What Have You Got In Your Basket, Little Red Riding Hood? - Process (Patreon)

1. Rough sketch. I used a sketching brush to get the rough sketch down. Using a thick brush forces me to focus on the shape and gesture before getting into the details.

2. Final sketch. Sketching in all the details.

3. Inking! I exported the ink for the tree and the characters separately.

4. Color blocking!

5. Shading for the tree. The tree and its shade and ink are all their own folder below the characters. This made it easier to paint the cast shadows of the characters onto the tree without getting onto the characters.

6. Character Form shading.

7. Character backlight. I used a gradient on the backlight so that it would be green near the ground and brown higher up.

8. Character cast shadows. The wolf's shadow casts partially onto Red's face, to emphasize her looming dominance.

9. Shiny! Eyeshine, hairshine, and shiny shoes.

10. Colored linework for the characters only.

11. Extra details! Blush and eyelashes!

12. Environment and adjustments. I added a blurry foreground of leaves to create depth, reduced contrast and increased darkness of the backdrop. Then I added a color adjustment layer set to the whole thing, set to colorize to a greenish-yellow, and set to 30% opacity. It brings the whole palette together a little more, simulating the greenish-yellow light of a forest in spring.