Easter Bonnet - 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 very rough sense of the clothing and decoration.

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

3. Inking. I use a variable-width inking brush for the characters and a constant-width brush for hard things (the frame, scroll, eggs) 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 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. I used a very similar technique for the feathers as I used for the hair, just with different placement of the shading and shorter, wavier smudging.

6. Backlight. A desaturate pale green solid color layer (screen). When I combined it with the form shading, backlighting really makes the characters pop. I used both a soft brush (for the shiniest parts like the breastforms) and a soft airbrush (for everything else). I don't use any backlight on non-reflective objects like the flowers and border. 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 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. Put them together and it's looking good!

9. Shiny. 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.

10. For the blush, I add in a light red layer, airbrushing just on the same area as the skin for the joints and face. I use the same technique for the eyeshadow.

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. This also came in handy with the white gauzy scarf. I just made sure that the white lines for the scarf were at the top of the stack, then added a second layer of white below it, filling in the whole area of the scarf but set to only 50% opacity so that it partially whitens just the linework of everything behind the scarf.

12. 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 and soften the look with a few strokes of a soft airbrush.

13. Text. Finally, I create the text and use mesh transformation to shape each piece of text to fit the curve of the scroll. I also add a watercolor texture to the color of the scroll with a layer effect setting and an old watercolor texture I made.

And I'm done!