Perfume mermaid files (.psd .ase) (and process) (Patreon)

I'm getting into the groove of using layers. both files has an extra ribbon layer(s) that i scrapped cause i thought it distracted from the image 

Here's a brief look at how this was made! 

capturing shine is important ! and tricky! so tricky! a perfume bottle has so many layers of glass and a pretty big gap between glass and the perfume itself. the lighter colours are used to show the back of the glass, the darker shows curves. turns out the inside of a perfume bottle can be pretty curvy and rounded at the center, which i didnt realise until i borrowed a perfume bottle to reference. 

for the shape i used aseprites symmetry tool, both sides of the glass are the same and so is the shading with some minor editing for variety. for glass shapes it's (usually) pretty important to have it symmetrical 

replicating light reflections is pretty dang tricky too. using light colours close to the background is a good way to shade in glass. a solid white works just fine for glass lighting too 

keep shine on the top layers. some shine can be used on back layers to give it a sense of depth but it's best to leave it on the top layers overlapping lineart (except for the container lines) 

a metallic lid is a lot of straight lines, typically only a curved top will have any curved lines, or the bottom of the lid where whatever is directly beneath the lid is curved (e.g i kept my reference perfume above my pen so it curved at the bottom). a cheap way to show metallic shine is an outline. i like to avoid having it by too bright by using whatever colour is to the side for shine. e.g got colour A as the lighter colour and colour B as the shade? use A to highlight B, and a lighter colour than A to highlight A. keep it flowing 

more colour talk! the draft was a very dull pink-blue mix i referenced from an aesthetic photo of a beach (colour drop from photos, its fun) mermaid-chan is very blue and so is the bottle 

all of it is made with the same 7 colours! never be afraid to repeat colours! sometimes too many can get too cluttered, like chucking too many ingredients in to the same dish and then u can't taste any of them. i liked the idea of her being discontent at being stuck in the bottle. little things like hand pose and eye shape go a long way to selling a feeling. just for fun, try drawing a character in a small box and trying to fit them in. it's a lot of fun. actually that's the whole idea behind my mermay themes this year, squeezing a mermaid into a small space made of glass

how'd she get in? i don't know. mermaid magic 

the magic of overlays! i used a bright neon-y pink set to colour burn with slight opacity. the liquid is also made with a softer pink set to multiply. i hecked up my public posting of it, the tail should've been sticking out of the perfume water. whoopsies. for a bit of flavor i added in little transparent flowers instead of bubbles. 

finer details were made on another layer, such as slight AA (anti-alias) around the edges of the bottle 

i think that's all? if there's any questions feel free to drop 'em in the comments! if i think of anything else i'll go back and edit