Rusty Shackle's Art Tips and Tricks

MSPro Brush Pen Tool Tonal Shading.

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:38:34 -0400

Hey all!

Wanted to drop a quick tutorial on ya. Been doing this technique quite a bit lately - it’s an easy way to apply tonal shading while still in Manga Studio without cutting and pasting computones.

Here is a loose approximation of my workspace area and the layers I use. As usual, I keeps it minimal. The current hidden layer is my pencils, the ink is all of the black line art you see, and the tones are, well, the tones.

A lot of times in photoshop I’ll add a multiply layer over my colors and lineart and add a pure grey shadow stroke where appropriate, but this is the same idea for use with minimal colors. The trick is to adjust the settings on the Brush Pen tool shown above. I have it a higher size since my tablet pressure is pretty generous, but play around with the settings! The opacity is the level of darkness you’ll lay down, anything under 70% will have that tonal-computone look that’s not quite ben-day dots but close.

You can also adjust the ink amount, the percentage for what it was set at is written above. You can get some nice scratchy lines out of it this way, plus you can edit the brush shape too. Makes shading go a bit easier in my experience.

My Double Dragon piece was the first one I did this with, it had WAY more techniques and also had some CompuTones laid over top for additional effect. I DO NOT recommend this technique if you do a substantial amount of color holding, but if you do, here’s a trick.

when it’s time to export your image for use in photoshop - go to the file settings and hit the “settings” button. Change it to keep layer structure for output, and allow up to 5 layers. This will keep the layers as is (note you will need to delete the extra ALPHA channel before saving in photoshop as a jpg). You can’t use my macro for line art preparation as that is made for a single layer BMP image, but this method actually works fine with this. On the Maximum Carnage red variant, all I did was keep the black lineart as is, and adust the tonal layer’s hue/saturaion to where I wanted it.

Go experiment! Modify! Kit-Bash and make your own methods with this!

eyecager: So 0033/Red Ink Teacher has been updating with some...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:16:32 -0400

eyecager:

So 0033/Red Ink Teacher has been updating with some more great sheets of hands and feet.

These are amazing to study from since he breaks down the forms pretty well and I guarantee after doing a few studies of their feet or hands you pick up really quick on how to break them down yourself to suit your needs. When all I owe is cleared away definitely want to do a long series of studies of his after I acquire some paintbrushes and ink from here.

coffeeandcockatiels: tutorialsforartists: toramiyo: Some...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 22:09:01 -0400

coffeeandcockatiels:

tutorialsforartists:

toramiyo:

Some great and simple tutorials from DerSketchie on DeviantArt

They have more tutorials in their Gallery so check them out!

Some pretty good stuff.

sodakick: whaatnext: everything you need to know about pixel...

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 07:57:38 -0400

sodakick:

whaatnext:

everything you need to know about pixel art and how to start (best one so far)

pixel art, what is it?

an introduction to pixel art by richard janes

2D will never die’s tutorials page

ultrashock’s pixel art tutorials: part i | part ii | part iii | part iv

wikihow’s become a pixel artist

great list of 30 tutorials

create a 3D characters from pixel art

the big list of pixel art tutorials by pixelprospector

pixel art tutorials

HUGE Collection of Pixel Art Tutorials (pixeljoint)

Pixel Art Tutorials (Derek Yu)

Pixel Art Tutorial (Natomic / Mark)

Big Collection of Pixel Art Tutorials (Gas 13)

Pixel Art (drbubu)

Pixel Tutorial (Final Boss Blues)

Pixel Art Tutorials (deviantART)

More Pixel Art Tutorials (TIGSource Forums)

Even More Pixel Art Tutorials (Pixel-Zone / Some dead links…)

Learning Pixel Art (Black Golem)

A Beginner’s Guide To Spriting (TIGSource Forums)

2D Tile Art Basics (Flash Game Dojo)

pixel art inspiration

HUGE collection of Pixel Art, Mockups and more from TIGSource forums!!

Tzigla (a place for collaborative pixelated drawings in 100×100 pixel squares)

Pixel Art Guild (site that features Pixel Art)

Pixel Art Mega Thread (Something Awful Forums)

Pixel Art Rebirth In Digital Animations (Game Comments)

Hall of Fame for Games Featuring Outstanding Pixel Art (TIGSource Forums)

pixel art forums

Pixel Joint

Pixelation – Way Of The Pixel

Show Us Some Of Your Pixel Work (TIGSource Forums)

freelance guide

Pixel Art Freelance Guide (Adam “Atomic” Saltsman)

graphic style analysis

Graphic Style Analysis – Part I (Black Golem)

Graphic Style Analysis – Part II (Black Golem)

Graphic Style Analysis – Part III (Black Golem)

tutorials about glowy graphics

We Love Glow (Rob Fearon)

The Radiangames Style (Luke Schneider)

I need to look through thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis. And so do you. You know who you are. >:(

Con supplies

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 22:59:54 -0400

Hey folks! I get asked fairly frequently about what supplies I take with me to conventions. I try and keep it as minimal as possible, and almost make a game out of getting it lower and lower. Here’s what I recommend, tailor it to your needs!

1 - a backpack - really anything will do, this was a snazzy one I had gifted to me - I usually carry protein bars and other non-perishables because I hate paying $6 for a hot dog and also hate leaving my table unattended.

2 - business cards - these are a pretty basic thing, but people who may be on the fence (or you are out of stock of something) NEED a way to get in touch w/you after a con. Plus it’s great for people who can’t get to you because you’re assisting someone else.

3- hand sanitizer - 10 cons in the last 2 years and no con crud, here’s why (knock on wood)

4 - scotch tape - I ASSURE you even if you don’t think you’ll use it, YOU WILL USE THIS.

5 - Square card reader - these are essentially free nowadays, so if you have a smartphone there’s no reason not to, unless you enjoy losing sales I guess? 1/3rd of my business is on this bad boy.

6 - Cash - Take only what you need, my stock is in even amounts so I only carry 50-60 bucks in 5s and 10s. Nothing too crazy. If you have a bit wider of a variety in prices, this is up to your discretion, but don’t be a ATM machine. Help your table bros if they ask you to break a 20 though, you’ll need dudes you can trust to watch your table when you have to step away!

7- Rubber bands - everything I sell is pretty much a print and rolls easily (it’s also fairly dense stock but pliable). If you don’t do much prints, you can skip these.

8 - post it notes - always comes in handy - I have a lot of folks who don’t want to walk around with prints all day, so I offer to store them behind my table - these are convenient labels.

9 - pens/paper/etc - I’m 100% digital nowadays, so I only keep silver sharpies for signing prints, and a black one and pens for notes, impromptu signs, etc. I don’t usually have the chance to draw or sit at these shows, but usually do a sketch for the folks who still have opinions about “digital art ain’t real art!” for whatever reason.

Obviously whatever art supplies you need for your style of art would be included in this!

For my stock/display - I keep the boxes I get my prints in for convenience and travel’s sake. I bought a slew of Itoya art portfolios on the cheap from Amazon, don’t buy these from Michael’s unless you like wasting your cash. I currently have one for comics, one for videogame stuff, and one for clearance items. I recommend having at least 2 of these for table traffic’s sake. I keep the stock behind my table (except for my most popular stuff in general) most of the day as needed.

This has been a back-saver, and it’s frickin’ cheap. A collapsible hand-cart will run you about $20 at Big Lots, there’s better ones out there (the wheels bow in a bit if you don’t pay attention) but this makes transporting to and from your car a breeze. Couple of bungee cords for $2 from the same place are also recommended.

Now for my new toy - Stonehenge 2.0. I call it that because I drew it on a napkin and my buddy built it for me. Anyways, the thing that I’ve always heard at these shows was “you have to have a flag banner with your name on it!”. Here’s the thing, since I don’t have a comic gig or anything, I’m not relying on my name, I’m relying on my artwork to sell. So $90 or more on a banner that displays one image and a name is a waste for me. I’m there to sell product, not flags.

The assembly above cost me $30, and approximately 10 minutes in labor on my buddies part (cutting the PVC). It snaps together in about 1 minute. It’s literally just 2 7 foot poles with snap T’s, 2 3 footers for legs, and 3 5 footers with snap T’s on each end for the middle bars. So if you do prints, I recommend trying this or making your own display. This will pimp you w/out having to say a single word, eye-level stuff does substantially better for you than a table banner ever could.

Hope this helps!

Here’s a handy size guide for conventional handguns I saw...

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 19:22:27 -0500

Here’s a handy size guide for conventional handguns I saw Jordan Witt reblog! I also recommend for non-net options having an issue or 2 of Guns And Ammo or something similar. Or hell, some games have viewable 3-d models of each weapon like Metal Gear Solid:Peace Walker that you can change to any possible angle!

jumpingjacktrash:

adriofthedead:

pixiepunch:

aussied:

I needed this for my last project! D:< Ughhhhhhh

Sweet! Really good ref to figure out the size of certain guns.

Reblobbing for future reference. I’m shit at drawing guns ;_;

oh my god yes thank you yes yes thank you

it’s absurd how hard it is to find this kind of ref. and it’s no good just watching action movies and pausing them to grab screencaps, i always end up watching the movie. ‘>_>

Time management

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 22:47:06 -0500

So I got my first question today from Ryan Dunlavey (Action Philosophers, The Comic Book History of Comics, Dirt Candy)

Keeping in mind the fact that since I first interacted with him as a fellow Covered artist, he has had 2 graphic novels come out and I’m too lazy to do a full comic.

Honestly, I’m not even sure how I do it. Let me give you an example of a typical day -

I work from 9 to 5:30 monday through friday and we have a one year old son. So around 6 AM he gets up, which means I get up then too. This part of the daily routine is not exciting, and really, neither is the work day itself. Weekends are pretty filled with family activities or other chores, so my available drawing time is VERY minimal on these days. So I get most of my schmoozing and joking on twitter done via a smartphone during the day, and send e-mails if I need to, which is F’N AWESOME on a phone service that gets one bar of reception in this particular building. But I do have one thing that helps with art productivity - my to-do list staring right at me -

I can sort of keep my mind sane knowing what I need to do, and can kinda visualize or mentally prepare images (or even sketch up thumbnails on post-it notes) this way. I list benchmarks for myself, P-I-C-Copy for Pencils/Inks/Coloring and Copy (if needed) so I know where I’m at and to motivate myself.

After dinner and other family stuff is done and the kiddo winds down, it’s about 9:30 in the evening and it’s FINALLY drawing time. I can usually go for about an hour and a half or so, but I usually try and bring it down by watching a 1/2 hour of a ep of Ultraseven or part of a movie before going to bed at midnight.

Here’s the funny thing, even with all that? I’m maybe the most productive I’ve ever been in my life.

The strangest thing about NOT being able to draw all that often is OBSESSING about it. And for me, I can eliminate potential problems this way, or solve issues on a picture even before I’ve lifted the tablet up. ”Man when I get to do this P-swap I’ll try this color scheme out” or “y’know what fonts’d look good here?”, etc, etc. That’s not how everyone’s programmed, but for me it helps tremendously.

I’m pretty streamlined in how I work to, most of my methods are reflex now (everything from desktop layout, shortcut keys, photoshop actions and macros, general sequencing) so when I tell someone “stop fucking using 100 layers in photoshop” and get a bit pissed it’s because I DESPISE seeing people waste their time. So many bad tutorials online…but I digress.

The other thing is, having done this for a little while I know my limitations, workload and schedule wise. Also, I don’t take on a project if I don’t want to. I used to think I was lucky in that I can draw what I want, but that’s not exactly true. I’m lucky that people will LET me draw what I want for them :D, especially with the musicians I work with. I don’t need to take on a project I’m going to slug through because I need dirty cash money, and lack the enthusiasm to complete in a quick fashion, and the more people realize that the quicker they’ll be. There’ nothing rewarding about that. I’ll walk away rather than plead my case. Not worth my time.

It’s difficult for me still because I am offered comic work pretty frequently, but constantly deny it because there is no way with my life now to commit to a full book. This sucks, but again, it’s perspective and knowing limits. Time invested vs reward, compared to web or music projects that I will have quadruple the exposure (and money) was a lesson I had to learn pretty rapidly these last 2 years.

So yeah, that’s how I do it. Having an insanely awesome family life that I want to spend most of my time on AND being entertained AND working full time AND maintaining an art career takes a helluva lot of balancing, but I had to find what worked for me. Really you just have to figure out what you can sacrifice. I sold my Xbox 360 because it was a distraction (I have a PSP which I can put to sleep so it’s not NEARLY as bad…), but that’s me. Playing the last Dead Rising game became less appealing to me than getting to work for 1up.

You really have to figure out what time you DO have instead of what you DON’T have, and how to maximize every f’n minute of it. There’s no other way to put it. Sorry this got a bit more confessional then people probably wanted, but hopefully there’s something usable here.

Hey let's try this - is there any requests you may have about techniques you'd like me to cover? Or any aspect of the Digital Art biz?

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 08:34:51 -0500

Hey let's try this - is there any requests you may have about techniques you'd like me to cover? Or any aspect of the Digital Art biz?

Comicraft New Year's Sale

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 08:33:10 -0500

Just a heads up! Comicraft is having a sale on New Year’s Day where all of their fonts are available for $20.13! You will need to sign up to make a free account if you haven’t done so already. I REALLY recommend their fonts, the characters are far deeper than some of the freebie comic sites out there and there’s ones you can only get from them that are pretty notable.

I’ll return soon and will have Manga Studio tips for peeps!

fujo: SenshiStock’s gallery consists of millions of pictures...

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 13:38:24 -0500

fujo:

SenshiStock’s gallery consists of millions of pictures that are free to use as reference.

General Drawing Poses
Sit and Kneel
Dramatic and Reaching Drawing Poses
Magic and Hogwarts Drawing Poses
Staff Weapon Pose Reference
Hammer, Axe and Bat Pose Reference
Sword Weapon Drawing Reference
Small Bladed Weapon Pose Reference
Gun Weapon Pose Reference
Bow and Arrow Archery Stock
Foreshortening and Perspective Poses
Dynamic Flying Falling Action Poses
Deafeated or Laying Drawing Poses
Magic Crystal
Magical Girl Wand Weapon
Transformations and Dance
Cards
Back Pose Reference
Pin Up Inspired Poses for Drawing
Performances Poses
Life in General Poses
Fights and Fighting Pose Reference
Leaning Poses
Classic Sailor Senshi Poses
Wings
Sailor Moon Villains
Pairs
Romance or Couples Pose Reference
All the Male Stock
Hanging Stock Drawing Reference
Three or More Groups
Instruments
Mirrors
Whip
Technobabble

bbbreakfast: Download:CS5 Brushes ( works with CS6 ) CS4...

Mon, 17 Dec 2012 10:45:06 -0500

bbbreakfast:

Download:

CS5 Brushes ( works with CS6 )

CS4 Brushes ( works with all versions prior to CS4 )

____

A lot of people ask me while livestreaming what brushes I use, and since I only use some out of certain brush packs, I figured it’d be easier to just clump the ones I use the most together.

If you want to download all the content from the original brush packs, you can download them here:

k04sk Brushes ( also a combination - credits in their description. has a TON of brushes to experiment with!!)
castrochew Brushes - Skin and Hair Texture Brushes

if you have any problems downloading / getting brushes to work, please let me know :8)

nakaoakira: Adobe Creative Suite Toolbar Shortcut Wallpapers

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 11:17:24 -0500

Photoshop Shortcut

Illustrater Shortcut

Flash Shortcut

InDesign Shortcut

nakaoakira:

Adobe Creative Suite Toolbar Shortcut Wallpapers

Hey Rusty, really appreciate the tips. I've got a question about the channel coloring method. When I copy my flats and paste them into a new channel they seem to move and don't line up exactly with the original flats until I nudge the channel back into place. Is there a way to prevent this? Am I just doing something wrong?

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 08:37:32 -0500

Hmmm that’s odd - I’m not sure what would cause that but I’d recommend after you have your flat color layer to select all (ctrl + A) and copy, then go to your channel layer and select all before pasting. That *should* line up, but worst comes to worse you can always just keep a copy of your original flats layer separate from you main art for the same use.

Black Friday Print Sale - 12:01 AM Eastern!

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 21:24:22 -0500

Hey everyone!

The sale officially begins after 12:01 AM Eastern time, due to the limited stock on hand, DO NOT ORDER UNTIL THEN TO KEEP IT FAIR YO!

Here’s what to do since I ain’t got no fancy webstore-

Send me an email at therustyshackles@gmail.com with your selections from Wave 1, Wave 2, and Wave 3 - include your paypal email address if different from the email sent.

OR order FULL PRICE game ones, get ONE $5’ER FREE PER EACH ONE YOU GET!

I will send an invoice to you, once it is confirmed as paid, send me a email with the confirmation and your address. That’s it! Remember, it’s ONE TIME $5 shipping fee, all will be mailed in a thick poster tube (or tubes if needed, no extra charge!) within a week from today. The first 6 orders will be sent within the next few days. Check the hashtag #BlackRustyBamBaLam to see any sell-outs!

Thanks everyone!

mingdoyle: emmyc: nedroidcomics: coelasquid: Just a head’s...

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 18:08:15 -0500

mingdoyle:

emmyc:

nedroidcomics:

coelasquid:

Just a head’s up to any interested parties, this is the software I use to do all my inking and if you subscribe to the SmithMicro mailing list you can run away with the full version for $30 on Friday, as opposed to the standard $300.

That is such a great deal! Manga Studio is great for digital inking. It is what I use too. I paid way more than thirty dollars and I don’t regret it at all but man! Thirty dollars!

I’ve been wanting to snag a copy of this for a while now! Fantastic deal! THANKS ANTHONY

I use Manga Studio to pencil and ink all my comics as well, everybody, be sure to grab it for $30 this Friday! Such a steal!

Hey guys, get in on this action - I’ve used this program for pencilling and inking almost exclusively for the last 5 years

FONTS!

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 21:10:25 -0400

Hey folks! Wanted to share some of the fonts I use and recommend. I’ll mark them if they are free or paid and when the best time to buy is if applicable.

BLAMBOT - By now everyone probably knows Nate Piekos’ work so this shouldn’t be much of a surprise. The available characters aside from the general alpha/numeric and some punctuations/other are pretty good, and his pay fonts are exceptional values. Generally he has a discount available for people who are on his email newsletter, but KEEP IN MIND to apply the code before logging into paypal. There is no review purchase screen like bandcamp or any other site so just a heads up. Exceptional selections and the variety can’t be beat.

COMICRAFT - Comicraft is Richard Starking and John Roshell’s site and is one of the older pro sites online. These are all pay fonts but very much worth it, the variety of each font along with character support are well worth the money. They usually do a sale based off of the year (every font for $20.12 for instance) around new year’s and SDCC but skipped the con one this year, and instead did one for Father’s Day. So they may be mixing it up, I recommend signing up for their newsletter, they do not bombard you at all. Foom, Battle Damaged, RocketMan, Battle Scarred, Monster Mash and Spills are my favorites from them.

HYDRO74 - These are not explicitly for comics but are fantastic for music design. Great variety and prices can’t be beat, plus a generous selection of free fonts. I also recommend following him on twitter as he’ll give out the occasional free font. Hydro74’s fonts are listed so they are grouped together in photoshop instead of just alphabetical which I love.

HOUSE INDUSTRIES - Another great designer for the music design set. No free fonts and a bit on the higher end, but you can find used discs for sale cheaper online. The Rat Fink and Coop sets are amazing.

DAFONT - This is my resource for all of the available free fonts in the world, and it’s very easy to get lost in it so don’t go right click crazy!

ICONIAN FONTS - This designer in my opinion is one of the best kept secrets online. Almost as much variety as Blambot and free (but a donation is asked for commercial use). I wholeheartedly recommend Quartermain, PowerLord, Earth’s Mightiest and RedRocket. The only draw back is photoshop won’t recognize them as a package. The different settings such as bold, italic, etc are listed as unique fonts. Not a big deal but wish there was a way to collapse them.

here’s a couple of single ones I like - Odaballoon is a free dialogue font in the style of silver age DC comics. SingleSleeve is a cool Coop sort of font that I use for many projects including my main site’s header.

Hope this helps!

Balloon Pack

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 10:35:20 -0400

Hey everyone - check out con-bro Michael Mayne’s (Bonnie Lass) FREE word balloon pack for photoshop comicking - http://MichaelMayne.deviantart.com/art/Custom-Dialog-Ballloons-Pack-1-321499525

fungii: FEETS

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 23:10:59 -0400

fungii:

FEETS

Quick little tip here for people regarding color calibration. I...

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 21:45:01 -0400

Quick little tip here for people regarding color calibration. I DO NOT trust my monitor’s output compared to what will actually print in general, but there’s something I found as an alternative for me.

Using swatches for colors is obviously your best bet, but if you’re unsure of what the correct color is, or want a quick palette for working within tones, try using high quality scans of things you’ve seen a million times. In my case, since I spent 1/2 my life in the arcade, I found some straight off the disc Street Fighter Alpha 3 sprites online that I’ve seen on multiple formats (arcade, SDTV, HDTV, PSP) so I know how the colors work. These are FANTASTIC quick and dirty color palettes w/2-3 shades of each color, so instead of a swatch file, you have a visual of how they blend together.

I also have a collection of character profiles from Capcom’s Fighting Evolution which have a bit more color range but are not as blended or airbrushed as Shinkiro normally does, so they’re crisp, defined and easy to pick. I actually refer to some people I draw on the regular by the color file person I use to color them. Adam Warrock is a Marvel Super Heroes Vs. Street Fighter Dan for instance :D

You can find these or whatever the right game for you is out there online, so I recommend just a general folder of reference pics you can pull up and grab quickly. Using too rendered or real photographs work as well, but it’s difficult to pic an accurate color unless you smart blur or posterize it into oblivion.

How I do/use Color Holds

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 22:45:00 -0400

alrighty, now to some actual techniques since I’m close to being caught up. With the methods I’ve shown you so far, you’ll have a lineart layer (black lineart on a transparency) and your bottom layer for coloring on. In the last few years with advancements of printing and computer coloring, color holding has become a very common practice, where the black lineart is colored to add depth to a picture. Generally by making the background elements a lighter color (receding from view) which is done superbly here. It is also used to make special effects such as Cyclop’s eye beam, Green Lantern’s contructs, etc. stand out and look unique.

I’ve always thought the reason for the popularity of it is because of works by Alphonse Mucha. Especially with fans of his work such as Adam Hughes really coming to light during the digital coloring age. But I digress.

Let’s use my recent OHOTMU Redux submission for She-Hulk. My original lineart for this was solid black 100%, but I colored in the lines below her eyes and her nose to make them not as prevalent.

You can just do solid color fills (and in fact most color holds tend to be that way), but here’s a trick I’ve learned to make them fade a bit more and look slightly more organic. On this pic of Slyde…

I want his goggles to fade in a little bit, so I go to the line art layer with the transparency lock clicked, and color the goggles a dark green.

But since that still stands out a bit for what I’m going for, I take my airbrush and go over the goggles with black in the areas I want to be darker.

if you’re worried about darkening over other color holds you’ve done, you can just do all the basic color hold colors with the pencil tool on the lineart, then use your marquee selection tool with contiguous off to select ONLY the colors in that range. I used to this alot with lingerie and flesh ton…nevermind.

I generally DON’T do a 100% lineart color hold replace because it doesn’t always fit my style, but here’s an example of a before and after using this method (solid hold w/no darkening).

Here is another method I’ve used with it that you may find handy. If you know where your shading is going to be and are pretty confident in what your color setting is going to be, you can apply your shading on the line art itself like so…

I knew all of the black shaded areas would be color held, so in this case I worked in reverse. I used the pencil tool to color all of his hoodie with dark red, and then did a stroke selection for a black outline around the figure (you can do this however you like) -

so when the color is applied it looks like the shadow parts flow right in, without looking like the lineart. With something like this it does take a bit of planning in advance to do so I don’t use it that often at this scale, but it is fun to experiment with.

More and more I find myself using color holds to distinguish depth. On the left is 100% black lineart, and the right has a basic red fill on the background characters. You can also see on the left where the lineart was originally indicating how the shading would be done on her arms and boots. Color held they look more organic.

Again, I DON’T RECOMMEND doing a color hold for every object in your picture. There was a Phil Noto colored Jonni Future story that was hideous looking since every object and it’s exterior outline was colored, and there was no depth to it. There was also no rendering so…gah. Doing 100% color held material DOES look great on things of the variety though, I just say know when to say when for your style.