Hi everyone! Welcome to the next part of my create a cover challenge part 2!
In this phase, I will be working on the digital version of the previous sketch.
I will be using Photoshop for this my Wacom Cintiq 16. And I always start with an A3 and from there I just stretch my artboard however I see fit.
For this, I want to create the full spread.
Sometimes I like to put my sketch at the bottom then draw over it, but for here, i just use my sketch as a reference. I think all the time, my final piece will be a lot different from the sketch. The sketch is basically what I do to just wrap up my idea and or to create the idea. As I go on with the process a lot of stuff can change depending on my mood, how inspired or tired I am, sometimes even the music playing on the background or movie I just watched, things like that, I wonder if other artists do this too.
Creating this blog was challenging, as this is the first time I will be explaining it, I just draw and go on, and I really had to think every step, like how will I explain this? hahaha!
Mind you guys, creative process varies, it doesn't mean because this mine this is the correct one, there no such thing as correct. for months, I tried a lot of ways, I watched videos from Losih, from Ross draws, I joined Patreon like Kate's ( https://www.instagram.com/poopikat/ ) and Aly Tain ( https://www.instagram.com/hialycat/ ) and all of them have different ways, from there I worked on something I'm happy with and I still keep exploring new techniques.
First thing, I try to be as organized as possible with my layers
This might be a painful process, but I will say its worth it! It helps me a lot! as much as possible as well, I want to keep my subject as clean as possible so if ver I want to change the background or put her somewhere else, I can easily do that. It's one thing I got from Ross Draw "A good digital artist is a good editor" do you agree? I do!
So its colouring time! this is one of the trickiest topics honestly because, to be honest, I know there are theories in picking colours etc, colour harmony, and I honestly don't really know it in details when it comes to digital art, by profession I am graphic designer, in my day job, and there are certain rules in colour combination, like contrast, harmony, analogous, etc... and most of the times are apply those theories.
I will create a different blog only focusing on colours soon, so I can give you proper details about it, but for now, I'll share to you to I selected the colours for this piece
But here's what I do, from my mood board :
I analyse what are the dominant colours, and the kind of feels I want, as we know colours can impact the full artwork. Literally this is Anne of Green Gables, so it gonna be Green, but I also want a lof warmth and coolness in it, this will be mostly Greens, Blue, Yellows and Orange (Does that make sense I hope it does)
So now let me show you the development of our main subject Anne
On this stage I will Adjust the opacity of the sketch layer to 50% and then under it with a different layer, I always start with full block colours and from there its time to add depth and analyze my shadows, and where my light will come from.
And my lights will come from the left since it's like the full field on the other side.
For this step, I am using my soft chisel brush.
Now you can see there's some mistake going on here because I wanted my light from the left, but I don't know what happens to me here, I put my shadows on the left too. hahah! but don't worry we'll fix that.
As for the hair, I get a lot of questions about this, and I want to give you the full information on how I do this and share to you how I did it before and what changed because this used be one of my huge weakness and I worked out on it for months, so I will create a separate blog as well for hair!
See how crazy I am with my layers?
This is the full spread so far, and you can see some inconsistency with my lights.
If my light comes from the left, the shadows of her face should be on the right side, just like the window.
SHADOW TIP!
So, tadaa! I made some adjustments to her face, kept the colours neutral, and check my layers, there's a layer now called shadow and it's set on multiply, I take the darkest colour of the skin by using the colour picker and colour it over the parts of the shadows.
This is now the shadow, and notice how her face glows? it's because, on top of the multiply layer, I added a layer overlay, using the soft airbrush, I pick the lightest colour of her skin and colour that on her face, just to add some vibrance and sunny colour on her face.
And here's what I did to the other side
Even my background I try to keep it as organized as I can.
And here it is so far! For part 3, I'll be sharing more special effects that I used, brush tips and I will share the brushes that I used and also the typography!
I hope this blog is helpful to you, and please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions to make my blog more informative and useful to fellow artists.