squid-nerds:

JKSAJDKAS i dunno what I am doing half of the time, but I’ll try my best to explain! I am by no means a professional in my eyes.

So, I colored an old doodle to demonstrate kinda the rule I go by for blush? The lighter the skin, the more orange I use for the cheeks. For darker, I use a dark red or redish purple. 

For shading, I try to use 3 different hues based on the flesh color. It’s almost the same color spectrum for the blush:

• A shade that is slightly darker and slightly more saturated (I it use for base color)
• Second shade is darker but WAY more saturated (typically a red or orange color depending on the skin)
• The last shade is typically a purple color. For lighter skin, it’s less saturated. For darker skin, its more saturated.
• For highlights, I simply just use a lighter color of the skin. 

~ Just a little tip/suggestion!: For lighter skin, focus on the color of the shading. For darker skin, I like to focus on the highlights. Medium skin color can go either way ~

Or if you are too lazy to find those colors (like me sometimes), I just use the multiply blend mode. Its so much faster lmao

Lastly, I put lighting effects! It really pulls the skin together imo. This is the simple version of what I do:

Hope this helped! 

distroubling:

1. Embarrass your protagonist. Make them seem weak and vulnerable in some way.
2. Shoot someone. That always takes the reader by surprise. 
3. In relation, kidnap someone. Or, rather, make it seem to your protagonist like someone has been kidnapped. 
4. Have one of your side characters disappear or become unavailable for some reason. This will frustrate your protagonist.
5. Have someone kiss the wrong girl, boy, or person, especially if you’ve been setting up a romance angle. It’s annoying.
6. If this story involves parents, have them argue. Push the threat of divorce, even if you know it won’t ever happen. It’ll make your readers nervous.
7. Have someone frame your protagonist for a crime they didn’t commit. This could range from a dispute to a minor crime to a full-blown felony.
8. If this is a fantasy story involving magic or witchcraft, create a terrible accident that’s a direct result of their spell-casting. 
9. Injure your protagonist in some way, or push them into a treacherous scenario where they might not make it out alive. 
10. Have two side characters who are both close to the protagonist get into a literal fist-fight. This creates tension for the reader, especially if these characters are well-developed, because they won’t know who to root for.
11. Make your protagonist get lost somewhere (at night in the middle of town, in the woods, in someone else’s house, etc.) 
12. Involve a murder. It can be as in-depth and as important as you want it to be. 
13. Introduce a new character that seems to prey on your protagonist’s flaws and bring them out to light.
14. If it’s in-character, have one of your characters get drunk or take drugs. Show the fallout of that decision through your protagonist. 
15. Spread a rumor about your protagonist. 
16. If your protagonist is in high-school, create drama in the school atmosphere. A death of a student, even if your protagonist didn’t know them personally, changes the vibe. 
17. If your story involves children, have one of them do something dangerous (touch a hot stove, run out into the road, etc.) and show how the protagonist responds to this, even if the child isn’t related to them. 
18. In a fantasy story, toss out the idea of a rebellion or war between clans or villages (or whatever units you are working with). 
19. Add a scenario where your protagonist has to make a choice. We all have watched movies where we have screamed don’t go in there! at the top of our lungs at the main character. Make them go in there. 
20. Have your protagonist find something, even if they don’t understand the importance of it yet. A key, a document, an old stuffed animal, etc. 
21. Foreshadow later events in some way. (Need help? Ask me!)
22. Have your protagonist get involved in some sort of verbal altercation with someone else, even if they weren’t the one who started it. 
23. Let your protagonist get sick. No, but really, this happens in real life all the time and it’s rarely ever talked about in literature, unless it’s at its extremes. It could range from a common cold to pneumonia. Maybe they end up in the hospital because of it. Maybe they are unable to do that one thing (whatever that may be) because of it.
24. Have someone unexpected knock on your protagonist’s door. 
25. Introduce a character that takes immediate interest in your protagonist’s past, which might trigger a flashback.
26. Have your protagonist try to hide something from someone else and fail.
27. Formulate some sort of argument or dispute between your protagonist and their love interest to push them apart. 
28. Have your protagonist lose something of great value in their house and show their struggle to find it. This will frustrate the reader just as much as the protagonist.
29. Create a situation where your protagonist needs to sneak out in the middle of the night for some reason.
30. Prevent your character from getting home or to an important destination in some way (a car accident, a bad storm, flat tire, running out of gas, etc.)