Hi, In case you all were wondering how I produce the images you've seen appearing on the site I thought I might spend a few minutes and outline the process I typically go through. Hopefully you'll recognise the image used in the example! What follows is an overview of the steps I usually take when creating. It's not going to answer all you questions, and I have deliberately avoided going into huge amounts of detail ... we'd be here forever and the article is already long enough!
This is an outline plain and simple! I hope it will encourage you to pick up your pencils and get drawing!
Materials
I like to draw on a good quality A3 pad and make my initial sketches with a 3H, though in the past I've worked with anything up to a 7H. I've got a huge stash of pencils covering the whole scale 9B .. 9H though I rarely touch anything darker than HB. For creating sharp darker lines I use a technical pencil with an HB lead and/or my favourite technical pen, a 0.1.
I digitise my images with a 4M camera at the moment but this in only in lieu of an A3 scanner.
On the computer I work exclusively with Paint Shop Pro (PSP). PSP is a great package though I would probably use Photoshop ... if I could afford it!
The Process
I start with very loose sketches using my trusty 3H to outline the basic shapes of my character(s). Planning your work in advance can reap dividens and I would encourage you to get into the habit of, at the very least, roughing thumbnails in advance. Once I have the structure in place I work back into the image adding detail. After this I refine the image by going over my outlines with the technical pencil. This should leave me with an image clean enough to scan/photograph. I don't bother tidying the image up any further because I intend to ink it digitally and it's much easier to use the art package to filter out my lighter lines and mistakes.
To transfer my image onto the PC I'll take a photo of the sketch; using the highest resolution I can. When taking the photo I try and work in a light spot with evenly diffused light (daytime is best) to avoid shadows etc. With the photo taken I can easilly transfer the image onto my PC and set it up for inking.
1. Preparing the image
One of the difficulties with working over white is that it's harder to spot mistakes etc. Whether colouring or inking I always work against a coloured background. I usually pick a colour that I'm not intending to use in my finished image so that it'll stand out. Slime green is a favourite choice of mine for this! The image above shows you the result. The image you're looking at is actually two seperate layers;
- bottom layer; the solid background
- top layer; my original pencils
In Paint Shop Pro I can set a layer to a mode it calls "multiply," I'm certain other packages have a similar feature. This mode makes black solid, lighter colours opaque, and white becomes completely transparent. Hence the reason the pencil lines are retained but the background shows through.
2. Inking
In order to get those super clean lines the PC is your best friend. Art packages come with simple tools for drawing straight and curved lines. To ink the image in the example I created a new layer, above the pencils, and began tracing the pencil lines using the line tools provided by PSP. For the most part I use the curved line tool. To prevent your work looking flat you should vary the width of your lines. As a rule items closer to you should be more prominant. I tend to use thicker lines for outlining objects nearer to you and for drawing attention to edges; e.g. the edge of the face. Generally I'll ink entirely in black but different artists use all sorts of other techniques.
3. Flats
One of the huge advantages with inking your work on the computer is that it makes it really easy to block out your basic colours (the flats). Provided your inks mark out areas on your image with a closed line, that is that an area is entirely outlined with an unbroken line, you can use the capture tools on your art package to quickly mark and fill parts of your picture.
When I've finished my inks I use PSP's magic wand tool to select an area and, on a new layer underneath the inks, I fill (colour) that selection.
4. Shadow
After flats I start adding shadows to my image. In the example you can see there are aproximately two layers of shadow. Here's the most common method that I use to add shadows.
Choosing one of the layers with my flat colours on, I usually start with the skin, I take a copy of the layer; in PSP the copy appears above the original. Remeber that my layer for the skin flats contains only the colour for the skin, other flats live on other layers e.g. hair or clothing. I rename the copy of my skin flats and call it skin_shadow. I then use the image adjustment tools to darken the skin_shadow layer. Because this layer covers my skin_flat layer all her skin goes darker.
To bring the normal skin colours back through I use the crop tool to mark out the areas where shadows aren't (on skin_shadow) and delete them. Each block I delete allows the skin_flat layer to show through ... the remaining dark colour creates the shadows.
5. Highlights
Adding highlights is my favourite part of colouring. I rely on PSP's area selection tools heavilly for this. When adding highlights I select a lighter version of the flat colour, mark the area where the highlight will go, and carefully paint in the highlight using a soft brush (where the center is solid but the colour applied decreases as you reach the edges). I then repeat this process of selecting lighter and lighter colours and working inside smaller and smaller areas.
Look at the highlights added to the hair in the two pictures above. The first image shows the first layer of highlights I've added. Compare this area to the second image and you can see the next layer of lighter paint applied inside the first highlight.
6. Background
Backgrounds are important and should always be considered when composing your new image rather than as an afterthought. I'm not going to say much about backdrops, I suggest you experiment and take inspiration from other artists. The key thing to remember about backgrounds is that they should work with your foreground not compete with it. If your background is so amazing that it detracts from your foreground the image as a whole probably won't work. So, backgrounds = important, but don't let them overrun your hard work in the foreground!
I hope you found my ramblings interesting and useful!
Jim Tzu