kradeelav

I love drawing evil old men :) #fefates
(WIP's from my gunter/corrin animatic since I'm on an anime screenshot kick. )

beautifully aged pretty boys.... ain't nothing in the world better than that.

in my quest to figure out an authentic "anime background" style for my process, i made a krita palette off of the exact Nicker Color Poster colors that industry veterans used.  

think it made a difference with these two studies (done only with said colors). :o #resource

becoming an unfortunate pervert who likes drawing backgrounds. the horror.

( funnily enough, i did have a painted version of this but i am finding out i am not a painting girlie. saw a cool talk by a master concept artist a decade ago who basically said there's shape/painting people and there's line people. think ironically after my shitty eyes got fixed i'm finding i'm a line person all along??? wack.)
#fefates

■ Your Ruin, My Ruin - Chapter 16 [ Sacrifice ]
□ https://archiveofourown.org/works/522583...
[ illustrating my #fefates Gunter/f!Corrin slowburn romance fic where they both earn their happy ending. Revelation route. ]

HOW TO MAKE A 2010's ANIME CELL IN KRITA - QUICK WALKTHROUGH


this past week, i went on a bender making a #fefates animatic(?), it ended up being a crash course in how to make realistic anime stills entirely in krita. below is a bullet-point list of critical steps for interested parties. it's not very detailed but should point you to things that helped.
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file setup
* use animation template, jp style. delete everything that isn't the white bg + the layout guides
* size: 3000px x 2118, 300dpi

drawing the cell
* generally my "thin line" style that i do roughs and ink with is a "basic 5" brush (in default krita bundle). anti-alias is turned off for crispiness. frankly any small inking pen would do.
* general things to keep in mind: use FEWEST LINES as possible. try to keep shadows also to a minimum or have them cover large simplified shapes.
* tip for cell cleanup: if you go into tool options while using the fill bucket, and under 'reference' 'obtain region with a merged copy of all layers' and the multiple fill 'fill regions only in similar color' and use the fill bucket to paste the same color everywhere you want it, makes cleanup 1000% easier
 
here's how the cell looked with a previous bg i scrapped, and also some other wip cells




drawing the background
* going to be different depending on how organic the BG is - though you'll probably always start by slapping some gradients down first
* for rocky cave texture, big fudopen with flow down to 18 (for all brushes mentioned, here's the bundle i think i got them from. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI_DFuSf... )
* smudge with inkP 25 blender water as needed
* finesse stone texture with inkp 25 penpoc (incidentally my favorite chonky b/w manga inking pen)
* throw down more layers with freeze-reflect style (layer style might not be in the defaults, you might have to look for it and tick the check box on)

compositing
* watch all of this video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv4axtpn... it's not krita but it's a very in depth tutorial teaching you why anime composites look like that.
* here's the funny part.... SCREENSHOT your final merged cell+bg. this will naturally give it the 'jpg 360dpi crunch'.
* in your new composite file, add a few more freeze-reflect gradients aiming for a specific color hue. this was actually originally more a dusty brown/yellow overall but red fit better.
* below, see critical trio of layer effects:
-> copy of merged cell/bg, 50% opacity (guass blur, 15px, hard overlay layer style)
-> copy of merged cell/bg  50% opacity (guass blur, 15px, lighten layer style)
-> background - (no blur, normal layer style)
-> possibly add an "addition" gradient layer along the bottom or top if it needs it
* subtitles: my font: noto sans jp (but lots of good alternatives and research here: https://www.md-subs.com/blog/saa-subtitl... )
* at the very very end: YA GOTTA SEPARATE CHANNELS and then nudge them by a pixel left or right. i have tried every other trick to get the color bleed approach and nothing looks nearly as realistic. here's how to do it in krita https://docs.krita.org/en/reference_manu...

fin!COLLAPSE

having fun being a weeb doing research for an upcoming project ~

    bright eyes x #zihark ~ (fire emblem oc/canon selfship)

finished sketchdump! more context on the ship at dreamwidth . character design workshop thoughts below ~

i was telling my doujin circle recently it's been neat finally getting the confidence to tackle my body type as a cool character design puzzle to solve since the combination is so rare (coughnonexistent) to see.

(also with the rancid villain vibes that "I" want. because it's hot. /send tweet.)

something a lot of artists underestimate is good character design is always problem solving  -- you want them to be not just cookie cutter copypasta original character 2044223 but unique in a way that they're tangible, iconic, have quirks of body language that tells volumes about how they live, and so forth.

for example, few things I was thinking of:

* every character i design (since the iron crown days and before that) has some sort of intentional raw sleazy sex appeal and this was no exception. :3 along with this inspiration board i was pulling from yzma as a good example of said appeal; extremely unique body type (same knobby fingers as me, villain vibes even), great range of comedy and drama, also Would. it ain't even a 'hear me out' with her ~

frankly i also wanted low key masc-ish vibes for bright eyes; it annoys me to no end about the stranglehold of femme presentation in character design for chicks. i've joked before my favorite way of presenting is leather drag king, and folks with eyes and a nose for history probably see more than one allusion here ~

* there's no reference out there in terms of designing younger(ish) characters with a hunchback so you have to start from scratch in a lot of ways, or reference the elderly characters. (the grandma from mulan is one of the few professional character design sheets that that alludes anywhere near the "physics" of the shapes.)

likewise naturally with the height, clothes ain't gonna fit right, and i can absolutely see the summoner robes lookin' oversized over the shoulders, the centre circle sagging /less circle-like, etc. i figure the bottom of the robe is hemmed off as well since that's a hasty easy fix. there's also a subtle concealment of the larger joints.

* one of these days i'll probably animate a walk cycle for the lulz b/c it's so fucked :D

* there's also an intentionality with bright eyes feeling off, somehow. (greyer skin, all of the above because Society is still unfortunately Like That so might as well lean into it, the regeneration/body horror/spirit charmer lore, the ridiculously villain coded color pallet of purple/red/bright yellow). i get very annoyed with character design that's obviously softballing representation in a way that sacrifices iconic qualities; it's one of the reasons i love hellsing's whole cast ~ legit the one cast i can see myself sliding in with zero changes.

* still, there's some harmonization here; bright eyes could theoretically slide into FEH's cast like this with minimal tweaks; the coat's still there. details like the arm bandages are common in the series. the purple top is straight up stolen from zihark :3

#fefates , Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings
nsfw under the cut


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some #zihark and selfship shenanigans as distraction ~





i joked on tumblr once about finding the six greasiest evil bastard rats for bright eyes references/inspo and that wasn't much of a joke was it. :D

old #zihark technically from september 2024, i think i forgot to post it here. :o cleaned up one mistake i remember from then.

thinking about #fetellius various beorc/laguz/branded lifespans and realizing with dawning something that ....................... old man zihark could absolutely have history with half the cast.........................

going forward, i'm uploading everything with a "Creator Chose Not To Use Warnings" policy and retroactively scrubbing tags when possible. (here, ao3, bsky, etc). I will still put sensitive content under the cut.

(nothing personal if it's a deal breaker for following; also been there.)

thislittlekumquat liveblogging That Chapter of #fefates rev on tumblr fuckin. awoke the possessed!gunter sleeper braincell :D;;;;;;

i need to get back to Projects, but here's a evening doodle. all freehand, not at all focused on historical/architectural accuracy, just calibrating what reads as a visually interesting background to me. #original

... we all had the same thought huh. (original meme here and under the cut if the link breaks.)
#repcomm
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copypastin' a bsky thread of mine:

i've already shown this to the doujin circle, but seeing the final shop visits for the latest comic campaign per incoming domain is *fascinating*. here's the breakdown:

    bsky --------- 830
    itchio -------- 155
    kradeelav.com 115
    tumblr ------- 90
    google ------ 25
    dreamwidth - 9
    other -------- 4

a few notes:

*there was roughly equal marketing on bsky/kradeelav.com/tumblr/(mastodon!baraag).

*kradeelav.com being above tumblr (solidly no3!) shows you the power of personal websites, doesnt it?

*itchio's visits started slow but then ramped up when the comic hit the front page for a few tags.

this whole campaign was not profit focused in the least (the slim $$ after shipping/printing is mentally sorted as "seed money" for future doujin), but broad data like this is still useful for estimating where to focus for pre-orders to save on mental energy. work smarter, not harder.

why the transparency?

indie doujin/comics is horrifically niche and opaque money-wise with a lot of headwinds (to use a corporatism) right now. i don't believe in competition with your peers. i really don't. the more mental pain i can erase for somebody through knowledge sharing is a net benefit.

wind down from projects. bottom two are wips from a scene i may or may not post. #zihark

good job, heinrix. #mscfanart

heinrix, babydoll; why are you Like That.
#mscfanart

showing off some interiors of this doujin ~ old hats will remember this all got started when I was genuinely annoyed at how it felt like Gunter was the sole #fefates character who didn't have one, haha.

the longer i worked on this, the more I had fun with (dare i say?) the subversiveness of making him as an old man the focus in some incredibly sexy strips, as well as rummaging around the sheer variety of nuanced topics this ship has. i'm glad it resonated with y'all too. thank you ~ ♥

loved noodlin' at these, but i gotta keep going with other stuff :)
( #zihark x oc). full nsfw piece under the cut


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a certian somebody ate my brain, regular programming to resume.... at some point.

oh who am i kidding. people who've followed me since the dA years know *this* is the regular programming. :P
#zihark

#fetellius #zihark wip. think i'm going to make a doujin for him next, after current projects. :) it's time. been wanting to do it since radiant dawn released. also since i'm quite happy with my inking style now and don't want to immediately change it.

For those who appreciate handsome old men, it's live! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

 『ASHES & GHOST』A Gunter/Corrin #fefates doujinshi, 60 pages. Available in two options:
- Print + digital PDF (PREORDERS OPEN UNTIL JULY 1) (25USD)
- Digital DRM-free high-resolution PDF (1USD)