Hello! My name is Shilin and welcome to my walkthrough. This page will demonstrate a standard workflow I employ to create my illustrations in Photoshop. Remember everyone has their own way of drawing that works for them, so this process is by no means cruise control for success as the biggest part of drawing is still the act of drawing itself. I hope you will find something new to try or find out little things you didn't know about from this walkthrough, and remember to Google ANYTHING you aren't familiar with!
Program: Adobe Photoshop CS5
Tablet: Cintiq 21UX
Time: ~20 hours
Characters: Veloce and Blackbird from my manga Carciphona
Accompanying Video at 10x original speed:
[ 0:00:00 - sketch ]
[ 0:05:17 - rough colour plan ]
[ 0:11:49 - veloce lineart ]
[ 0:24:29 - blackbird lineart ]
[ 0:44:35 - daggers lineart ]
[ 0:51:20 - underpainting ]
[ 0:59:22 - rendering/detailing ]
[ 1:45:46 - overall effects ]
[ 1:50:35 - background textures ]
1
[ 0:00:00 - 0:05:17 ] I start with a sketch! Sometimes my sketches are clean, but a lot of times they look messy and unrefined like this. I don’t take the time to produce a neat sketch because it will be gone by the time I have line art done, but sometimes if I have a very specific look in mind that I want to reproduce exactly, I will spend a lot of time making certain parts of the sketch just right.
2
[ 0:05:17 - 0:08:19 ] After the sketch, I start the rough colour plan by lay down flat colours on a few layers with the Brush tool and the Lasso tool. The shapes are inaccurate and loose because the colour plan will only serve as a reference point, just like the sketch. Accurate painting comes later so I don’t waste my time on being precise here!
3
[ 0:08:19 - 0:10:30 ] For now, I just want to have the base colours easily accessible for manipulation later, so each flat colour has its own layer. I group all these layers under a single folder because there are so many, so I can find them and merge them all easily later. 
Tip! shift or ctrl+click each layer you want to put into the same folder, then ctrl+G to create that folder.
Tip! shift or ctrl+click each layer you want to put into the same folder, then ctrl+G to create that folder.
Another reason for keeping all these layers in a folder is I want to subject all the layers in that folder to a Layer Mask.
Layer mask mini tutorial: This inverted Japanese flag is the button to create a Layer Mask. To create a mask on a layer or a folder, select an area of the canvas with the lasso tool, and click on the button to apply a mask with the shape of your selection, in the same manner as you putting a case on your cellphone to cover up everything except the camera and buttons. Anything within your selection will be shown, and anything ouside of your selection will be hidden (but not erased/deleted). Tip! You can change the shape of the layer mask by clicking on the layer mask thumbnail on each layer and drawing on it like you would on a normal canvas. Use black and white only, or grays for transparency!
This is useful to apply on my folder because no matter the shape of each colour on the characters, all colour layers will eventually have the same silhouette of the two characters. This means I don’t have to be careful about the outer contour of each colour layer. The Layer Mask will assert the silhouette shape on all the layers for me!
Google the keywords “how to use layer masks in photoshop” to learn what you can do with layer masks! Layer masks saves time and is very edit friendly.
4
In the flat colours, I didn’t really take any lighting into account, Now I begin to create a lighting environment and create colours for myself to eyedrop during painting later.
Google the keywords “Layer modes in photoshop” to learn about layermodes! Layer modes simplifies some lighting decisions and makes lighting a lot more fun.
I start by creating a contrasting shadow a layer with the mode Multiply on top of my flat colours layers. Flatting shadows like this helps prevent me from over rendering the shadows with secondary lighting and losing the overall lighting. Again, my layer mask helps me keep everything within their silhouette.
Google the keywords “Layer modes in photoshop” to learn about layermodes! Layer modes simplifies some lighting decisions and makes lighting a lot more fun.
5
[ 0:10:30 - 0:11:49 ] Now I intensify the light by using a low opacity brush on a layer in Vivid Light mode. Because this reflective light is not confined to the character’s silhouette, I put the layer outside of the masked folder. By using a colour (here cyan) for the vivid light layer, I created some colour variation that is cohesive with my planned lighting without having to arbitrarily select colours and pray that they will work. Tip! Try other layer modes in low opacity with different colours! There are many and eachof them work well in different situations.
Tip! Try other layer modes in low opacity with different colours! There are many and eachof them work well in different situations.
I also lightened and darkened the multiply layer in a gradient manner with preserve transparency (you can use layermask instead for this too if you want) and an airbrush to create subtle light strength variations. Because I had each flat base colour on their own layer, I was also able to change the hue of the black dress to be more cyan to go with the cyan light, and the magenta flowers to be more saturated by using Image>Adjust>Hue and Saturation. Tip! Try out all the other functions in Image>Adjust, such as Colour Balance, Colour Replacement, Levels, Auto Tone, etc! They are all handy tools to quickly adjust the overall lighting of a piece without tediously repainting.
The very basic colour plan is done. I usually do more detailed rough colour planning, but because the sketch is so rough (lol whose fault is that) I decided to do the lines first, and then continue to refine my rough colour plan based on the final lines.
6
[ 0:11:49 - 0:48:08 ] I cover up my colour plan with a white layer and lower the opacity of my sketch, then draw line art freehand with a brush. Refer to the painting Video for the process of lines! Tip! Flip horizontally with Image>Image Rotation>Flip Canvas Horizontally from time to time to see any problems with the picture that you may have become blind to after looking at it for a long time, or just to draw certain parts that are going against the natural flow of your dominant hand easier.
Google “How to use Pen Tool in Photoshop” or something along those lines to learn how to use vectors to your advantage. They are an absolute must in any piece that involve precise geometric shapes, such as cities and machinery.
Tip! Flip horizontally with Image>Image Rotation>Flip Canvas Horizontally from time to time to see any problems with the picture that you may have become blind to after looking at it for a long time, or just to draw certain parts that are going against the natural flow of your dominant hand easier.
[ 0:48:08 - 0:51:20 ] I draw the swords using Pen Tool for Precision. Parts of the swords and the characters obscure eachother, but I drew the swords on different layers and in their entirety because I didn’t want to have to redraw the swords or the character lines if I had to move them later (and I did). Instead of erasing the overlapped parts, I used Layer Mask here to conceal the overlaps. If I remove the Layer Mask, the layer will be restored to its original overlapping lines.
Google “How to use Pen Tool in Photoshop” or something along those lines to learn how to use vectors to your advantage. They are an absolute must in any piece that involve precise geometric shapes, such as cities and machinery.
7
[ 0:51:20 - 0:59:22 ] Now that I have the exact line art, I update the shape of the Layer Mask on my colouring folder to match the new silhouette created by the line art. I simply select the negative space with Magic Wand, then invert the selection, and create a layer mask based on that before applying minor tweaks that the Magic Wand missed. The benefit of Layer Mask is that because I was able to paint the base and shadow colours recklessly during rough colour planning without worrying about keeping in line, when I change the shape of the Layer Mask to match the new silhouette, I didn't have to alter the rough colours much to conform/fit nicely into the new character shape.
I use a solid brush to tidy up the Multiply layer’s shading to match the new lines, and then I do the last step of my rough colour plan. I use a 70%-100% opacity Airbrush or Hard Round brush with flow sensitivity set to pen pressure, to add more details to the figures. This step dictates exactly what the finished painting will look like minus any additional layer mode effects. I think in smaller detail, but not fine detail, about any reflective light, fold placement, and so on. I care about which strands of hair will fall on others, how the clothes will fold in different places, how the sword would reflect everything along its length. However, I don’t care that the brush strokes are rough and out of line.
After this step is done, It’s finally time to paint/blend my brains out! [ 0:59:22 - 1:45:46 ]
8
[ 1:45:46 - 1:50:35 ] The colour detailing/rendering is done! But the black line art now looks harsh next to the soft colouring. I lock the transparency of the line art layer and apply some colours to the layer that fits the line’s surrounding colours. I also made a new layer on top of my line art layer to paint over some of the line art with strands of hair, since hair is a fine detail and looks strange to be outlined precisely.
I often hide my line art layer at this point to look at my painting without lines, and I would usually like how it looks, but I do like the effect of having line art in my works, so I end up using the above procedure to incorporate the line art more seamlessly into the rest of the painting.
9
[ 1:50:35 - end ] I wasn’t sure what to do with the background since I didn’t want anything in the background, but a simple gradient was unappealing, so I decided to slap on some simple textures. The cloud-like brush is made by sakimichan.deviantart.com. The line texture is made either by drawing dots and using Filter> Motion blur, or holding down shift while drawing a line with a brush to create straight lines. I drew these haphazardly and duplicated/inverted/moved them, filled them with various colours, and set them on different layer modes with different opacity, all to interact with the background gradient in a subtle way to create a texture. Refer to the video for the process!
Google keywords like "how to use photoshop filters" and try out Filters in Photoshop! When used directly and solely to create the end result, filters make a piece look amateurish and “photoshopped”, but when used as part of an elaborate process on select aspects of a piece to create contrast, texture, depth, etc, they are can help generate variation in your piece at a fraction of time spent!
I also used Filter>Gaussian Blur to blur some of the rose petals to create some depth effects.
Google keywords like "how to use photoshop filters" and try out Filters in Photoshop! When used directly and solely to create the end result, filters make a piece look amateurish and “photoshopped”, but when used as part of an elaborate process on select aspects of a piece to create contrast, texture, depth, etc, they are can help generate variation in your piece at a fraction of time spent!
And the finished piece!
