Fluffy Frilly Plushie Bride - Process (Patreon)

1. Thumbnail. I started with a very basic thumbnail sketch to try out the concept.

2. Rough sketch. I sketch out the final layout and poses. I used Clip Studio's 3D models and perspective rulers as references and roughed in the general shapes for the clothing and props.

3. Final sketch. I use separate layers in multiple folders for the various props and the character which makes it easier to plan, especially when so many of the parts overlap. If you look closely, you can see that I draw some parts that I know will be completely hidden behind others, particularly the basic body shape, to make sure it will all make sense together. Keeping them on separate layers also makes it easier to shift the positions of individual features when final details on foreground features might change the layout needs.

4. Inking. I scale the canvas up to four times the size and use a variable-width inking brush for the character 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. Planning for the line coloring later, I try to use a different vector layer for each part that would be differently colored as linework such as one for the character's skin, one for everything that will have black linework, etc.

5. Color blocking. I set the folder containing all the different inked vector layers as the reference layer. Then I made new raster layers underneath and started filling in the flat colors. Sometimes I used a round pen, sometimes the color fill bucket, usually with the fill set to follow only the reference layer, stopping at the middle of a vector.

6. Form shading. I create a desaturate brown solid color layer (linear burn) and start painting in the basic form shading. For a painterly look on the clothing, I roughed in a very loose sense of form with an airbrush then added all the shading detail using only a watercolor brush. For the more chiseled parts, I used a different shading technique - starting with a hard brush to make something like cel shading, then using watercolor brushes to add midtones, then using the blur tool to smooth the shading out where appropriate and go back to the watercolor brush where I want sharper details. I also added a pale yellow layer set to screen to airbrush in some soft highlights in key places. For the hair, I used color burn for richer shading and start with a general, soft watercolor brush to get lay in some stronger hairs for a sense of texture, then use an airbrush to establish the overall form, then use a fingertip smudge or watercolor brushes to add some extra detail.

7. Cast shadows. I make another brown solid color layer set to linear burn 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. Backlight. For the secondary lights, I used a pale desaturate color layer away from the light source and a white layer toward the light source, both set to screen. Then I paint with a soft airbrush or a watercolor brush (when I want it to be more textured) on opposite sides of shiny objects. The forelight is used only on the shiniest parts. When I combine it with the form shading, backlighting really makes the characters pop. I don't use any backlight on non-reflective objects. On the hair, I used the watercolor brush to streak in the shape of the hairs and then used an airbrush, selection-masked to the shading, to add softer backlight.

9. Shiny. For the glossiest parts, I used light watercolor brushes to paint reflections for both primary and reflected light sources, then I used a strong watercolor brush for the specular highlights (or a variable round hard brush when I want the highlight extra strong), using a thumb tool to smudge for detail. For the shine on the hair, I started with thin strokes with a soft watercolor brush, then use an airbrush to add a soft glow to groups of streaks, and finally use a soft round brush to erase a few streaks in the middle of each group. 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. I applied a lace brocade pattern to the bodice, using mesh distortion to match the shape. I added grungy patterns to the wall and ceiling and a tile pattern to the floor, using perspective distortion to match the scene.

11. For the natural blush, I add in a raster layer and airbrush red just on the skin for the cheeks and places where bone is near the surface of the skin. I used the same method for the make-up and face paint.

12. Colored linework. Since the linework is still all vectors in Clip Studio, I simply selected the vectors and changed their color to whatever colored linework I needed, sampling from each section and then shifting the color to be more saturate and dark, more or less depending on how hard or soft I want each thing to feel. The hardest things I keep black. Then I collapsed all of the linework into raster layers, locked the pixel transparency, and used an eraser to fix up any places where different color linework crossed over each other. By using the same blending mode for both form and cast shading, I wind up with darker linework but I can avoid having to hand-shade the linework which is a big time-saver.

13. Eyelashes are done with a simple raster layer painted with a black variable-width pen. Then I lock the pixel transparency for that layer and use a soft pen to paint in grey streaks for texture and then soften the look with a few strokes of a black soft airbrush. I also added a little color to the tips of the eyelashes to make them extra fancy.

14. For the veil, I used my lace pattern and applied mesh distotion to ripple it along the edge of the veil. Then I added a semi-transparent white layer with streaks of watercolor brush for a draping effect. Then I added a shading layer to the gauze, again using a watercolor brush to paint in the shading. Often I will keep a veil unshaded but, since this picture has so much white in the dress and the light background, I wanted to add shading to create more contrast between the veil and the backdrop.

15. In the background, I added solid white shapes for the drapes, then added shading to give them form. I used my foliage brush in two shades of green for the shrubbery outside and the bouquets on the walls. I used my rose stamp brush to add a few random flowers to the bouquets. I used the legs from my stock partygoer silhouettes and the upper bodies from my siiting-in-rows silhouettes to add some guests around the edges of the ballroom.

16. I used my petal stamp brush to add rose petals in four layers, each on using smaller petals, and on the floor.

17. I blurred several layers, starting with the shrubbery as the most blurred, the the guests and walls less blurred, then the furthest petals less blurred than that, and so on, creating a limited focus effect for depth.

18. I stamped some simple squeak sound effects on the ground. (I use that sound effect enough that I made a brush with various versions of the word "squeak".)