This year I have a lot of ideas for things I want to do and characters I want to create. Sometimes there are so many that they don’t want to wait in line at all. It’s like they are telling me what I’m going to next and I have to remind myself that I’m the boss. Much of this just comes from impatience and the need to work on more than one project at once. It just seems like one competes with the other.

Can anyone else relate?

About the Banner

This banner was specially sized for Facebook. I created a custom template in Clip Studio Paint so that I don’t have to recreate the wheel next time that I want to make a another one. Very handy that way. I used almost 20 separate layers all together to get the affects that I was trying for.

Pencils

This was the pencil rough that I started from. Now when I say pencil, I really mean the digital one that I use when I work digitally. I haven’t used a regular pencil in a very long time although I do like to doodle still. As yo can see, I keep pretty fluid to capture the composition that I want to go for and make sure that if there are any design problems, I can catch it prior to going to far into detail.

Digital Inks

This was the digital ink layer over the pencils. During this part I reduce the opacity of the pencils so they don’t get in the way. At this point, they are only there for reference so I can keep to the composition that I chose. I also make sure to keep any broken lines out. These are lines that don’t connect to another line either due to erasing or not drawing a line far enough over. If you have broken lines, it makes is more difficult to use color fills during the coloring phase. Alternatively you can manually fill in your colors to makes sure you don’t have that problem from the start. There is no one right way to do this though. Each to their own. You can also see that I implied some texture on the table and on the clothes.

Line Art with Color Flats

Line Art with Color Flats

Here I have filled in the colors that I want to start with. You can always change them once you start so it doesn’t matter what colors you chose at the start. I knew I wanted to back wall to look smoky or hazy so it just used an air brush. The rest of the colors were used using a bucket tool. This sped up the process quite a bit.

Flats With Color Shading

This is how I shade and highlight. I use two separate layers for each. The first layer for the highlights is called a screen layer. This allows me to use lighter colors over the darker color and creates a highlight effect. You can also do the same think if you used a Normal Layer just as long as you drop the opacity a bit. A darken layer worked great to get the texture on the chair and clothes more defined. This is a great tool for shading. I hope I’m not losing anyone or getting overly technical. For those who use Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint, will know what I’m talking about.

If you have questions, please contact me. I’m glad to help.

Final Image

This is the final image. I go through and change the contrast and brightness and I use color gradients to bring out the effects I want. There is no one formula. It’s all about what feels right for you.

Until next time, have a great day!