I can see the layers of your shading, but the colors are so close together in value that it makes it look incredibly soft. Have you already tried bumping up the contrast between the values of the colors?

I haven't, that's a great idea! But I'm afraid just that won't solve it since it looks like I need to shade the whole piece in a different manner to make it not look like a circle (even though it is??)

@ dude I'm not 100% sure what the denial means on that specific part, since I didn't write it, but I think what it refers to is the concept of shading things in 'steps' making things potentially look off. Gimme about 5 minutes and I'll ping you again with a sketch to show you what I mean.

[edit] Okay so this is a very extreme exaggeration but The image on the left side is shaded in 'steps' which can:

1. contribute to making something look gradient and
2. make the piece look flat even though it's shaded. The piece on the right side has more depth because the shading is following different parts of the piece, and each layer of shading isn't a copy of the previous layer. (obviously this may not be the style you want your clock to look like, but I only had a few minutes to just give an example to show the difference!)

So I think bumping up the contrast in values and possibly double checking to make sure the shading isn't in too much of that 'step' style should really help :)

Alright that's brilliant! Yeah, my brain totally wasn't catching that. I think it's because in my head the item is like a ring cut out of cardboard, very flat. Thanks a lot for the help!! I'll try applying your advice to the item.

NP! Sometimes it also helps to look at similar onsite objects to get a feel for how others shaded something like that (or at least, this helped me a lot in the beginning lol) because IRL isn't cell shaded so I know I struggled a bit rofl.

I think that has the good advice covered, just wanted to add that the sort of cross-hatching shadings style you use can end up blending colors TOO much when you shrink the canvas to HA size, contributing to the gradient or soft-shaded effect. Good luck with your next attempt!

I've used that in other items but I guess it's clearly overdone in this one. I'll fix that too, thank you! <3

Yeah, that's always super frustrating when something works sometimes but not others. Been there! Probably if you increase the contrast in colors like feral suggested, the hatching won't be as much of an issue.

Username --- Link to the overlay(s) --- resized | unedited Link to the CI --- click

What do you need help with --- this ... thing in general could be fixed . i'm having a rough time trying to emulate the subeta style , and i'm not very good with shading .

Was there a denial --- Item and Overlay: Issues from previous denial were not sufficiently addressed Item and Overlay: Artwork does not match Subeta style, quality, or level of detail in general Item and Overlay: Shaky, rough, or inconsistent lineart Item: Thick or heavy lineart Overlay: Blotchy shading Overlay: Ambiguous shading/light source unclear Item and Overlay: Gray artwork, possibly from shading with black and/or highlighting with white Notes: Although this has improved a bit, it still needs quite a bit of work to be site-ready. Wigs are one of the hardest items to start with, and I recommend checking out this thread to get some advice/help from experienced CW artists: https://subeta.net/forums.php/read/858111/-CW-Denial-Help-Thread-

Optional Can we redline --- yes

Hey there! Congrats on working on your first CW! There really is a big learning curve with figuring out the style and what works, but we were all there once. You're in the right place for help, though. ^_^

I'm not the best artist with wigs, but I did a quick paint-over to give you some general advice~

Lineart - not bad on the outer edges, but you might want to use a slightly softer brush. The inner lines in the hair will look more natural if they are a bit thinner. Lineart is one of the hardest things to get right because the quality can change when reducing the size of the overlay, so finding the right brush/technique is really trial and error!

Shading - Remember that subeta overlays should have a light source in the top left, meaning that the highlights will be strongest there, and the shadows will be darkest in the bottom right areas. Always think about the thing you are coloring as a 3D shape, so that shapes in the "front" (on the top left), will be casting shadows on the shapes in the "back" (bottom right). For wigs, it helps to think about the hair as strands, or even chunks of hair, that each have their own shape. I've found that the most helpful thing to do to learn how to draw and shade wigs in subeta style is to study what other artists on site have done. For wigs, I think and have the easiest style to study, because they focus on the "strand/chunk" method of drawing hair.

https://new.subeta.net/cws/directory?artist=styx&category=0&layer=25&availability=all&page=1

https://new.subeta.net/cws/directory?artist=sonatine&category=0&layer=25&availability=all&page=1

If you take the time to go through many pages of the directory listing above, you'll be able to find many examples of hair (some similar styles to what you're going for, too!), that will help you to study.

As for my own redline, I wasn't sure exactly the style you wanted to go for with the hair, so I smoothed out the right side into a more typical cut just to try and show you how to separate the strands by using highlights and shadows. You already had a good shape with good shading on the left side, so I think you've got the basics down! You just need some refinement. Another tip: avoid the "gray shading" denial by slightly changing the hue of the colors you're using for highlights and shading. So, instead of using just a lighter version of your brown for highlights, choose a more golden color. And instead of just a darker brown for shadows, choose a deeper color that has more red or purple undertones. This creates a richer overall color.

CI - This could be improved with the same advice mentioned above! Though tbh, I would avoid using the star as the decoration for the hair. It's hard to shade flat, simple metallic shapes like that, particularly in a tiny CI. You might want to think about changing it to something else until you get a bit more experience. Even I struggle with things like that, and I've been doing CWs for a longggg time haha.

If you have any questions, please ping me! And good luck fixing up your wig and getting it resubmitted! Looking forward to seeing more art from you. :)

Are we allowed to use fonts like Times New Roman in CWs? Or do we have to write any potential lettering ourselves?

@Last_Chance I think your question would be better posted over here; LINK so that could answer it. I have personally never run into needing to use a font, and I'm not sure who has so I have no idea who to direct you to other than a staff member who'd know better than everyone here.

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction! Kind of figured we couldn't use fonts but was good to confirm.

I am having an issue with this overlay. I am at my second denial now and soon to be third upload. My friend and I think its best for a second opinion for the current version...

I have original, 2nd version and the current version all in one place in this image. To view please put this URL and click to see full version..I apologize I dont have a 250x500 version of the original.

https://i.ibb.co/JcWVYHK/New-Canvas.png

Thanks!

Hi. Compression is KILLING the quality of our work. Like, BADLY pixelated and sharp.

I don't know what happened, last week our working canvas (250x500) changed from 72 DPI to 300 DPI. Well, we (my husband and I), changed the settings back to 72 DPI again, and started working again. Somehow that wasn't the problem. We have the same brushes, I checked all the settings, and nothing: our CW's look fine on the working size, but when we compress them, the quality just... ugh.

I work on SAI, do color balance and final touches on PS, and save the final files on Manga Studio. I would prefer to not show examples here since I don't know if my comissioners would like to keep them secret, but I can provide some examples via sMail.

Also, if you know of a better way to compress CW's, I'm open to suggestions. <3

Thanks in advance.

I don't know how much this will help, but I would try opening an old finished file that saved fine, then deleting all the layers and resaving it as your new "working canvas." Just in case some setting that you can't think of got messed up on your current working file?

Also, I personally find that saving anything on manga studio/clip studio tends to result in more compression than saving in PS itself. Is there a reason why you can't save your .pngs in PS?

(Sorry I can't be of more help, I'm super busy atm but; )

Do you merge your layers before shrinking and saving the file? Sometimes if you don't merge the layers before shrinking it can cause all kinds of weird crap to happen to the quality, depending on the program.

(You can send me an smail if you need extra help, but it may not be until Sunday that I can respond, depending on how the days go. lol)

Manga Studio always did the miracle for me. PS destroyed the quality of my CW's since day one. ;__; Maybe my settings are wrong?

No, I do not merge them. When I tried this, the result was worse. :(

I use SAI for everything. Compression can be tricky, specially with the CI since SAI doesn't like the 64x64 format. Can you send me an example via smail and point at the problematic area?

P.S. use my old smail for correspondence, I have waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too many letters and it won't allow new ones.

on for a few seconds this morning.

I have never once heard merging layers to make it worse, so that's a new one lol. are you 100% sure the canvas size is correct? 250x500 like you stated? If for some reason it's a few pixels off (like say 260x500) that may be the problem? IDK

If you can send me a working size via smail I can try to help more this weekend. without being able to see what's up I cannot help more or try to work with you. Rn it's kind of just a shot in the dark on my side with guessing.