if merlin is blue and arthur is red, then merlin and arthur together are gold.
everything about merlin is blue. his kindness, his anger, his fear. they are the color of the sky and the depth of the ocean. merlin's mourning is a grey shade of dirty cerulean, his grief drips deep blue everywhere, falls from his cheekbones, from his lips. his sadness and his happiness are azul and they swirl, twin butterflies taking flight. pale blue is death and cyan is the relief of forgiveness and blue is the silent quiet. azure is healing and pain and gentleness and electric power. blue his unshaken faith and blue his loyalty, marked on his skin and bones. merlin is spring horizons, cloudless night, where the indigo almost turns black.
arthur is coated in red. blood red, frustration and annoyance red, his hands and his voice are full of it. arthur is the softest velvet, embracing with a shy yet bold love. red is his pride, weapon and shield, and adorned with rubies his protection. arthur is the heart that beats hard, he pumps blood in camelot, he is affection and pure passion. red is war and red is penitence. he is crimson courage, fearless because of his cherry honeyed love. a scarlet hued justice follows in his steps, beneath his trademark cloak. he is dusk and sunset and coming back home. he is summer hot and blazing midday.
merlin and arthur are blue and red but oh, together they are the most anciet shade of gold.
gold of magic and gold of camelot. gold the lining of arthur's cloak and heart, gold the brightness in merlin's eyes and soul. gold the tendrils that bind them together. gold the sun and the stars, which twinkle above them all, dancing to a silent tune. gold is the pendragon crest, and gold the eyes of dragon. gold is where the night meets the day, and gold is eternity, and gold is time outside of time, where the young and the legend live forever, untouched. gold the bridge, the door and the key. gold is life.
gold is memory and gold are the smiles that are shared.
gold the dawn when love is born and a new era begins for them all.
so like. if anyone else, like me, still has the occasional fanfic they follow on fanfiction.net, and hasn't been getting the update emails for the longest time and was wondering if ti meant the site is on its last legs
no
no they've done something stupid as fuck
you have to opt back in to getting the emails/notifications of new chapters every six months, because they automatically assume you don't want to know when the fics you followed for the updates have updated
I think 90% of my gripes with how modern anime looks comes down to flat color design/palettes.
Non-cohesive, washed-out color palettes can destroy lineart quality. I see this all the time when comparing an anime's lineart/layout to its colored/post-processed final product and it's heartbreaking. Compare this pre-color vs. final frame from Dungeon Meshi's OP.
So much sharpness and detail and weight gets washed out and flattened by 'meh' color design. I LOVE the flow and thickness and shadows in the fabrics on the left. The white against pastel really brings it out. Check out all the detail in their hair, the highlights in Rin's, the different hues to denote hair color, the blue tint in the clothes' shadows, and how all of that just gets... lost. It works, but it's not particularly good and does a disservice to the line-artist.
I'm using Dungeon Meshi as an example not because it's bad, I'm just especially disappointed because this is Studio Trigger we're talking about. The character animation is fantastic, but the color design is usually much more exciting. We're not seeing Trigger at their full potential, so I'm focusing on them.
Here's a very quick and messy color correct. Not meant to be taken seriously, just to provide comparison to see why colors can feel "washed out." Top is edit, bottom is original.
You can really see how desaturated and "white fluorescent lighting" the original color palettes are.
[Remember: the easiest way to make your colors more lively is to choose a warm or cool tint. From there, you can play around with bringing out complementary colors for a cohesive palette (I warmed Marcille's skintone and hair but made sure to bring out her deep blue clothes). Avoid using too many blend mode layers; hand-picking colors will really help you build your innate color sense and find a color style. Try using saturated colors in unexpected places! If you're coloring a night scene, try using deep blues or greens or magentas. You see these deep colors used all the time in older anime because they couldn't rely on a lightness scale to make colors darker, they had to use darker paints with specific hues. Don't overthink it, simpler is better!]
The purest light exudes from you.
As soon as you realise even the sun cannot compete with your own beautiful light, the greatest things begin to happen for you.
Your pure light can permeate any problem, challenge or worry and all you have to do, is let you shine.
Yes indeed – LET YOU SHINE – today and everyday.
Clarabelle