Behind the Scenes #3 (Patreon)

When dealing with Xiaoyu's Secret I knew I wanted to create some sort of template with my software of choice: Photoshop.  I basically made a few layers and gave them labels based off what I wanted to draw for the first panel. I quickly realized this wasn't gonna work and needed to tidy things up a bit more. However, one particular layer still bears the exact same name even today: shadows.

I originally planned for it to store shadows cast by characters and items but I ended up using it for regular shading (basically all the shades of grey). I was probably too lazy to rename it at first, then I grew fond of it. That's why it's still present in my current comic templates, even if it doesn't really describe what it's used for. Fun fact, I have now another layer dedicated to shadows cast by characters named "FX" and I've been using it plenty for DAMP! panels. I managed to screw up all naming conventions :p