DEV WORK AND STUFF | Bun Father (Patreon)

It has been some time since I have had a chance to make a DEV WORK AND STUFF post.

The commissioner has been super patient with me while I have been sorting out my schedule so I can actually work on their commission.

COMMISSION DETAILS

Elyssia from Armello sitting upon a chair/throne in a pose reminiscent of Don Corleone.

ART DETAILS

• Single character
• Shaded
• Coloured line art
• Simple background + chair

REFERENCES

Sitting reference.

First version of the bun sketch.

As you can see, the first version needed work. Now that the skeleton of the sketch is complete, it is time for details.

Sketching in more details and fixing.

And now I am apparently sketching in hot pink.

Pulling elements off the weapon(?) and making a temporary mock-up of the throne chair.

Now I have a sketch that I feel I can work with, I lower the layer opacity of the sketch layer. Depending on what my sketch looks, I normally lower the opacity to about 20-30%.

When lining over a sketch, it's really important to be able to clearly distinguish between the two layers.

Side note, don't be afraid to deviate from your sketch if you think it will benefit the final picture. As you can see I greatly moved the nose and mouth from its original spot. 

The mouth of the reference did not reflect what I as drawing.

Line art is now complete!

After the line art is all complete I use my old faithful quick mask selection method. From my experiences of most programs they all have a quick selection or magic wand selection tool.

SEE HOW I DO THIS HERE. 

I am also aware that other non-Photoshop apps have a gap allowance in their selection - so if this is a method you use you may need to adjust these settings depending on the width of the line art. 

No method is without its quirks (what I am really saying that this shit is annoying to fix)

It doesn't take too long to go back and fill in and clean up the mask. 

Why is this important? Once you have a mask, you colour and not worry about the background layers or colouring beyond the line art.

You can lock the layer pixels and do this.

Most art programs have this setting available.

ADD GRADIENTS TO YOUR FLAT COLOURS

This is easiest way to add interest to your colours. This is a weird habit I picked up and by no means am I the creator of this technique but I love doing this. It just adds so much to your flats and it is super easy to do! 

Lasso (selection tool) + Very large soft air brush.

Colouring the line art is something new I have adopted for my art. My approach may be rough and maybe it could be better but it works for me.

I just lock the pixel layer, just like what I do with the colour layer and just colour.

I normally pick a colour in a hue that is similar to what I am outlining. Which ever helps the image. Adding a brighter colour to metals or 'shiny' things gives a nice pop.

This piece will be getting a cell shade pass. 

SHADING PASS

I pick a colour that I feel will tonally fit and draw in the shading on a layer above. I set the layer Blending option to 'Multiply' and lower the layer opacity.

  *I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO SCREEN CAP BEFORE I DID THE NEXT STEP*  

In sections I would select areas and lightly erase the edges to soften the shading in areas where the shadows would not be a defined.

Depending on what colours are in the piece I will vary the opacity of the shading layer to what looks best.

I changed the colours. I did not like the red hue.

LIGHTING PASS

From the flat colour layer I use the Magic wand tool and quick selection the areas I want to lighten up. With a large soft brush I brush in draw in lighter colours where the light would be.

RIM LIGHTING

What is rim light? 

In basic terms 'rim light' is a lighting technique where the image subject is backlit and the image is exposed to hide the subject features in shadow. The technique gets its name from the fact that lighting a subject in this way produces a thin line or 'rim' of light which appears to cling to the subjects outline.  - https://shuttermuse.com/glossary/rim-light/ 

How I do this is pretty simple. With a new layer above, I just draw where I would like the rim light. Keeping it to the areas that would be in the most exposed light.

Setting the layer blending mode to 'Overlay' and there you have your rim lighting.

ITTY BITTY THINGS

Added some hot spots with the lighting. The white flecks on the highlights.

BACKGROUND

As the commission has a simple background, I decided to give it a graphic design touch with a leafy texture.

If I am to be honest I don't know why I tilted it. It just felt nicer to me.

AND DONE!

Something that completely slipped my observation was the alignment of the chair.

A quick edit to adjust the perspective better shows how the chair should sit. I find that in digital art this is one of the hardest things for me. 

Traditionally I am much stronger at this but when ever I move to the PC I struggle. Practice I guess and prep more.