Bunny Slopes - 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 figures and I rough in the general shape of the clothing, hair, and skis. This is also when I tinker with resizing each character to get the perspective right.

2. Final sketch. Now I go back and do a more detailed sketch, working out the clothing, hair, and a little bit of background detail.

3. Inking. I use a variable-width inking brush for the characters and a constant-width brush for hard things (the metal and plastic parts) on vector layers. I use lots of different layers for different parts, which makes it easier to overdraw and erase as needed. For the fur, I use the fur edge brush I made from my own drawing a while back. It saves a lot of time and makes it easier to experiment with different lengths of fur shagginess. I do wind up having to clean up some of the linework by hand later but that takes much less time than drawing every curl of fur by hand.

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 blue 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 blue layer but with linear 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 desaturate pale blue solid color layer (screen) to fit the reflected light from the snow. Combined with the form shading, backlighting really makes the characters pop. I used both a soft brush and a soft airbrush. Soft on fur, heavier on reflective surfaces like the visor or snow jackets. 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. Cast shadows. I make a new dark blue 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. 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), 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.

9. 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.

10. Eyelashes and blush and breath. 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 blush, I add in a light red layer, airbrushing just on the same area as the skin for the joints and face. For a cold weather look, I added a little steaming breath in front of each character's mouth. Just a faint airbush of white.

11. Backdrop. First I add a little overall texture to the snow by making a grey layer, applying noise, and then using perspective transformation, copying the result to a mask, and applying the mask to a dark blue layer and playing with the levels in the mask. For tracks, I add a new solid color layer, drop fill to 0%, and add a bevel effect with the light direction from directly above, using dark blue/multiply for both sides but going lighter on one side. Then I airbrush in the tracks and footsteeps in the snow.

12. Text. Render out the word text on a separate image and use mesh transformation to match it to the instructor's snow suit. Slide it into the middle of color layers, just above the red of the suit, and I'm done!