Woah, thank you so much for your support! Yes, I’m still somewhat trying to get used to the tablet XD I find it a little hard to grasp because I’ve been using trad mediums all this while… Perhaps when I get more comfortable I’ll start mixing em : D

Hullo guys. I finally bought a tablet.

;A; You are too kind to me Becky, thank you! ;n;

I am taking your opinions and feedback seriously, searching for the right printers. :)

ps: SOB I’VE MISSED YOU TOO. I hope all is well and good with you! /hughughug/

Hi anon, sorry for this late reply! Things have been rather hectic but I should try to get to messages soon…

Yes, I am considering it! : D I would really love to print Noir and the Rainbowman, but again I am not sure how many people would like a copy. If I print in small batches, the production and subsequently selling cost  per book will be too high, and I’m trying to avoid that.  At the moment I am still observing the demand for NatRM.

Thank you so much for your interest ! <3 NatRM is a very special story to me for personal reasons, I would very much love to see it in print myself. :) If I have sufficient funds, I might decide to screw my losses and just do it  in the end XD

Hey Ace! : D ( feels kinda cool calling you Ace hahaha XD )

Yes, I was actually inspired by achromatopsia! Although I understand that sometimes colour-blindness does not necessarily mean that one sees only black/white and grey; some are able to still see colour, albeit with less accuracy/difficulty perceiving colour differences. Maybe a bit like how my TV looks when the colour glitches?

Nevertheless if I do meet an achromat I would really like to ask if he/she dreams in colour *A*

;A; This is probably the only time I feel kinda glad that I made you cry, haha. XD Thank you very much !  I am really touched that you felt something from the story!

lmao posted at wrong blog just now

This walkthrough is dedicated to anon and freakyladydoll.

Not really a tutorial, because I think it’s pretty basic Photoshop and painting, but I hope everyone enjoys the walkthrough and hopefully it will give you guys some ideas for arting! ( ◕ ‿ ◕｡ )/

——

To the End of the Universe

“If your world is starless, draw your own stars.”

Noir and the Rainbow-man

A man who lives in a world devoid of colour meets a  “Rainbow”.

TRIVIA

For those who do not know, here is a short little backstory:

• The title is inspired by a song of the same name by a Malaysian artist, Jason Lo, which is one of my favourite indie-pop songs, ever ever ever. I love it. Do give it a listen as you walk down the streets.

• This style was largely inspired by two awesome artists, Nokkasili ( her work is brilliant and beautiful, her penwork and collages are hnghhhhhhh ), and Charizen ( Japanese artist who incorporates collage and Sumi-E).

• “To the End of the Universe” is a page out of a one-shot comic I did, Noir and the Rainbow-man.  This was a particularly important page and I wanted to make sure it conveyed lovely dreamy feelings ( I hope ) to the reader. I also drew this when I was feeling particularly sad. I really wanted my sky to be full of stars that night. Alas, it was pitch black.

…So draw my own stars I did.

—-

01: DRAWING THE MAIN PAGE

I should probably start by showing you guys what the raw, unedited page look like.

legasp it was really ugly.

I have a habit of hoarding rubbish things, and I have come to love hoarding scraps of cloth ( thrown away by my aunt after she is done sewing) or strange paper ( gotten from unwrapping gifts, or brown packages…). These are great for creating textures/collage. And yes they are all ( mostly ) free. : D

I actually drew the picture first before pasting on anything. I used an ARTLINE pen and markers to do detailing.

For the “pillows” and “bedsheets”, I basically cut out random shapes from the cloth.

—-

02: MAKING THE NIGHT SKY

/high res versions uploaded here if anyone wants to use them?/

01 | 02

I produced two versions because I wanted to create “starrier” textures.

Also, [02]’s “meteors” unfortunately resemble sperms, and I wanted to cover that lol lol.

 LET’S PAINT :D

I used these watercolours, black and white.

I start by wetting my paper with water. Not the whole paper though, just damping certain areas here and there.

It is important that the type of paper used doesn’t absorb water to the point of sogginess, as this will tear the paper and produce really smudgy looking textures.

I paint on the black unevenly.

I do not know the accurate name for the kind of paper I am using ( I am painting on an office memo paper my father threw away hahaha ), but I believe that it is called “hot pressed paper”, which is a kind of smooth paper that doesn’t absorb a lot of water, so the paint sort of “sits” on the paper. Read  here for more info.

For the “stars”, I wet the brush a little, and flecked it outwards, against the walls of the paint container. If there is too much water, the “stars” will be too big and drippy, so keep it slightly dry for tiny, dotted “stars”.

If you take a tissue paper and dab it around the wet areas you can also produce interesting textures.

I also used this technique on Noir : D

—-

03: JUXTAPOSING

This is where Photoshop comes in.

I open the base picture in Photoshop and clean up/brighten the background by going to IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>LEVELS.

On Layer 1, I pressed ctrl +J, which produces a duplicate copy of the base picture. I then made an extra layer underneath the copied layer, and renamed it Night Sky.

Using the “Magic Wand” tool, I select the white areas, and delete them by pressing CTRL + X, or EDIT>CUT. 

I need to be careful of broken lines, or carelessly drawn lines that might cause the selection to bleed into unwanted areas. I remedy these by drawing new lines over them before using Magic Wand.

To ensure I’ve deleted all the unwanted areas, I uncheck the “visibility” for the bottom-most layer.

CTRL A + CTRL C + CTRL V to copy and paste the edited picture into a new document. 

EDIT>FREE TRANSFORM to adjust the size.

I changed the background to black.

I changed the base picture to black and white. [ IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>BLACK AND WHITE ]

Now I go to FILE>PLACE>(name of night sky ) to place the night sky into the background.

I drag the night sky under Layer 1 so it sits behind the main picture.

To ensure that editing goes easily, I rasterize the night sky.

I repeat the FILE>PLACE>night sky 02 for the second night sky, placing it on top of the first night sky. I then blend both skies by selecting the eraser tool and erasing certain areas for the second night sky. The eraser is set to 0% hardness, 62 % opacity, and 88 % flow for soft blending.

After pressing CTRL + E to mesh both skies into one layer, I added a bluish tint to the night sky by going to IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>LEVELS>CHANNEL RED.

I erase the sides of the night sky to allow it to blend into the background.

—-

FINISHED !!

—-

Thank you for reading ! I’m sorry it seems rather long-winded….

thank you so much for the kind words! I appreciate it :) Yes, I’ll keep drawing! I want deeply to improve…. Please cheer me on ;A;

hey! Zzoha : D

Haha, I made that a long time ago! I almost forgot about it until you reblogged it XD Okay, okay, will post it there just for you. :P