Fancy Doll - Process

1. In Manga Studio, I start with a very rough thumbnail sketch with big fat pencils. The fat pencils force me to keep the sketch loose without getting too caught up in the details. Because I knew I wanted the feet to be off the ground and just a little bit of the underskirt showing, the perspective was critical. I used the perspective ruler to line up the angles and position everything just right. I used single-point perspective. A center position makes for a much less dynamic composition so I placed the vanishing point a little off-center to add some variation. To find the middle of the box in perspective, I used an old trick where you draw diagonal lines from opposite corners and the point where the intersect is the in-perspective middle.

2. Final sketch. Now I go back and do a more detailed sketch, working out the the body, clothing, and props.

3. Inking. I use a variable-width inking brush for the characters and a constant-width brush for hard things on vector layers. I use lots of different layers for different parts, which makes it easier to overdraw and erase as needed. I also went ahead of inked the shape for the eyelashes because the brush stablization in Manga Studio makes it a lot easier than doing it in Photoshop later. I exported the doll, the lashes, the lace detail, the front of the box, the back of the box, and the environment all on separate layers.

4. In Photoshop, I convert the imported lines to a folder with a mask and put a solid black layer in the folder. (CTRL-click RGB in the Channels tab, invert the selection, create a mask from the selection.) This will come in handy later when I color the linework. Then I create another folder and start creating the basic color blocking. I like to do all my color blocking by making a folder and then filling it with different solid color layers for each section of color, whch makes it easy to change a color later. This is a very fussy way to do it and it's probably much simpler to just fill a single raster layer with flat colors.

5. Form shading. I create a dark brown solid color layer (linear burn) and start painting in the basic form shading with a soft airbrush. For the hair, I used color burn for richer shading and I used a variable-width soft airbrush to smudge detail into the shadows, picking up the shape of the hairs.

6. Cast shadows. I make a new dark brown layer set to multiply and start painting in the cast shadows with soft brush, using a smaller brush in places where the object casting the shadow is closer to the thing the shadow is on.

7. Backlight. A very desaturate pale pink solid color layer (screen) painted with a soft airbrush. When I combine it with the form shading, backlighting really makes the characters pop. I don't use any backlight on non-reflective objects. For extra glossiness, I also added a white forelight to just the extra shiniest parts.

8. Shiny. I used a solid white layer for the primary shine, which is on the underside since the light is coming from below, and painted spots and streaks using a hard variable-width brush. After painting all the shine, I use the cast shadow layer to make a selection and delete the shine from anywhere covered by shadow.

9. For the blush, I add in a light red layer, airbrushing just on the same area as the skin for the cheeks and other cheeks. I use the same method to add color for the eyeshadow and the blush lines.

10. Colored linework. Going back to the linework folder, I started adding new solid color layers, using the mask to paint the color of the linework. Since the new layers are inside a folder with a mask defining the linework, I don't have to be very precise when coloring the lines. I always add new color layers below the ones I already did so that I can be sloppy in the areas that are already covered by colored linework.

11. For the shadow cast by the top of the box, I added a hue/saturation adjustment layer, turned on colorize, and made it a desaturate dark blue. Then I turned down the opacity and used the layer mask to paint in a shadow on the top of the doll, being careful to follow the curves of the figure.

12. For the lace detail, I used the same shade I used for form shading and applied it as if it were just more form shading.

13. For the bootlaces, I used a donut-shaped brush and stamped little circles for the grommets, then applied a black outer glow and a bevel effect. Then I made two pink layers, with bevel, black outer glow, and a drop shadow, and painted in the laces.

14. Eyelashes are done with a folder containing a solid grey layer and a solid black layer. Using the lashes I made earlier with a variable width brush, I add a few thin streaks on the grey layer mask to add depth to the lashes and soften the look with a few strokes of a soft airbrush.

15. For the tears, I used a white layer with the fill turned down just a little and add a layer effect with white inner glow set to 100%. Then I use the mask to soften the edge where it touches the skin or mask. After, I add a new white layer to paint in the shiny highlights.

16. Box. In between the front of the box and doll, I added a layer of white, with a gruny texture overlay, and another layer some white shiny streaks on top, both set to a low opacity. Behind the back of the box, I added more white layers with white streaks. I copied the whole doll and mirror-flipped it and made it blurry for a little bit of reflection on each side of the doll. I also added a wood texture to the box, using distort to match the perspective on each surface.

17. Backdrop. I added a wallpaper texture to the wall and then made everything behind the box a little blurry with gaussian blur so that the doll and box would pop forward a little with a sense of narrow focus.

18. Finally, I added a simple plate shape to the base of the box, added a stroke and bevel, popped on a few rivets, then added a black text layer with outer bevel for the name.