I'm trying to create an overlay for my kumos [pet not found] , but when i resize my image it looks so low res and crunchy i end up hating it. how do you guys create the overlay art? do you just start with a 200x200 canvas? i find that to be much too small.

I do start with the 200x200 size (but my overlays are mostly recolors/adjustments to the original art so I usually have no choice). When I need to go big, I just magnify it, sometimes up to 800x. I've gotten used to it looking pixely.

But if you're doing something more like a redraw, maybe a good solution would be to draw it more simply in the larger size and then add the minute details and most of the coloring after you've resized it. That might help with the crunching.

[Edit] Looking at your current overlay I just remembered there's different kinds of resize settings. I don't remember what they are and what the differences between them are, but I do know they can sometimes make that wavy affect you've got going on. Depending on what program you're using, you'll want to play around with the settings to see if one is better.

thanks! i will look into trying again by starting with the smaller canvas im currently using Clip Studio, but im not super familiar with all of the settings just yet (i am an adobe refugee lol)

When I draw overlays I usually draw at 400x400 or a max of 600x600.

I've never used Clip Studio, BUT sometimes my pictures get weird like this for one of two reasons.

1. If your picture is not evenly divisible. Say for example it's 413x413. First resize it to 400x400 and then down to final size.

and

2. You may need to merge your layers before you resize. There are two ways to do this, but again, I've never used Clip Studio so I don't know your buttons. I think the easiest way is to save your full size image as a PNG and then reopen the flat PNG and then resize it to the proper size.

(Lastly, if your image is SUPER enormous, say 1000x1000, you may not be able to smoothly resize it this small depending on your program. And also if your piece is on a canvas that is NOT a square (say 450x460) then you need to adjust it to BE a square before resizing.)

Let me know if this helps or doesn't!

ok yea I was just drawing on a canvas that was waaaay too big I started at 2000 x 2000 I’ll try Redrawing it 400x400 And report back lol