Sesshoumaru and Rin (aka SessRin) and Jaken (we only see a hand, but he’s still in there) are characters from Inuyasha, an anime/manga by Takahashi Rumiko.
I’ll be sharing how I usually work with my digital artworks by showing a step-by-step guide of my chibi anime-style fanart of them.
I’ve divided it into 6 steps, along with a few notes to document my progress. I’m practicing how to work faster when it comes to drawing and coloring, so hopefully, this guide can help in organizing my working habits.
This is probably not the best drawing guide out there since I’ve encountered a few trial and errors. I’m actually hesitant to show this online, but I think remembering these mistakes will help me improve in the future. (nn,)
Step 1: Pencil Drawing
As you can see in Sesshoumaru’s face, I’m not very good at aligning eyes when drawing anime the traditional way. ^^ I figured I didn’t have to be so careful with this pencil drawing, since I would be redrawing it digitally, anyway.
Step 2: Digital Line Art
I fixed Rin a lot because the pencil version was drawn without looking at references.
During this time, I was under the impression that my pen tablet was broken. So knowing that my pen is as good as a pen-shaped mouse (no pen pressure feature), I decided to use Adobe Illustrator, as usual.
What’s good about this program is that it automatically fixes the lines, so even if my tablet is not working and my hand is a little shaky, it would still create decent strokes and provide similar results to when I still had my tablet functioning properly.
So, after scanning the pencil drawing, I traced it carefully in Illustrator to make it look more natural, as if hand-drawn. I paid attention to the thickness of the brush strokes because this is how I work, even when I’m drawing traditionally.
I started with their faces first and then drew the main forms of everything else to make sure that there is nothing out of place. This is important because sometimes when I’m drawing using pencil, it looks all good; but once I scan and stare it on screen, I would notice mistakes such as misaligned eyes, weird-looking body parts, and perspective issues.
If the main shapes of the faces and the bodies still look good after redrawing it and flipping it horizontally, then it means my drawing is decent and it is safe to add in the details. XD
I then set the brush to thinner strokes and start adding more details such as additional lines on their hair, the watermelon seeds, the details on Sesshoumaru’s kimono, and the lines that will act as guides for his facial markings.
Once it’s all done, I remove the pencil sketch underneath and then I export the line art as .PNG.
Step 3: Filling in with Flat Colors
After years of suffering, my pen tablet decided to work again! (Thank Sesshoumaru-sama, I randomly thought of re-installing it! XD) Turns out my zoom and scrolling problems were only caused by the Touch Ring! It was easily solved by disabling, as I rarely use it anyway.
I now celebrated the revival of my tablet by using Adobe Photoshop. I have more brushes there than in Paint Tool SAI, so the reunion of me and the pen pressure was pure bliss~
I dabbed in a messy sketch of the background to give me an idea of the mood of my drawing. Then I colored every ‘shape’ to have a base for shading. At this point, it doesn’t really matter if the colors are not accurate. It can be replaced later by locking the layer and hitting Ctrl + Backspace (the keyboard shortcut for the Bucket Tool).
As I zoom in and color, I also fix the parts of the line art that dissatisfies me. Most of the time, it’s just thick lines that needed a little bit of erasing to make it look less technical and more hand-drawn.
Step 4: Shading
This is the part that takes forever to accomplish!
I shade in the details, add shadows that looks decent for a chibi artwork (it’s so hard to color chibis because I had to remind myself that it’s not realistic and that it would look weird and wrong if I add in too many realistic shadows Y^Y), experiment with brushes to get the right texture for each objects, struggle with different shades to make sure I’m not messing the lighting, and more importantly, add in some reflections. I never paid attention to this before, but clothing reflection creates wonders!
Whenever I’m having trouble figuring out how to shade a certain area, I start with the airbrush to create soft shadows. And then from there, I add in the darker shadows bit by bit by using a more defined brush in a low opacity (20-60%). It’s like holding a light near the object and moving it slowly to determine the appropriate shading/shadows.
Adding the yellow-orange circle sun above the characters also helped in guiding me with the light source. It doesn’t look very bright at this point, but I told myself that it will get fixed in the end. X3
I started with Rin’s eyes, then Rin’s hair and clothes, then slowly progressed up to Sesshoumaru through his mokomoko. Jaken was last because I wasn’t really paying attention to what his hand will look like. :3
Notice that the white reflections are painted above the line art.
I also did a messy shading of the rocks and gave the background land more shape because it was hard to motivate myself to do the shading when the rock Sess is sitting on looks… flat.
I think the most noticeable part here is the lower area of Rin’s mokomoko-floater. I initially thought that I did a perspective fail, so I tried to fix it by making the mokomoko-sama look like it was dipped in the waters. (Hey, it’s not a real floater, so it’s possible! X3)
I later on realized that the problem was the water ripples and not Rin, so in the next step, you will see it fixed!
Step 5: Background, Sunlight, and Water Reflections
As the title says, I painted the background, added sunlight (both in the land and in the waters), and scribbled some colors that would be the reflections on the waters.
I’m particularly proud of the rocks because it took me a lot of trial and error with the brushes that I can’t remember how many times I painted over it.
For the waters, not so much. I had to fix it many times and up to now, I’m still not sure if I did the right thing. That’s the most decent that I can manage, though, so it will have to do. ^^
At first, I was dreamily thinking of water foams. I even drew it in a separate layer and made the perspective go with my drawing’s but once all the water-drawing-excitement faded, I realized that water foams are found on oceans, not rivers, gah! It took a lot of forehead-slapping on my part, but I finally accepted that my foams will have to say goodbye, and I would have to make the water look acceptable by shading it with lines and adding ripples instead. *pout*
Now, regarding the water ripples. As you can see here, the perspective is now fixed (at least I think it is). It’s more viewed from above, which makes it even with the rocks, the background land, and the mokomoko wrapped around Rin. I followed a perspective tutorial for this, but since it’s not my forte, I’ll save talking about it for next time, when I have a better grasp on doing it and explaining how it works.
Step 6 (Final): Coloring the Lines and Adding Some Finishing Touches
I finalized the water ripples, added some detailed splashes of water, added a line of ‘anime highlights’ on their hairs, emphasized the sunlight, added some highlights on the background, and, the most important part of this step…
I colored the line art. (The actual lines.)
Some artists ignore this step, but it actually makes a huge difference. By simply coloring the black lines, the image gives off a softer look and the objects become more distinguishable instead of looking like a coloring book filled in with colors.
I also added my watermark in this step. (Updated since this post was first published.) This is important for artists who share their work online. People can repost/share it many times, but as long as your watermark is there, viewers will know how to look for the source online. 🙂
My Progress, Animated:
That’s it! I hope viewers/visitors can find this guide somewhat helpful. 🙂
This is not limited to drawing chibis, of course. If you want to do semi-realism or create a more realistic approach, you just remove the lines or blend it in with your shading.
Thank you for looking! ♥