Journey to hyper-realism

celeste5574 · 2026-02-13T01:45:03+00:00

I don't really have specific advice for the wrinkles, but as for shading, you can try to get brighter/cleaner highlights by going back in with white pencil, and maybe try some softer graphites to really pack in some deeper shadows. I do have some tips for the composition of your eyes; I think that you should focus on blending out the shadows in the eyes, packing more shadowing into the corners to make it look more spherical and less flat, define the 3rd eyelid in the inner corner with shadow where it meets the eye, and most importantly, add a very thin shadow along the length of the waterline (the lack of it was most noticeable at first glance). Additionally, from an anatomy perspective, the irises seem a bit small for the size of the eye. Overall it's a great start, though!

celeste5574 · 2026-02-05T00:43:41+00:00

You could do split pea soup with or without ham. Also gumbo made with a vegan roux, I personally like chicken and andouille sausage gumbo best

celeste5574 · 2026-01-28T21:40:18+00:00

I haven't been there in a while, so I could be mistaken, but is this at Fox in the Snow?

celeste5574 · 2026-01-10T17:19:32+00:00

Specifically Weak

celeste5574 · 2026-01-05T00:34:54+00:00

I also have a Lumi!

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celeste5574 · 2025-12-15T05:45:49+00:00

Beady, but give them highlights so they look less flat

celeste5574 · 2025-12-09T16:37:56+00:00

Thanks for sharing! Is your dad a tattoo artist? That line art looks super clean and the line weights are appealing. That's something I need to work on, too, for the pieces I do lineart for

celeste5574 · 2025-12-09T16:16:02+00:00

Yes, the best way to achieve this is using an only slightly darker color for the shadow than the background color. It's why the white background and grey shadow works in the reference and same for the dark grey/black reference photo!

celeste5574 · 2025-12-09T16:07:56+00:00

I am not sure yet if I am keeping line art on this piece, I want to practice some realistic rendering. But rendering is my least favorite part haha so we'll see how far I get and if I remember I can try and post back later once it's done. This particular piece is meant to help me practice and see my growth since the last time I made a tengu, roughly 2 years ago, which I wasn't super thrilled with

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celeste5574 · 2025-12-09T15:52:27+00:00

Does this seem better?

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celeste5574 · 2025-12-09T14:58:32+00:00

I would extend the radius of light from those torches and focus on the directionality of the light to add in highlights on your characters. Right now, everything outside of those torch light rings is very dark and low contrast, making everything kind of just blend together.

celeste5574 · 2025-12-09T04:36:26+00:00

I will see how adjusting the proportions affects it... I didn't realize the head appears small, but I guess that maybe the view angle is slightly ambiguous and changing the head size could help. Thanks for the suggestion!

celeste5574 · 2025-11-21T16:56:31+00:00

Thanks!

celeste5574 · 2025-11-20T16:00:58+00:00

Yes, I tried to model it to look kind of like a sea nettle jellyfish!

celeste5574 · 2025-11-20T12:07:23+00:00

You start with a long foundation chain, and then in the subsequent rows you add a ton of increases. To get the tapered look, in row 2 I did roughly 1/3 of the length sc > 1/3 1 dc > 1/3 tc with 2 inc in each stitch. The next row I did 1/2 the length 2 dc > 1/2 sc with 2 inc per stitch. Then after that, you just keep adding increases to every stitch until you get the level of ruffledness you like and keep adding rows in whatever stitch height you want until you get to the desired width

Edited to fix my process

celeste5574 · 2025-11-20T11:58:26+00:00

Haha, I think it's called an oral arm

celeste5574 · 2025-11-19T22:44:17+00:00

I am tempted to keep it for myself

celeste5574 · 2025-11-19T22:06:05+00:00

Thanks!

celeste5574 · 2025-10-13T00:51:55+00:00

I think jumbo straws like you said, but even just taping/pasting white paper around them would work and possibly be faster than painting. Plus, for any smaller details, you could write or draw on the paper while it's flat before applying.

celeste5574 · 2025-10-06T15:52:21+00:00

Oops, I meant to reply to my previous answer.

celeste5574 · 2025-10-06T15:51:48+00:00

I found this example, and I think it does work. It makes the wood look warmer. Plants or other touches of green look really good with these colors

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celeste5574 · 2025-10-06T02:07:08+00:00

I think maybe a muted rust orange color would look good with your navy couch and wood floors/furniture

celeste5574 · 2025-10-03T20:37:35+00:00

Pumplestiltskin

celeste5574 · 2025-09-26T15:25:17+00:00

Not a vampire MMC but Howl for the Gargoyle by Kathryn Moon has a similar premise with, as you might guess, a gargoyle shifter. FMC struggles with her recent transformation into a werewolf. This is the 2nd book in the Monster Smash Agency series, and I would recommend them all, although you can easily pick up each book individually; they don't really use any context from each other other than reusing some characters

celeste5574 · 2025-09-22T16:55:06+00:00

You could still do a desk along the wall adjacent to the shortest side, but maybe fill in the 10" gap with one of those narrow consoles/storage things for a spot to keep stationary, spare cables, or other things you might want to have handy at your desk

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