"Ib" Process (Patreon)

This one is a doozy! There's a lot of weird stuff happening behind the scenes here. As always, the images are in the gallery above so you can flip through the process, but the detailed explanation is below. Also, please feel free to refer to the process masterpost if you want a deeper look into how I approach lineart, color, dresses, etc!

Note: the rest of this post will contain Ib spoilers!

1) Some quick early doodles that didn't make the cut! I honestly think these are a lot more dynamic, but I was having a hard time figuring out how to fit any of the themes I wanted into them. I also felt like as fun as they were, they didn't feel much like the game, and I wanted this image to feel more nostalgic to players. Maybe I'll use one in the future?

2) This is the thumbnail I ended up going with. I feel like it's kind of disappointing to look at after the others, LOL... But I was able to fit a lot more into it, like:

3) I felt like this better reflected the simple presentation of the game, and it also feel a little more in-the-moment. It also let me focus more on the characterization: Ib, who's worried, and Mary, who knows a little more than she lets on. Ib is in front of a blank frame to imply that she's sort of becoming part of the world herself, while Mary's frame looks a little familiar. Most importantly, I loved the idea that if this image were framed, the frame itself would become part of the image - it would mirror the ones that I'd drawn, but would also serve as a sort of portal into their world.

I also wanted to have some fun with the painting placements. The flower-eating painting and the Lady in Red are both watching Ib, the Strained Ear is listening in out of sight while the Tattetale reports to Mary, and Red Eyes shifts as it layers into Mary's frame. At this point I'm planning to have more fun with the framing once I get to lineart and coloring, but I haven't quite worked out how I want to do that yet.

4) I start cleaning up the sketch here. First up is Ib and Mary. I've also added a new element - some (blue) rose petals scattered on the ground behind Mary.

5) And then the paintings, which are separate from Ib and Mary's layer so I could shift them around a little. I tried to reflect the in-game frames when possible, but I also got a lot of help from googling old ornate gold frames. I tried to incorporate roses into Ib's frame, too.

6) At this point I start the lineart. I can already tell this picture is going to get complicated down the line, so I have a lot of different layers happening here. The frames are broken into three layers, too, so that none of the frames that overlap each other are on the same layer. Roughly it's like this:

a) Ib and Mary
b) Frame set 1
c) Frame set 2
d) Frame set 3
e) The paintings themselves

7) I move to Clip Studio and start flatting things out. You'll notice that some of the lineart has disappeared behind some of the colors. I didn't erase anything - the layer order is just getting kind of complicated:

a) Ib and Mary
---a-2) Ib and Mary colors
b) Frame set 1
---b-2) Frame set 1 colors
c) Frame set 2
---c-2) Frame set 2 colors
d) Frame set 3
---d) Frame set 3 colors
e) Paintings
---e-2) Paintings colors

Here's some screencaps to give an idea of how I sort this stuff into folders, if that helps at all (it might be more confusing though)

Basically, any color layers placed above other lineart layers will cover that lineart. This could have been a big headache if I'd had specific plans for which frames overlapped what, but luckily I had zero plans for that haha! I just kind of let it happen.

Side note: I also use color to push the difference between Ib and Mary. Ib's frame remains completely blank (even though the other paintings are inching their way in), but Mary's is completely filled in.

8) I'm doing two things here: Adding some additional colors to the frames for a little more dimension and visual interest, plus locking the lineart layers so I can start coloring the lines. I only used a couple of colors for the lines this time:

9) I start very lightly rendering the characters. Using tone scraping, I add some blush to Ib and Mary, and then using the G pen I add some very subtle highlights to their clothing.

I also do something a little weird here - I duplicate all of the frames' lineart layers, lock the opacity, color them red, and then shift them a little. I feel like it adds a nice visual effect, especially against the black of the background!

10) Something a little weird again - I grab the color layer of the paintings themselves and shift them so that they look like they're breaking from their lineart and moving toward Ib. It creates some breaks in the colors along the edges of the image, though, which I have to manually fill in.

11) I duplicate the painting color layer. I lock the opacity of the duplicated layer and use tone scraping to spray some darker and lighter colors over the paintings and then set the layer to Overlay. This deepens the color and also creates a cool noise effect! It goes from this ---> this

12) Back to the frames now! I lock the frames' color layers and use the G pen to start manually painting over the sections where the frames and images overlap, making them look like they're sort of melding into each other. I think it makes it feel more otherworldly and helps showcase that Ib exists apart from them. Meanwhile, a bit of Mary's frame is starting to peek through her dress and hair.

13) I really liked the overlapping effect on the frame, so I wanted to push it further. I use layer masks to erase pieces of the frames so they look more physically intertwined (the masks make it so I don't have to actually erase anything permanently and can undo it at any time)

14) It seemed *so* close to being finished, but the background still felt a little bare, so I duplicated some of the frame layers, locked the opacity and recolored them red, resized and rearranged them, used the "correct line width" filter to make the lines thicker, and then brushed over them with black using tone scraping to give them a textured, noisy look.

15) Some final touches. I add highlights to Ib and Mary to help them stand out a little more, and I rearrange the blue petals a little so they look more intentional.

16-19) Some closeups!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them below!