A Step by Step of how I do Mah Arts!
Heyo! Sorry for the lack of code-fu. Sadly I am more an art peep than a code peep. But I figured I'd show you all a bit of how I go about doing the art I do that is found on my pet lookups. For this escapade, I'm going to step-by-step my chocolate korbat Jhaynea. Letsa' go!

Step One: Chickenscratch!

Above is basically the very first sketching. I draw with good old pencil and paper, though I use a particular blue-lead in my mechanical pencil...hence the light blue colour. I use this mainly because after inking, it makes it easier to clean up. The downside is...as a sketch preview the scanner likes to eat it. As you can see...there is just a lot of lines all over the place. I usually tend to draw light and fast as I try to work out a pose and theme for an image. Lots of erasing, lots of mistakes. The nice thing about blue lead for me is I can scribble lightly over the place then backtrack to find lines that I feel look best. Right now you can sort of just barely get an idea of the picture. But next up will be a more cleaned up "just about to ink" version.


Step Two: 50% less Chickenscratch!
As one can see above, I've more or less darkened lines and cleaned up a little bit of the scattered sketches so this picture is just about ready to be inked. It's still a little messy, but I've been drawing long enough I can read my own lines to know where I'll be inking. Next up will be inking. I personally use Microns, which are a brand of pens that vary in size from teeny tiny (005) to slightly fat (08). I usually hang around the 02-05 zone though I like to use 08 to add a nice thick outline which will be shown next.


Step Three: Inks!
This is basically the inked image fresh off the scanner. You'll note I didn't actually ink the glasses...I find circles are evil to get done by hand so I prefer adding them in digitally. As far as tools of my trade go, when I colour I use Photoshop CS3. Special note, when you are scanning your art, an important thing to look for is the DPI (dots per inch) as that will be how "big" your image will be. I usually scan art at 300 DPI, this will be important later. But first off...gotta get all that blue lead and stuff cleaned up so I can start colouring!

Step Four: Digital Cleanup!
The key to my colouring is to get my image as close to solid black and white as possible so that it makes it easier to add colour and shading. Hard to do when you have paper texture and pencil fuzzies all over the place. A lot of artists have different measures of which they do this, I'll go through the steps I use for mine. The things I'm about to list off are features located in the top part of your programs toolbar...you may need to search around for some of them. Your mileage may vary depending on your program and scanner. When I bring the image in, I:
Phase One: Image --) Adjustments --) Desaturate

Phase Two: Image --) Adjustments --) Levels

(This particular step brings you into a small chart. The trick is to bring both ends of it to the center so that it turns complete black and white. I usually end up around the 150 mark myself as noted above)
Together...this should turn your image so that it is either all black or all white. There may be a few rogue bits of black and white floating around that you may have to go in with a little paint/pen tool but overall...the image should be ready to start colouring! Onto the next step!

Step Five: Base Colour!
Colour! Glorious Colour! Nom nom nom...
This step is actually fairly straightforward. All you really need to do is get your fill (or paintbucket tool as some call it) and pick your colours (Either by eyeballing it yourself or maybe taking a screenshot of your pets lookup image and using the eyedropper tool to grab the colours off of it) and then fill tool everything so that its the colour of your desire. This can be somewhat annoying if you have gaps in your linework, but overall it is a somewhat simpler step. This colour is basically the groundwork of your art as you will be shading darker and highlighting lighter. So your base colour is important in that it sets the stage. Though right now it is looking pretty flat. Also...remember how I mentioned earlier I scan at 300 DPI? While you guys are seeing the image fairly small, when I colour, the image's actual size is closer to this...

Pretty big! The reason for this is...is two reasons. First one is that it makes adding details a lot easier because there is more room to work with. When you have to get rid of stray black pixels or add the shading, you want your image to be bigger so it gives you more wiggle room. The second is because at the very end...the last step is that you resize the image. This will cause it to shrink and I find it makes your lines look a LOT smoother. But you want to do this last because once your image is tiny...it is REALLY hard to make edits and adjustments. Anyways...next step is the step where it will make the image start to stand out some...shading!

Step Six: Shade Level One (yes...one)

You'll note I did the step for this one first because...well this is the part most people ask me about. How do I shade? The method I use is actually not as difficult as it could be...it just takes a lot of practice and knowing where I want those shadows to go. As you can see in the pic, the tool of choice is something I call the LASSO tool! What it does is allows you to select areas without making any actual marks yet. Really useful when you want to shade a particular area (in this case, Jhaynea's hair) without the fill bucket tool colouring in it all. The thing to remember with the lasso tool is that it makes invisible lines...your fill tool will still not go outside the black lines...it will only fill in areas of the same colour. Basically what I do is lasso around the ENTIRE area of something I want to add shading to. Then while holding down the CTRL key, I will start de-selecting the areas I want to remain the normal colour. You see, when you hold the CTRL key while using the lasso tool, your lasso tool gets a - sign next to it...meaning it will be making anti selections. Basically like cutting little holes in it...as you can see from the pic above. This part can take a bit of practice getting used to. But then once you have selected the areas you want shaded...

...its the return of the fill tool! Nya ha ha! As you can see, the fill tool only filled in the parts that the lasso selected...leaving the areas you un-lasso'd the same colour. When it comes to shading, I usually just eyeball it...opting to go a few shades darker than the base. It can also take some practice.
SPECIAL NOTE: Depending on your art program, especially if you have photoshop, you may want to check to see if a feature called "Anti-Aliasing" is on. If it is...turn that stuff off! With this style of colouring, you want to have nice crisp lines...and anti-aliasing tends to make things fuzzy. Anti-Aliasing is usually found as an option for the fill tool and the lasso tool (or any tool that allows you to select areas).
That's about all I can really say for this step...lots of selecting and filling. It's something only really practice can help with since you slowly learn what looks good and where your shadows go. However the image still looks a lil flat...so its onto...

Step Seven: Shade Level Two
Shade Level two is actually more a repeat of shade level one in that you are now shading in the areas you previously shaded...thus adding a bit of extra depth. Jhaynea's staff is starting to look more like metal, and she herself is starting to look more glossy as well. This step can be tricky since it also requires knowing where to shade and sometimes it requires you to experiment around to try to find out what looks nice. The biggest mistake most people make I find is they have a habit of hugging the lines. The best advice I can give is to just take a step back, and look at how light affects things around you in the real world. Try to keep in mind where your "light source" is coming from (I usually put mine in the top left corner of the image) and have your shadows fall that way. I find that you don't want to go too overboard with shade level two...it should be used a bit more sparingly than shade level one. It's basically there to give more punch to your shadows...not be a focus of it. Anyways...now its time to go inverse into...you prolly can guess it...

Step Eight: Highlights!
Highlights is basically the anti-shadow...so you will be putting them on your base shade a few shades lighter than it. Much like shade level two, this is a step designed to make your picture have more punch! But also a step you don't want to go too overboard otherwise everything looks like it was dipped in baby oil. Things like metal or shiny things should have more lighter highlights, where as stuff like hair or clothes should have softer ones. Here's a closeup of Jhaynea...

This is why you want to colour big. You would not be able to get nearly as many details in if you were colouring small! Since Jhaynea is chocolate, I opted to give some of her highlights a bit of stylization via swirl patterns. You'll also note I finally did add and detail those glasses. But oof...that would be a whole other lesson since I basically had to make them on a different layer (and anyone who knows Photoshop knows how hard it is to explain layers in a guide *laugh*) But yes! Highlights basically are there to give that extra little bit of depth to the shape of your subject. And with that...its onto the finish line!

Step FINAL: Random touches!
So I got my image...basically the final steps are adding the words, flattening the image, and then resizing it so that its smaller and internet friendly. 300DPI is great for colouring and ok for printing...but you DO NOT want to try uploading it at that size. It will be HUGE. I usually resize my images about 20-25%...which creates the size you now see.
And well...there you have it. A very very bare-bones step by step of how I do my art. I admit there is details I didn't go into, some of it is really difficult to explain on the internet. But hopefully you all now have a bit more of an idea of what I do. Lots of lasso, lots of fill tool, lots of practice. Thanks for reading!



NEOPETS, characters, logos, names and all related indicia
are trademarks of Neopets, Inc., © 1999-2012.
® denotes Reg. US Pat. & TM Office. All rights reserved.
PRIVACY POLICY | Safety Tips | Contact Us | About Us | Press Kit
Use of this site signifies your acceptance of the Terms and Conditions