Written by Limor & Fox, Edited by Grapejuice
A few links to check out when making designs are:
Themed pet reference pages by Xavion
Comprehensive Guide to Themed Pets by Lavelle
Guide to Themed Pet Contests by Scathreoite

Hey all in this article we will be going over using colour pallets and a design based on the Crested Ibis by me and Fox.

So a good way when you're at a loss for making designs is to look up colour pallets. If your looking for something specific try something like, "fall colour pallet" which will pull up an array of images.


Now for example with this, you can look through and select your favourite,


Now, for me at least, I would pull this image into a colour grabber such as this website (which I use) and getting the hex codes to use as a base for my design!



Once you have those fill in or tweak colours 'till you have a completed design!


~ Designing with Fox ~
Now to start me and Fox decided to design a bird, and after looking at some bird images we settled on the crested ibis.


Fox
Whenever I design I always start with a photo reference. In this case, Limor had chosen our reference, so I began by analyzing the colour palette. I knew I was going to use a white/off-white base, so I applied that to my ny'vene first. I also knew I wanted to incorporate a small amount of black and really bring attention to bright orange/red wings.

When it comes to ny'vene I generally like to choose my gene 1 while applying colours because the gene 1 overtakes colour 1 pretty drastically. If I want a white body it doesn't necessarily mean white will be in colour 1. Instead white is on gene 1.

I chose a few traits I knew I wanted to work with. I usually choose traits before applying colour, for a similar reason to why I immediately choose a gene 1 on ny'vene. I knew I definitely wanted to work with the feathered traits.

Next, I apply my eye colour and C1-3. I used black in M1 and M2, referring to the black beak of the ibis.

I applied some orange and red colours to the slots that affect wings, reflecting that of the ibis. I went through each wing gene and ultimately ended up with red admiral. Unlike the other slots, I pick ny'vene G3 last because that trait pulls from multiple sources and sometimes doesn't turn out the way you envision. It is easier to choose your colours and then choose the G3. Sometimes there is tweaking for the G3 colour, but in most cases, I am more concerned about how C2, EC, and C3 affect the wings as those colours will probably not change, because they also affect other traits.
Even though I was working with very specific traits, this design also works with other traits, surprisingly. Ny'vene are generally easy to design in that sense. In general, I like to focus on contrast. That could mean bringing a bright colour to the forefront and accented with a neutral like brown or black. Or using muted colours and using a bright colour as an accent. I apply a lot of colour theory to my designs as well, coming from a background in graphic design. In this case, I chose to use neutrals (white/off-white and black) to enhance the bright orange wings.



Limor
Now for my Vene I decided to go with orangy creams for the main body colours, with a darker red-orange in the eyes. I chose to use the much darker grey/blacks in the mutations.

For the g1 I went with a slightly darker cream-brown, as much of the body is made up of those colours. For g2 I went with a very pale cream, as it will offset well against the g1. The g3 is the wings, and for this, I chose a bright orange, like the Ibis in the reference photo has.

Now for the darker colour I chose to feature this in the m1, as to keep it from overpowering the whole design. In m2 I went with an almost white colour, as much of the Ibis is almost starkly white on the body. For m3 I chose an even more vibrant orange then the g3, as I wanted them to be able to blend together nicely while still looking bright.

With designs that use a lot of very pale colours it can be really helpful to make sure you vary the colours enough, I would recommend against repeating colours more then once in a design, especially if you want to submit it in theme competitions.

Written by Sakurakuromi & Grapejuice
For this months issue, we are happy to reintroduce Ley! Now we've already seen Ley in a previous months issue, but since then she's been working hard and has come out with some gorgeous new art.



Tune in next month for some more featured art, if you have any suggestions of art you want to see on here pm it to Grapejuice or Sakurakuromi under the title Artists Among Us. Have a wonderful day!

This months issue is (finally) out!

This months issue is (Finally) out!


(I hope that answer from Sadie was to your liking Spelf ;) )

Awesome! Thanks so much grape! (Check discord)