Random Sketches (tried Using No Guidelines And Just... Drawing Just Putting It Down Line For Line, Although

my OCs i made when I was 10 (the mermaid with black hair and girl in white dress are OCs from when I was 9 lol you can tell cuz there's not an insane amount of patterns)

again these are the simplified versions... i used to draw WAY too much detail

i... idk whats up with the purple guy that's unironically how he looks he's like the only super buff character I have cuz I couldn't draw muscles and the original drawing of him just looks weirdly lumpy lmaoo

i'm not even that obsessed with mermaids I have no clue why I have so many mermaid characters this isn't the end of them either I have at least two more mermaid OCs to my knowledge

can... can you tell that some of these designs were created when I started feeling attraction for the first time

unironically why most of my OCs are girls I just really like girls (and men too but idk I may have a preference or smth)

Hi hi um you helped me with one of my drawings on the criticism club, tysmmmmmm for that, I've fixed it a lot but I'm not done colouring so I won't be posting it yet :) your advice was insanely helpful, because I realised the arm wouldn't be there,and a BUNCH of other things

I was just exploring your posts and OMG HOW YOU RENDER SKIN AND HAIR IS SOO PRETTY AND GORGEOUS OMG!!! AND I LOVE THAT ONE DRAWING OF AN EYE U MADE AHH!

Sooo while i was looking at my fav post of yours, I was reading the description and you were talking about the new blend brush in magma! So, I'm assuming you use magma? I've been using it for like, half a year, but im not a pro at digital art so I don't really know what all the layer settings and whatever are. I did watch a video but it was a bit confusing. I know about like opacity and whatnot but I'm still a bit confused on mainly the layer settings. Also, I can't find any tutorials on magma apart from blending :(

I was wondering if U could maybe explain a bit, just the basics like multiply and add and most of the layer settings a begginer would use :) I'm sort of stepping out of my comfort zone because I don't usually bother with colouring and stuff. Any tips U recommend for magma would also help tons! Omg I just realised that this is kind of a stupid request because you probably have to explain a lot... Sorry!

idk how to end this ┐⁠(⁠ ⁠∵⁠ ⁠)⁠┌

ok ok this will be a long post!!

i made this graphic a long time ago for my friend @mythology-lover, this is using all layer blend modes with the colour bright orange, so you can see what each one does. most of them are self explanatory, I hope. there is no "add" in magma, but colour dodge is similar. I'll go over how to use the blend modes below!

not sure if you want to know how to use the blend modes to render stuff but i'll show you anyway lol

this was a drawing i posted, and i actually detailed my step by step process for my friend again, but I use multiply or darken for shading, its the best way to shade and personally I use dark red for shading but this can change based on lighting. obv I also lower the opacity cuz I don't want bright red. my tip for using multiply is to use a colour more saturated/brighter than you think you would use, cuz multiply ends up darkening the colour anyway.

i recommend using blend modes for shading because they have some "transparency" to them, if you put on shading in a block colour with no blend mode it'll just cover up things you already drew like blush or makeup. i also just create more multiply layers to build up darker and darker shadows.

also, when it comes to more dramatic lighting, ill just put a multiply layer over the WHOLE drawing since in real life in a dark scene there will be a shadow over everything including darker shadows for the actual details. after I add the multiply layer (this one is blue because its supposed to be a nighttime scene and the sky is dark blue) I just erase parts where light is hitting the object

(this isnt well done because im making this quickly)

and when it comes to lighting i like to use overlay, it creates this really nice saturated glowy effect. you can use colour dodge too but it creates these weird artifacts of pixels that are a completely different colour, at least for me

with overlay

also maybe you already know this, but the little square icon next to the opacity bar is alpha lock its useful if you don't wanna have to make a whole layer and clip it to the layer underneath

also... my BEST advice for magma has got to be to use filters, they save my life, and I frequently use them when my colours arent looking too good. and I specifically LOVE using the "curves" option when you click filters.

they let you control how bright the drawing is, and specifically the amount of each colour (red, green, and blue) in your drawing

here i reduced blue, increased red, and reduced yellow, plus reduced contrast and increased saturation plus made it a bit brighter. looks a lot better in my opinion, filters can really save a drawing lol

random tips: use lasso selection its basically necessary! if the paint bucket/fill tool isn't working that great, increase tolerance and turn on anti-alias, you can also try using the smart option. although I gotta say generally I don't use fill tool as it only really works if you have very clean, sharp, and connected lines. usually what I'll do instead to save time on colouring is make a layer below the lineart, and then make the target layer "above," and then fill it, then fill in the gaps manually. i also recommend using the full mode layout option, unless you have a small screen then it's most optimal, because then you can see all the tools and options.

i also use this layout thing, idk what its called, and have each one be a different brush with different settings (for me, one will be a soft brush with hardness and density lowered, another a hard round (default) brush, another a textured lineart brush, a brush for stars, freckles, or other scattered dots where I just turn up spacing, scattering and jitter for size variation)

also... make sure you flip your canvas to catch your mistakes, you wont notice them until you see it from a different perspective, and the flip canvas button is up top

its this one

this is for colouring, but periodically go to "view" and click "show in greyscale" so you can see the contrast between your colours. if everything's the same shade or similar shade of grey, you need to make some parts darker or lighter to make them stand out

ngl i think that's it, unless there's something else you need to know. just realised I've been using magma for like 4 years at this point, time really flies by. hope I helped!

OC by @xxcannot-do-mathxx (not sure the name)

erm i had a LOT of fun haha i kind of went over the top, I wanted to emphasise the expression and scariness lol

i'm really proud of the shading and colouring I think it looks great

I spent 4 hours on just this simple bust that's way too long but I think it was worth it I really like how fun this is

Joel, character by Meowica_ on Reddit

finally a DUDE lmaoo ive only been drawing girls or non-guys

erm we dont talk about the japanese characters the person who made the OC doesnt even know (still love their art tho give them a follow), and i did ask 😭 hopefully it doesnt say something embarrassing, i only know chinese, not japanese

<3 high contrast and COLOURS

sacrificing my dignity cuz i had to draw a catboy (its a fox i know but still)

Ice Cube, character by No_Kangaroo_8762 on Reddit

very simple but its cute

this is my third art trade so far!! still many more to go 🥲

based on a recent art trade i got

reading comprehension non-existent tbh

i keep my character descriptions short (literally one sentence) cuz I know no one is reading all that but like... why do ppl draw him smiling when my one sentence description is literally "he doesn't smile"

erm not sure the name but ig Painter...? by @torrentialchaos

hope the details are right i couldn't make out some things

yes ik the character is grey but I can't help but add just a bit of color, if I'm gonna draw black or white you know it's not really gonna be black and white

love the blend brush man it gives so much texture

finished this yesterday but it was like 2 am so I'm posting it now

cant believe i havent posted yael yet... she's so cute and she's the easiest to draw lmao why are all my character designs so complex

although her hair is very hard to draw it's really detailed but like.. i cant take any parts of it away or else it doesn't look like her?? lots of crescent shapes tho

guess what animal she can turn into she's the most obvious (yes all my main characters and some other characters can turn into animals, although obv not most ppl population wise in my comic)

i baby-fied her so much man she's 23 😭

erm so yk how i steal names from songs... new soul is literally her so I gave her the singers name maybe I should do that for my other OCs cuz I LITERALLY CANT COME UP WITH NAMES... i can draw fine and create super cool characters but I have ALWAYS struggled with names and idk why I always overthink them

ok i know im repeating this but she is SO easy to draw... i don't need a reference or anything and this took like 5 seconds... for my other OCs I gotta move stuff pixel by pixel cuz it just don't look right and not like the version of them I see in my head, and yet I don't have a recent ref of her?? i gotta make one man it wont even take that long

i like these little sketches man they help me flesh out personality and stuff

who wants to do OC art trades?? DM me anytime!! bruh his name is puma guy cuz I still don't have any name ideas for him

yes its been open this whole time but I have some free time coming up and I want to draw! could've just reblogged this but uh idk

i've edited this ref so much it's not funny I hate the curse of having a super crisp imagination in my head cuz if something is wrong by one pixel and puma guy doesn't look EXACTLY how I envision him then I'll hack up the ref and completely restructure it so it matches as closely as possible with what I see in my head

also i gotta do more art trades because of how much I've changed my ref tbh I can't have ppl draw my OC based on a wrong ref I feel bad

sigh the shading pattern on my ref is SO messed up like what even is that

me when a man with long eyelashes and stubble

also i LOVE ALL YOUR GUYS OCS!!! everyone has such cool characters omg!!! i love reading OC lore its so fun

i made this doodle in like five seconds but I accidentally made it look so sad I feel sad looking at it

it's me when i put ice cream mochi out to thaw but then I forget about it and it becomes all soupy and I then I have to eat ice cream soup

speaking of ice cream i tried ben and jerry's for the first time!!! its so good omg cherry garcia is a BANGER

i had trench foot this morning cuz I wore wet socks and shoes for 7 hours after the absolute INSANE storm yesterday... my feet hurt so bad it was like stepping on fire why nerves gotta be like this

my best drawings are my five second silly doodles with no sketch, just pure and raw expression