#rough sketch as lineart bc I was too lazy to actually line it

[allknowingaxolotl]

What is wrong with you . Why are you blue

[starryeyedstray]

connorkus wishing you a very happy 2025~! my art ramblings below the cut as per usual

so my goal was to finish this drawing before the end of jan 1st in my time zone and ehehe that certainly did NOT happen. it's like 10am jan 2nd here ahahahah. but hey it's still jan 1st somewhere!!!!

i spent like 15+ hours on this piece and like 70% of that time was redrawing markus. i swear i have the hardest time drawing that guy. i miss drawing ladies. i used to them all the time. maybe that's why i got north down in one try. connor took like three tries. and then markus... i went through like 8 renditions of him. i hope he turned out okay. i've been staring at this piece for so long i've lost all objectivity.

y'all it really is a new year because i actually put my clean line art in a separate layer instead of what i normally do and spend an abnormally long time cleaning up my rough sketch. this led to veryyyyyy thin line art which it is not my usual style. i think it turned out okay??? i think in future pieces might change up the line weight cause i love my tapers but i was just too lazy to rethicken all the lines on the clean line art layer jskdfjksdjfkdsjfl.

i wasn't planning on doing a full colored piece because of the time constraints but i decided to put in some matte colors cause i wanted them to be color coordinated and i was like oh it looks a bit weird and flat maybe i'll render just a litt-- oops i rendered the whole thing ehehehe. tbh, i'm still trying to figure how i want to render and color things. i feel like i always like the plain lineart more than the colored version. i think that will be a goal for this year is figuring out how to color. right now like 50% satisfied with the how i render so hoping to get it closer to 100% by year's end.

btw, no one is allowed to compliment my fabric textures bc i literally cheated cause i just got a picture of fabric texture, set the layer to grain merge, and then added highlights. i was not gonna render out norths sparkly dress by hand that's for fucking sure lmao.

also, idk what cosmic void they're standing in. i just wanted a really soft glowy background without having to render out anything detailed. so uhm let's just pretend that they're standing in front of some sort of light display.

for listening to my ramblings enjoy these rough sketch layers~

happy new year <333

[inktho]

god i love your art! and you’re really livin the dream out here professionally drawing and selling merch of Your Boi! you are truly an Icon. Anyways, the question I had was: how do you usually blend colors or just color in general? I know you use Photoshop and not sai, like I do, but I’m still kinda lost on the whole coloring process. Also, do you usually clean up sketches or do you do lineart over your sketches?

Haha thank you! Um there are a few questions here so I’ll try to answer them in an order that makes sense.

my process for finished art usually goes like this: (SEE UNDER THE CUT)

1) sketch composition/pose, get the proportions out. it can be messy as long as you have the gesture down!

btw I like to have a gradient map layer for my lines, just bc the colors are nice

2) I lower the opacity of the rough sketch to about 10% and then I do a detailed sketch. These aren’t my final lines but they correct anatomy, refine the facial expression, clothing folds, etc. I try to include as many details as I need for my lineart, otherwise it’s not a very useful sketch.

3) Then I lower the opacity of THAT sketch and start the lineart. (For really complicated pieces I might even do a secondary rough-sketch). You want to keep the sketch layer on an opacity as low as possible or else you might rely too much on the sketch layer and things will look Funky when you turn it off. The brushes I use for lines vary but the Smoothing option in photoshop is a godsend!! Any type of stabilizer is great for long smooth lines.

4) I do the flats! for this part I just magic wand the white area, inverse and fill in the figure. (So you have to make sure the lineart doesn’t have holes. Unless you’re using clip, which has a smart-fill bucket but I dont use that LOL) Sometimes it’s a pain to close off every hole but it’s rly not that hard LOL. It’s a lot easier in the longrun, I believe.

Also note, since my lineart is under the gradient map, I actually put the flats on a multiply layer ABOVE them, otherwise they’ll be influenced by the gradient map. 

And then all the colors are in a clipping layer to the main flat.

So it looks like this.

5) Simple multiply layer for basic shading. Usually I go ham with shading but FEH portraits tend to be less dramatically lit.

6) Overlay layer for some lights

7) extra multiply layer focusing on the face

8) ok now we go above all those clipping layers and make a new layer

AND JUST PAINT ALL OVER EVERYTHING. I’m using a roundbrush here, it’s really nothing special LOL, just refining all the established shadow/lights I have already.

Here’s the difference it makes. It’s more satisfying to turn it off and on in photoshop but i’m too lazy to make a gif out of it LOL

Just the difference of one layer! 

9) and now some extra multiply / normal layers for some extra effects!

this one was p simple but I hope it helped!

Digital painting is really fun and easy once you learn how to control your brushes! Different settings will get you different outcomes so figure out which ones suit each step for you!