Style Study (not My Usual Art Style) ~2 Hours

Ice Cube, character by No_Kangaroo_8762 on Reddit

very simple but its cute

this is my third art trade so far!! still many more to go 🥲

just finished an art trade for SolsticeMorningstar on Reddit... took WAY too long omg

i ATE on this shading though

the character is Solstice!! they're so cute omggg

ermmm... this took 7 HOURS no wonder i'm starving

lowkey random but since i've been doing art trades recently (and you cant make regular posts on artfight), I should put out a reminder...

NEVER pls NEVER draw Jayden's eyes like this im BEGGING

not giving any names but this was from 2024 artfight and don't attack them cuz they a kid from texas or smth, they were super nice about fixing it but yikes

we dont talk about the eyebrows idk what happened there

what his eyes REALLY look like

Hi hi um you helped me with one of my drawings on the criticism club, tysmmmmmm for that, I've fixed it a lot but I'm not done colouring so I won't be posting it yet :) your advice was insanely helpful, because I realised the arm wouldn't be there,and a BUNCH of other things

I was just exploring your posts and OMG HOW YOU RENDER SKIN AND HAIR IS SOO PRETTY AND GORGEOUS OMG!!! AND I LOVE THAT ONE DRAWING OF AN EYE U MADE AHH!

Sooo while i was looking at my fav post of yours, I was reading the description and you were talking about the new blend brush in magma! So, I'm assuming you use magma? I've been using it for like, half a year, but im not a pro at digital art so I don't really know what all the layer settings and whatever are. I did watch a video but it was a bit confusing. I know about like opacity and whatnot but I'm still a bit confused on mainly the layer settings. Also, I can't find any tutorials on magma apart from blending :(

I was wondering if U could maybe explain a bit, just the basics like multiply and add and most of the layer settings a begginer would use :) I'm sort of stepping out of my comfort zone because I don't usually bother with colouring and stuff. Any tips U recommend for magma would also help tons! Omg I just realised that this is kind of a stupid request because you probably have to explain a lot... Sorry!

idk how to end this ┐⁠(⁠ ⁠∵⁠ ⁠)⁠┌

ok ok this will be a long post!!

i made this graphic a long time ago for my friend @mythology-lover, this is using all layer blend modes with the colour bright orange, so you can see what each one does. most of them are self explanatory, I hope. there is no "add" in magma, but colour dodge is similar. I'll go over how to use the blend modes below!

not sure if you want to know how to use the blend modes to render stuff but i'll show you anyway lol

this was a drawing i posted, and i actually detailed my step by step process for my friend again, but I use multiply or darken for shading, its the best way to shade and personally I use dark red for shading but this can change based on lighting. obv I also lower the opacity cuz I don't want bright red. my tip for using multiply is to use a colour more saturated/brighter than you think you would use, cuz multiply ends up darkening the colour anyway.

i recommend using blend modes for shading because they have some "transparency" to them, if you put on shading in a block colour with no blend mode it'll just cover up things you already drew like blush or makeup. i also just create more multiply layers to build up darker and darker shadows.

also, when it comes to more dramatic lighting, ill just put a multiply layer over the WHOLE drawing since in real life in a dark scene there will be a shadow over everything including darker shadows for the actual details. after I add the multiply layer (this one is blue because its supposed to be a nighttime scene and the sky is dark blue) I just erase parts where light is hitting the object

(this isnt well done because im making this quickly)

and when it comes to lighting i like to use overlay, it creates this really nice saturated glowy effect. you can use colour dodge too but it creates these weird artifacts of pixels that are a completely different colour, at least for me

with overlay

also maybe you already know this, but the little square icon next to the opacity bar is alpha lock its useful if you don't wanna have to make a whole layer and clip it to the layer underneath

also... my BEST advice for magma has got to be to use filters, they save my life, and I frequently use them when my colours arent looking too good. and I specifically LOVE using the "curves" option when you click filters.

they let you control how bright the drawing is, and specifically the amount of each colour (red, green, and blue) in your drawing

here i reduced blue, increased red, and reduced yellow, plus reduced contrast and increased saturation plus made it a bit brighter. looks a lot better in my opinion, filters can really save a drawing lol

random tips: use lasso selection its basically necessary! if the paint bucket/fill tool isn't working that great, increase tolerance and turn on anti-alias, you can also try using the smart option. although I gotta say generally I don't use fill tool as it only really works if you have very clean, sharp, and connected lines. usually what I'll do instead to save time on colouring is make a layer below the lineart, and then make the target layer "above," and then fill it, then fill in the gaps manually. i also recommend using the full mode layout option, unless you have a small screen then it's most optimal, because then you can see all the tools and options.

i also use this layout thing, idk what its called, and have each one be a different brush with different settings (for me, one will be a soft brush with hardness and density lowered, another a hard round (default) brush, another a textured lineart brush, a brush for stars, freckles, or other scattered dots where I just turn up spacing, scattering and jitter for size variation)

also... make sure you flip your canvas to catch your mistakes, you wont notice them until you see it from a different perspective, and the flip canvas button is up top

its this one

this is for colouring, but periodically go to "view" and click "show in greyscale" so you can see the contrast between your colours. if everything's the same shade or similar shade of grey, you need to make some parts darker or lighter to make them stand out

ngl i think that's it, unless there's something else you need to know. just realised I've been using magma for like 4 years at this point, time really flies by. hope I helped!

art trades still open! dm me anytime

Rodrick by @sigmakia

love the design and all the details sm!!!

rendering took forever i'm rushing to write this because it ended up taking a lot longer than I thought I gotta get to bed

makeup slays

your art trades are the reason I need to finish my Ray ref sheet

omgg nah but i'd love to see you draw puma guy tho I'm just curious I'll help you with it as usual lol

sigh... i'm afraid my doodles don't make sense once again

don't judge my atomic model

genuinely this is insane without context

puma guy reference for my artfight i gotta draw more of these but they're kinda a pain but they help me figure out stuff about the character!! lock in their proportions and stuff so I draw them consistently and know what I'm doing

i hate drawing symmetry i mean im not aiming for it to be perfectly symmetrical cuz that's creepy af and unnatural and some elements of his design are purposefully asymmetrical (barely noticeable but his eyebrows for example I hate how I put small details no one will ever even see or think about)

but this took so long to correct i was constantly flipping my canvas… now I'm thinking about how I'll have to do like 9 more of these and probably have to redo them by july cuz I'll have improved and will hate my old art

crossing my fingers that i can just do small edits or liquify by the time artfight happens I don't wanna have to redo everything

my most masculine OC has unicorn toothpaste hair

lowkey cooked when i made his design I love purple he's literally just a flipped version of jayden though

i been so stupid, complaining about tumblr's horrible compression, but it turns out... it was cuz I was accidentally exporting all my drawings as jpeg 😭

obligatory repost of this image i cant believe the very first appearance of him and his OG design is a badly sewn cat plushy

rn i have THREE mangoes!!!!!!!!!!

now i have two mangoes....

sad update: no mangoes

lasso tool carried this whole drawing ngl

wait... did i eat

WHY DOES TUMBLR NERF MY IMAGE QUALITY I don't spend time on detail for nothing

im working on adding random colours and stuff I love adding colours but sometimes it just looks bad idk HOW DO THE MASTERS ADD THE WHOLE RAINBOW IN A DRAWING AND MAKE IT LOOK GOOD

erm... just realised i never draw makeup and the only makeup I know how to draw is 2016 makeup 😭

i love rendering eyes and adding reflections for no reason

blue and orange is the goat combo of colours why do they always look good together

i cant stop adding crazy amounts of detail to my drawings I love details sm

its less shiny and low contrasted than my usual stuff but idk I was lowkey going for more flat colour I just wanted to do something a little different

i do implore you to zoom in everything I'm proud of is at the microscopic level

also lowkey looks like asha that was not my intention I swear

blend brush is MAKING ME GO CRAZY

what do you mean rendering is ten times easier and I can finally render without it looking weirdly smooth and untextured??