a couple of people expressed interest in seeing some of my steps for that strawberry shortcake illustration i posted last week.  so this is for them i guess.  just click below to see a simple tutorial on how i went about it.

(you can click on any of the images for larger views)

as always, these are the basic tools i look to whenever i start creating a new illustration. starting from the left and clockwise down: WINSER & NEWTON BLACK INDIAN INK, WACOM INTUOS 3 STYLUS, STAEDTLER PUSH PLASTIC ERASER. KOH-I-NOOR RAPIDOMATIC® PENCIL w/ 0.5 PENTEL BLUE LEAD, KOH-I-NOOR RAPIDOMATIC® PENCIL w/ 0.7 PENTEL BLUE LEAD, MICRON 02, PENTEL POCKET BRUSH, PRINCETON ROUND 2 BRUSH, LARGE STAEDTLER ERASER.

i decided to forgo any inking this time around, so for this illustration i’m using just the above.

i start of with a basic line drawing using my my 0.5 lead, which tends to give me a pretty light drawing. i then “ink” over it using my 0.7 lead.  this is where i iron out all my details and give my drawing a nice crisp look that drowns out many of the sketchier 0.5 lines when scanning.  the image shown above is this but i’ve colorized the linework in photoshop (IMAGE > ADJUSTMENTS > HUE/SATURATION > COLORIZE).

before scanning though (with the exception of this tutorial), i’ll go back to my 0.5 pencil and shade my drawing.  i’m not worried about being too incredibly precise with my shading.  my coloring in ps will take care of that.  but this does give me some nice texture once i get to that step.  however, the more precise my shading, the less thought process i have to put into the lighting.  usually.

here i’ve once again colorized my linework and created three layers:  my LINEWORK layer on top set to MULTIPLY, a COLOR layer below that, and a BG layer at the bottom.  depending on what overall tone i want my illustration to have, i’ll select a light neutral color to make my BG.  because of the strawberry theme, i decided to make this one pink.  usually, this is when i’ll go back to my linework layer and colorize my linework layer again with my BG color set as my foreground color. when multiply is applied, this blends the linework into the BG very nicely. in this case however, i kept the default crimson it colorizes to when black is set as the foreground color. i just liked it better this time around.

alright, tedious parts are done (most of those last few steps are created through actions i’ve set up and only take me a couple of seconds.  i recommend setting up some actions the first time you go though this so you never have to deal with them again). now it’s time to go into color. YAY!

i’ll LOCK my LINEWORK and BG layers so i don’t accidentally work on them and, using a hard brush tool i’ll begin blocking in my colors on my COLOR layer underneath my linework layer (like coloring in a coloring book).  i use the pink from my BG to choose what colors i’m going to use using the eyedropper tool, but more often than not, i’ll mess with those colors using HUE/SATURATION when i’m done.

after getting all of my colors blocked in, i have something like the above underneath my linework. i’ll use the wand tool (with the tolerance set to 10 and anti-alias and contiguous checked OFF) and select each color. i then save each selection (SELECT > SAVE SELECTION) so i can go back to them. it’s important to select all of your colors first before beginning to shade, otherwise you might run into problems selecting them later on (after rendering).

i usually start painting my figures first and work on the background (in this case- the strawberries) later. i load each selection and, using the burn tool (set to midtones and a 20-30% exposure), begin shading each section. after which i’ll go into the variety of brushes i’ve created and just sorta paint my shadows and highlights and whatever else i feel like. the nice thing about saving my selections is i can go back and forth to, let’s say, strawberry shortcake’s hat whenever i feel like it without ever have to worry about affecting the sections around it.

after i get strawberry shortcake pretty much rendered in, i go into the background.  this is still done on the same color layer.  i never touch my BG layer. i might add additional shadows and highlights to the figure depending on what i discover during this stage.

in the end i have something that looks like the above underneath my linework.

now it’s just a matter of tying everything together. using the radial gradient tool and a low opacity custom airbrush i’ve saved, i’ll add color highlights to certain objects and maybe bring in a second color for light. i wanted this illustration to have an early morning, slightly foggy feel to it, so i used a warm yellow this time.

my final step is to create a new layer above my linework and radial gradient (using the same yellow) some of the areas i felt light would be hitting.  this lightens up the linework a bit in those areas.  i’ll use the ERASER tool set to airbrush with 50% opacity to erase large chunks of these “light flares” so they aren’t overwhelming.  this is subtle stuff, but gives a finished quality to the illustration. lastly i go back in to to my COLOR layer and touch up any gaps in colors or crisp lines from the result of saving selections.  then it’s formatted for the web and ready to create a tutorial about.

and that’s it! i hope some of you find it interesting and/or useful.

i saved a bunch of the stages of this as i was working on it. you can see some of my process behind the cut.

this is going to be more of a simple visual process of this drawing, rather than a more extensive tutorial like i did for my songbird drawing. please take a look at that if you want to see more about the tools and methods i use to color.

i start off with just an initial line drawing in my usual blue pencil.

then i give jean some some shading.

after scanning, i choose a background color to pick my colors out from. in this case the usual cream tone i use for most of my superheroine drawings lately. i then colorize my linework to blend in better with my bg and multiply the layer.

then i simply color on a layer underneath my linework, blocking in my shapes…

…so i have something that looks like the image above underneath my linework.

then i go into shading and and adding the details by selecting each of my blocking colors…

…so i have something that looks like the image above underneath my linework.

for the phoenix force behind her, i tried a few things that weren’t working before deciding on just making it more of an essence of her rather then a physical form. so i needed to color in the shape on a new layer, erase that part of the linework, and go back and smooth out the edges.

then i added some shading and gradients to it to keep the focus on jean and give the phoenix force more of that “essence” i mentioned.

i added some shading around the canvas edge with burn tool to frame the image and i’m done!

a bit more detailed then i originally intended, and to my fault as well since i discovered it’s going on her foot! so this won’t be the actual tattoo. i’ll draw that one another day. but to see how i developed this one, just click below:

every illustration i do starts with a penciled sketch. i use a .05 pentel blue lead in a KOH-i-NOOR Rapidomatic pencil for most of my sketching:

since i wasn’t entirely sure what a songbird looked like, i used google images to find some images of songbirds to use as reference and picked and chose the parts i liked best. if you know what a real songbird looks like, you’ll notice i took some liberties on things to give my bird a bit more personality. its wings are flapping in a direction that’s normally impossible, the beak is a bit more sloped, the tail feathers are longer than they should as well as a few other changes. exaggeration is important! it’s what’ll separate your drawing from just being a boring depiction of yet another something. i’m all for changing and warping things if they enhance the drawing and this is a good example.

now like i said earlier, the drawing kinda depends on what approach i’m going to go for. here are all of the tools i currently reach for when i’m ready to take a sketch to something more final (minus a pentel brush pen which i completely forgot to include in this photo):

in this case, because of the fine details of the feathers and flowers (and because i was thinking how this would look as a tattoo) i decided to go with just the micron pen to ink this one. no brush. i use a 02 SAKURA micron pen for all my pen inking. it’s the same instrument i use for my cow & buffalos and i’ve been using them for years. if there’s one thing i’ve learned, you can try all the great tools that all your favorite artists use, but if you don’t know how to use them then they won’t do squat. the micron pen may not be the pest instrument for inking, but i’ve gotten it to work how i want it to better then quill pens and things like that over the years. anyhoo, these are the only tools i ended up using for this piece:

next i (usually) scan the linework into photoshop at 300 dpi, color. in this case i scanned it at 600 dpi to see if it really makes that much of a difference (it didn’t). if you don’t mind working with higher (and slower) files, by all means work at 600 or more. but for web purposes, 300 should be fine. print is a different story…

this next step may seem like a lot, but i’ve created a photoshop action (yay for actions!) to make this a quick two click process.

START ACTION: go to hue/saturation. take your blue and cyan up to +100. walaa. no more blue lines. change image to grayscale. END ACTION

change levels to get rid of any dark grays on the paper or darken the linework a bit. i don’t create an action for this because it really depends on what kind of paper i’ve used and how i’ve inked it.

NEW ACTION: bring contrast to +25, curves to 50/65, threshold, create layer from background, change layer properties to multiply, add two new layers, change layer names to linework, color, and bg in that order with linework at the top. END ACTION.

all that just to get to this…

…but it only takes a couple of seconds thanks to actions. :)

since my line work is now a pure black and white thanks to threshold, mutiply allows me to color underneath it without disturbing any black. and i’ll rarely color on a pure white canvas so my first step is to fill my bg layer with a “paper” color. in this case i used a yellowish cream since i thought that might look nice to pick out my reds from.

and that’s exactly what i do. eyedropping the bg color and using the color palette to select my colors. i’m not that concerned with choosing exact colors at this point since i can always select and change them using hue/saturation later. in this case though i stayed pretty close to my originals.

i should also mention that i lock my linework and bg layers before adding colors so i don’t accidentally color on them. i also lock the position of my color layer so i don’t accidentally move it (since i work on both a pc and mac on a daily basis, this actually happens a lot).

i typically use the brush tool rather then the pencil tool when blocking in my colors because i like the soft edge. it does make things a bit more difficult when it comes to this next part so i don’t recommend it.

after i get all of my colors blocked in, i select each color and save it as a selection. this allows me to go back and change parts as a whole once i start going in with more detail. i like choosing selections rather then layers because it saves space and i don’t have to constantly click around layers.

unfortunately, this is the part of the tutorial that i can’t really explain. using a variety of photoshop brushes i’ve changed over time (mostly opacities and flows and things of that nature) i go in and “paint” on each selection. hiding the selection edges so they aren’t distracting. all i can say about this process is that it helps to have a wacom tablet and to just use the same approach you would at traditional painting. drawing from your colors and mixing in the color pallet to create your shades.

i’m a kind of an oddity when it comes to this because i embrace the airbrush and gradient tools. both of which have gotten such an acceptable stigma attached to them because of how poorly they have been used in the past. as well as a certain indication that, “yes, you are using photoshop to color your artwork.” but if you use these tools effectively, subtly and in conjunction with other brushes, they can become just another great feature that photoshop offers. and i have no qualms about people knowing i use photoshop to color either.

and now i’m just about done. first to go in and give my flowers a bit more of a red tone to better relate to my bird (using the select and hue/saturation i mentioned earlier) and give some subtle “texture specs” to things…

…and then to give the drawing a bit more “pop”. i unlock my bg layer and use the dodge tool to lighten things up behind the bird and use the burn tool to give some fancy shading around the edge.

and there you are. maybe not a finished piece of work, but at a point where i’m satisfied enough with it to call it done. now this is just one method i go about doing things. more often then not lately, i’ve been skipping the inking stage altogether and going straight to coloring right underneath my pencil sketch. it’s effectively the same approach, but the coloring becomes more involved and textures are starting to play a larger part as well. someday i’ll go though that process if there’s a request for it. but not for a while. these actually take quite a bit of time to write out!

i was trying something a bit different then what i normally do so i was making a lot of snapshots in photoshop as i went along. when i finished i realized i had a nice little collection of the progress i went though to paint this thing so i thought it would be fun to save ‘em and post ‘em here once i got the blog up and running again. it’s not really so much an informative lesson, just a simple picture by picture evolution of an illustration. hopefully it’ll be kind of interesting and a bit of a glimpse inside the inner workings of the mind of mike.

now, this is only how i went about this particular piece. my usual method(s) can be much different…

i draw most of my stuff with a koh-i-noor rapidomatic® 0.5 pencil. i’ve used these things since college and i’m not sure i’d ever be able to go back to a normal pencil again. lately i’ve been using the blue lead a lot because of how soft it is plus it keeps me from erasing stuff. for this piece i had planned on inking it with ballpoint instead of a brush like i normally do. i used to do a lot with ballpoint but it’s been awhile so i scanned the penciled page beforehand in case i screwed up. after inked, i scan it into the computer and do what i call the “kazu approach” of blowing out my blue lines (i’m not sure he came up with this process but since i first read about it on his copper tutorial, that’s what it will forever be called in my head). i then use the levels, contrast, and curves to get my blacks the way i want and threshold the whole thing to do away with any halos while i’m coloring underneath. i’m pretty sure this is all common photoshop know-how that others have written much better before me so i’m just going to cruise through the rest of this.

next i’ve given the picture my base color. since i knew i was going to be painting my forest with some unnatural color choices (to give it that wonderland feel), i wanted to make sure green was still the underlying color to keep my wonderland foresty and not from looking too much like a rainbow. from there it’s of to adding some color which i’ve done here with the brush tool. i’m more concerned with filling in shapes at this point then using the exact colors i want because i know i’m just going to go and add gradients and what not to everything later.

after i have all my color painted in, i can select individual sections to separate into different layers. this makes it easier for me when i want to add gradients or change certain hues. after i precede to do just that, i darken or lighten my foreground elements to give the ilustration some dimension. with so much going on in the drawing, my goal here is to make sure the eye is lead to the tea party scene since that’s the focus of the piece. once that’s all done, it’s just a matter of adding some highlights with the paintbrush, some slight color tweaking and any shadows i might have forgotten. then wah-laa! a finished illustration.

so this was the super quick version of how i went about everything. i think the images give a better idea to my thought process then anything i could write. i also don’t think this is necessarily the easiest way to go about this, but it was fun trying something kind of different.