#stove replies

[the-stove-is-on-fire]

Hi Stove! So, I'm basing a piece for my theater class on DP, and I wanted a picture of ghost king Danny as a prop. Can I use one of your prices? Also, I will credit you in my paper.

Yeah fam, go for it :D If you need higher res or altered versions for your project just let me know. Would love to see how your project turns out, good luck!

[the-stove-is-on-fire]

I read the FAQ, but I didn't see this in here: how do you do the transparency trick in the eye comic? It fucks.

I do have my transparency tutorials in my directory but you're right, they are kinda hard to find. I'll add the tutorial links and this brief explaination into my main FAQ.

The basic answer is that by saving my art as .png images, I can keep certain areas transparent! Tumblr's default background for images in light mode is white, so the transparent areas are light coloured and I can make them blend into my image by adjusting colour saturation and opacity levels. When you click on the image it switches to a dark background and any section that had white behind it suddenly has a dark colour filling in the transparent areas.

Hopefully that makes sense. It's a very unique feature that very few other websites have. The cool thing is that it can also be done irl with a light box! Very cool stuff.

Here is the basic tutorial: https://the-stove-is-on-fire.tumblr.com/post/619132120585076736/png-opacity-tutorial-click-on-the-images-this

Here's the advanced tutorial (it is complicated, I have to simplify one of these days): https://the-stove-is-on-fire.tumblr.com/post/674487266957262848/i-have-been-experimenting-with-transparency-art

[the-stove-is-on-fire]

Why everyone in the art community has something against tracing?

Tracing is an excellent tool for learning, in my opinion. I used to trace pictures of horses all day when I was a kid. It's great for teaching your eye and your hand to recognise and recreate shapes.

Some people call the use of reference images 'tracing' which isn't accurate or really an issue?? Unless you're a purist who thinks using ref images is "lazy". It gets iffy when you use other Artist's work as a reference, but that more often has to do with the percentage of 'inspiration' you take from their work.

The only time it becomes a problem is when people copy part of, or the entirety of another artist's work, and claim it as their own. That's just straight-up theft. And I'm not talking about vaguely copying a pose because it looked cool, I'm talking every detail from the armour to the hair has been copied but the second artist just flipped the image left and recoloured it. This exploits the hard work of the original artist and is generally seen as a dick move.

There's room for discussion regarding homage/tribute and satire, but in general, tracing is just another tool.

[the-stove-is-on-fire]

Hello, can I translate your comics and post them on other social networks?

Yes, translations are allowed on other platforms 👍 All I ask is that you include my name and a link back to my original post :) Thank you for asking ❤️

[the-stove-is-on-fire]

I have been experimenting with transparency art (thank you so much for your tutorial!), but my biggest question is: how on earth do you get it to overlay on other colors? Its absolutely mind bending

With much patience and frustration 😫 (>>>The previous tutorial<<)

The key to making transparency work with colours, is getting the colour saturation and opacity levels to visually match. 

Let’s lay down the basics. I've got these two coloured boxes and I want one of them to be transparent. But I also want them to stay the same colour until someone clicks on them, right?

Of course, the problem is that as soon as we drop the opacity, the colour saturation also drops and we get this:

So what you have to do is hyper-saturate the colour of the low opacity area until it matches the full saturation one.

Or as close as you can get. If you can't get it exact, colour-pick from the 50% opacity area and recolour the 100% area so they match. This works best with colours that are already muted or pastel.

That's the basic principle. It gets 10x more complex when you start adding multiple colours and backgrounds... Full tutorial continued under the cut (this is going to be a LONG post) vvv

I'm going to use my Hill King ectober piece because it's a good example of how this transparency trick works on complex pieces.

The first step is to plot out approximately what colours/mood I wanted to end up with in the final piece.

Next I push my saturation ALL the way up.

And then drop the whole background opacity to 40% (Keeping all your background layers in a single folder is the easiest way to do this) I fiddled around with the individual colours, pushing their saturation and hues until I was satisfied with this sort of pastel look.

And here we are with the lineart added in. A few things needed to be retouched to accommodate the lines and that’s normal. If you have to change a few things make sure to pull your colours from the 100% version and not colour-pick from the low opacity.

Now to make the transparent section. This part may vary depending on your drawing program. I'm using Krita but I'll try my best to make the process applicable to other programs.

This is where it gets complicated:

Save two versions of your image. 

One with lineart and colours at 100% full saturation.

One with the low opacity colours and NO lineart.

Make sure you have a white background under everything so that they are NOT transparent yet. Saving the two versions as flat images is VERY IMPORTANT. Do Not merge all your layers. Just save as a PNG.

Your two versions should look like this:

On a new layer draw your cut-away shape. This is the area that you want to be transparent at the end. I used an eraser for the stars and crown so they show up as the colours underneath. If you can, make the edges of your shape just a little bit blurry. Hard edges will show up and reveal your trick.

Duplicate this layer so that you have at least two copies.

You are now going to cut your shape out of the low opacity flat image. In Krita that means setting the cut-away shape layer to ‘Erase’ and merging it down with the low opacity layer. With other programs it might mean selecting your cut-away shape and manually ctrl+x cutting the shape out or using some kind of clipping mask.

If you’ve done it right, you should be able to see your high saturation layer with the lineart underneath.

By dropping the opacity of your high saturation layer it should blend in seamlessly with your background. In this case, I drop it down to 40% to match. You’re going to get this funky little ghost effect with the lineart from underneath.

If I had kept my lineart as part of the original low opacity image when I saved it, it would have ended up looking like this:

Now, remember how I said to make a duplicate of the cut-away shape? That comes back here. The cut-away section of lineart is stuck at 40% opacity. If we simply plop our lineart back on top of everything at it’s current opacity, it stands out too much. (In my opinion, this might be perfect for your piece!)

But I want it to blend in a bit, more like this:

So I take my lineart and my cut-away shape and do the exact same thing as before. Except this time I keep my shape at 50%. In Krita, with the Erase layer, this means it only erased 50% of my line’s opacity. I have zero idea how this would work with a clipping mask, sorry :(

Which gives us this:

(Use a black background under the see-through area to show it off)

And that’s it! We now have transparent colours that blend seamlessly with the full opacity sections and lineart that is clear but doesn’t distract from either version!

Turn off all your background layers and save as a .png image (this won’t work with a .jpg!). Upload your pic to tumblr and see if it works. If the transparency doesn’t show up correctly you may have to scale your image down to a smaller size! Tumblr is very picky like that.

This process isn’t perfect and it sure takes a lot of time but the effects can be super cool and totally worth the effort! If you’ve made it all the way to the end of this LOOOONG tutorial you are a BAMF! Put a little ‘yeehaw!’ in the notes for yourself and Happy Arting!

[the-stove-is-on-fire]

Hello, hope you're having a good day!

I was reading your faq and you mentioned that you use krita but also use clip studio if you have a lot of coloring to do, and I was wondering how you do that? Is there a file type that's compatible with both of them, or do you save it as a transparent png?

Just curious, thank you for your time and your cool art!

I always save my files as a .psd (photoshop file) format so that I can open them in both programs with no problem :)! If the file size is SUPER large and complex I will sometimes save my lines as a transparent .png for efficiency.

I hope you have a good day as well!

[the-stove-is-on-fire]

Do you have a full comic of the Danny phantom drawn as a lil ghost cat guy? I have to see more!!

I don't have any plans for a longer Little Baby Man Danny comic but I will direct you toward @tourettesdog the originator LBM Danny and I suggest checking out the tag #little baby man. :)!

[the-stove-is-on-fire]

For the cowboy au consider this; Vlad is constantly trying to buy the Fenton Farm because it’s the last piece of property he needs to build a mega highway or shopping mall like the villain of an 80’s movie

Fam, your MIND. 🤯 Brilliant.