Process for "Research Assistants..." (Patreon)

Don't know if anyone would be really into this, but since I kind of had clear examples of the stages of an image, I figured I'd post this in case folks were interested. At the end of the day, my workflow is probably kind of dogshit in comparison to much more serious artists, but here is how I do things.

Sketch Phase

I start off that initial sketch. I keep a generic brush as big & as broad as possible since I have a tendency to noodle on details. So fatter brushes kind of prevent me from getting a little too in the weeds on that sort of stuff. What I'm looking for here is a good pose & basically just shaping things out. I liked this pose at first, the idea of the foreshortened arm, her almost trying to hold it away after it started having something of an effect on her, but after kind of settling on this, I later decided I probably didn't pick the most dynamic angle I could've picked. But that's a very important part of this process: NEVER BEING HAPPY WITH IT.

Usually here is where I typically start plotting out the really, really basic premise of a back story for the image. Just something to give it a little extra life. Since I don't typically do fan art of known characters, sometimes I feel like it's important to provide just a little extra bit of context to make folks care about this character in this situation. So here, it was kind of a dumb trope, but one I've never really messed with before. I thought it'd be fun to do my own, albeit fairly basic take on it.

 Rough Phase

This is probably familiar as this was the WIP I initially posted. Here, I'm refining further, but also, this is where I start bringing in more detail, specifically the facial expression & what's happening to her clothes. Sometimes, I'll do this stage twice. In fact, I probably should've gone a bit tighter on the foreshortened hand here, but I was liking the weight of the over all pose.

Line Art

Pretty self explanatory. Personally, I use Clip Studio because I like the responsiveness a little better & have a few different go-to brushes I like using there. Admittedly, I do suck with capturing the round shapes on tablet, so I often make temporary curve rulers to get the lines just right. It's a little time consuming, but I like the result. If I were to do the same in photoshop, I usually use pen tool for those bits & then just stroke in a path with whatever brush. It's basically the same difference in a lot of ways. While everything eventually ends up on one layer, I usually do props, things like glasses or the cup started on their own layer before flattening everything.

 Flatting Phase

In Clip Studio, I have a flatting brush without any aliasing, which I use to fill in any gaps I can't fill by wand selecting the line art, expanding selection & filling on a separate layer. This image is a little bit of a misrepresentation though, if I'm honest, as I usually throw random colors in as placeholders to both separate parts before I pick out a final color scheme. Like for instance, her leggings. I did the bit cupping the bottom of her belly as a slightly different color than her legs, just so I could have that separation when I wanted it. When I'm done with the actual flats, I will duplicate that layer, hide the original & apply a scheme like this to the copy. That usually ends up being my base, while the original is what I actually make selections from.

 Final Phase

Usually a bulk of the work is in the polish for me. To the point where I probably should have maybe broken it up a little more, but whatever. 

Usually, the first thing I do is go back to the line art, create a mask & start shading it in colors other than the straight black. Like here for instance, her hair it's a darker purple, while on the labcoat, it's more of a mid bluish-gray. While I'm okay with a more cartoony look, it's a level of subtly I kind of like adding if I want to take the time. I also usually duplicate this colored line art layer, blur the copy, & use it in conjunction with the original via a halfway-transparent overlay or multiply layer. It's such a dumb, tiny, slight difference, but it sometimes adds an interesting little pop to just the line art & flats that often I kind of like.

This might make other artists wince, but from there, I start selecting each distinct part from the flats. So like her hair, her skin, her tights, her shorts, her t-shirt, her labcoat, her flannel, her bandanna, her shoes, the canister? And for each one, I make a folder. And I usually apply a mask to each folder. Once inside, I start shading things individually. So at least at least one shade & highlight pass in each. I try to keep the number of layers minimal but on things like her t-shirt, I'm also trying to get an ashen texture happening & then the NASA logo? It can get a little hairy, but it's also simply confined to that portion of the image. So when I'm warping that logo down to where it needs to go, it's not going to spill out further onto her face or off her person. At the same time, doing this is nutty & I don't recommend it. It's probably bad & don't do what I do, folks.

But from there, I keep adding details that make sense. So even her little lanyard? I made a little ID even, with a whole other sketch that all but the very observant probably didn't even realize. I went so far as to even try to make it look like her ID photo was taken mid blink/motion by an uncaring security guard. This was where I decided to call her Kiki. If only because I had the intention of calling a character that for a while, & to me (no offense to any Kiki's out there) it comes off as pleasant, bubbly, but also maybe just the slightest bit flaky? And as for her last name, it was literally in a spam email pop up that happened at the exact second I needed a surname. So there's that.

I do a lettering pass here too. I should maybe look to do something a little more uniform, but my thing for the most part has been trying to make each image feel a little distinct, with it's own sort of style of text. Here, it's just a thick brush & some shape tools. Once I had the balloons, I took a soft pink brush & filled the inside in to give it a bit of a glow. In my head, I was trying to make it seem like her words even seemed to have this glowing pink stuff bubbling up from within the bubbles themselves, sort of the way she is over all here in a way.

Towards the end, lately, I've been messing with adjustment layers in Photoshop to make things a little more distinct. I added a "Crisp Fall" LUT. It's designed more for photography, to kind of make the colors a little more warm & saturated. It might be a bit much, but I like the result personally. While I didn't here, sometimes I'll even try to mess with the RGB channels to add some fake chromatic aberration sometimes. That's something I've been pushing pretty far actually for the Berry girl stuff to replicate that old video effect there. It's an interesting detail when subtle but something a lot of people might not necessarily pick up on. I like it though.

So that pretty much wraps it up with this one. I've been asked to do some follow ups of her. I might revisit her in the future, but I don't know if I'd get this involved again if I did. Anyway, that's how I work. It might not be the best way of doing things, but it's how I go about making these things, in case you were interested!