Under the Hood - 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 perspective ruler to help me rough in the salon chairs. Then I used a symmetry ruler to sketch in the center dryer. I broke the dryer in separate pieces and copied them to the left and right, moving them different distances to help me get a sense of how they look at different angles. Finally, I roughed in the general character poses.

2. Final sketch. Now I go back and do a more detailed sketch, working out the 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 chairs and buckles) on vector layers. I use lots of different layers for different parts, which makes it easier to overdraw and erase as needed. For the bumpy crinoline, I made a bumpy-edge brush from my own linework a while back. The front edge of the glass on the hood and the bottom edge of the white crinoline both get their own layers to make layering easier later. 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 exported the inks in multiple 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 very desaturate pale purple 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. 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. I start on the backdrop, then the chairs, then the characters last, because it makes it easier to visualize where the shadows will land when starting with the simplest, furthest back objects.

8. Put them together and it's looking good!

9. Shiny. I used a solid white layer at for basic shine on lips, nails, and shoes, 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. After painting all the shine, I use the cast shadow layer to make a selection and delete the shine from anywhere covered by shadow.

10. 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 stay black. The glass gets white linework.

11. For the glass hood, I add a semi-transparent white fill layer down in the color fill layers for the back half of the hood. Then I add a second white layer with a soft edge for the front half of the hood, placed above the linework. Then I add in that seperate white front line for the hood above that. Inside the linework layers, I add another semi-transparent white layer above the other line colors so that the lines which are behind the back half of the glass look lighter.

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. 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.

14. For the sweat, 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.

15. For the white crinoline, I import the bottom edge line as a white line, then add some simple white fill layers for the netting. I add some hard edge streaks and some soft edged streaks with a basic brush to give it fullness.

16. Finally, I add some simply grunge texture to the back wall and the floor (plus a tile pattern, both applied with distortion transformation to match the perspective) and I'm done!