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01: Lay out your pose. Some people start with stick figures
and/or collections of polygons and shapes to map out body parts.
I just trace the shapes of the body. Having those laid out helps
me plot out the motion and perspective for when clothing is added.
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02: In which a lot has changed. Some things are now more streamlined,
and there's a fuku there. IRL, the process of finalizing this
sketch took me about two hours, give or take.
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03: Base inking. This particular sketch didn't have any REALLY
fine lines. If you can't find a .005 pen, just use a .01 and keep
the pressure light. I left the pencil lines in this scan to show
where they are in relation to the ink lines.
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04: Erase the pencil lines, thoroughly. Unfortunately, my
.01 has taken a lot of abuse with the CTS Project, and the eraser
refills I have are a little harder than the Pentel ones and they
tend to dim the ink a little. In some cases this might help. In
most, nah.
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05: Ohmigawd, TECHNIQUE. Notice that some lines are now thicker
than others. That's done with the .03. Objects in motion, or that
are in front of other things, get a thicker line to separate them
from whatever they're in front of. The only way I can explain
this is it helps to differentiate those sections of the figure
from the others, breaking up the overall motion a little... if
that makes sense at all.
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06: Outlines. Something I just do, part of the style. Other
artists do this as well, and I myself picked it up from a friend,
so I can't lay any claim to this bit. But whee, OUTLINES. Incidentally,
if there are any small mess-ups around the edges of the figure,
this is one easy way to cover them up.
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07: Final inkage. If you have mistakes you can't outline over,
here's a secret. A Liquid Paper white-out pen (PEN, not anything
else) is both inexpensive and handy. We all mess up now and then,
right?
TIP:
Photocopy your original ink work, and use the copied version for
coloring. That way, if you make mistakes, you can go back and
redo things as many times as you like without harming the original
picture.
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08: What I refer to as the "base layer". In this
case, since Solbria's on the dark side, Prismacolor Dark Brown
(also known as Dark Umber, I think). The trick is to not put too
much pressure on the pencil. You want enough to lay a nice even
layer of color down on the paper without being too dark or heavy.
Note: Several pieces of Solbria's
fuku are made of translucent fabric. I want her skin tone to show
through, but because of the fabric's being over the skin, I don't
need the full shading process. I've left those in a very light
Dark Brown for now (which I went over with the colorless blender,
because it tends to "seal" the pencil, helping to keep
it from smudging, which Prismacolors will do).
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09: Layers two and three. Over the Dark Brown is another light
layer of Crayola Brown. I went over this with the colorless blender
to even it out.
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10: Finishing touches. Shading was done with Prismacolor Black.
I went over that with Crayola Taupe to even it out a bit, then
put on a few highlights in Prismacolor White. For less obvious
highlights, I could and sometimes do use Prismacolor French Grey.
Just not this time. I also gave her a touch of lip color, this
time in Prismacolor Scarlet Lake.
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11: The whites of her eyes have been base-shaded with Crayola
Slate. I went over that with Prismacolor Cloud Blue, deepened
the shadows with Crayola Cool Grey, and then made a pass with
the Prismacolor White for shine. We'll see a lot more P-White,
since I use it for the brightest highlights on just about everything
^^;
Also lay down the base layer for her eyes in Prismacolor Poppy
Red (has an orange tint to it).
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12: And the eyes are done. Layer two was Crayola Maroon. Shaded
(from the top down) with Prismacolor Black, then went over the
shiny spots with Prismacolor White to soften their edges up a
little.
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13: Moving on to the hair. Another wonderful thing about white
- well, wonderful for me, probably annoying to anyone who's ever
had to paint a house - is that it can be shaded with just about
any other color out there. In this case, since Solbria has such
a warm palette, I decided on a warm sort of white. The base shading,
done very lightly, and I guess best described as sort of like
cel shading, is Crayola Sand. Over that goes a light layer of
Crayola Cool Grey, done in short strokes as opposed to blocks
or "areas". Ran the (you guessed it) P-White over the
uncolored parts (now our highlights) to brighten and smooth a
little, then added a hint of Crayola Taupe to the darker parts.
Probably sounds crazy, but I like to try and use the stroke method
of shading on hair, since it looks more hairlike to me. Kind of
like some of the digital coloring tutorials recommend you do.
IMHO, coloring "with the grain" of the hair helps, too.
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14: More white parts, this time on the fuku itself. Base shading
done with Prismacolor Warm Grey. Doesn't look like too awful much
yet, does it?
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15: But wait, there's more! Deepened the shadows with the
Crayola Cool Grey again, then overlaid that with the P-White,
which is actually a little brighter than the paper's normal color.
Sometimes, I also use this to smooth things out, especially with
clothing or hair highlights.
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16: A base layer of Prismacolor Canary Yellow. Personally,
I don't like trying to work with yellows, as they always seem
to come out too bright. But there are ways around that (which
I haven't found yet..).
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17: I actually used two different yellows over the base layer,
because I wanted to try making the yellow of her bows lighter
than that of the bodice. So the bodice gets Crayola Golden Yellow,
and the bows get Crayola (just plain) Yellow. Not too noticeable.
Eh.
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18: There are ways to try and mute a color. Using muted colors
to shade it is one of them. Prismacolor Dark Brown (a very light
layer, mind you) with a blending overlay of Crayola Grey (not
Cool Grey, it has bluish tones). Prismacolor White for the highlights
again.
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19: The bows simply received two layers of greys. Prismacolor
Warm Grey blended with Crayola Grey, and P-White again for highlights
and a little overall blending.
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20: A base layer of Prismacolor Orange. All the names they
have for the other shades, and this is just ORANGE. *facepalm*
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21: I had a moment of panic on the orange parts. Overlaid
the P-Orange with Crayola Light Orange (which on its own is almost
too pale to use for much of anything). Orange is another one of
those colors that sends my scanner on acid trips, so I tried to
mute this a bit as well. Shaded with Prismacolor Black, and then
overlaid that with Prismacolor Cream (which is in actuality a
very pale yellow), using the Cream to smudge the Black out in
an attempt at blending. Probably won't attempt that again.
Several self-deprecating minutes later, I decided to try and salvage
it rather than start over. HUGE highlights in P-White, then I
simply went over the shadowed parts with Crayola Orange. Fortunately,
it doesn't look too awful ^^;
I hope.
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22: Shiny bits. The gems were fairly easy - though I got the
colors on the top and bottom ones reversed (sorry, Lariel). Just
one layer of their respective colors, with a touch of red or red-orange
and a dab of P-White for highlights. Not perfect.
The tiara and her earrings I used standard gold coloring technique
on. Well, standard for me anyway. Prismacolor Metallic Gold (Crayola
Gold works just as well for this, actually) with a light overlay
of Crayola Golden Yellow for added yellowness. Shaded with Prismacolor
Dark Brown and highlighted with P-White.
End
Notes: Had I done the coloring in one sitting,
it probably would have taken between three and four hours, but
then this is a full-page sketch. How much time it takes also depends
on things like attention to detail, outside distractions, smoke
and potty breaks, and other things.
The attack effect will probably be left out of the final product,
since I never was good at that sort of thing. It could be replaced
with Photoshop effects fairly easily, though.
Just
as an aside, I almost always start with the skin. Why? Because
it's underneath everything else (well, it is if your character's
got clothes on, anyway). This is the same kind of thing as some
of the lines being thicker than others. I may be delusional, but
coloring the exposed skin first seems to add to the "Hi,
I'm over bones but under clothing" effect. *shrug* |