Bronco - 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 a simple flat side-view of the rocking horse and a rough sketch of the naked figure, then duplicated it and used distort to make three versions at different angles to help me get a sense of the how it would look in perspective.

2. Final sketch. Now I go back and do a more detailed sketch, working out the perspective view of the rocking horse, the body, clothing, hair, and props.

3. Inking. I use a variable-width inking brush for the characters and a constant-width brush for hard things (the belt buckle, etc) on vector layers. I use lots of different layers for different parts, which makes it easier to overdraw and erase as needed. For the rope, I used the rope brush I made from my own linework a while back. I also went ahead of inked the shape for the eyelashes because the brush stablization in Manga Studio makes it a lot easier than doing it in Photoshop later. I export the inks in three layers.

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.

6. Backlight. A desaturate pale blue, almost white, 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 buckle and lips) 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. For extra shininess on the chaps, I add a second backlight on the left and a second set of blue shiny streaks on the right.

10. Going back to the color layers, I use a variable-wodth brush to paint in the plaid pattern on the shirt using two semi-transparent pink layers. I waited until after shading because the shading defines the shape and it's important for the pattern to follow the shape.

11. The background. For the floor, I made a new brown layer, slapped up a bunch of rectangles (fill set to zero) with bevel layer effect so they look like planks, added another yellow layer, added a noise filter to it, used a soft eraser to make it look like sawdust scattered around the floor, then collapsed them together and applied distort to make it look like the floor in perspective. For the wall, I made a darker brown layer, applied a woodgrain pattern I made, then used the marquee tool to select sections of random width for every other plank. Then I cut that selection, pasted it to a new layer, then flipped it vertically so that the wood grain doesn't match up. Then I applied a bevel to both sets of planks, added another horizontal plank for the base. Then I collapsed it and applied distort to make it look like the wall in perspective. Then I added some black gradient to above and below to focus attention to the center.

12. 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.

13. 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. Everything soft gets colored linework. Hard objects in the foreground stay black while objects in the backdrop get a dark grey so that they fade bak a little.

14. Eyelashes are done with a folder containing a solid grey layer and a solid black layer. Using the lashes I made earlier with a variable width brush, I add 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.

15. For the drool, I used a white layer with the fill turned down just a little and add a layer effect with white inner glow set to 100%. Then I use a variable width brush in the mask to soften the edge where it touches skin. After, I add a new white layer to paint in the shiny highlights. For the other spillage, I do the same thing but with the fill turned up higher so it looks more thick and viscous.