You have been the last dream of my soul

[DISCLAIMER: I was raised Roman Catholic and I studied Religious Philosophy/Italian Renaissance Art- I am not associated with the Catholic church currently but I have interest towards keeping information accurate and effective in this field.]

tutorial under cut!!

@greyedworlds​

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hi anon!! thanks for writing to me! if you mean my brush, ulle, when it comes to painting I tend to start with color blocking with the watercolor edge turned off because it can get really convoluted otherwise.

then when it's time for the detailed shading and highlighting stage, that's when I turn on the edge and it becomes more prevalent in the final result. don't be afraid to paint over or smudge edges you don't like!

here's something quick i put together to (hopefully) help visualize what I mean lol I haven't painted in a while so I'm sorry if this is sloppy

as a bonus here's how i use it for coloring work with lines.

of course this isn't the only way to use it! feel free to go wild and creative with it. best of luck!

Glow Tutorial!

If you would like to watch and follow along check out the YouTube link! (Sorry it has no audio) >>> https://youtu.be/VRTuhcABd1g

Made for my embassy duties with @hetaliafandomhub and because I keep seeing “Antonio Carriedo” in stories, RP threads, tags, posts, etc. 

Guys, use Fernández or give him a VERY good and emotionally traumatic reason (such as an Grade A asshole dad) to avoid his first surname. 

Figured it would be fun to share, if yall want to know my gold painting secrets (spoiler, im very lazy and just want the fastest and dirtiest way to get something done. and for me, this is it)

Here is my no-fail, 10 step (it sounds like a lot, i swear its not) method:

1) Draw thing

2) Ink thing. When inking I draw big “I” shaped black chunks on metal stuff. Usually I’ll put one thick and one thin next to each other. If I’m being especially lazy, I will literally just draw a black scribble in a vauge I-ish shape.

3) Flat color block. I usually go for a mid-tone yellow-ish color. Not super saturated.

4) Shading. Use a more saturated color several shades darker. I focus the shading around where I inked those black “I” shapes. I wrote to be mindful of a light source, and this is what you should do. But I’ll be honest, I usually just shade around the edges.

5) LIGHT. Use a bright saturated yellow color. I usually pick one and then color adjust as necessary once it’s blocked in. Catch the rims/edges of objects. I usually use more of those double “I” shapes in the middle.

6) SPECIAL EFFECTS BAYBEEE. Douplicate highlight layer. Set it to “Add.” Use gaussian blue until it glows to your liking. Adjust opacity as you like.

7) ONE MO ‘GAIN. Repeat step 6. Set to “Color Dodge.” Adjust hue/opacity as you like.

8) Futz around till you like it. I like to add more color dodge above the ink layer to brighten some spots. This is optional.

9) Corrections. Assuming you’re working on a non-white background, those Add and Dodge layers will show over the edges of your lineart. This is where I take a soft airbrush eraser and remove what I dont like.

10) Final futzing. Sometimes I’ll add a dark blue Overlay layer to reduce saturation and increase contrast. Added some “shinies.” To do this draw some thin cross-shaped lines that taper at the ends. Duplicate layer. Change layer mode to “Add.” Use Motion Blur in the same direction as the cross long-ways.

Heres an example of this exact technique used for both gold and silver aide by side!

Just in case you forget this exists.

You can browse the most popular ones or search for certain colors, themes, and even specific hex codes!

When you find one you like, you can download a wallpaper swatch of it and also select the specific colors it uses to look at more palettes that use those same ones.

I don’t feel particularly great at drawing chain-mail either but there’s a technique I learned from a tutorial a bunch of years ago that I think makes a pretty good texture. It’s fast and the end result is cartoon-y enough to match a less photo-realistic style. I can’t for my life find the tutorial so I’ll recreate it here (using Photoshop):

1. Fill your canvas with black or white. Filter -> Render -> Clouds

2. Filter -> Filter Gallery -> Glass (under the Distort category)Keep smoothness as low as possible, play with the other settings

3. Find a filter in Filter Gallery that you like and apply it. Combine them, if needed.

4. When applying texture to the drawing, use Edit->Transform->Warp to make it fit the shape you’re trying to convey

You can stack more filters on after the texture is placed or draw over it with a textured brush to make it look less uniform if that’s what you want. Add a shine to it with a big soft brush, colorize it, go crazy. I go with whatever looks best to me atm.

This is how I did Geralt’s armor too, though since I knew the final print will be smaller than 1.5″ I didn’t worry about details much. 

Smooching notes~!

So the people on Twitter seemed to find my notes very useful, So I am sharing them to you guys as well

We live in a pretty great digital age and we have access to a ton of amazing tools that artists in past generations couldn’t even dream of, but a lot of people look at a cool trick and only learn half of the process of using it.

Here’s the missing part of this tutorial:

How do you populate your backgrounds?

Well, here’s the answer:

If the focus is the environment, you must show a person in relation to that environment.

The examples above are great because they show how to use the software itself, but each one just kind of “plops” the character in front of their finished product with no regard of the person’s relation to their environment.

How do you fix this?

Well, here’s the simplest solution:

This is a popular trick used by professional storyboard and comic artists alike when they’re quickly planning compositions. It’s simple and it requires you to do some planning before you sit down to crank out that polished, final version of your work, but it will be the difference between a background and an environment.

From Blacksad (artist: Juanjo Guarnido)

From Hellboy (Mike Mignola)

Even if your draftsmanship isn’t that great (like mine), people can be more immersed in the story you tell if you just make it feel like there is a world that exists completely separate from the one in which they currently reside – not just making a backdrop the characters stand in front of.

I’m a 3d artist and have been exploring the possibilities of using 3d as reference for 2d poses. I want to add a couple of tips and things!

Sketchup is very useful for environment references, and I assume it’s reasonably easy to learn. If you’re interested in going above and beyond, I highly recommend learning a proper 3d modeling program to help with art, especially because you can very easily populate a scene or location with characters!

Using 3ds Max I can pretty quickly construct an environment for reference. But going beyond that, I can also pose a pretty simple ‘CAT’ armature (known in 3d as a rig) straight into the scene, which can be totally customized, from various limbs, tails, wings, whatever, to proportions, and also can be modeled onto and expanded upon (for an example, you could 3d sculpt a head reference for your character and then attach it to the CAT rig, so you have a reference for complex face angles!)

The armature can also be posed incredibly easily. I know programs exist for stuff like this - Manga Studio, Design Doll - but posing characters in these programs is always an exercise in frustration and very fiddly imo. A simple 3d rig is impossibly easy to pose.

By creating an environment and dropping my character rig into it, I have an excellent point of reference when it comes to drawing the scene!

Not only that, but I can also view the scene from whatever angle I could ever want or need, including the character and their pose/position relative to the environment.

We can even quickly and easily expand this scene to include more characters!

I mostly draw hands from my memory but for starter I’m imagining fingers on hand as tiny legs with 3 joints so it’s easier to picture how the fingers bend and where the joints meet.

Also I made a tutorial a long time ago but I still keep these in mind. It might be hard at first but through thorough observation drawing hands can be easy by breaking down the shapes, in the end practice is the key 😅

I GOT YOU, FAM! 

It’s ironic that I work in education but I don’t know how to make an art tutorial, so here’s my sad attempt! Forgive me if it’s useless.

I LOVE drawing hair, it’s always been my favorite, although I’m a bit of a perfectionist and therefore hair is usually the part that takes me the longest when I work on a piece. It involves a lot of experimentation and drawing the same lines over and over until I get the right shape or flow and it requires a lot of patience (at least for me). Is there a right way to draw hair? Of course not! That’s the beauty of it. Every artist is unique and will have their own style, it’s all about trying new techniques to see what works best for you. *blows kiss*

Okay here we go! 

I generally have three main steps: a loose sketch, a more refined sketch to build a cleaner design, then the final lineart. I also tend to make about 3 or 4 sketches to find the right hairstyle or flow. (I’m also indecisive as f**k)  

Things I think about:

Action, dimension, shape, flow, movement and how it’ll interact with the body or what’s around it

Is there wind? Is the character outside? What are they doing and how would the hair respond to that? Is it pulled behind the ear? Wrapped around the neck? Tied up? 

Texture, length, hairstyle. Thick hair? Thin hair? Curly? Straight? 

References and inspiration - I always use a reference of some kind just to remind myself what I like or what I want to see, it’s the best tool to keep myself on track. Sometimes I even use my own art just to see what how I’ve done it before and what I liked about it. Don’t be scared of reference! (Example: Alphonse Mucha’s art is a major inspiration, I LOVE his use of line weight, shape and flow)

Using Gladio’s face from a wip I’m currently working on, I tried to draw some of my process out:

 (Is it blurry!? Did I screw this up? Oh well, let’s keep going!)

Steps:

Sketch - Loose and messy gesture lines to show the general shape and movement. It’s okay if your sketch looks like a hot mess, it’s supposed to!! I have a hard time staying loose myself, so I’m working on that. Usually my sketches are very dramatic haha. 

Refined Sketch - This is where I start to actually define the strands and the general shapes. By using my sketch as a guide, I can then build the design and the more individual strands and how they interact with each other. This can take a while (like it takes me hours). I try to go slower and I’ll end up reworking it a few times before I’m happy. Tip: reverse your canvas! It helps you see if your hair is more or less balanced or if something looks off. 

Final Lineart - At this step, I strengthen my lines and erase lines where I want the flow to be more continuous. I also add detail lines and extra strands or flyaway hairs for a more interesting or complex design. The example above is still too messy or simple for what I normally like, but that’s okay. Also, what the heck is up with that messy bun? What am I even doing? 

Final points:

Find inspiration and examples of what you like! This can be from other artists, movies, nature - literally anything. References are your best friend.

Experiment and try new things - I’m always trying to push my designs further and learn new skills

Keep your sketches loose and messy! I like to warm up by drawing circles, ovals or like the infinity/8 shape over and over again. 

Play with line weight and thin vs thicker hair strands. Have the hair interact with something, whether it’s an ear or a shoulder or itself. Push yourself for an interesting design. (Gotta push myself too! It can be a frustrating process)

The more you practice, the better you get (cliche, but it’s so true)

Honestly, I don’t even know what I’m doing half the time and my skills have a long way to go. So we’re on this hair journey together! <3 

BONUS!

Here are a couple Gladio sketches that I never posted on tumblr as an example of a messy sketch vs a more refined sketch 

You asked for it, so here it is- a shoddily composed but nonetheless candid and hopefully useful tutorial on the Mosaic Effect I used in the Mollymauk portrait.  Those of a stout and courageous spirit, read on.