Jun

05

Work Process: Akemi

Drawings & Illustrations , Akemi Hotaru, Illustrations, Work Process | 2 Comments

Alrighty, this here is my usual work process, from start to end, on how I usually illustrate a character. Today’s model will be the lovely Akemi, who had recently just come out from more than half a year of hiding.

(And no, I do not have a Cintiq, that’s just me wishing that I did.)

First, I start off by quickly sketching out the skeleton. I keep this step real rough, there’s no point worrying about any details here for obvious reasons. I try to focus instead on getting the pose and proportions down properly before moving on.

My lines are still pretty rough here, but at this stage, the idea is to simply flesh her out, her hair, clothes and other such important elements.

Next I draw cleaner lines with a 3px hard round brush.

Colours are up next. I like to fill the background with either red, green or blue, this helps me spot any small areas I might’ve missed out.

After I’ve added the base colours, I then paint up all of the shadows and highlights.

When all is said and done, I’ll finish her up by adding in a background and some visual effects. I honestly don’t like drawing things without a background, so at the very least I’ll paint a ground shadow of some sort. And there you have it, that’s how I usually work on character illustrations.