"Let's have a big hand for our volunteers!" - 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 the figures and sketched in a rough background around them.

2. Final sketch. Now I go back and do a more detailed sketch, working out the the body, clothing, hair, and props. I used perspective rulers to help me with the boxes, steps, and curtains. Technically, the perspective here is wrong because I've drawn things as bigger at the top but the distortion helps create a more exciting feel to the scene.

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

4. Since the backdrop is so dominant and uniform but simple and also has to be a specific color, I started with that to help me workout the color choices in relation to it. I made a little bit of noise, picked a thin one pixel high strip of it, scale it up to fill the whole screen, made it red, brushed in a few highlights, then distorted it to match the backward perspective of the scene.

5. 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.

6. 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 purple 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.

7. Backlight. A saturate red backlight from the left on the couple (for off-stage safety lighting) and a white backlight on the magician (for spotlight reflected by the curtain) 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). When it's done right, it should look like real lighting from a different angle. And again, smudge the edge of creases and hairs.

8. Cast shadows. I make a new desaturate 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.

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

10. Shiny. I used a solid white layer at for basic shine on lips, jewelry, and breastforms, another solid white for shine in the eyes, and solid white set to overlay (which makes a richer shine) for the hair and hosiery 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.

11. Deeper shadows. To make the whole scene darker except for the spotlight, I created a folder with a mask and put a solid purple layer inside. Then I painted the mask with a soft brush. I set the purple layer to Color blend mode and lowered the opacity. I also added a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer to make it a little bit darker and less saturate.

12. 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. I also left all of the lines outside of the spotlight black.

13. 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.

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. I added a few blurry white glows around the footlights and used a smudge tool to add some flaring, then erased the parts that would be on the viewer's side of the footlights.

16. Finally, I stamped a few sparkles on the jewelry.