Sissy Book Club: Dorothy and Alice - Process (Patreon)

2. Inking!

3. Backdrop. I used some pattern fills for the bookshelves. Then I made four books and copied and pasted them all over the shelves. It took hours. There's probably a smarter way to draw bookshelves.

4. Color blocking.

5. Form shading. I used a dark yellow for the form shading and I pushed it much darker because I wanted the final piece to look very shadowy and intimate. I'm focusing on a single overhead light for this scene.

6. Backlight/reflected light. There's just a little bit of reflected light in this scene from light bouncing off the leather couch. It's low light so I keep the backlighting gentle.

7. Cast shadows. It's easy to paint cast shadows with overhead lighting because it's so much easier to know where the shadows will hit. Plus, the shadow cast by the meeting of their heads adds a touch of intimacy.

8. Shine. Now I add the shiny spots to their shoes and lips and add shiny streaks for their hair.

9. Colored linework. I colored all of the linework for everything but the couch and the books.

10. Details. Paint in the eyelashes, add a sequined texture to the ruby slippers, add some sparkles, paint in a little blush.

11. Background shadow. Finally, I drop in a solid black layer over the background (behind the characters) with a diamond gradient to create a spotlight of intimacy.