I've been using Encounter Timer for a few months, I have thoughts

By JimmiWazEre

Opinionated Tabletop Gaming Chap

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A few months back I made an Android app called 'Encounter Timer'. It was the first app I've ever made and I was so chuffed with it that I decided to make it available to my subscribers for free.

You're welcome mum!

Since then, I've been using it in play at every opportunity in sessions of Mothership, GOZR, and D&D. So much that the Metal Gear Solid style "!" alert sound the app plays has become something of a meme in my games now.

Now, Domain of Many Things was very much still a baby blog when I first released the app. Readership was very low, so I think we’re long overdue an article revisiting Encounter Timer.

You can read all the details, including operational instructions here. However, if you just want the basic gist: It’s a countdown timer that starts at a random number within a range (default: 5–15 minutes). Once it hits zero, that’s your cue to roll on your encounter table.
No more remembering dungeon turns. Just tap, forget, and play.

Encounter Timer Demonstration

What I like About It

The Core functionality just works

The whole reason Encounter Timer exists is because I suck at remembering dungeon turns. Years of 5e's free-flowing narrative left me untrained in structured time tracking outside of combat.

So, having a simple countdown that automates this? Absolutely perfect.

Helpful usability features

In the real world, as a GM, you're going to want to adjust the timer in response to events at the table.

Encounter Timer has you covered there too, as you’re able to easily reduce the remaining timer by a chunk simply by tapping the countdown after the PCs have done something to draw attention to themselves.

It’s a nifty bit of useful functionality even if I say so myself.

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There’s also a “High Danger” toggle which halves the countdown, letting you quickly increase encounter frequency for tense environments.

What I think it's missing

More Encounter Details, Faster

As cool as it is, unfortunately it remains a bit of a badger to have to manually do reaction, specific monster, and distance rolls. Encounter Timer could easily streamline the process further by making these further random rolls for you. The only thing I want to leave out of hardcoding into the app is the specific thing you’re encountering, so perhaps in that case Encounter Timer could use return a d6 value for me to quickly cross check against my own prewritten table.

Support for Systems with Motion Tracker style Mechanics (AlienRPG)

I also quite like the idea of using this timer in games of AlienRpg, however, in that system the PCs often have a motion tracker, which tells them the distance and direction of any threat at whatever point in the game that they decide to use it.

By rules as written, the GM is supposed to be moving their NPCs around the area on a map hidden from the PCs, so the idea of a motion tracker can easily be resolved by the GM consulting their hidden map and relaying the results back to the PCs.

But how would this work with no hidden map, relying instead upon Encounter Timer driven NPCs?

Well, here’s a fact for you: The exact, specific location of the NPCs, whilst it is not known to the PC’s, is totally unimportant. If we can accept that, then it removes the need to be running NPCs around on a hidden map for a start. But it does underline the problem we have with motion trackers, because I hate GM Conflict of Interest, and I don’t want the responsibility to have to decide the details of every encounter using GM fiat.

So, what if, when the encounter timer is running, it also presents the following information to the GM: The direction of the current location of the encounter, and the abstract distance of the location of the current encounter. For example, we might have the following information on screen prior to the alert sounding:

67 seconds (counting down - existing Encounter Timer functionality)

North West (randomly determined, stays static)

Near (Near, Medium, Far - This should update dynamically as the clock runs down past certain milestones)

As GM, what we should infer from this is that the encounter will trigger in just over a minute, the cause of the encounter is currently NW of the PCs position, and right now, it’s in the next area in that direction.

So assuming they’d whipped out their motion tracker and had all that information fed back to them - what would the players want to do with that?

Avoid the Encounter by going in the opposite direction

If they go in a different direction then we could delay the encounter - In terms of app functionality this means we need to be able to add time to it rather than simply remove it.

Avoid the encounter by hiding

If the PCs chose to hide, as GM we can cancel the timer and skip forward in time to the point where the encounter is in the same room as them and then make our checks to see if they’re discovered or not. If not, the encounter moves on and we can reset the timer to start counting down again.

Prepare an Ambush

Similar to hiding above - except the result of failing to detect the presence of the PCs will result in the PCs getting the drop on the NPC.

Cunning Shenanigans, like venting the airlock in the room to the NW

Assuming the PCs are able to do this prior to the encounter timer ticking down far enough to change the abstract distance, then I’d simply cancel the timer and the encounter has been resolved.

Conclusion

After months of real-world use, I’m still thrilled with Encounter Timer. It works exactly as intended, and I’ve got ideas to push it even further, especially for sci-fi TTRPGs.

Have I missed anything? Got an idea you’d love to see added? Drop it in the comments.

Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials, and maybe think about subscribing to the Mailer of Many Things! Either way, catch you later.

*This article contains affiliate links

I don’t know what to Run Next. I’ve got options. What do you Think?

By JimmiWazEre

Opinionated Tabletop Gaming Chap

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S’up?! - My 5e Lost Mines of Phandelver campaign looks like it’s going to be drawing to a close in the next couple of months, I’ll have a write up of my thoughts on that module as and when.

But this has got me onto thinking about what to run next. Deffo not D&D 5e, I’ve quite had my fill of that system for the time being thankyou!

So, I’ve narrowed it down to two campaign choices - which do you think I should go with?

Campaign Ideas

Shadowdark - Dungeons of Drakkenheim

I came across the Dungeon Dudes’ actual play series a few years ago, and I must confess that I found myself quite getting into it. I liked the grim dark setting and the player driven story style of the adventure - it has a very ‘Mordheim’ vibe about it which tickles my pickle.

The premise is that the city of Drakkenheim has been struck by a magical meteor and now lays in ruin. The residual magic has a mutating effect on the local fauna, creating new beasts and monsters of a Lovecraftian persuasion. However, ‘Delerium’ - the name given to the magical fragments of meteor left about the place, commands a high value in the market, and so there’s no shortage of intrepid adventurers and factions lining up to go a plundering the city ruins.

To cap it off, there’s a power struggle because the royal line has apparently been severed during the incident, with differing factions wanting to install new kings, or hunt down the existing royal family somewhere in the city. Lots of political intrigue to be getting on with.

So it sounds pretty cool, and when they released a campaign book for it (Dungeons of Drakkenheim), I figured it’d be rude not to pick it up!

Sadly, it’s designed for 5e, however now that I’ve got Shadowdark (which is built off 5e, but stripped of all it’s heavy baggage) and the recently completed Shadowdark Monster Conversion kit, I’m thinking that it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to convert the adventure over. Especially since the city of Drakkenheim is sort of a megadungeon, and Shadowdark seemingly seems to be a perfect match.

Mausritter - The Estate

I think I was introduced to Mausritter by Ben Milton over at Questing Beast a few years ago, and I was immediately charmed by it. So I picked up copies of both the core rules and “The Estate” which is a hex crawl sandbox adventure, featuring a dozen or so premade adventures for the different keyed location of the hex map.

The premise is that it’s the familiar D&D trope, except that you’re a mouse, and the world is full of mafioso cats, snakes, owls, rats, and other predatorial critters which essentially puts you at the bottom of the food chain. “The Estate” is a full hex crawl adventure that literally takes place in the property and grounds of a human’s stately home, some some adventures take place in the green house, others in the drainage system or chimney.

It’s built off the rules lite “Into the Odd” system, and aside from the low power level of the player characters, it’s main distinguishing features are that it is classless - your abilities are dictated by your current inventory. Also, you do not roll to hit, all hits are automatically successful, both ways, and it it’s just a question of how much damage.

It’s one of those games that’s been sat on my shelf for a while, having only played it the once with my Wife in a duette, so it’s definitely due it’s time in the sun.

I like it’s inventory system so much that I named it one of my favourite TTRPG mechanics, and built my own D&D house rule off the back of it!

Conclusion

Which gets your vote? Reach out in the comments below and let me know!

Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed reading this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials, and maybe think about subscribing to the Mailer of Many Things! Either way, catch you later.

I Took the Temperature of r/RPG on Reddit - I Found a Fever!

By JimmiWazEre

Opinionated Tabletop Gaming Person

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Hey there, I’ve been dabbling on Reddit quite a bit lately, mainly as a vehicle for syndicating my blog posts (since organic Google searching is literally the pits), and I’ve noticed that they’re quite the opinionated bunch.

So I figured that it might be fun and informative to go to r/RPG, the largest TTRPG community and ask them for their ‘hot takes’, so that I could write an article about the ones that stood out to me.

Reddit did not disappoint.

Before I start sharing these takes, I want to make it very clear that they’re not my own words, or any in many cases, not even my shared opinions. I will be offering a commentary against each one so you can see what I actually think, but since this is The Internet, just bear all this in mind before you get the pitchforks out if you read something inflammatory!

Trigger warning - May Contain Spicy Opinions!

Seriously, this post is literally analysing the hot takes of people on Reddit. If you don’t want to be exposed to that, please head over to my homepage and read a different article. Last warning!

OK, you ready for some fun? Just so you know, this isn’t a dogpile, or doxing exercise so I’ll not be showing the author’s screen names or linking to the original post. I will however be [beep]ing out any naughty words, but otherwise I’ll be reposting their comments as is, typos and all. Alrighty, without further ado - enjoy!

Hot Take 1) Indie Games Should be Released with Adventures

If a game doesn't have any modules, be that created by the author/s or by the community, then it doesn't matter whether or not it contains "everything you need to run the game“ because I won't know how it is intended to be run and I don't have spare table time to [beep] around trying to work it out.

Modules are the first thing I check for, even if I don't intend to use them, because if there aren't any that's a red flag. If the author can't (or can't be bothered to) write an example adventure for their game then I'm not going to waste time trying to work out how I should run it, I'll just find something else.

Gosh, internet people are so angry! I think there’s two points here to unpack. Firstly - the value of an ecosystem of adventures for your indie game system. The poster is quite right to point out that having included or at least available adventures communicates the games tone and sets out a very literal example of how the game author expects their game to be played. When this is missing, it does indeed create a barrier to entry.

Indie developers take note.

Second point though, I know it’s a hot take, but the language of this post comes across so badly as to almost undermine the good point being made. Indie game makers are often working solo for months or years on passion projects to create things that they heartbreakingly and realistically expect to be ignored by the community at large. This displays an incredible and admirable dedication to their craft and fans. To suggest that either they’re lazy, or have some kind of a servile obligation to create your vision, rather than their own is fairly problematic to say the least.

I’m going to go on and assume that this poster is actually a really nice guy, and maybe he’s just having a really crappy day. You should do the same.

Hot Take 2) Modern D&D Play Style Expectations Are Bad

character backstory should be short

balance is overrated, unbalanced gameplay or abilities inspire cool moments in a story

stats are unnecessary, a sword+1 is boring. The items should always be something cool like a sword that extends into a whip

D&D (and a lot alike) is just a tactical board game in a roleplay costume

I recognise a lot of typical OSR sentiment here.

Short backstories encourage ‘playing to find out’ and unconstrained improvised roleplay at the table, conversely, long back stories tend to create a GM Conflict of Interest - that desire to ensure that the character who has this lovingly crafted novel about how he is the chosen one, isn’t killed in the first encounters with goblins because of their poor tactical choices!

Magic items that don’t simply provide a stat boost is a similar ideal - they prompt creative improvised gameplay.

Ooh that’s naughty! “D&D is just a tactical boardgame in a roleplay costume”! I mean, I kinda, sorta, almost agree. Let’s say I can see where the poster is coming from. 5e’s ruleset is predominantly concerned with tactical combat and the intricacies of how abilities work, with enough detail to supposedly maintain consistency and balance. The other pillars; social and exploration, do not get much more than a cursory nod in comparison.

Hot Take 3) 5e is a Better Computer Game than TTRPG

5e is not a good TTRPG. It is, however, a wonderful computer game.

Baldur's Gate proves this decisively.

I’m showing my own ‘Rulings over Rules’ philosophy here but this one get’s my total agreement. Baldurs Gate 3 remains one of my favourite computer games, and despite being modded for the conversion (no more so than any GM’s standard house rules though) 5e just has too much focus on resolving conflict by players picking ready made special abilities from a menu (aka character sheet), just like you would with a video game.

Hot Take 4) RNG is Still RNG No Matter How You Achieve It

The specific "dice system" a TTRPG uses is meaningless.

My time playing war games and board games has opened my eyes to the fact that every RNG based mechanic can run on pure D6s just fine.

I don’t quite agree with this one. From a mathematical perspective, different dice have different odds of getting any given number, which means that the bigger the dice, the more granular you outcomes can be. Some games thrive on that granularity.

Additionally, for some reason I can’t quite explain, rolling dice is fun! So different ways to roll dice means different and varied ways to have that fun.

Hot Take 5) GM Experience is Nothing like the Player Experience

HOT: balance should be 'by player', not by character

DAMN HOT:Backstory is your first five levels

NUCLEAR:The GM and the players aren't playing the same game

Some more OSR sensibilities here again I suspect. I’ve written quite extensively about game balance before, though I’m not sure what this poster means by “by player, not by character”, unless he means that he balances his players at the table by their skill at playing TTRPGs?

Backstories, yeah this is similar to the one on Hot Take number 2 - play to find out.

“The GM and the players aren’t playing the same game” - Now this IS interesting. I think this is fairly on point to be honest, The experiences of being a GM versus being a player are pretty irreconcilable. Other than potentially sharing the same room and sitting at the same table, each group is wholly focused on different things. I suppose a good analogy might be the experiences of orchestral violinists as opposed to conductors.

Conclusion

I found that quite an interesting foray into the psyche of r/RPG, and I am quite surprised that D&D 5e gets so little love in such a large community! I’d like to thank everybody that responded to my call out for hot takes, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about them. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below! Special thanks to peb on itch.io for sharing his character portraits on cc 4.0!

Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed reading this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials, and maybe think about subscribing to the Mailer of Many Things for monthly updates from DMT straight to your inbox! Either way, catch you later.

Play Like a Legend: 6 Behaviours That Make You the MVP at the Table

By JimmiWazEre

Opinionated Tabletop Gaming Person

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Players. Playing TTRPGs at the GMs property. But you can’t be any geek off the street, gotta be handy with the sheet if you know what I mean - earn your keep.

Oh wait - that’s aspiring Regulators, not Players. My bad. You wanted advice to become a better player.

Hey, I got you covered there too.

The absolute basics

There are two desirable groups of qualities when it comes to discussing the characteristics of TTRPG players. Initially, there’s the basic factors that are all “must-haves” as far as I am concerned, unless you want to find yourself persona non grata within a session or two:

• Be enthusiastic (bring your own dice, have learnt, or be actively learning how your character works, and how the basic game engine works)

• Be kind

• Be compliant

• Listen (give everyone your attention)

• Respect everyone’s time (be ready, don’t distract attention away from the game)

Nothing ground breaking here right? You can do this, and it’s the minimum behavioral standard that I’d expect players to keep if they wanted to sit at my table. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t forgive the occasional lapse from time to time, or that we shouldn’t give new players some grace to find their feet. Human’s gonna human afterall.

However, what if you wanted to up the ante? What if you wanted to help your GM to deliver the best games, and become a great player - not just an acceptable one?

Well then, you’d need to look at that second group of qualities I mentioned:

6 Ways to be a Great Player

Group dynamics are weird, most people in a TTRPG group will passively delegate all authority and responsibility to the GM, and take it from me - that’s a hell of a lot to own on top of everything else.

Being a great player is all about taking an active responsibility to make the game better for everyone, and not just sitting back and leaving the GM to worry about it.

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Hey, I’m not saying that you must embody all of these behaviors to be a great player either, play to your strengths and do what you can do, and even if you only tick off a couple - your table will notice and be grateful for it.

1. Collaborate with the GM in your pursuit of an in-game Agenda

   Have a side quest that motivates you. Make one up and run it by your GM - it should be something achievable within the scope of the game. If the game is a prehistoric wilderness hex crawl, and your side-quest is to climb the greasy pole of city politics then that’s not really compatible - try ‘hunting and killing a T-Rex’ instead.

   I had a character, a cleric from the feasting domain in a Saltmarsh game who aspired to own a restaurant. Specifically a floating converted pirate ship restaurant. This meant that I had two things I was always keeping in mind - the need to buy or commandeer a vessel, and the need to collect artisan recipes from across the world.

   The idea here is that you’ll never have those moments where you don’t know what to do, because you’ve got this motivation underpinning everything and it keeps the game moving without solely relying upon the GM to spoon feed the games direction.

2. Create constructive Drama with Other Willing Player’s Characters

   Starting off with a big caveat: Check in with the other player to see how this is going down - the last thing you want to be doing is simply being an annoying contrarian. Read the room, dude.

   But yeah, what I like to see at my table is when players start bouncing off each other with friendly conflicts and rivalries, it gives me a moments respite as GM, and allows me to sit back and watch and take inspiration. It also gives your characters depth, and can provide new directions to explore.

   It brings the game to life and stop it from becoming this place that only exists through the framing of the GM’s words.

3. Invite and Coax Engagement From your Peers

   Did you know that quiet and nervous people exist? Who knew? More, that they can be great players too. Other great players recognise the value of their input and are self aware enough to make space for them at the table. It’s all too easy to be the loudest person at the table, but if that comes at the expense of drowning others out, or intimidating them then it’s not great player behavior.

   Moreso than simply making space for other people to talk, or not talking over them - a great player actively seeks out others opinions, or gently engages their characters in the moment. It takes two to tango afterall.

   These quiet players will not be so forever, and they will find their own comfort level eventually - I guarantee that this is not ‘silence’ either, it just takes a bit of support and a safe space.

4. Suggest the Descriptive Elements that You Would Like to See in the Environment

   As players, you’re often sat there thinking about all the cool things you’d like to do in this situation if only XYZ. The problem is that the GM is not a mind reader and doesn’t know that you’re hoping for XYZ. So, as a player, you should not be afraid to ask in good faith - “Is there XYZ here?”.

   Honestly, don’t be scared. I’m not going to tell you off (if you GM does tell you off for this, your GM is bad). I love it when my players do this, and it’d have to be a pretty unreasonable request for me to respond with “no”.

   When players do this right, it adds richness to the game world, and it’s also helping me to improve my descriptions too.

5. Adlib your Own Fluff Directly At the Table

   Psst, did you know that when you call in at the tavern and speak to the barmaid about her life story, that the GM is just making all this stuff up?! Here’s the kicker, you should too!

   This is my favourite thing - as a player - make stuff up. Don’t sit there afraid that you can’t contribute to an in-game conversation because you don’t know what the official cannon is for a particular topic. Just reach inside, find something plausible and throw it out there with confidence.

   One of two things should happen. First, ideally, everyone rolls with it and hey you just made the game richer - awesome. Or secondly, the GM steps in with a “no, but” to modify your fact, if they need to make sure that it’s not too off-piste.

   This latter isn’t scary or shaming or anything bad, and you shouldn’t be worried about it. A great GM will not hold it against you, and will in fact appreciate that you kept the game flowing, albeit with a minor intervention on their part.

6. Be an Active Listener

   Passive listening is just about shutting your pie hole and letting others talk whilst paying attention to what is being said. This is a pretty basic skill in social situations.

   Great players are active listeners, this has three components:

   > Make encouraging and affirmative sounds and gestures in response to information being shared with you, to indicate your presence.

   > Ask questions about this information, to check your understanding.

   > Take notes to ensure that you can remember this important information next time.

   The objective here is that as an active listener, you will know what is going on, and you can help shepherd your fellow players through any confusing moments that arise.

   Being an active listener is also a massive moral boost to your GM, because nothing kills a GM’s motivation to run an event based campaign like the feeling that they’re the only one putting any effort in!

Conclusion

Are you just starting out as a player? Which of these could you do with working on the most? Experience players, do you have anything that you’d add to my list? Did you listen to the entire of Regulate whilst reading this article? Let me know in the comments below.

Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed reading this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials, and maybe think about subscribing to the Mailer of Many Things for monthly updates from DMT straight to your inbox! Either way, catch you later.

The Rusted Colossus 02: | How to make Art Assets Without Being An Artist

By JimmiWazEre

Opinionated Tabletop Gaming Person

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Now then.

Alongside other life things, the Rusted Colossus has been ticking away steadily in the background, and the greatest advances forwards have been in making art assets for the adventure, so that’s gonna be the topic of today’s dev diary.

Before I begin though, If you have no idea what the Rusted Colossus is, I strongly suggest you start with this article and then come back to this. I’ll wait - it’s OK :)

Now I want to make it quite clear that I’m not an artist, nor do I have the kind of talent of GOZR’s creator - JV West. However GOZR’s art style is simple enough for me to be able to produce something that hopefully doesn’t look too out of place. Albeit with a process that takes time and research.

So, if it doesn’t sound too presumptuous of me, I thought I’d share my process today for creating art assets. Maybe it might be interesting and informative for some of you folks? And, who knows, maybe an actual artist will read this and be able to dish out some advice if I’m making any glaring errors.

Pencil and Paper, in front of the TV with the Dog

If you’re like me, then you can’t hold mental images in your head for longer than a couple of seconds before they start fading and blurring away like sand falling between your fingers. Maybe that’s normal, maybe it’s not? All I know is that it’s my normal, and we all work with what we’ve got.

To combat this, I like to start by looking at lots of pictures, particularly if its something really complicated. The titular Colossus for example, involved looking at lots of Gundam, Warhammer 40k, and Battletech art and miniatures - grabbing all the ones I liked and then keeping images of them to hand on my phone.

Then, typically sat in front of the TV with the family, I crack out my mechanical pencil and my recycled paper A5 notepad and I start free hand transferring those basic shapes to paper, tweaking and making my own changes as I go.

Drawing lightly, and using an eraser frequently, I’ll eventually come up with something pretty sketchy which works for me. At this stage, it’s just simplistic shapes and forms really.

I found an early image of my Sand Shark, and I’m hesitant to share it because at this stage in its lifecycle looks like such garbage - but transparency is king haha.

Accomplished artists would probably have something to say about technique here I suppose. Seriously, look at that thing! Do I seem like a guy that has anything valuable to say about techniques?

Black Lining and Juicey Details

This is my favourite step actually, I like to use a Tombrow double headed water based marker (purely as it’s the cheapest one I could find in the art shop that looked suitable). Using the fine head, I very steadily and deliberately start going over my lines. I’m not copying them exactly at this point, but rather taking the time to add texture, gribblies, and the little bumps and ridges that kick an illustration up a notch.

I enjoy this step so much because it’s really not difficult, and the difference it makes to the illustration is like night and day in terms of quality.

I also like to add the heaviest shadows at this stage too, assuming the ‘sun’ is in the top left usually. Normally because I’m digging the process by this point and getting a bit too carried away and ahead of myself, but any mistakes can be resolved later.

I also added some of the accompanying text here too, but more often than not, I like to draw separate elements of an illustration on a separate sheet.

Getting It on the Computer (The Digital Bit)

I have a combination printer/scanner which I use to import my illustrations on to my computer, and an old copy of Photoshop (before they went subscription) where I do my editing.

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If you’re looking to follow my methods and you lack these things, you could use freeware like GIMP instead of Photoshop, although you’d have to do your own research on how it works. Likewise, instead of a scanner, you could take a photo of your art and then email it to yourself.

Using Photoshop, like a Noob

OK, I’m not a Photoshop guru by any stretch. I picked up a copy years ago, and I used it for the absolute basics. Typically, I end up learning how to do something cool with it, and then not needing it for months at a time and forgetting everything. The joys of getting old.

Some absolute basics that you need to understand before any of this will make sense are:

• Brushes

• Transparency

• Opacity

• Layers

• Transformations

For this, I’m going to have to point you elsewhere, this free Photoshop course I just found might be worth a punt.

The subheadings below cover what I’m trying to achieve.

Restoring your scanned image to pure black and white

The first issue to resolve is that your need to clean up your images, and this is a lot easier to do if they start from pure black and white.

To do this, you need to use the Threshold tool, found under Adjustments. This opens up a little graph enabling you to select a position upon it where you’re happy with the balance between white and black. As you slide the threshold left and right, your image will change, so find a point where you’re happy.

One of the unwanted consequences of this tool is that all your line work will have lost it’s soft edges, and you’ll be left with nasty pixelated lines. Not to worry, we can fix this too.

With your Threshold layer selected, go to Filter > Noise > Median and set it to about 3. You can adjust this to taste, but the effect will be that your lines get a number of new pixels added around them, fading them into the background to make everything appear smoother.

If I’m happy, I’ll merge my layers at this point. so I’m just left with my black and white image which I’ll call the Lines layer.

Delete the White

I use the manual Lasso Tool to draw around my piece, then right click, Select Inverse, and delete. Then I use the Magic Wand Tool to select any white areas that remain and delete those too. It can help to hide your background layer, as this makes it easier to see where you have areas of white remaining.

The reason that I do this step is so that when I’m making selections or using the fill tool later on, I don’t get any weird surprises caused by hidden white bits.

Making tweaks

This is a great time to bring out the eraser and brushes tool to start making any tweaks to your work. I don’t bother with a tablet for this, just a mouse and a very steady hand does the trick for me.

For me, one of the key things to look for is that any lines that started close together and have since blurred into one, are once again defined separately.

Adding light values

I come from a miniatures painting background, so I have obtained a pretty good understanding of light values over the years, if you’re just starting out - this tutorial on light and dark looks good.

In Photoshop, I start of by creating a new layer underneath my Lines layer called Grey. Then I go back up to my Lines layer, and using the Magic Wand Tool, I select on the canvas, outside of the subject I’ve just drawn, and the right click and select inverse.

It’s important not to get rid of that selection as now I return to my Grey layer, and with a mid grey selected I use the paintbrush tool to fill everything inside of it.

I then create two more layers between Grey and Lines, called Light and Dark. Keeping that selection in place from earlier to prevent us from colouring outside the lines, and selecting an appropriately lighter or darker grey, I then use a suitably sized brush to add highlights and shadows to the piece.

This is all first pass stuff at this stage, and throughout the process I go back to these layers and add more light and shadows as seems appropriate.

Sometimes I even add a lighter grey highlight on a new layer. Just keep going until you’re happy with it.

Adding Colour

When adding colour, I sometimes like to create a layer per shade I use, but it’s not strictly necessary. The important thing is that for your colour layers, to set the layer opacity to around 50% - Not the brush opacity.

That way, with your colour layers above your grey layers, 50% of the shading beneath comes through as you paint the fresh layer.

The effect can be subtle, but it’s really important to do this as the way that the light volumes interact with the colours is what gives the image depth.

Importing Additional Elements, Moving and Resizing

Mimicking the hand written aesthetic of JV West, I tend to import these extra elements as separate layers. I don’t worry about the the light values steps, but I do take the opportunity here to select little elements and move them around with the transformation tool, including resizing and repositioning them.

If you compare the coloured Sand Shark image below with the one from earlier in the post - you’ll see that the text has been moved around and resized.

Adding Effects

I think the header text tends to look good when it has a coloured Stroke effect applied. You have to make sure that the element you want to effect is isolated on it’s own layer, and then select FX and Stroke. In the subsequent menu, I can affect the colour and width of the stroke to taste.

Ofcourse, you can also use FX to add drop shadows and other wizbangs if you like!

Here’s my current iteration of the Sand Shark. It’s probably ready to be used, but I make no promises that I won’t fiddle with it some more later!

Conclusion

Do you feel up to giving it a go? If you’ve got experience yourself - do you have any tips and advice for a noob like me? Have you got any art you want to show everyone on Bluesky by linking me in it?

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