Little Space Squid

You can call me Squid. 25 | she/they. This here is my blog to share my fanart. Traditional and digital!

[calware]

reminder to submit your art to tumblr radar it's like a free blaze + they will usually accept it

[calware]

link to submit if you're not sure how:

[hishap]

Wait submitting your stuff to the radar is a thing???? All these years I assumed it was chosen by staff only :O

[thatdogmagic]

...that your audience won't hate.

This is a method I started using when NFTs were on the rise - thieves would have to put actual work into getting rid of the mark - and one that I am now grateful for with the arrival of AI. Why? Because anyone who tries to train an AI on my work will end up with random, disruptive color blobs.

I can't say for sure it'll stop theft entirely, but it WILL make your images annoying for databases to incorporate, and add an extra layer of inconvenience for thieves. So as far as I'm concerned, that's a win/win.

I'll be showing the steps in CSP, but it should all be pretty easy to replicate in Photoshop.

Now: let's use the above image as our new signature file. I set mine to be 2500 x 1000 pixels when I'm just starting out.

Note that your text should not have a lot of anti-aliasing, so using a paint brush to start isn't going to work well with this method. Just use the standard G-Pen if you're doing this by hand, or, just use the text tool and whichever font you prefer.

Once that's done, take your magic wand tool, and select all the black. Here are the magic wand settings I'm using to make the selections:

All selected?

Good.

Now, find a brush with a scattering/tone scraping effect. I use one like this.

You can theoretically use any colors you want for this next part, but I'd recommend pastels as they tend to blend better.

Either way, let's add some color to the text.

Once that's finished,

You're going to want to go to Layer Property, and Border Effect

You'll be given an option of choosing color and thickness. Choose black, and go for at least a 5 in thickness. Adjust per your own preferences.

Now create a layer beneath your sig layer, and merge the sig down onto the blank layer.

This effectively 'locks in' the border effect, which is exactly what we want.

Hooray, you've finished your watermark!

Now let's place that bad boy into your finished piece.

You'll get the best mileage out of a mark if you can place it over a spot that isn't black of white, since you'll get better blending options that way. My preference is for Overlay.

From here, I'll adjust the opacity to around 20-25, depending on the image.

If you don't have a spot to use overlay, however, there's a couple other options. For white, there's Linear Burn, which imho doesn't look as good, but it still works in a pinch.

And for lots of black, you have Linear Light

Either way, you're in business!

EDIT since this has escaped my usual circles, and folks aren't as familiar with my personal usage:

An example of one of my own finished pieces, with watermark, so you can see what I mean about 'relatively unobtrusive'-- I try to at least use them as framing devices, or let them work with the image somehow (or, at the very least, not actively against it).

I know it's a bummer for some people to "ruin" their work with watermarks, which is part of the reason I developed this mark in particular. Its disruption is about as minimal as I can make it while still letting it serve its intended purpose.

There's other methods, too, of course! But this is the one I use, and the one I can speak on. Hope it helps some of you!

[littlespacesquid]

Jotaro Kujo - Winter 2021

I felt that the foil piece my cousin asked for wasn’t enough. So I had asked him for another favorite character of his. He told me Jotaro and I began. The background is inspired by Star Platinum to give a pop of color to the piece as well.

[littlespacesquid]

Joshua Graham- Winter 2021

This here is the line-art for a foil piece paired with the quote of the character that one of my cousins asked me for for Christmas this past 2021 holiday. So here we have Joshua Graham from Fallout: New Vegas.

[littlespacesquid]

Art Improvement

2014 2021

I was looking back at old art and realized I’d ended up using the same photo reference recently as I worked on one of my favorite fanart pieces.

Once I found my art from 2014 I was shocked to see how much my art has improved. I knew my art had improved over the years but to have an a piece to be able to more accurately compare my current art to truly put it into perspective. Granted, one was on a sketch book and one was on a cardboard box/tape that I painted matte white acrylic over, but still.

Side note: sorry for the old art tag sticker on the art, I haven’t added my new one to my phone yet so I was working with what I had.

[that-little-leaf]

inktober is trending once again this year so just a heads up for anyone unaware: please do NOT support Jake Parker (creator of inktober) and do not use the official inktober prompt list!

Jake Parker plagiarised the work of black artist Alphonso Dunn without any sort of credit whatsoever

you can still do a drawing challenge, just don’t use the official inktober prompts! also avoid using the name inktober too as it is still associated with him

drawtober, goretober, OCtober, etc are all totally fine, just please don’t support inktober

please reblog to help spread the word!

(and please do NOT send hate to artists participating in inktober - they most likely have no idea about this, so please just politely inform them if they’re unaware, ty!)

[littlespacesquid]

Art Style

Y’all, let me tell you the realization I’ve just had at 11:16pm this adequate July 19th of 2020. I have spent the last like 8 years thinking that I didn’t have an art style and then it hit me my art style is the kind of semi realism I do. It just hit me that whenever I go to draw, especially when working with human shaped subjects, I always end up drawing them in this kind of style and have the last 6 years of my life.

In summary: It took me 6 years to realize my own art style. If I’m not trying to replicate a specific style, my style is, at base level, semi realism.

[littlespacesquid]

Kass for Christmas

My cousin’s favorite character from Breath of the Wild is Kass, I drew his name this year so to add to the gifts that I’ll be sending his way, I decided to paint a semi-realistic Kass for him.

[littlespacesquid]

Welcome to art version of the League of Villains Band au fanfic I’ve been fleshing out since January.

[littlespacesquid]

Lineart for a Sugawara foil print!

[introspectres]

Posted this on twitter already but uhhh here we go again

[introspectres]

PSA to Inktober Artists:

As of August 27th, 2020, it was revealed that Jake Parker (the creator of inktober) had plagiarized the work of black artist Alphonso Dunn in Parker’s upcoming book ‘Inktober All Year Long’.

Alphonso’s video breakdown of the similarities

Proof Jake Parker was aware of Dunn’s work beforehand (01-21-20)

Parker’s publisher puts his book on hold (08-28-20)

DeviantArt suspends their Inktober Awards (08-28-20)

Alphonso Dunn’s book: Pen & Ink Drawing

2020 Inktober alternatives:

Drawtober (6 prompts for 31 days),  OC tober (Original Characters),  goretober,  kinktober, witchtober, drawlloween (spooky), sketchtober (pencil sketches), Dungeons & Inkwells (dnd), whumptober

[littlespacesquid]

Have some Dabi.

[shadow-chan81]

Kankuro: I'm donating my body to science

Gaara: Okay but don't come crying to me when they donate you to Goodwill

[littlespacesquid]

Just gonna leave this here.

I had a lot of fun with this one by using the bottom two shelves to reference the six other drawings I’ve done of Shadow’s prompts plus the bonus of drawing Haku’s mask. (Three references per shelf)

And let’s not forget the usual of sending my best friend various stages of the process.

[littlespacesquid]

So I drew Dabi.

This here is the coloring process I went through. I also wanted to draw focus to his chest being shown because we know that that boy is lean enough and most likely sick enough from his quirk running him ragged with the intense blue flames that his ribs are on the verge of or are showing.

I also want to note that most of the flowers have specific meanings behind them. The Queen Anne’s Lace means haven or sanctuary, which I believe the League became for Dabi. The Anemone means fading hope and a feeling of being forsaken, which I believe falls in line with Dabi’s thoughts on a hero centric society. The Yellow Carnation mean rejection and disdain which again, I believe falls in line with his ideology from Stain about a hero centric society. The Dahlia means standing strong in one’s sacred values, which I believe can represent Dabi’s desire to eliminate the hero centric society.

As I often do, here is my commentary I send to my best friend as I work on my art.

[shadow-chan81]

Shino: We need a distraction. Kiba?

Kiba: *Putting on fur suit head* On it

[littlespacesquid]

Just gonna leave this here, as I often do late at night.

[shadow-chan81]

Shikaku: So Shikamaru went missing for two days but then I found him in a playground passed out and handcuffed to the monkey bars with a tattoo shaped like a pair of sunglasses on his thigh, but I found him so I'm a good dad.

Inoichi: But a good dad probably wouldn't have let his kid gone missing for-

Shikaku: I'M A GOOD DAD!

[littlespacesquid]

Just gonna leave these here, as per usual

[shadow-chan81]

Gaara: *Jumps from one emotion to the next* Parkour

[littlespacesquid]

I am once again just gonna leave this here.