Celeste: A Graphics Workshop

(C) PlatLia Collab

Oh? What's this? Yes, for the first time I did a collab with somebody! The one and only PlatLia! I've been so out of the loop with my editing skills thanks to the new semester hitting me like a truck that I wanted something to help me try and get back into the groove! And honestly, I'm super happy with how this all came out!

This means I am willing to do collabs with other graphic-makers now, though it will be slow since I'm in my last semester of college. Regardless, if you want to collab, DM me here and we can maybe arrange something!

If the character art looks at all familiar, it's because it's my Made in Abyss OC Llyr! I posted his ref sheet in this book a few months ago, but that art of him was art one of my good friends did of him in an art trade I did with her. It was done by Quaone, and she's currently taking commissions! (You can find her on Instagram and Twitter @quaone) Yes, I'll advertise the hell out of her because she does amazing artwork!

As for the cover, it definitely came out differently than I expected. But for someone who doesn't read MLD and doesn't know the character, PlatLia still did an amazing job, really honing in on the wispy blue and white aesthetic I had going on in the base. I can't get over how ethereal this cover looks with the noticeable blue trails going across it! I wish I was confident enough to do partially transparent text on my covers. Also the inclusion of the extra Eternal Fortunes beneath the title was a nice touch uwu

I felt bad for self-advertising with the first cover base, so I decided to go with a good ol' Pokémon-based base for this one, and who doesn't love Mimikyu? I actually had to turn up the exposure a bit for this showcase image because the original cover was pretty dark, and it would've gotten lost here. Still, I love the touches of yellow and tan to match the Mimikyu cloak/hood. Yellow and purple go together surprisingly well, so it works out even better in this case! The slight book theme I had with the overlay in the background was brought out a lot better with the PNGs used here.

Bungou Stray Dogs has been on my watchlist for literal years now, but I still haven't gotten around to it. Because of that, I had to take to the wiki to learn some basics around her so I could even think of a title, but I really tried to lean into it by desaturating the colors some so I could add more filters. The filters I usually use wouldn't have showed up here if I hadn't desaturated it, so even though I feel bad for dimming down the original vibrant colors, I think I managed to restore them in a different way and add a more mystical, mysterious vibe to this. The figure in the background has been kinda lost, but you can see them better when the cover image is at its normal size that I usually post images here.

Again, I had to go to wikis because I know nothing about V-Tubers and Holostars! :'D But I now realize that I manage to put my signature blues and purples on literally every graphic I touch unless it's specified that I can't use cool colors. But thankfully the blues and purples seem to put more life into this, and I managed to find some colored spotlight PNGs to insert into this to give it those cool colors but also hopefully amplify the performer thing? I couldn't find any more art of this character in this outfit online, so I just had to use other art to give it more flavor since having just the stars in the background would have too much plain white when the character is in white.

Overall, I'm so happy with how this turned out! It got me to be creative and try new techniques to add flair to these bases, and I really need to start using more PNGs in my graphics. It's only because it takes so long to find usable PNGs with transparent backgrounds that it makes me want to pull my hair out. Still, I managed to do it, and I'm proud of myself! Thank you again, PlatLia, and I hope we can collab again someday!