Angel Topper - Process (Patreon)

1. I started with a very rough thumbnail sketch, just to get the concept down.

2. Next I did a more formal sketch, roughing in the poses, proportions, and the setting closet to the final layout.

3. For the final sketch, I worked out all the details of the clothing, hair, and props.  I used a perspective ruler to match the room to the characters.

4. Inking. I use a variable-width inking brush for the character and a constant-width brush for hard things on vector layers. I used my own brushes for the fur. I use lots of different layers for different parts, which makes it easier to overdraw and erase as needed. I also went ahead of inked the shape for the eyelashes because the brush stablization in Manga Studio makes it a lot easier than doing it in Photoshop later. I exported the inking for the characters, decoartions, tree, character portion inside the tree, the room, and eyelashes on separate layers.

5. In Photoshop, I convert each of the imported lines to a folder with a mask and put a solid black layer in the folder. (CTRL-click RGB in the Channels tab, invert the selection, create a mask from the selection.) This will come in handy later when I color the linework. Then I create another folder and start creating the basic color blocking. I like to do all my color blocking by making a folder and then filling it with different solid color layers for each section of color, whch makes it easy to change a color later. This is a very fussy way to do it and it's probably much simpler to just fill a single raster layer with flat colors. Because I'm planning some complicated layering, I set up multiple folders, each with lines, color, and shading, for the various sections I exported as linework.

6. Form shading. I create a dark brown solid color layer (linear burn) and start painting in the basic form shading with a soft airbrush. For the hair, I used color burn for richer shading and I used a variable-width soft airbrush to smudge detail into the shadows, picking up the shape of the hairs. Since this is a night scene, I made the form shadows a little heavier.

7. Cast shadows. I make a new dark brown layer (and a blue one for the interior) set to multiply and start painting in the cast shadows with soft brush, using a smaller brush in places where the object casting the shadow is closer to the thing the shadow is on. Since this is a night scene, I made the cast shadows a little fainter.

8. Backlight. I used two desaturate solid color layers (screen blend mode) painted with a soft airbrush. When I combine it with the form shading, backlighting really makes the characters pop. I don't use any backlight on non-reflective objects.

9. Shiny. I used a solid white layer for the primary shine and painted spots and streaks using a hard variable-width brush. After painting all the shine, I use the cast shadow layer to make a selection and delete the shine from anywhere covered by shadow. For the shine on the hair, I started with thin strokes with a variable-width brush, then use a smude tool to add detail and softness to the tips, then use an airbrush to add a soft glow to groups of streaks, then use an airbrush to fade the tops and bottoms of streak groups, and finally use a soft round brush to erase a few streaks in the middle of each group.

10. For the blush, I add in a light red layer, airbrushing just on the same area as the skin for the cheeks and other cheeks. I use the same method to add color for the eyeshadow. I also added some noise texture to the angel's eyeshadow to give it a glittery look.

11. For the sweater pattern, I created a new brush, just a simple short round soft stroke, with a very low amount of jitter and scatter and enough spacing to create a rhythm. Then I stroked white to create the sweater pattern, changing the angle of the brush for different parts of the sweater.

12. I used my carpet texture pattern (distorted to match the perspective), glitter noise to the angel's ribbon, and a sequin pattern to the halo. All of these were greyscale patterns, set to overlay above the shading layers.

13. Colored linework. Going back to the linework folder, I started adding new solid color layers, using the mask to paint the color of the linework. Since the new layers are inside a folder with a mask defining the linework, I don't have to be very precise when coloring the lines. I always add new color layers below the ones I already did so that I can be sloppy in the areas that are already covered by colored linework. I like to keep using black lines on the hardest objects to give it a contrast with softer objects.

14. Since some of the decorations need to wrap around the tree, I collapsed the decoration folder into a single raster layer, copied the layer and placed the copy behind the tree. Then I added a layer mask to the top copy and brushed out the mask in areas where the decorations should wrap around behind the tree.

15. Although it will only be seen faintly, I still need to fully paint the portion of the character which is inside the tree costume, basically repeating everything I did in steps 6 to 10 and 13.

16. Now I added a mask to just the color and shading of the tree costume but not the linework. I very softly brushed out the mask near the top so that character inside the tree can be seen as if the tree costume is gauzy but becomes thicker and fuller further down.

17. Eyelashes are done with a folder containing a solid grey layer and a solid black layer. Using the lashes I made earlier with a variable width brush, I add a few thin streaks on the grey layer mask to add depth to the lashes and soften the look with a few strokes of a soft airbrush. For the tears, I used a white layer with the fill turned down just a little and add a layer effect with white inner glow set to 100%. Then I use the mask to soften the edge where it touches the skin. After, I add a new white layer to paint in the shiny highlights.

18. On the backdrop, I added a brightness/contrast layer to make it darker and less contrasting, added a hue/saturation layer at 30% opacity to make it a little bluer, then made a collapsed copy and applied some gaussian blur. Then I added a mask to the blurry copy and used a gradient to make the mask fade toward at the lower left corner so that the unblurred original showed through, creating an transitional blur effect.

19. For the lights, I stamped a large soft round brush behind each light in matching color, then I stamped a sparkle brush in match color on top.

20. Finally, I stamped a few white sparkles to the halo and ribbon.