Stumbled Across Your Art Recently, And I Totally Admire Your Work! As A Complete Noob To The Digital

Stumbled across your art recently, and I totally admire your work! As a complete noob to the digital art scene, I'd just like to ask whether you have any tips on colour picking (like for skin tones, under varied/dramatic lighting and such!). I have a ton of other things I want to ask, but I'll limit myself to one question and then try to google the rest, haha/ Thanks for sharing your art with us! ^^

ahh thank you so much! ♥ welcome to the digial art scene friend, i hope you enjoy your stay and ctrl + z

now onto your question! (if you don’t know what layer and layer modes are and how they generally work you should probably google that before you continue reading)

we all perceive colour differently (thx science) and i trust my intuition a lot when it comes to colour picking because of that, and also because i feel like you can make pretty much every colour combination work within the right context. context is key! but still, remember that all of this is about how i perceive colour, so you might not agree with everything i say.

here’s a quick rundown of terms you’ll see around a lot in reference to colours and shading: the hue, which is the ‘colour’ itself, the saturation aka the intensity, and the brightness [or value] which describes how dark or bright we perceive a colour to be.

rule of thumb: when you shade don’t just add black (or white) to your base colours, that will make your drawings boring and lifeless. use different hues and saturation!

now first things first: which skin colour does the character have?

you’ll mostly be navigating in the red to yellow spectrum for the skin tone. so when i pick the base colours i usually start with the skin and adjust the rest of the colours accordingly. if you’re not sure where to begin it might help if you first determine the values (brightness) of the base colours in grayscale.

and here are a few colour variations—i stuck to the approximate values but played around with a lot of different hues and levels of saturation.

now compare 3 and 5: you’ll notice that 3 is very bright and leans towards orange hues, whereas 5 has a pinkish tint.

on the left i gave 5 the hair colour of 3 and in my opinion the pink hue of the skin doesn’t go well with the orange undertone of the hair. you’ll have to experiment a lot to find out which combinations work for you.  

ctrl + u is your biggest friend (or image >> adjustments >> hue/saturation in photoshop, the shortcut works in sai and clip studio paint too). play with the sliders and see what happens. i do that a lot myself, because it’s easier to coordinate the colours like that afterwards instead of trying to manually pick perfectly matching ones right away.

for further adjustments i like to use an extra semi-transparent layer on top of everything with just a single colour to add atmospheric light. this unifies the colours and makes them more harmonious, if that’s what you’re looking for. this is about as far as i’d go if i didn’t want to shade the drawing.

if i do want to shade, especially with high contrasts and dramatic light, i darken the base by just adding an additional black layer, here set to 40% opacity. of course you could add a colour layer like the ones i mentioned previously too.

to create an impression of dramatic light you need a high contrast between light and dark areas (1). if i want additional visual intrest i often add secondary light which falls onto the main shadow areas. here i picked a faint greenish blue to balance out the yellow (2). and since light is at least partially reflected when it hits a surface you should add a faint glow that goes across the shadow/light border (3).

for this shading style i like to use the layer mode colour dodge with lowered opacity + fill settings. for some layer modes opacity and fill do the exact same thing (e.g. for multiply or screen). however for colour dodge there’s a big difference:

a lowered opacity merely alters the transparency of the entire layer. that looks pretty awful sometimes, because the bright orange affects the dark of the hair much more intensely than the already brighter skin. but when you lower the fill percentage you primarily lower the amount of light that falls onto darker colours. so the layer’s opacity setting treats every colour equally whereas the fill setting takes their values into consideration. it might be hard to understand if you don’t try it out yourself, so just play around to get a feel for how it works!

and to summarise, here’s a process gif:

colour is an extremely big topic and i’ve only barely scratched the surface but i hope that still helped you out a little! the fastest way to learn is always to try things yourself, so grab a sketch and experiment. 👍

I N K T A L E

♦ What’s the AU about?

For now the term of AU isn’t used, because Inktale only involves it’s version of Sans.

Basically, Ink!Sans is an out!code character (exists outside of timelines) who supports the artists to keep contributing to the fandom as long as he can. The fandom’s production is his essence of living; as long as it’s creative and productive, he’s healthy and energic.

Ink!Sans can appear everywhere in any AU of his liking, from every kind of liquid. (it’s a teleportation portal, in a way).

His big brush gives him the ability to create anything he likes (except already deceased people) and make it come to life.

His goal is to fight the artblocks (here represented as enemies with physical bodies) and possibly reason threatening individuals to keep all the AUs safe and working.

♦ What’s the official design?

http://myebi.tumblr.com/post/162762095108/a-lot-of-people-requested-a-step-by-step-of-inks

Random design/outfit facts:

Ink!Sans’s scarf is blank because he got the habit to write notes or/and try his mix of colors on it.

His pupils change shapes and colors at almost every time he blinks. Although, they’ve never been seen white.

The little rainbow vials on his work belt are paint bottles, with heart shaped tops.

His brush is most of the time carried on his back.

Under all the clothes, his ribs are “tatooed” with weird ink markings.

♦ What’s his character like? (personality, facts…)

Ink!Sans has a tendency to get too excited about things. He also has very short memory and will forget about different things - sometimes stopping mid sentence to try and remember what he just said a few seconds before.

He is very passionate about art and likes to motivate people. Mostly, he’s able to change clothes on people just by a paint of his brush, and he loves to create the kind of outfit they like. Though, even though he paints, no one really saw his drawings or paintings.

He’s a joker. He loves to make people laugh. By being a jerk, that is, but still. Even though it ends up pretty bad most of the times.

Ink is known to be very energetic and has the habit to run into problems without considering them and their consequences first.

He’s really forgetful (which is why he takes notes on his scarf).

He makes really bad pranks. And sometimes, really, he’s the only one who laughs at them.

He might seem very weak at first because he has no reason to attack anybody. He cannot kill anyone for it would disturb the AU timeline or the multiverse’s course. He would rather approach a threat calmly before jumping straight into attack.

He loses his pencils all the time.

He’s so faraway that he forgets it should be for the best for him not to be seen in different AUs, and ends up putting himself in rather complicated situations.

Sometimes he just randomly vomits ink, mostly when he gets too passionate when talking, or too angry.

Ink supports all kinds of art, like painting, literature, dance, music, etc.

He is afraid of the metaphorical version of white, as in absence of presences or shapes around him, loneliness, closed spaces… emptiness in its most primary form.

Ink does not necesseraly appear as a perfectly well behaved character. He can sometimes be inconsiderate in his mocking and cruel in his opinions, for he happens to see other characters as story characters and not people like him like a proper story would. He has a very special morality that sometimes shows to be really seperated from his emotions. (TLDR; he’s chaotic neutral.)

I N K . B A C K S T O R Y

Before asking any question related to this subject, please first check out the His Story comic which retraces Ink’s backstory.

♦ What is Ink’s original name?

The same name as his original AU. :)

♦ What is Ink’s original AU? Who made it?

This is a secret for now. The only thing to know at the moment is that it’s called _____tale.

♦ Did Ink tear off his soul?

Yes, he did. And thus he erased himself from his AU, which had only one timeline with no possibility to reset.

♦ Where did he end up?

He ended up in what will become his Doodle sphere.

♦ What happened to his old AU?

I can’t reveal that yet. :)

♦ Who is the artist that splashed him with colors?

It could be anyone in the fandom. You, your friend, or any artist ever. :D

♦ Where do those tattoos come from?

They are parts of the multiverse’s core code that stuck onto him and formed marks on him when he traveled from his AU to what will become his Doodle sphere. :)

B U T . W A I T …

♦ What is the Doodle sphere?

It’s basically Ink’s personal multiverse. If you know how html and CSS work, the multiverse’s core code is the html and his Doodle sphere is the CSS that goes with it (the core code is the mechanic and the Doodle sphere is the design that makes it pretty and possible to visit.) I imagine the multiverse’s core code as a portal that is very frightening and unsettling to travel through, and thus Ink would rather sugarcoat his little multiverse than go through the core code again.

It looks like a sort of garden with floating islands where doors are settled, and these doors open to AUs. The islands take the design of the AUs concerned.

♦ What are his heart shaped vials for?

His vials keep colors that are adapted just for him, and they give him emotions according to their colors. He fills them at his Doodlesphere regularly. Ink needs these, since he doesn’t have a soul and can’t feel on his own. He has to fake his emotions to pretend to be normal. If anyone else tried drinking them, it would just taste like paint.

♦ Which emotions do they all represent then?

Red is wrath, and yellow/orange is euphoria. Between these two colors, there is a hue of emotions for all the other colors, and it is up to you to think of their meanings :)

♦ Why does his eyes change shapes and colors?

Ink has the tendency to drink a bit of all the colors at once to be able to balance the feelings and act as closely to a normal being who can control his emotions and react accordingly to certain situations. Since all the colors are into his body at the same time, his eyes feature all of them. :D

♦ Do shapes have particular meanings too?

Not really, that’s pretty random. I’m sure of two things: His eyes shape like stars when he’s excited or amazed, and one into a target sign when he is fighting an enemy.

♦ What is Ink’s canon gender?

Ink is a male. :)

♦ Is it okay if I draw him / RP him with another gender anyway?

Of course, as long as you don’t force your opinion on others. If people blame you for not respecting his original gender, kindly link them to this FAQ to show them that I see no problem with my character being portrayed this way. <3

♦ What is Ink’s canon sexuality?

Ink is aromantic and asexual, meaning he is not interested in being in a romantic or sexual relationship with anyone.

♦ Is it okay if I draw him / RP him with another sexuality anyway?

Of course, as long as you don’t force your opinion on others. If people blame you for not respecting his original sexuality, kindly link them to this FAQ to show them that I see no problem with my character being portrayed this way. <3

♦ Who is Ink canonly shipped with?

Ink isn’t and won’t be canonly paired with a partner.

♦ Is it okay if I draw him / RP him with a partner anyway?

Of course, as long as you don’t force your opinion on others. If people blame you for not respecting his original situation, kindly link them to this FAQ to show them that I see no problem with my character being portrayed this way. <3

I N K & O T H E R . A U S

♦ What are the AUs he visited?

Possibly as much as he can!

♦ Are there any other Ink!Characters?

There are currently no other official characters related to Ink!Sans or what we could call the Inktale AU. 

♦ What are his relationships with Underswap!Sans, Error!Sans, Dream!Sans…

It’s up to you to decide which types of relationship you think fit the most! :) As long as you don’t force your opinion on others or claim any of them to be canon. Know that Ink is not canonly paired with anyone and that any couple including him is fan-made.

♦ Are there comics about Ink?

Ink in Underswap (cancelled, it will not update anymore)

His Story (in progress)

T A G S . F O R . I N K T A L E

♦ What are the tags for this AU?

Originally, the “official” tag was never meant to be Inktale but due to the rather unwanted content “ink!sans” and “ink sans” contained, I prefered to use “inktale”. I will always use either all or a few of those tags on my posts:

inktale

ink

inkechos (this tag is for any post related to Ink that isn’t official or fan work)

/!\ #inkechos contains mostly secondary headcanons about Ink. If you have time to spare and want to know more about him and his interactions with others, I’d recommend you check out this tag on my blog!

A N D . D R E A M E R S ?

♦ What about his role in your personal project, Dreamers?

Ink takes a secondary role in Dreamers, and still has a very tight link with Undertale. You can check more about his Dreamers version here. :)

A B O U T . U S I N G . I N K …

♦ Can I draw/write fan art of him?

Of course! Feel free to do so! <3

♦ Can I add him in my comic / Make him interact with my characters?

Sure thing! :)

♦ Can I pair my OCs with him (romantically or not)?

Yes, you can.

♦ Can I design Inktale characters on my own, canon or OC?

Yes, you can!

♦ Can I roleplay as him?

Sure, feel free. It’s okay to make a RP blog for him as well, as long as you’re not claiming him as yours

♦ Can I commission other people to draw him / Can I accept commission orders including him?

Of course! Just please don’t sell the artwork as merch, or at least ask me first so me and the artist can talk it out. I am always available for discussion on my deviantART account! (preferably on my profile page and not through notes, thank you very much.)

[ F A Q ]

akira fudo deserves all the love in this terrible awful world and im here to give it to him

Nearly everyone who asked for a tutorial asked for a hair tutorial, so here it is!!

Again, I use Paint tool Sai for this.

STEP 1: Sketch out how you want your hair. (I got asked for a Peggy specific hair tutorial so this is Peg’s pony tail)

STEP 2: Block in your colours! For Peggy, she has a pink ombre, so block in the two colours and use a blur tool so there aren’t any hard lines.

STEP 3: This is optional, but I like to change the colour of the line art. You can do this by either adding a clipping group above the lineart layer, or choosing “preserve opacity” on the layer and you can colour right over it.

STEP 4: Merge all the layers into one and clean up the parts where you got lazy (This only applies to the artists that don’t follow the rules and cant colour in the lines - me basically)

STEP 5: Using my brush too, I go over the line art to soften it up, and block in shadows and start cleaning the edges up 

PEGGY STEP!!: Because I personally hate the way the blur tool looks with the ombre, I go over her hair with my marker tool because I think it gives it more dimension. 

^^ The settings I use for this step

STEP 6: Texture and stuff. How much detail you add is up to you. Peggy has loose curls, and I try to blend them in with her ombre. I usually don’t add this much detail, but this is more or less what I do.

MY FAVOURITE STEP: GO HAM add little fly aways and curls that wont stay down because no one’s hair stays still all the time. (Especially ethnic hair cause man let me tell you my hair doesn’t care what I want it to do it just does what makes it happy and I can respect that.) 

AND YOU’RE DONE

You can use these steps to draw lots of other hair types

I hope this helped at all? This only really works if you do digital paintings I think?? But you guys asked. This is how I hair.

me singing to myself

Reapertale Sans Humanized

Quick idea I had stuck in my head 

I haven’t read all of Reapertale yet ^^; ehee haven’t had the time. BUT I will when I can. 

Reapertale © @renrink Undertale © tobyfox