources (art, renders, etc) of your character. Also dont forget to credit the artists if you are planning to publish your graphic that you have made! If you cant find the artist of one art, then thats okay! You can always ask someone to help out with.

Now, its time for the fun part! Creating and coloring your graphic ^_^!

Remember how I said that you might get an idea on how you probably want your graphic to look like? Now its time to make your idea visually similar, if not, alike to your idea.

You basically have to put whatever youve downloaded from tumblr (or other sites) that you might make use of in your graphic, but you might aswell start with your mask first, then putting the details and other pngs to stylize it.

For tumblr header graphics, i always like to find whatever is in my gallery of that character that I wanna make of, then cutout some parts of the background.

Take a look at my upcoming Subspace graphic (for anon). You could see a hole in it. Thats usually where I grab overlays or transparent pngs to fill it in for a nicer look.

Once youre done adding all details and stuff that you'd think would fit with your graphic, dont merge them all immediately, though you can merge one or two, but not all! (unless you want to merge like... all of them completely so you dont have to recolor each layer.) I always use the folder feature in IbisPaint to merge it as one when closed, but separated if open! This helps save the stuff you have added in your graphic so you dont have to re–add it if you make a mistake.

For coloring, there are two ways I do it: 1. Greyscale coloring, and 2. Non–greyscale. What might these ways look like, you potentially might ask? Well, its time i'll show it.

Heres one of my finished (and published) graphics. This is what I like to call greyscale coloring. " But its literally grey? " Not what I mean by literally. I mean recoloring all the pieces in your graphic using the greyscale filter.

This is the uncolored version of the upcoming subspace header for anon. This is method 2, Non–Greyscale.

These are the two filters that I use to recolor a graphic into a color that anon requests or a color that I think fits.

If youre using method 2, you might aswell use the Parallel Gradiation instead of Mono color since it would look a bit ugly to my style. Or, you can use solid colors instead! Now, Ill show how I layer it:

These are preferrably used in method 2. Solid colors and gradiation maps. I take a look at ibis paint colorings (since im not too good in it) that other tumblr users made, then experiment with my own!

Preferrably used in the greyscale coloring method: Parallel Gradiation. For these two colorings, youre free to edit it however you can—stylize how you want and like it to be! I actually dont make use of Mono color very much, but I use it if I feel like my graphic looks too weird with the coloring, tho I still usually dont recommend using Mono Color.

Use whatever you like in these, put it all together ... and BAM!!! You created your very first graphic ^_^

Heres some notes that I would like to address:

First, its not always needed to make it super detailed as possible. Simple graphics also look appealing!

Second, everything I state here is just a little guide of tips and etc. Doesnt mean you have to necessarily follow all of them! Youre always free to experiment and expand further more!

Lastly, if your graphic looks unpleasing or ugly to you in your eyes, its okay! Thats a beginner mistake ^_^. Im also a beginner myself, so you can always try again if you need to!!

Choose the preset below: (for quick use mine is saved as HQ JPG)

And adjust the settings like below:

Save your edit to a folder that you can easily upload to tumblr from. I make folders for mine, by season, episode or graphic name.

Now it’s time to upload to your tumblr blog, I always save to my drafts first:

You might see things from this view that you will want to change to make your post work better as a whole. It might be a slight colour balance adjustment or making it brighter, this can be tedious but worth it.

Use the correct tags for your post to get it noticed.