Rebecca Chambers -- 4/14/23 Exclusive (Patreon)

This girl has been one of my favorite Resident Evil characters since RE0 -- too bad she hasn't really made too many appearances since then.

I've been increasingly adding modularity to all of my work as time goes on. What that means is that for a given artwork, different pieces are done in completely-separate layer groups. With Rebecca, for example, her head, right foot, right hand, and pistol, are all completely separate from the remaining portion of her body. This ends up being a tiny bit of extra work, with a few more layers to keep track of, but it ends up saving me a lot of time in the end by making adjustments and edits MUCH easier.

In the past, when I would be doing commissions, sometimes a client would want something, such as head size, to be adjusted way after the lineart and colors had been done, when we were nearing the end of the project. While I do try and have clients keep requested adjustments in line with the stage of the piece we are at (eg, you can't change the pose once I start the lineart), it bugged me especially when there was a glaring inaccuracy, or when something looked glaringly wrong.

So, depending on the specifics of the piece, I break down the character into a few different layer groups. The initial sketch may be done in one go, but once I get to the lineart, I'll be working in a different group for each piece -- one for the head, one or two for the feet, and one or two for the torso and legs. Other features like accessories (Rebecca's Samurai Edge) may also be done on separate groups. This means I can work on the pistol on its own, and move the whole layer group around (lineart and colors), if I want to change how the pistol is held in her hand, or I can scale the whole thing if it's too big or too small.

It also came in handy here, with the costume variants. While the sock and dirty variants are just singular layer groups tacked on top of the figure, the costume variations are a little more complex. Rebecca's head, left hand, pistol, and right foot are shared across both costume variants. Then, for the rest of her figure, I used the same body as a base (pretty much her body in underwear), and did the costume on top, and then made adjustments to the skin as needed, such as the different shadows cast around the neck, depending on which costume she's wearing.

Overall, this method has saved me so much time and headache over time, especially when it comes to commissions, where client feedback may ask for something very specific to be changed in isolation.

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I still have a few slots for May commissions by the way, so shoot me a message and let's get you set up. :D