Nice Moments - Process 2 (Patreon)

The process continues. 3.) The pencils are cleaned up and ready for finishing. Some edits were made, as things were refined. As a good exercise, let a drawing sit overnight. You will often find errors with fresh eyes that you miss in the moment of creating. The most notable fix was Red's lover's left leg, which was too thick in the prior sketch, and had to be revised. Detail was added to everything else. 4.) Sometimes, prior to this step, I'll put a background color which will dominate the picture's color scheme, by setting the pencil layer to the "multiply" setting and putting a color layer underneath it. But I decided to leave the canvas white for now, and apply the first shade layer. I use a simple default brush with feathered ends at 20% flow, and the same brush in the eraser tool at 10% in Photoshop CS6. I apply the shades in a layer on top of the pencils set to the "multiply" setting. I've found that a light lavender or purple is a good universal color to use for shading. I've also worked with light blues, or even browns, before, depending on the overall color scheme of the pic (for instance, I've often used brown as a shade color in some of Mary Ann's pics, which feature mostly brown and tan colors in general). 5.) A second shade layer is simply applied to another "multiply" layer on top of the first shade layer. I simply use the same color and brush settings, and apply the second layer of shading to appropriately darker areas, giving the image more depth. Sometimes, if a picture's complexity warrants it, I'll even apply a third layer in certain areas. For comic pages, I usually skip the second shade layer for the sake of time. Next, I'll be putting on the color flats, and deciding if this will be a bright piece or a dark one. I'm leaning either way on it.