I have discovered that my favorite ship dynamic is “hyper sexual/flirty character” x “greasy wizard who has not slept in weeks”
Coincidently, I have also discovered that my favorite characters in general are also “hyper sexual/flirty” and “greasy wizard who has not slept in weeks”
I know the Warriors Wiki isn't completely accurate and the timeline in canon is a mess, but... Lionblaze and Jayfeather are now the same age as Leafpool when she died. I. Hold on, I need to-
Stakes of the first six shows: This duel will be the difference between life and death, between being trapped in prison or being freed, between the salvation or destruction of the world-
The stakes of Sevens: DUEL ME FOR THE LAST BOWL OF RAMEN BITCH
i forgot to take more progress shots of this pic (again) HOWEVER, i will talk about some technique stuff here
a while back i got some tags on the progress shots of one of my recent pictures; the person reblogging it said that they wished they could see the steps between the lineart and the rough colors stage and i, being of low to moderate intelligence, replied that there are no additional steps, i just slap some colors on a separate layer under my lineart. and then another person reblogged that reply with tags talking about (paraphrasing) how for them as a person who's figuring out that transition between the lineart and colors, that's exactly what's confusing, i.e. how do you just tell what colors to use? and i was like AH i see. i had misunderstood
here's the thing: i do not pull stuff out of my brain alone. a long-ass explanation on how i work with color ahead (using this pic as an example):
very often, especially when i'm working with a limited palette or something less complicated than the pic above, i do simply eyeball the colors. but just as often, when i'm working on something with a very specific type of lighting and especially when there is some background involved, i use some mfing references! my brain is not big enough to super accurately and off the top of my head depict a scene with some moody lighting that i saw last summer. wish i had that keen mind feat
therefore, i study photographs to get a sense of how the colors should behave in my picture before i start painting it. in this here case i looked at a buttload of beach pictures to figure out what kind of lighting i wanted to portray (i settled on something very warm, almost reddish/inching towards sunset but not quite, with much cooler shadows). then, keeping all of that shit in mind, i used one photo (a picture of a white blanket on the sand) as my main lighting reference.
it gave me an idea as to how white would behave in such lighting, as well as the beige color of the sand, but analyzing the photo also helped me with other colors too:
from the way the white of the blanket became bright light peach and the beige of the sand became bright yellow i determined that all local colors in my painting, when they're in direct sunlight, should become warmer and much more saturated. this is the reason why here them drow feets in the sun are a bright-ass lavender even though the local color of the skin is a pearly gray with a cooler purple undertone; i worked from the standpoint of the color of the blood under that skin being dark purple, so it turns the skin more purple in direct light, while the sun turns it warmer.
the shadows in the reference picture were bright blue on the blanket and desaturated cool brown on the sand, which suggested that in such lighting, the brighter/lighter the local color, the more likely it is to assume a brighter blue tint in the shade, while less saturated local colors will become cooler, but maybe not as viciously blue. the reference pic also featured some subtle blue reflexes in the shade from the general color of the sky, so i kept that in mind.
other than the considerations above, i tried to use ample reflected light on the objects that are close to each other, because i know that bright sunlight usually lends to bright reflected light even in the shade; hence the prominent pink reflexes on the lil elf and the purple reflexes on the lil human.
overall, i would say that you can make a reasonable assumption about how local colors will behave in a certain type of lighting even from a reference photo with a very limited range of local colors (in this case, white and beige), but i will always recommend and prefer to use a reference that features as many local colors as possible. one thing that is absolutely awesome to do in your everyday life, if you encounter lighting that you really like and would potentially use in a future painting, is to take a picture of a few objects of different colors, preferably primary, in direct light and shade. for example, you can take a picture, in your room, of a crumpled sheet of paper in direct light and in the shade, which will give you an idea as to how the lights & shadows of a white object will behave in direct sunlight, and how they will do it in the shade. taking a picture of at least a white and a black object would be awesome, and you would probably have a couple of those on you even if you need to grab a quick pic when you're out and about
tl;dr studying references will save you tons of time and make your life easier. kermit gif do it
