I worked for a while on a drawing today I did in Paint Tool SAI, and I'm rather proud of it. I thought I could request a critique
or feedback or something on it, and I also created a little step-by-step thingy of it so you all can observe how I progress through my drawing. It would also be great if I were to get recommendations on my progress, there's always room for improvement!
Also, a warning for people who don't like reading. There will be a lot of it. :I
1) I simply create a new layer above the blank first layer, and I use it for sketching out or planning out the drawing right before I get down to it. Sorta like a rough draft. A really...really rough draft.
2) I almost always include some sort of character or main object in my drawing, so I usually outline the object(s) and/or character(s) on a second layer, leaving the sketching layer slightly visible for reference.
3) Next I add color. I do this by creating a layer under the outlining layer, and after hastily using the selection tool to select inside the lines I have no trouble coloring with the pen tool from there. I sometimes have individual layers for each section of the character if the colors are touching; for instance I had the eyes and mane on two separate layers than the coat and torch. I also temporarily fill in the background a color that is very different than colors I use for the character, that way I wont leave any parts white, such as the eyes.
4) I then add some shading and highlights by adding two layers above each color layer and clipping them. The shading layer in each pair is set to "multiply" mode and the highlight layer in each pair set to "overlay" mode. For the shading layer I use a black airbrush or pen, and for highlights I use a white airbrush or pen. Depending on how things look, I tweak the opacity on either layers also. Also, when I am shading and highlighting I almost always have a light source. That way, I know which places to pinpoint and shade in, and which places should be shaded in darkest or lightest. The fire on the torch is a light source, so I shade and highlight in a manner that fits well with the lighting. I hope I said that right. :L
5) Now for the background. I create a layer underneath the character(s) and/or object(s) and its colors. On some occasions I add a layer above them for a foreground, like some of the rocks in the picture that seem in front of the character. Honestly, I don't have much experience with creating backgrounds or landscapes because I spent most of my time in the past drawing characters. I've been practicing mostly recently and have been finding it difficult to create outlines to plan out a background, so I end up painting and mixing colors to create one, without outlines so far is easiest for myself. I don't really create any new layers for shading or highlights really, only when I feel I really need to. For this picture here, you can see on the far right there is a tunnel entrance with stalactites behind Fluttershy. I actually created a layer underneath the background, and filled in that tunnel underneath the stalactites I left untouched on the layer above. Jeez, backgrounds are complicated. This paragraph is getting way too long...proceed!
6) Then the fun part, the flames on the torch. This was fairly easy since I've pretty much studied and memorized a lot of fire tutorials, basically I simply created a layer above the character's colors and outlines, in that layer I drew out the basic shape of the fire with an orange-ish airbrush tool. Then I used the pen tool to make black specks on the edges of the fire and mixed them with the orange color with the water tool. I did the same for yellow specks but had them more towards the middle of the fire. I copied the layer and set the second one's mode to overlay, then I created another layer once more and set the mode to luminosity. In this one I added some more of the similar colors I used, then added some white coloring the middle of the fire. I drew little sparks here, created another luminosity layer and used that to add a glow by using a similar orange color like the base of the fire. Whew. Anyway, if that was too confusing, I used a lot of the fire techniques based off of this tutorial I looked at: http://browse.devian...torial-49244229
7) If I'm not satisfied with the picture, I use a Pixlr program to give it the finishing touches. For this one I made the colors a bit warmer, and that's about all I did. I use Pixlr alot and it is very useful for me. You can try it here: http://pixlr.com/
So that's about the gist of it. I hope that I cleared some things up, and you have learned a few new tidbits and techniques by looking over my drawing process. Thanks for stopping by, and please leave a critique or some recommendations if you'd like!



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