tutorial

The making of "The Lady in Red"

no pic available	Every pic starts mostly with "an idea","that other pic I saw" or "lets get this white paper dirty". But I can't really give you any other advice than "Keep your eyes open" in this matter, either you have some inspiration or not, you don't need it always though.
	This is the sketch of "The Lady in Red". I used a 2H pencil here, very hard, but it seemed just the right thing then. This pic was an experiment from the very beginning, for I did not, as usually, start with the head but with the legs. It seems quite obvious to me now, 'cause the legs compose the pic (like my former arts-teacher would have put it). But aside from some struggles, it worked out quite well. Important for me is, that a sketch is not exact in the first try but has bundles of lines, that only hint at where you will end up later. It's giving the thing more atmosphere and life and makes it much funnier. The proportions should be right nevertheless. Last thing to say here: I don't do all the details in the sketch, but mark them out, so I won't forget about them later. I drew this one on A4 and scanned it with 300 dPi. With A3 pics I usually use 250dPi.
	Once the scanner is finished, the pic automatically opens opens in Photoshop. Here I choose a nice color for the background, which will be dominant in the finished picture. A darker version of the color will be used for the outlines. I create a new layer take a 6 Pixel pencil and start with the outset of all outlines: The borders between the character and the background. To prevent it looking too flat, I always draw those fat outlines a little longer than they need to be into the as “character” defined space (i.e.:). In the hairy part I do the tips thinner than the rest, otherwise the hair would look too robust. Once I have that finished I switch into a 3 Pixel pencil and draw all the other outlines. Whenever I'm not sure if things look alright (or something seems definately wrong, but I didn’t know why), I use the mirror-trick. Beware: not vertical or everything will be upside down. I draw all the outlines with my pressure sensitive Graphic Tablet and never use full pressure. I don’t care if thin outlines have holes or such. No one will find out later. I’ve completely redone her hand here, as you are easily able to notice comparing this one with the original scan ^.° and her foot has been quite challenging. After I’d done the one in the front, which was all easy-going, the other one turned out to be a real problem. I still don’t like it =_=…
	Easy one: Pick your colors (they should fit together somehow) and get some color into the thing. I use one layer per color. That's three layers plus the background, which was great fun. I don't know, whether I should leave it like this... Colors shouldn't appear only once, when you want to get things harmonic. Though sometimes it's just the thing to get a green spot in a red picture!
	I don't usually do this, but this time I couldn't resist. I mean doing cell-shading before the real (softer) shading, I don' know whether it'll be any good for later. I'll tell you then ^_^°. I shortened her legs, they'd been pretty long before <_<... Doing these shadows it's important to use the correct colors, they define the kind of light (color and bightness) in the pic. And the light influences your pictures VERY much. The little Amor (I call him "Puello" >w<) in the BG is the result of some missing concentration und junk-produktion. But he's kind of cute, so he'll stay for the moment. Doing the shading, you should know, that everything that has a shadow, throws a shadow and that that looks exactly like the object it was thrown by and just as flat as the ground they are visible on. When there are things (like musles for example) you don't want to outline, you can make them easily visible with shadows. The highlights in your picture are also obligatory, making everthing shiny and giving character to dull objects. They are most important in the eyes to give life to your chara - don't overdo it though. Well, at least I don't like those shojo-super-über-glimmery-eyes, which have more reflections than depth.
	I've redone her dress. Looks so much more like a dress now... And my little puello grew a bit, else the background would be too empty. The pavement: Uhhmm, yes... I switched a lot between painter and photoshop, ended up doing it all in photoshop, were I achieved this. Every single stone is absolutly unique, but I admit: before I started to do them detailed I filled that corner à la Copy-paste. Then... what's it called it again? ctrl-R ^__^! For shadows and highlights I used the dark-light tool thingy... Too obvious: I added the title here, that red and white bar do have a nice effect, bit of a frame. I like the red, but still it can't really hurt to check out how ones pic might look in other colors. Play around! That's what software is made for ;P.>>GREEN!<<
	Let's alle the cell-shading fade! Intensify shadows here and highilght other things there. Things get lot's more life in this quite final step. Outline-faults should have been eliminated by now. In this step I show the material. Metall gets metall, smooth things get smooth, pearls get very shiny, hair gets hairy ;P. For the finished picture look at page 4 in the artwork-sektion. Hope, I helped you some. I'm always open for questions though. You're welcome ^_^.