Buy My Valentine - Process (Patreon)

1. In Manga Studio, I start with a very rough sketch with big fat pencils. The fat pencils force me to keep the sketch loose without getting too caught up in the details. I started with just the basic naked figure and a vague sense of the clothes.

2. Final sketch. Now I go back and do a more detailed sketch, working out the clothing, hair, etc.

3. Inking. I use a variable-width inking brush for the characters and a constant-width brush for hard things, all on vector layers. I use lots of different layers for different parts, which makes it easier to overdraw and erase as needed.

4. In Photoshop, I convert 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.

5. Form shading. I create a dark brown solid color layer (linear burn) and start painting in the basic form shading with a soft airbrush. Except for the hair, which gets its own dark brown layer but with color burn blending for more richness. I also use a smudge tool on the hair and various creases in clothing and skin to create detail.

6. Backlight. A bright pale blue solid color layer (screen) to fit the reflected light from the red box lining and the red environment. I turned one of the form shading layers back on, temporarily disabling the mask (shift-click on the mask), to make it easier to see where I'm painting. It doesn't look like much by itself but, when it's combined with the form shading, it really makes the characters pop. I used both a soft brush and a soft airbrush. When it's done right, it should look like real lighting from a different angle. And again, smudge the edge of creases and hairs.

7. Turning off the form shading, I make a new dark brown layer 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.

8. Combine them all and ta-dah! Looking good!

9. Shiny. Now add in the shinies. I used a solid white layer at for basic shine on lips and breastforms (to make them look more artificial) as well as strong, wobbly streaks of shine on the metalwork, another solid white for shine in the eyes, and solid white set to overlay (which makes a richer shine) for the hair shine. Painting the hairshine, I use a variable width sharp brush, then go over it with an airbrush to give it a little glow.

10. Deeper shadow. I want the characters to seem to be walking into a darker area so I add a black gradient to the backdrop and add a dark blue layer in overlay mode and paint a soft airbrush for very roughly defined shadows on the left side of the characters. The dark blue overlay makes them feel darker while still being easy to see.

11. 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 keep the robot arms in solid black linework, to help them pop forward from the characters. The hard objects in the middle and background (the conveyer belt and clamps, etc) get dark grey linework so that they still look hard but pop backward from the robot arms.

12. Final character details. I add in a light red layer for blush, airbrushing just on in the same area as the skin. Blush goes on joints and face. Eyelashes are done with a folder containing a solid grey layer and a solid black layer. I use a variable width brush to paint in lashes on the folder mask. Then I paint in a few thin streaks on the grey layer mask to add depth to the lashes. For the sweatbead, I used a white layer with the fill turned down and add a layer effect with white inner glow set to 100%. Then I use a variable width brush in the mask to paint in the shape of the sweat. After, I add a new white layer to paint in the shiny highlights on the sweat.

13. Then I add a simple gradient to the background and a simple shadow under the leftmost character to anchor her to the ground.