Cupid Conversion - 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. This time, I was just working out the general composition.

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.

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 raser layer with flat colors.

5. Form shading. I create a dark blue 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. I also used the smudge tool to add extra detail to the feathers.

6. Cast shadows. I make a new dark blue 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 shiny rubber.

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 vaiable-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. I also added a pink back shine to the rubber for extra shininess.

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.

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. 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.

12. Finally, I added a gradient to the backdrop and added lots of clouds. For the clouds, I used my simple cloud brush, which is just one little blob of cloud, that I sampled from a photo of clouds, with lots of angle jitter and scatter. I start by using the cloud brush to paint in the whole cloud shape using the darkest shade of the cloud (in this case, a dark pink). Then I lock the transparency of the layer (so that I can change the color of the pixels without affecting the shape) and switch to a medium color to paint the general form of the clouds. Then I switch to a brighter shade and add just a few brighter spots here and there.