Hello!! I'm a huge fan of your art and I thought I would ask about your colorwork, because it's genuinely super impressive to me how all your pieces have amazing palettes and they add so so so much to the general atmosphere. Do you have any process to pick colors for pieces? Like using picture references, gradient maps, etc or do you genuinely just eyeball them? I'm super curious :]
But yea I really love what you do and love seeing every new piece!! Have a nice day! Ty for reading <3
Thanks! I very much use references, though I don't use the color picker on them, gotta train the eye. I have an ever-expanding reference folder of photos and paintings with colors that I like so that when I start a new painting and I have an idea of the color scheme I want in mind, I'll already have some reference on hand. Good reference really makes a world of difference!
I also like to bias colors a little bit away from their standard versions:
The more blue green and the more yellow green are both more interesting to me than the "just green" green. Nothing wrong with that average green though, sometimes that's exactly what you need. It's always situational.
Lastly, a fantastic color tip for digital art specifically that I got from Mike Hernandez: Use the RGB sliders instead of the HSB color selection!
By default, Photoshop gives you the HSB (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) color picking setup which looks like this:
It's perfectly functional and has its uses, but it doesn't really feel like mixing color. On the other hand, if you use the RGB sliders:
Now you can add a little more blue if you think that's what the color needs, or you can take away red, add some green, etc. It gets you actually mixing color and thinking more about how the colors relate to each other. It can take some getting used to if you've only used the HSB setup before, but it's worth it!
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i love your work! would you be willing to write something about a hero and villain who absolutely hate each other, and they get captured by an even bigger threat because hero messes up. Villain is pissed at hero, but he starts to notice that everytime their captor lashes out, hero takes the fall. because he feels guilty he got villain in this mess. Begrudging caretaker villain and self sacrificing hero is my favorite trope LOL.
thanks!!
anon your MIND youre a GENIUS :D this was so fun, thank you for the request!
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The hero is thrown to the floor in something of a mangled heap.
The sound makes the villain jump. He didn’t even hear the door open. The supervillain levels him with a simmering glare before turning on her heel and slamming the door behind her.
For one horrible moment, the villain thinks the hero’s dead. He gives the mess on the floor a careful kick, and the groan he gets in response sends a flutter of relief into his chest that he hates immediately.
“Thought she might’ve actually got you this time,” the villain comments with forced indifference.
He hates that he’s glad the hero’s still here. Hates it. He despises the little do-gooder. He’d honestly thought the supervillain was cold enough to leave him a reminder of what’s coming for him.
The hero pushes himself up on unsteady, trembling arms. “It’s only a matter of time,” he says quietly. His voice is no more than a rasp by now.
The villain’s heart sinks unexpectedly at that.
The villain says something stupid—talks back, tells the supervillain exactly what he thinks—and she glares and sets her jaw and looks straight past him and to the hero. And the hero leaps to his feet to spit something much worse at her and she always goes for him.
“She knows what I’m doing,” the hero continues after a moment. “I don’t think I can distract her for much longer. I– I’m sorry.”
The last dribble of indifference the villain was clinging to evaporates. Emotions clash. Confusion, anger, defenselessness. Fear; for who? He doesn’t know.
“[Hero],” the villain says a little more intensely than he intended. “What do you mean you’re distracting her?”
The hero tries to give him a smile, but it’s tired and lopsided and not at all genuine. “It’s my apology for getting us both here.”
Something in the villain’s mind clicks into place. He’s always the one leaping up to bite at the supervillain. The hero only gets involved when she’s about to snap. He always times it so when she’s going to take it out of someone, he’ll be at the forefront of the charge.
The villain takes a short step back, like the curse of selflessness will rub off on them if they stand too close. “[Hero],” he says again. “What’re you– Are you insane?”
The hero tries to shrug. It looks more like a twitch. “Probably, at this point.”
The villain changes his mind and steps forward again, kneeling down in front of him. The hero practically lols his head to watch him. The villain hates the dead look of it, and he hates that he hates it.
They’re enemies. Their last fight never suggested otherwise. The hero had backed the villain into a corner. He’d gotten in close to throw his finishing punch just as the corner revealed its very sharp teeth.
“This is new,” the supervillain had said when she’d come across them arguing in her trap. “It’s not often I get two in one go.”
It’s the hero’s fault, of course it is. If he hadn't pushed the villain straight into the supervillain’s little cage this never would’ve happened.
But the hero wouldn’t be taking the fall either. The villain’s heart clenches uncomfortably.
The hero watches with a slight frown as the villain carefully shreds his own shirt and dunks it into the hopefully cleanish bucket of water in the corner. “What’re you doing?” he asks from behind a pained cough.
“You’re a lot less useful if you’re dead,” the villain says flatly.
He gently tilts the hero’s head towards the dingy light overhead; bruises are blossoming like unsightly flowers all down the side of his face. The villain scowls, swallows his pride, and gets to work.
The hero flinches under his touch more than once. The villain hisses a short, “sit still,” definitely more than a few times.The hero eventually relaxes in his hold—the cloth is probably cool against the inevitable heat of the pain.
There’s an unbothered silence for a few kind minutes. The villain concentrates on the blemishes on the hero’s face, and the hero simply closes his eyes and soaks in the relief.
The villain abandons the scrap in a pile on the floor after a while, and the disgustingly wet plop! of its landing prompts the hero to open his eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” he says almost immediately. “God, I was trying to help but now you’re having to do something for me—”
“Shut up, [Hero],” the villain snaps. “This is nothing to what you’ve done.”
The hero blinks at him for a moment. Sniffles. Dips his gaze to the floor. “I’ll make it up to you.”
“You heroes are so caught up in your weird little morals.” The villain gets to his feet with a sigh. His knees ache after all that. “I don’t care. Just–” The words falter for a moment. God, he’s going to sound like he cares. “Just don’t die.”
The hero glances up at him sombrely. Selflessness doesn’t look good on him. The villain can feel his face scrunching up at the thought.
“If it fixes what I’ve done, I will.”
The hero’s never in this cell. The villain’s never left it. The hero returns with bruises and blood and exhaustion. The villain is no worse off than if he wasn’t here at all.
His worst enemy is doing all this, to protect him?
The villain carefully lines up the words in his mind, prays his tone comes off as slimy selfishness, and says, “It wouldn’t fix anything.”
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"John whips his head around. Or tries to.
The world spins violently with the movement, and even the cane isn't enough to save him. He's had plenty of tumbles, especially during the first two years of his recovery, so he knows there's nothing he can do to prevent it now. Not when his head will be wobbling for the next few minutes.
Suddenly, he's surrounded by thick arms that hold him up and press him into a solid chest. His cane hits the wood floor with a clatter as his head continues to spin...
He swallows and doesn't look up as he curls his hand into Simon's hoodie and says, "Ye cannae startle me like tha', Simon. I'll fall."
Simon lets out a heavy breath that rustles through Johnny's loose hair. "Sorry."
"Ye didnae know."
"Shoulda, though."
John shrugs, unwilling to argue the truth."
- Broken Bones and Shattered Hearts, Chapter 6 sneak peek, Art by @kibagib
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