[WIP] How to make a Cultist Simulator/Book of Hours/Secret Histories style portrait, even if you’re bad at graphic design
Image of Rose, released by Weather Factory under the Sixth History Community License.
It is surprisingly easy to make a Cultist Simulator/Book of Hours/Secret Histories portrait. I don’t want to have to keep typing that sentence, so I’m just going to abbreviate it to SH-style. I am pretty mid at graphic design and even I was able to do this within an hour or two. Please note, I had access to a representation of myself that was already ‘cut’ a certain way, so I just had to use clipping masks to recolor things like hair. If you’re doing this from scratch, this document should still be helpful.
Stylistic Rules
There are some really simple stylistic rules for making the portraits. We’re going to use the above portrait of Rose as an example. Left and right refer to the character’s left and right, not the viewer’s left and right.
General Rules:
There aren’t gradients or any textures except the background’s paper texture. There aren’t outlines.
The character is lit from a light coming directly from their left.
Background Rules:
The background has a paper texture. You can find some public domain paper textures pretty easily on Wikimedia.
The background is usually plain but can have symbols that look hand-drawn and rune-like.
Palette Rules:
There are three colors used in every portrait. Those colors are…
Slate Gray #3F5969 : slate gray example,
Dark Gray #14242C : dark gray example,
pure white #FFFFFF pure white example
There is also a color used for backgrounds and a color used as an accent color. That color depends on character and/or Principle. For example, Rose’s accent color is Hot Pink #FF6EF2 : hot pink example
However, Victor, who has a pink portrait as well, uses the accent color Malibu Pink #FF76E0 : Malibu Pink example
Here are the colors side by side: : hot pink example : Malibu Pink example
You can pick your own accent color or use one that Weather Factory has already used. It’s really up to you.
For some reason, Rose’s clothing detail' color isn’t a perfect match for her accent color, but I’d recommend just matching them. Or not. The stakes are so low.
Face and Facial Features:
The left side of the face is usually #FFFFFF, with an eye in the accent color. Again, the accent color depends on the character and does not necessarily match their Principles. The eyebrows and eyelashes/eyeliner will be in Slate Gray. Every character, regardless of gender presentation, has prominent eyelashes/liner Solly on the left side of their face, unless the face is obscured by, say, glasses.
The right side of the face is in the accent color, with an eye in #FFFFFF. The eyebrows will be in Dark Gray. There will be no eyelashes/eyeliner.
The upper lip is in Slate Gray and the lower lip is in Dark Gray.
The right eyebrow and nose are combined in one line that divides the face into two sections.
Features such as scars might be in the accent color.
Neck and Body:
The neck and body are divided similarly to the face, in which the right side is in the accent color and left side is in #FFFFFF.
Hair and Clothes:
Hair and clothes are divided into Slate Gray on the left, Dark Gray on the right, with accents in the ‘opposite’ color for each side. These accents show things like hair texture and direction.
The hair rules apply to facial hair as well.
One exception to this rule: Zulfiya has short hair (shaved?) on her lefthand side, in her accent color. Perhaps the fact the ‘hair’ is in her accent color, rather than Slate Gray or Dark Gray, means it isn’t hair at all…!
Clothes:
All the clothing bases are in Slate Gray and Dark Gray. The accent color may be used sparingly for things like adornments, accessories, and to show texture.
The Process:
Take a photo of yourself for reference as a guide and use the graphic design process of your choice to do the following:
1.) Pick a color for your face if you don’t want to use #FFFFFF, and pick an accent color. We’re just going to call these Base Color and Accent Color.
2.) Add a paper texture background. Add a layer over the paper texture. Fill that layer fully with Accent Color. Change your settings (blend mode probably, or opacity level) so that recolors the paper texture and mess around with settings until it looks good.
3.) Draw your body and neck (not face, clothes, hair) first, in Base Color.
4.) Draw your face (without features) in Base Color.
5.) Draw your eyebrows and nose. Right eyebrow and the nose is Dark Gray. Left eyebrow is Slate Grey. Connect the right eyebrow to the nose in one line.
6.) Splitting the face in half, the facial skin that is to the right of the nose, and below the eyebrow, should be recolored Accent Color.
7.) Draw a plain white eye on the right side of face, with no eyeliner/eyelashes.
8.) Draw an eye in Accent Color on the left side of face, with eyeliner/eyelashes in Slate Green.
9.) Draw hair according to the coloration guide above. The lefthand hair is Slate Gray with Dark Gray accents/texture. The righthand hair is Dark Gray with Slate Gray accents/texture.
10.) Draw lips. Top lip is Slate Gray. Bottom lip is Dark Gray.
11.) Draw clothes. The lefthand clothes have a Slate Gray base with Dark Gray details. The righthand clothes have a Dark Gray base with Slate Gray details. They may have Accent Color details as well, e.g. a necklace.
12.) Bam, you have a SH-style portrait.
Rules I personally broke:
I chose not to make my face #FFFFFF because I’m purple.
I chose not to make my left eye my accent color because I wanted to highlight the fact I have pink eyes. Not pinkeye. Pink eyes.
I used slightly different shades of gray than what I listed, but it’s close enough.
I chose to use a darker version of my accent color for my neck and body so my face didn’t blend into them. I didn’t end up doing highlighting on my body.x
I put eyeliner on each side of my face on accident.
I kept my shirt white because I don’t want to confuse people given my shirt is always white.
The Blog of Hours is an independent work by Eldra Echo and is not affiliated with Weather Factory Ltd, Secret Histories or any related official content. It is published under Weather Factory’s Sixth History Community Licence. https://weatherfactory.biz/sixth-history-community-licence/
