URE a ee) a) MASTER THE ICONIC JAPANESE ART STYLE 7 J ; a c —— f Y —_ . : - Mer eoGeriont cS I ARTWORK a . | j= \ oo Kp : < SS, / p> [VIBRANT HUES IN CLIP STUDIO PAINTWELCOME TO ‘Welcome tothe marvellous world of manga! Whether ‘mangaka or new tothe style, the tips, techniques an Professional artists in these pages wil help you to develop you sik. Go beyond the comicbook monotones of traditional manga and delve into the \ider world of this evocative Japanese-nfluenced an style. Learn how to draw figures and faces with the unique manga look, then develop them into action poses with anime-style backdrops. Explore how to deploy vibrant colour palettes and line effects to create specialist tools like Paint Tool alongside Photoshop to 2 here and movement, and how to use ip Studio Paint and Manga Studio effects you want, Let go!4 L FUTURE 4 rHOW TO BE A MANGA SUPERSTAR TOP ADVICE FROM PRO ARTISTS| ‘ARTIST PORTFOLIO: HEIKALA MEET THE EMGMATIC FINISH uusrRaToR ‘SKETCHBOOK: SAI FOO TAKE A LOOK INSIDE THIS ARTIST'S MANGA-STYLED SKETCHBOOK ‘ARTIST PORTFOLIO: DJAMILA KNOPF "PROPER? ART? WE THINK SO! DRAW AND PAINT FANTASY MANGA YUEKO SHARES HER PROCESS ‘ARTIST PORTFOLIO: ‘SACHIN TENG THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF & ROLLERCOASTER CAREER COLOUR MANGA IN CLIP STUDIO PAINT ASIA LADONSKA REVEALS WER PROCESS COMPOSE AN ANIME ‘STREET SCENE USE COLOUR, LIGHTING AND PERSPECTIVE‘LEARN NEW MANGA CREATE YOUR OWN ASUKA ‘COLOURING SKILLS INTERPRET & CHARACTER FROM NEON JAMES GHO'S RENDERING TECHNIQUES GENESIS EVANGELION ‘BE INSPIRED BY A GET BETTER AT. MANGA CLASSIC PAINT TOOL SAI THE INFLUENCE OF AKIRA COMPOSE FIGURES ITH THS KEY TOOL ‘CREATE AMAZING, 15 TIPS ON PAINTING MANGA FIGURE ART MANGA FACES [BRING TO LIFE A GIRL AND HER TOY TOTORO TECHNIQUES FOR ENGAGING CHARACTERS PAINT & FANTASY 15 TIPS FOR BETTER MANGA PORTRAIT CHARACTER ART ‘A SOFT AND COLOURFUL MANGA CHARACTER CREATE AND REFWE CHARACTERS ‘CREATE ANIME-STYLE ‘CHARACTER DESIGN ‘STREET SCENES IN COPIC MARKERS: ‘COMBINE SKETCHUP AND PHOTOSHOP BLEND PENCILS AND MARERSHow to bea manga superstar Pro artists at the top of their game tell Tom May how they've been able to attract global acclaim for their manga artwork ‘Mangas in rude health, and if you paint it you'r in good company. t's ‘now possible for manga artists to ‘amass hundreds of thousands of social media follower {90 and ive and work in Japan itself But how do you go about it Here, four artists who have found success share their advice on how to followin ther footsteps. IF mon The fist and perhaps most obvious, | point is that you need to get your artin | front of people “f you create alot of | iiystrations but dont post_| them anywhere, nothing's | | ‘going tohappen"says | ‘Russian artist based in Tokyo with 13 milion Instagram followers (@kuvshinov_Alya)."itcan bescary to | | expose your work publicly, but theretl_| ’be people who love it-tust me! Lust posting in one place, though, may not be enough, says s Better known as : Larienne or Princess Lrienne, the Polish iustrator has made 3 huge impact on the DeviantArt community, which honoured her with its Deviousness ‘awarin 2016, But she's alzo uit “strong bases on instagram (@ larlennechan),Turnbir ancl the online “Japanese art community, Ps FIERCE COMPETITION ‘Some people think just being goods. ‘enough, but unfortunately that's longer tue," Larienne says. "In these times of constantly changing lgoritims and fierce competition, you never know where client or fans are ‘coming from, s0 you need to bein as many places as possible It’s also important to post often, says Aleksandra Sprysevnska, 2HOW TO BE A MANGA SUPERSTAR INDUSTRY INSIGHT ILYA KUVSHINOV Discover how this Russian manga ‘artist gained followers and fame How did you first get started? Teteated a shor, vsualnovel ‘game. [did thescript,theartand ‘coding myself and sentittoa Russian gaming magazine. After that, [began working asa freelance llastrator andl concept nist fora video game ‘development company. did lot cfillstratons for practice, and uploaded them to social networks. Aftersome time, Ive ‘gained quitea following If you create a lot of art but don’t post it anywhere, nothing's going to happen Which social media channels do you think manga artists should focus ont Itdepends on your target group. Forexample Instagram and Facebook’ speaking countries. Ifyou know ‘who youte creating for, youl know where and when to post How did you get more than a million Instagram followers? By posting everyday. The way Instagram algorithm works, someone likes your post, then there's chance your account will berecommended to the friends ofthis person. ‘Why do you think your work is so popular? Turyto concentrate onthe ite things ~ details such as gestures ‘orexpressions that make you feel the uniqueness of every moment, bring you closer to the character. Fm not trying o stand out from ‘other artists, though. Im just doing what Fm interested in, "oats roma is ‘neta [biel Momentary, The ia Kahin as oar inaPolsh art student whosatracted | Bimosta qurtrofamiion flowers | Meh may) ontstagam asverko. | Snseiaes Fe rerkoes, ing i consstort ey y sess “You pees hep postin ew things, come up with new ideas all the time, so that people don't forget you {2nd wil introduce you to their friends” | Aleksancra’s own instagram feeds | great mixture of photography, | sketches and full artwork, which make Itfeel much more personal than usta | straightforward galery. “People would | rather see a photo of your artwork than a clean scan of it” she stresses. "They like to see behind the scenes, the workspace I's also a great way to show the tools you've used STAY TRUE TO YOUR VISION Gienthat other manga artists witbe | dongalthat aswel though, ow do | ouensureyourworkstands ou? | Atsksondr belves’sessentaly about beng to your ison, at the mother types ct a weal have When you do nothing but fan art, people might start to see you more in those terms than as a creator cour own style, and other things that ‘make our work unique” she says. ‘Concentrate on shat interests you, ‘and others wil folow: “That said, some have found that posting fanart can be an effective way (of getting extra attention and boosting their audience. "My own big break’ ‘came when | shared fanart of Mathilda from the fim Leon on Instagram," aye lya. “Suddenly | found mysef with 2 huge numberof followers. Te was a similar story for Larienne. My real breakthrough came with ‘applying my personal style tofan art ‘of western cartoons,” she says & Yet for every fan artwork that goes viral, a thousand more get ignored, ‘and it'snt something you should ely fn, believes ka the popular Genzoman (@mmrgenzoman). "When youdo nothing but fan art, people might stat to see youmore in those terms thanas a creator” he says."So think better strateay is to combine your own ideas and concepts wit fanart, not | just one thing or the other ‘Alekeandra adds that if you're going toexperiment with fanart, make sure its something youhave a true passionIn shor it's about being original and finding your own, estinct path." When | was starting out | copied pages from Dragon Bal, and recreated the style of artists ike Kazushi Hagiwara,” says Gonzalo."But there's a point where for "W's so obvious who's actually ito | outside Asia tend to see” says youhave to try new things, so people the fandom, and who's just outlooking | Gonzalo. But there are many genres, dont see youas the imitator oF, ke for lkes and shares” she cautions. | artists and visions within manga, so the art equivalent of a covers band: encourage young people to oarn as ‘And after that it's down to IMMERSE YOURSELF much as they can about its origins. persistence, hard work and just ‘The came principle, of course, applies | "Explore the work of Osamu Tezuka, | keeping going untilt starts to happen tothe discipline itself Manga isnt just | Shotaroishinomori and Go Nagai” he for you. “Believe in yourslf says fone style, but adeep andiich culture | says, "as wellas other types of Larienne. “Get engaged with the art ‘going back decades, and the more you | Japanese artists, such as Yoshiharu community. Ask questions, experiment ‘can study and immerse yourselfin | Teuge or Yoshihiro Tatsumi, This helps and practise aot the better your art willbecome. you diversify, because f we're all doing ‘And Aleksandra adds:“Dontt give ‘Many people think mangas only | similar styles, wellend up competing up It's very hard. People arent fait, Shénen fmanga aimed.at teenage _| withone another. A manga artist social median fa But you can be males] or Moe [chs-lke characters | doesn't have to bea one-tick pony, fair to yourself Do what you love and that aim to elicit strong emotional | but can be as versatile as any other what defines you. Work hard and it response, which s what audiences | type of creative: vill pay off” a eeee ARtIstat cohuitell NOK ee ae ro: reretm The stotydgehind the picture: Gary Evans Meets the Sal HVS vey aa i alom oe-1-) Fe CCaa-ie- lee a raaed Heikala lives in a large house in (uly, Finland. She has a whole room tohandle tock and postage for the ‘online shop she tarted staght out of university and has since built into a very successfl small business. Inthe comer of her workspace, the house's former living room, she keeps equipment for making and editing the videos that have helped her earn nearly «wo million followers on social media Her desk stands inthe same room, under the big window that lets in lots flight, and here she keeps the pens, paper, brushes and coloured inks used {o give her illustrations that distinctive Jook ~ tools she'll son release as part ofher own range of art supplies. This makes Heikala sounds entrepreneurial influencing, hustling hut she describes Oulu asa good place sreousene I didn’t have to worry about getting a job to support | myself during the studies | foran introvert She doesn't disclose her full name and never posts photos| ‘of herselé. The tory behind this requires a bit more Figuring out Maybe the answerlis in the bottom oftwvo drawers ofthe drawer unit beside her desk under the big window, Ishere that Heikala keeps her most prized possessions. Heikala was always drawing twas animals when she was very young, then Pokémon arrived in Finland and for years her sketchbooks were fall of Bulbasaurs and Charmanders. At school, she had an act teacher who encouraged her to experiment witha range of materials and techniques. She sculpted. She got into oils. Inthe early 2000s, manga appeared on magazine stands in herhometown Ou, $0 Heilala advanced to sketching humans in the style oflapanese comics suchas Ranma, Artist PROFILE Heikala ‘Mebi stpaine bean pen, coloured ne, |ALIG, she was accepted intoa high school specialising in art in Helsinki, a sichour tain ride away, which meant ving home. Her parens were aways | very encouraging and so, after high school, she went on to university in Lahti twas onthe five-year graphic design course that she frst earned bout the importance of branding, oduct design and visual storytelling. These days, Hekala does the oda bit ofillutration work for clients, tony itcomes with complete creative otro, Stil at uni, she tated going to conventions, to antistalle, where her artwork sold surprisingly well. This meant she was torn between getting Hb ata graphic design studio or trying make living ftom her own art. She tried frelance graphic design, but leamed pretty quickly it wasn forDON’T GET HUNG UP ON DETAILS Heikala explains why she sketches fast and small - and never uses an eraser... “Whenever I sketch, | always use a pen ora ballpoint en. | made a decision maybe six years ago to not use ‘aneraser at all when sketching. This has streamlined my process and helped me to not get hung up on details ‘during the sketching stage, and to work around my mistakes rather than erasing my process Istart off by drawing in my sketchbook | use either Deleter or Muli sketchbooks, and ke to sketch on slightly textured paper For some reason, I prefer sketching on a horizontal page rather than vertical~ | don't quite know why that is. somehow feel restricted |_| when there's too ttle space horizontally, which is why | mainly use spiral-bound sketchbooks, so have the {freedom to sketch across the page. But lend up flipping my sketchbook upside down on every other page so | don't have to rest my hand on the spiral. | always sketch really small My average sketch for @ painting idea is usually matchbox-sized andi only has ‘the bare essential components for @ composition. scan the tiny sketch and print it out n bigger size, and then start to work onthe smaller details for the sketch, When ''m happy with everything trace the sketch on to ‘watercolour paper and start working onthe ine-art and then start adding colours.”taking the financial blow if t doesnt end up working out “Making solo projects is of course bigs Financially, but Fm ata point in % x iy ie where wart oprioiiae .o rset lait am oe , {oing something hat Idonthave my we heart in - even if itends up being a financial failure” her. Aftergraduating shestarted | release in early 2020, Mostofthe Heikala doesnt wait fr inspiration to building her own business: "Thanks to | supplies she uses herself are only find her. She goes looking fort. Often the free education system in Finland | available in Europe and Japan, So she itsa numbers game: she sits down at [didn't haveto worry about gettinga | spenta year contacting suppliers and her deskand sketches as many as 30 job to support myself during the ‘puting together a range she wil sll matehbox-sized images, but will studies, and nordid Laveto take outa | svorkl-wide through her online shop. usually develop onlya few. Before that, Joan to study. 'm extremely fortunate | ‘The aim isto encourage more people 10 foran idea to take shape she has to thatitall worked out” make things with their hands take in alot of visual stimulation. She ‘Working for herself means she has ‘Since is. project tha’ close to my looks through a ton of images on ime to experiment on her own large- | heart, I didnt want to compromise on Pinteret and in her own photography. scale projects, ike her book published | any aspect fit, so decided to make Japan sill plays big partin her art. in2019, The ArtofHeikala, and the | this happen from startto finish by ‘She visited the country seven times range of art supplies she hopes to ryself, but that also means that Fm And isgoing again this year. She's also MOE wmel Aan about the brand Roa naacacetnet | i 0 _Heikalain évery aspect of the things thatido 99z Ea =: =2 totackle in my ant, what kind of products want to create, and how Twant1o utilise my social media. 've ‘made a conscious decision not to do sponsored content on my socal media forwhichever company, and Icarefully choose the people I want to work with and make products with. Most ofthese things, guess, basically come down to ‘my own ethics” Inthe ame way that Hetkala wants the viewer to figure out the story behind herart, she seems to want the viewer to figure out the story behind the artist who made it, She gives us slimpses into her life ttle moments inher larger story ~ but the rest she ‘GHOST MIGRATION ee © I try to create art that's true to who Iam. I may not always succeed, but that’s something I actively strive to achieve 99 keeps for herself. is ood for business. san excellentbit of branding. Bat it's | | much more than that, Heikala has not ly solved the age-old problem of doing the thing tamed the | solution into a story, nto a work of ar. ‘And that means she’ fee to focus on | the one thing that matters most. PRIZED POSSESSIONS Whenever Heikala finishes a piece, she pts it in one of the bottom two drawers ofthe desk unit under the big | window, the place where she keeps her | most prized possessions. "Lary to create paintings that are true to who Iam. I may not always sueceed, but thats something actively strive to achieve. Ifthose works thay | are important to me speakalso to the iudience that views them, then Ian fel happy knowing Ive eached ‘people who also feel my paintings | ate true to them, There's so many. dlffeent kinds of art in the world, ind so many different people to experience ar, that find easy 10 | accept that not everyone will ove my art in the same way that I don't love or | understand all at. But 'm 30 cextemely happy to have found the Td ny niche tthe people who | alo ike to view the ant make | hose drawers are used ony 10 ore nish gna an whenever an de aoe of thee drarersopen | and placea new work inside ee this | huge sense of accomplishment.” @la fills us in on the techniques behind her distinctive colour work “1use coloured inks ina similar manner to watercolours, but there are some key differences to these mediums. With watercolours, you need to work ‘your way from lighter tones to darker tones and from ‘warm tones to cold tones, otherwise colours will bleed into areas you've painted. Coloured inks are waterproof once they're dry. soit ‘enables me to work in any order, from dark to light, {and to lay down bright tones next to one another without them bleeding. t's also easier for me to create shadows. However, working with inks is abit ‘more difficult. f you make a mistake, you can‘ tit up lke with watercolour, use Rohrer & Kingner coloured inks and a Pentol Pocket Brush pen, which fs waterproaf once dry and ‘agood match with coloured ink. | also use a water ‘brs filed wth coloured inks to make coloured Cutlnes. | use a porcelain palette to mix my inks then paint with varying sizes of synthetic watercolour brushes. I you want to try coloured inks, get one sheet of good-quality cotton watercolour paper, size ‘two and four synthetic watercolour brushes, and four Coloured ink bottes: cyan, magenta, yellow (medium chrome) and black. With those four colours you can create a variety of different tones”SKETCHBOOK cAI Foo) i We ec © 1was ae by ae morning light outside, and decided to stay at my desk and colour it in 99© This piece is one of the few that I felt the most relaxed as I've sketched. The pose and feeling came naturally 9QE voxSKETCHBOOK SAl FOO——— ARTIST PORTFOLIO MILA KNOPF The artist tells Gary Evans about practising in secret, losing her artistic voice and being told to try “proper art” la Knopf's website page of FAQS of the questions nan illustrator frequently asked is D this: ean you: “Ifyoutean ais, bbecome a profession: response, “Ian give three pieces of advice: 1) Work on your onic try to force yourself nto that sn natural to you and 3) your work on social media, Good advice. I's solid precise and applicable to prety much any line of work - artistic or otherwise. But these three seemingly simple points come from years of tral and error. shard. won advice Not that long ago, it looked like Djamila was going to quit working on her own craft. Then, when she did commit to ar, she tied to force herselt at wasn't natural. Her igsuecess on social ‘media, but only after practising itin secret because the people she initially shared her work with sad it wasn't properart. Behind each piee of Djamila’s advice theres story ‘WORK ON YOUR CRAFT Djamila doesnt speak publicly about her childhood, except to say it was “the kind of upbrin anyone." A couple of things got her through it one! grandparents, maScnendssseworay | shows that looked a lite different, and told stories about heroines and magic Growing in the 90s, Djamila never felt connected to her native culture, But NL nas mesma > poles, bows and arrows, running about theirgarden and exploring the surrounding forests, canals and fields ‘The other was a group of animated TV she loved anime before she knew itwas Anime. She was very young when she started watching shows like Atack No. Laboutahighschool volleyball | Moon Shewas newhenshefistaw | 6 Watching tam. Djamilalowedtheshowsmain | itandremembers"bengcomplely | character and would bounce a rmesmerise" Forages allshedrew | YouTube, I got volleyball off the wall for hourson | wasSallor Moon fanart | A end diving everybody around her These days, Djamlas“very the art education crazy Her favourite animewas Sailor | schedule-orioted She's up at 8am, cats breakfast gets dressed, but there's ‘no reat rush. This one ofthe perks of working for herself she gets to stat the day swt. y 10am, of Ham at | ihisration ask, but also things ike thelatest shessitingatherdesk, | bimthdays and when todo laundry opening her Todois app and checking_| Djamila uacks her ime on another swat needs doing that dy. app Tol This helps her workout . how longeach asshould ake and Artist how long it actually takes. PROFILE There’ tempiaton to putall his lowe to that old German stereotype: eee efficiency. But ther’s more oi than Prine that The fist app help er focus Loe | entiey on art without nagging thoughts about missing her mate's 30h | ornot having enough clean socks. The Second app helps separate workand | fre time She draws ather siesta I was craving 9%desk two monitors, Wacom Intuos Pro, Photos sessions of 90 hours, then reak before getting back tit In short, these things help ensure she’ spending as much time as possible working on hercraf. wasn't always this way. DON’T FORCE YOUR STYLE Atschool and at university, Djamilas teachers weren't particulary fond of her anime-ingluenced illustrations, They suggested she make proper art (Coshatever that means’) This knocked her confidence confused, Ithad no clear voce. Unsurprisingly, makinga living from art never seemed possible. >1» She considered artelated alternatives graphic design fashion, ‘makeup ~ butenrolled in Japanese studies at Leipzig University in 2009, authors, It wasn't enough money to live | on, butitwasa start. After her masters, she went fulltimeasa freelancer, ‘working for various publishers and thenswichedthefallowingyeartoart | games companies Sheed mime | Seorstta” and English education, She completed | the eof ig name fantasy artis, hermastersdeprecin 2017 soshesa | bigname outitslike Magi: the Oa)> don't want to intrude or come ‘SUNDAY AFTERNOON across as demanding or greedy Theor | “TdonttworryaboutthatThisismy | patartaren job and t constantly post artwork alone ‘without asking for anything Ithink, in|“ Sitieramen sen return, my followers should be able to forgive me for promoting something every once in awhile. still puta lt of effort into making the posts visually pleasing and | only put the info in the caption. People can easily ignore it if they'e not interested and don't need to set offended. The ones that do are the drawing at her desk all day can get 100 much, that she in danger of surning out again? nes don't want around anyway: Toney She also makestimeforevents | “Itscemslikea lt, buttheifferent | asoften as pomible mecingupwith | elements build upon exch ether and HEARTWARMING FEEDBACK ENQUNTER | otherartiteandartemthusist She | work together seamlesyshe say But Djamila mostly enjoys social rmatascnen | recently saredaDrink® Draw group | But the mos important parts making media Talkingto followers geting | nSvttatpar | in epi acity tat she fei ew artwork, Thats how Tm ableto theirfoedbacs reading that she’s e+ | cumenly buzzing with creative energy. | share content through Patton and wo | But does Djamila worry she's doing | make printsand merchandise that -an bring to conventions and put upin ny online store “Tm in the fortunate postion where everything I creates personal work Iwehavea couple of long-term projects started and | enjoy jumping around between them. I dont want to force myself to continue working on something that 'm not excited. This jeedom is what llove most about my ob and it is what keeps me motivated.” YUTTING ADVICE INTO PRACTICE Back to Djamil’s advice: ") Work on your craft2) Dont try to force yourself into a stye that isnt natural 0 you ind 3) Share your work on social Who am I to deem something brightened peoples day. it S -DJAMILA KNOPF) ~ * Like allthebest advices sy enough to und ertand bt not | soeasytopputinte practice Soho do you know when you've made How dyou know when youre making | goo art when you're making Something thats worthwhile? “dont like describing atta ood or bad because is al inceibly subjective, Who am 0 | Something worthy or un sea of trying to bea good artist misty ibe honest and open “None fs are ever oingo reach technical peretion beeause simply | docsieriee And there bays going || to be someone ‘better’ So instead, just stivetobe youre level of personal connection is what's | going to make the art stand out more than anything else.” @eu OE J ES DRAW AND PAINT FANTASY MANGA shares her process for painting a female knight in an anime- inspired art style, paying particular attention to the hair and face [ike lot, which is why Toften turn | added similar embellishments on Artist This artwork w: commissio e | toth ale knights for | hersword and PROFILE ImagineFX team for | my original character designs. Inthe a oka litle ther cover! Iwas past, Hound armourquite difficult | outof place ifit were only on hee given areference for | to draw, but Iwealwaystried to push | horns, especialy as this character's the pose they wanted, based ona | myselfthrough challenges instead of | hairis warm and bright, Because ita sketch Thad previously drawnand | avoiding them, close-up ofa character and the team Czystal hors froma pastartwork | wanted the focus to be on her fice | spent extra time painting the details and softening her features. some ideas forthe character The dea of beauty and strength | of mine caught the team’seye, sol being non-exclusive is something | incorporated them into this design,LEARN FROM THE EXPERTS AND BECOME A BETTER ARTIST TODAY Whether you're a budding creator or a seasoned pro, ImagineFX Art School has something to offer every artist, from improving your doodles and generating new ideas to painting skylines, sketching animals and drawing fight scenes. Mica Nee | ieee cael fi ona is. ane aaa srs nseoo a attenDropping out of college, roughing it in motels, working up a mountain: the | LUSH Tania} FlefelUimta-malolay and lows of a roller-coaster career achin Teng hadn't been to bed._| first year shealmos filed a couple of for six days straight. She was | clases. TheNew York college made her » busy preparing fora show | realise she wasn't as advanced as some Pe Boerner ee ey Inthe pas, teachers preached lofty known as Survey. Everybody from the | ideas aboutart what art was, what art ee a ee eee en Sea Se ee emo ey Pe ee ee No ae Ae >Colour your sketches to bring out the character rasually adda splash of colour to my sketches at this stage. Some mistakes cant be spotted when there are just lines in place (and on top. ‘ofthat, many mesy ines). I helps to see the illustration asa shape, and colourshelp to shape sketches, When you squint you can already see the character For the lines ofthis sketch I used a dark navy colour rather than black, and when I changed the layer mode to Color Burn it resulted in beautiful hues that can use later for shading my character. Don’t rush the line-art ran break down my process into sketch, line-art, colours and post processing, Vet each of these steps can become complicated. By saying, “don'trush the neat” I don’t mean draw slowly, but rather refine the sketch as many times as it takes fr the ine-art to become easier to draw. fee Pee Faup a Ls Save time using Clip Studio Paint's Smart Bucket tool Before I knew Clip Studio Paint, used to waste countless hours drawing lat layers manually. Luckily you don't have to make that ‘mistake! The software's Smart Bucket too s very good at recognising line-art and with one click can fill in most ofthe ares. IFyou play with its settings itcan be identify lines that ave gaps in them, or even textured lines. To make sure all the pixels in my character are selected, I olour the background first on a separate layer. Then I switch off the line.art and colour the reverse on anther layer. reUse a hard brush rather than a soft airbrush ‘Good drawings have both sft and hard shadows in place, but ifyou'e not sure what and where they should | everything. always use hard brush first and then blend | selected edges ito soft ones if necessary. In thisstep Te added some shading tall ofthe colour layers. Much like artists who use ambient occlusion, this '50, choose the hard edge. Drawings look mach better ‘ith flat cell shading (ust look at all the anime ever made!) rather than mellow soft airbrush shading for | shading doesn't fine any ight source, Rather ads | some depth tothe characterand makes her look more | imeresting Le me show you how | doit in the next step. You can use the Transparent Watercolor brush as a blender for me, a much more powerful tol than the Blending brush or any other paintbrush i the’Transparent Watercolor default brush in Clip ‘Studio Paint. You can see the settings use in the screenshot, but I change them as | paint fyou set Amouint of Paint wo alow vale, itblends the colours together, depending on the direction of your strokes and the pressure you put on your pen, and it doesn't matter what colour chosen for your brush. Ifyou set that value toa high number i'l lend the colour of your brush with the existing colours. This too! has so ‘uch versatility, and surprisingly the esults doesnt even look lke watercolours... >>Did you know you can adjust your line widths? Clip Stuio Paints made for painters lustrators animators and manga artists, and is packed with functions o help us work faster and more effectively. (One of those functions that I cant ive without is being able to adjust line width, You can access it under Filters>Correct line>Adjust line width, and it enables you to thicken or narrow the linear. On the left you can see the lines I drew orginally, and on the right ate my corrected lines, Thanks to this function my illustration became even more delicate. However, if your art now looks rough and pixellated, Y¥d recommend duplicating the layer of edited line-art Blurring ita ile with Fiter>Blue>-Gaussian Blur and setting the layer mode to Multiply. Experiment with colours ean never decide what colours to use! Love playing with colours and changing them to see “what if."-There ae mukiple ways you can do ityourself.You ‘anther selet the coloured area in question (ot apply it toa whole layer) and use Edit>Tonal Correction>Hue) ‘Saturation/Brightness filter and adjust the sliders, or clip alayer to the one youte editing and set itto Color mode, then add colour with the Bucket tol. You can aso add new colours using functions such as Multiply, Color Dodge, Divide... ou name it! You can also mixcolours and use gradients, to. Put a whole world into the eyes | do believe that eyes are the windows tothe soul and paint them with this in mind. love painting eyes! It might actually be the eyes that ‘male me fallin love wit the manga style ar. Iendlesly experiment with how I paint them, using variety of styles, shapes and colours. Loften MIE wee take inspiration from other artists 3s wel, and mix ther styles with mine. I wonder ifyou can see my.insprations in my dravvingsCLIP STUDIO PAINT Tl DEFINE THE LIGHT SOURCE AND ADD SHADOWS Learn how to quickly paint shadows to enhance your manga characters paint fat stacows Derbi adoe Ze / dé Ignore the rules and just paint! Everything youve just ead? Sometimes {don't want todo any oft! To be hones, i's lt to remember and think about when painting. while creating art get my illustrations as fr as I can witha coloured sketch, and then ada a layer on top oft (oF 1nd just paint. My favourite tools here are the Darker Pencil and the multifunctional Transparent Watercolor Brush efecto ight co Use coloured reflections in your art Here cool technique to ring your illustrations to life: add reflected coloursin the shadow areas or onthe edges where diferent colours ‘meet. Colours often reflect each other in nature. Ite characteris placed in an environment with strong red elements for example, reds likely toreflectin some darker colours The same goes forthe blue ofthe sky or green from the grass. In ilustraton it can be exaggerated; manga artists often use skin hue around the face on clothes and hair to make te characte’ skin look so, almost appeating to glow Ge :You don’t have to be ama: ! rm really bad at drawing backgrounds. I know that 'l gt good at this when I start practising, but I haven't found the drive todo so just yet That doesnt mean Ican lusteaions with backgrounds. | just need tobe litte mote creative about the fact that can't paint them! For this illustration Im using photos I took myself and adjusting them using my photo-editing sills. I crop them, blur, brighten, overpaint and add effects to the point where its not easy to tell hat these are photos in the background, now when to walk away from the drawing [Often ll blast through the entre illustration proces, then sitin front of the canvas adding and deleting layers for hours, only to end. up exactly where I started. Am I finished? Should I add more? Does it look good? Can itlook beter? ‘What helps me to walk aay from the drawing (when Im unable to ‘rasp that I don't need ro create a masterpiece every time I dav) ismy listf things I can do to help close the chapter. These steps are: adding a litle more Color or Glow Dodge (like the bokeh lights you can see inthe picture; adding a Color Balance Layer; and adding signature, And unless | upload the drawing online it ikely that come back to itand waste more time. Posting online gives me closure. My social media platforms are a journal of ray artistic journey. A trp ull oF learning, discovering, creating and of course, mistakes as wel. onPhotoshop COMPOSE AN ANIME STREET SCENE Traditional anime backgrounds are painted with poster paints, but increasingly studios Tan Hui Tian uses colouring, lighting and perspective resitching to digital tools. Backgrounds thereare more hand-painted elements, and the colours For this workshop FIle describing my process for techniques to paint an urban setting that’s full of details re designed wo suit the cel-shaded 6 animation in the foreground, and differ from matte;painted backgrounds created for films in that creat style background. It would be good if you had an awareness of basic perspective concepts, such show to set up a simple two-point perspective grid Compositional sketch start off by searching for inspira hing online and going throu decide todo a common scene in daylight. have arough compost ‘tout with simple brush, At this stage, havea two-point perspective in mind, but choose not to use a perspective tri yet, so that the sketch can be mote dynamic y down colour flats in different nerge components that aren't tou single layer, to reduce the a Paint Bucket tools to cx sno need forall the sh ng into count, lyse the Lasso and{ | waren MANGA: Generate a rough sketch In theareas that are unresolved, I draw rough guideline of the shapes that I want on another layer. find iteasierto refine the shapes afterwards, rather than drawing precise Lines. Ithe at direction is more line based then I spend more time reining the undersketch before moving on tothe inking stage. Working to the correct perspective ‘Once Ihave the shapes more or less pinned down, I then correct them. according to the perspective grid, You can createa perspective gr with the Filter>Vanishing Point wool in Photoshop. For ths, use the Polygon Tool on the Sta setting with 100 sides and 99 percent indented sides. Refining shapes without over-rendering When rendering I find references ofthe real-world object and simplify that in my artwork. I ry to work on the detail without zooming in ‘00 much, and finish the overall shading first.For the greenery, a lot otis suggested so there's no need to over render it. skp around from ‘component to component aot during this stage, so that Fm not tempted to spend too much time op qne particular element. OF vom : pa ay st‘WORKSHOP BRUSHES Blending details Hac decals quick by using the Type or Shapes i too, astersing the result and then blending iio the Mes. frivork: Make sure thatthe dea sof the core tonal the ue & Saturation or Curves tol en ala ‘weathering effet by using textured eraser. Overlay lighting A.good trick for creating visual intrest through isto play around with the tonal contrast. srney's explanation of the Windmill Principle (Intps://ifem.ag/ig windmill) helped mea lot. decide to have the cast shadow cut across the hedge: foreground let. use brushes on Dodge and Overlay modes to quickly create the backlit effect onthe hedge, Replicating details in the environment makes sense to save time by duplicating items that are repeated around the scene. Ithe tem isnt meant w bea perfect clone I might change itto a different hue or edit certain details, use the same rick to create the hand-painted brick tiles,Colour picking to create cohesiveness didnt havea colour paletein mind when began tis piece, but | want to create a cheery atmosphere, To create cohesiveness between the different colours, use the Color Picker to select colours from other parts of the image, and have spots of colours distributed throughout. tse the Perspective Warp tool to warp the mural design on to the wall like to keep my Move Tool on autoseect, withthe transform controls visible. This means that there's one fewer step involved in transforming any layer objec. Ican also switch between layers easly, and quite ‘often don't have to worry about naming my layers. To transform a layer object manually, goto Ealit»Fige Tansform, MOE ve‘Objects in perspective | dont really use the perspective grid because I find that I play by the rules too much when it’s visible However, it often necessary to refer to it for equ spaced objects. You can use this trick when you need to find out the distance between equally spaced objectsin perspective. The zig-zag lines wll avays be parallel to theircorresponing lines (zig to zig, 20g 10229) ‘Adding visual interest Tis isthe Fun part for me add litle quirky details ito the envionment sich as graft, animals signs and posters. often add my Space Penguin mascot imo the artwork somesshere, and other litle insider jokes. Bringing the colour together (Colouradjustment layers tie the disparate colours together. im usinga lot of layers on different blending, modes, but the most important ones are the textured ‘brush shape on Multiply mode (forthe cast shadow), and the layers with soft Airbrush blobs on Soft light and Color ‘mode that enhances the sunlight and blue shadows. Lalso make other adjustments, such as adding atmospheric fog ‘or increasing the saturation on the shadow ofthe clouds, To make sure the layer adjustments don't muddy the colours beneath, I set the layers to Normal, 100 percent ‘Opacity and refine the shapes as needed. ‘Adding a character When addingin figuees into a finished environment, consider the perspective before blocking them in, Here, | render the young woman in neutral lighting, and then adjust the colours withthe Curves tool place the character layer under some of the colour adjustments layer, ensuring tha the colours appear more cohesive bern —_——Photoshop LEARN NEW MANGA COLOURING SKILLS James Ghio breaks down his rendering techniques for creating colourful and appealing manga art without having to render every element Inthis workshop, ll | tonal range until 'm satisfied with explain the basic their overal forms. After establishing, rendering techniques | a strongblackand white base, I'l thatartistscan useto | apply colourthrough the use of effectively manage | Color adjustment layers. their illustration process Asyou decide on your tonal range, primary directional light | thinkofitas 0 being white and 100 in my painting that helps show off | being black. When working in black forms witha strong degree of clarity. | and whit, its best to keep the tonal plainingthe significance of | range close and maintain the values, tingschemeand howto | within 30 units ofeach other. This render out the lights and darks ‘means that when tendering, your ‘within aset tonal range. Note that Il | lightesttone should be only 30 units bekeepingall the ones within this | brighterthan your darkest tone, Once youve finished this tonally controlled rendering, you can add tones outside ofthis range to enhance your core shadows, drop shadows and occlusions in the dark areas, as well as any highlights or specularsin the light areas, Flals discuss colour choices and how these decisions reduce the time taken to finish the image Finally, cover and box art re design flairin placing: sen the composition, and so lzeveal how you can achieve this, Start off by being messy Here's the preliminary gesture forthe final image. This isthe stage in the ‘messy, use construction lines and energetic lines until you find the pose that Y proces in which you caa be anes sou Want Be Goshen and be ‘you e looking fr. Sometimes you'l find new and interesting ways of J constructing a scene through these unplanned lines. => aeec Pd ‘Ask around for help ‘Manga styles do not come easily with me. usually hhave to render the image out to achieve the details fm afer. But there isa shortcut that ve found to be useful ask another arts friend for help! In this case, my wile nd eyes, which comes ‘Smoothing out the structures always draw plenty of anatomy details during the Initial sketch stage. Even though they'l probably fade away during the rendering stages, such subtle details will still Teave an impression. As you can seein the character's back, most ofthe lines are now rendered out. Accurate, low-key anatomy will set your art apart from the crowd, om se oe _ 7 a New Style, cae >= Grview 1 ge Oe Geordie mes ieee want the background to pop and fee eal, even though itl eventually havea two-dimensional, stylised look. So I begin messing with Photoshop s blending options filters and inverted controls. While doing this, I never know ‘where i's going to end up, but eventually something magical happens as | keep applying layer effects.Fore-, mid- and background considerations become aware that something i lacking in the composition. I had initially used the clouds as filer in the lower left-hand side ofthe ‘painting, One ofthe requests from the Imagine? X team was to ensure that there was no drastic freshortening coming from the character’ pose So, bearing this in mind, need to find another element to work asa foreground component, Moving the ral into view isa good solution, Video game style influences All the colours are laid out, which gives me a great ‘opportunity to start transforming features and deals Making elements shine Another request from ImagineFX was to have a Jet Set final highlights pass, use a separate Overlay or Color Dodge layer Radio-ike underlying theme. So render out the face with draw outa thick highlight with Transparency tarned on, Then se an eraser to similarities from the game unique style while trying to createthe highlight shape. ts simila to masking but litle more intuitive, and maintain a manga likeness tthe same time. because is on a separate ayer you can adjustthe colour with the Hue sider >>‘Add colour to those highlights i’simportant wo separate lights by colour. Here, the red circles are the primary warm highlights, Notice how the highlights are almost purely white. The blue circles are areas that take on the yellow ight fom the background, This helps the viewer easily distinguish between the dlfferent lights being used. Essentially it directional light. versus rm light. use a Darken layer fr this process Build up a scene around a hue gradient Here ve broken down the background into a colour gradient so you can see hhow there’ a smooth transition of colour despite having contr asthe buildings agains the clouds. In everything you pai ing elements, such you should be looking for ways to implement colour gradients, Think ofthe whole image as one big, abstraction of colour, and then find ways to bring certain areas of colour together. WF Make it glow ‘Of course, with every splash of colour you need an clement of glow. Usingan Exclusion layer, remove the teen channel so that can havea green knockout glow effect behind the character. thelps lft the main character off the background, as well as pop her off the page.Checking your tones this point I need to check the tones within the composition to make ure that I haven't pushed the contrast oo fr. strongly believe you should be constantly toggling between colour and greyscale views ‘throughout the entire painting process. To do ths, elect View>Proof Setup>Custom... and apply the settings that are shown above. Nave every time you press Y you can see ‘your work-in-progress. as.a greyscale image. Application of detail although Im keeping this illustration pret detailing (at eas up to a point). I prefer to detail using highlights simple, it never hurts o carry on Corre To connect the character to the background!’ overall palette, change her shirt wo a deep orange. Even though these kinds of adjustments. Don't settle for what you've Painted until your eyes agree with the overall image! Showing your reasoning realise I need to justify why ther’ rim lighton the character. Art doesn't always need to make sense, bt inthis case the colourful environment means I defintely need to show the cause behind the effect. What beter way to do than by painting, agian stylised sun to match the res ofthe background? @Photoshop BE INSPIRED BY A MANGA CLASSIC Toni Infante taps into the influence of Akira, and uses colour, contrast and composition to create a striking image before moving on. So in the Tvebeenahuge | ‘manga fan since childhood and its INS a inpestewo ide ine | arttatasoservesa commer influence thatpassion | purpose such asa magazine cover _| | repeatedly use in my work and Il playing with and exaggerating these techniques. Use of complementary colours, diagonal shapes and forced perspectives are some ofthe elements ‘goals. People aly spend more than | 3 few seconds looking at something, f Artist PROFILE hason myart nmyquesttolearn | “itseven more important tocnsure | alkabout these an more in his powerful and dynamic | those techniques areal workingto | workshop rom the inital rough images Ive learned alotfrom my | createan eye-catchingcompesition. | sketches, creating more detailed ine favourite manga arststhough | lemay feel overwhelming aut adding colour and final touches, 1 dive into this neon world to explain you my choices during the process and pass on some tips or | observations that hopefully will help, ‘observation, times, but the trick i div etas illustrators we can also make of visual techniques Produce quick thumbnails hile the premise is simple -a woman on a motorbike - there's plenty of potential for introducing different points of view. Those sketches work asa brainstorming session, and as wel as arranging elements differently I try to work ‘ith different emotions on each one, too, Black, white and a mid-tone are ll the colours I need at this point, which make things simple yet readable. Those sketches are lke the skeleton ofthe image, and the composition must work even at this early shadows with the narrative in mind, and ifm some reference material Films, photographs or any other media can help me o generate a raft of original ideas. fm always trying to make something fresh and different in ‘my art, Having said that, this piece is meant tobe a tribute tothe manga classic Akira, but ll also include references tosome of my other favourite manga series2 8Refining the sketch Background and balance time to draw over the sketch and place details, Placing the character on the rightcan make the Just asi were using a lightbox. I focus on anatomy and look unbalanced. To fix this place details in the perspective, using a one-point perspective grid i using some night Japanese street images as rotate slightly toadd some dynamism to thescene. Then reference. | place a huge light source on the store atthe 1 define muscles and the main lines ofthe charact left which creates a key diagonal line going towards the 1 draw her clothes, hairand other detailsinadifferent character. The vertical street lines and the motorbike colour, so as ot to lose sight of thecharactersanatomy, headlight help to balance out the overall composition When everythings setin place I draw over the rough sketches lines from before and detail the character and other elements. The background will be detailed usingonly colour, but line at will remain visible on the character and foreground, so I keep them clean on dlfferent layers. This line art wil play a huge rolein their job and now is time to build on them. {simplify {depicting the classic manga look ‘objects like her nose and hands into just few lines,BE INSPIRED ice like ths is important o define the character. The clothing design, colour scheme and eyes al help to add depth to our de to portray her wearing. leather jacket and trousers with plenty of triangles motifs and diagonals. You can also see these er hai Red-coloured elements on her clothes and face convey the impression of strength, despite her friendly expression, i, Lighting study The idea of setting the scene on a neorlit street at night was decided early on, but now its necessary to detail Establishing general colour schemes ‘the concept and place highlights and shadows more now make my fist colour decisions. Depending on the complexity of the precisely I pay attention to the postion ofthe Imagine illustration, | usually createa full colour key ina smaller duplicate of the fie. Jogo, too - is important to keep it readable, Idecide to However, because there's ust one big charact gt a clear idea ofthe image leave thatarea in dark tones and free from neon lights, don't need more than my previous light and tone stu itrs lke Image> ‘enabling the logo to pop out in white Agjustment>Color balance help me to keep all the tones asa purple hue. oso REBE INSPIRED Volume and rendering Using my custom Colour Generator brush in ‘Overlay mode Lada some randomness to my colours. This helps to enrich the entire image. Then Istart on the character First! put highlight over on the lef that wi make her stand out, and then I dive nto the details, My shading is full of hard edges and flat colours, Because ‘want the image to echo the anime or manga syle Leather and metal My colours are already established so I select the Eyedroppertool (Altsclick) nd keep working on shades and volumes, bearing in mind that lighting works differently across a range of surfaces. The darkest zones and contrast are reserved for leather and metal while skin i worked with low contrast. ry to merge layers ‘while painting, keeping the background and lights separate from the character. Bring in anime-style effects 1m almost there no, so enhance the overall lok and apply my final touches. Inspired by anime I spend a bit of time working up the motorbike headlights, making them big and strong. These geometric forms also help me toil the composition tothe lower right area ofthe scene They're painted with white with some redlsh tones on, the edges on an Overlay layer mode, ‘Tweaks from the team tthe request of the ImagineFX team, I change the hair colour and light focus ‘omake the character stand out against the logo also do some polishing work and get rid ofsome details on the background to make the cover text more readable. At ny point, i's important wo stay focused on the important stuff and not fil everything with unnecessary details that might distract the viewer. To Finish off, [apply Filter>Focus>Focus mask to emphasise certain shapes inthe scene. aProcreate & Photoshop CREATE AMAZING MANGA FIGURE ART Manga and anime character artist Ilya Kuvshinov brings to life a girl and her toy Totoro, using a range of Photoshop blending layer modes Adecadespentin att | sketches onan iPad an finished the | doesnt resemble a ea paintingat ‘ edication, followed by | piece in Photoshop, takingadvantage | all apart from during the eary sketch a another 10 ears ‘ofthe bigger screen sizeand the | and line-ar stages, and when immersed in digital | program’ larger range of tools You'll | developing shadows and paintingtechniques | scehowevenbasicefects suchas | background. stead, lly on haveenabled meto identify the | Lighten, Darken and Color urn | Photoshop to enhance part ofthe diferent ways of approaching layerblend modes, Gaussian Blur | image as go: ist by developing the commercial work, and helped meto | and Liguifyan heipyou to create | mood ofthe artwork, and then tuncover new ways ofexpressing my | those pro-lewel Finishing touches, | adding details throughout the scene {ideas in my personal art, Digkal arttoos either attemptto_| Isa totally different approach to Tusually workin Procreateonan | imitate the effects of tational in traditional media. Here, :Pad,and Photoshop onan iMac Pro, | medi ortake a painting approach | Tve used vivid colour, ight blooms switching between both applications. | that, forthe most partis far emoved_| and gentle rendering express my Forthis workshop treated the from real-world processes. My work | lave fo he films of Stadio Ghibli. elena Altering the character's age I's decided that I should proceed with sketch ‘number one. However I need to make the gt look much ‘older between 12 and 18 years old. This means I need to change the size and proportions ofher head and facial Generate rough sketches The ImagineFX team’s idea is “a girl hugging a plush toy, maybe a Totoro one’ so [start by creating fou sketches in Procreate: three with Totoro and one with a shark plush toy. im mindful ofthe cover layout, so the face ofthe girl and her soft {oy should roughly bein the middle of the composition, features, making er head and eyes smaller, the cheeks less chubby and increasing the length of herarms. >MANGA FIGURE ARTCreate a line-art layer Take the sketch into Photoshop and roughly double the image size, justin case we need to crop the image to make the cover more effective. Before starting ‘inking, I create a new Lighten blend layer filled with just blue (press Alte Del to fil the layer) to differentiate the rough sketch from the linear. Line-art time tart inking on top ofthe sketch, fixingaany mistakes onthe fly. Technicaly, working digitally means can correc erots even a alate stage in the painting, $01 don't worry about making mistakes as draw the linear. However, or guidance Ladd structural sketches forthe Bit’s head and draw Totoro with violet and red lines, Blocking in my colours regularly lip the image horizontally, finding and fixing more mistakes as | go along, finish the ine-artin about an hour, and after another hour my colours have been blocked in. The brush fm using forthe line-art ‘makes it difficult to block the colours with the Magic ‘Wand t001, 0 Ihave todo this stage by hand, Amending the face now decide to make some changes to the face, making fll use ofthe Liquify tool, and eating out the tyesand moving them around. {also fix the shape of the head and width of the arms and waist. be back to fix the face later op inthe painting process, though.MANGA FIGURE ART ‘Shadow layer techniques Using bright violet colour I roughly add shadows uli 80 copy aussian Blut on top. This the opacity ofboth gan even softershadowr effect. Developing a cel-shade look ruse dark violet with my Y Manga Brush to add contrast shadows and one mor line layer to the figure, which gives the image an aged-ink cel-shading appearance. This step wasnt planned, but it suits the theme ofthe piece. Generating a stronger sense of shadow bloom copy my new shadow layer, apply Gaussian Blurtit and change the layer blending mode to Color Burn This generates more shadow bloom in the piece. I did the same with the initial line-at layers ear, but the effects weren't as noticeable as they are here. > roUse the Liquify tool to achieve the right shape of eyes use the Lasso too to quickly select the eyes again, before cutting and pasting them onto anew layer. Then | use the Liquify tool edit their shape until 'm happy with their appearance. usually spend a lot of time fine-tuning te fae on every portrait pice I paint. en blending layers, rather than painting over the dark par ofthe piece. ly see the layers underneath, For me, thisis the fun partof the process!MANGA FIGURE ART Paint and then enhance the background T roughly paint in the background. I then copy it bluritand change the blending mode of the blurred layer to Lighten, which generates a depth of field effect while keeping the details visible. I then create a Color Dodge layer and generate some hazy bloom effects with the Ait Brush, Pushing the bloom effect ro reduce the contrast of the ink shadows, Ladd mote red with a Lighten layer. now copy the whole Spotting and fixing an error at the last minute character layer (clipping it tothe main layer), blurit, Soon after I start to write this workshop I notice ane more mistake, The eft Lighten it, and erase the parts where I want the detailsto_ part of Totoro's body is on top ofthe gt’ lft hand, which would be physically be still visible, Some colour corrections with the Curves impossible. need to fixthis ASAP because Ive already sent the ImagineFX team the and Selective Color tols and im finished... ram? final high-tes ile. Phew, that was 109 close for comfort @Photoshop PAINT A FANTASY MANGA PORTRAIT Asia Ladowska puts aside her ink pens and markers, and embraces the digital painting process of a soft and colourful manga character Forthis workshop Im | importantstep and my thinking | and blue sparkled in my mind. Ifnot ‘manga My _ | decisions tha affect the final reer 40 tools areusually | appearance ofthe character | ssould have ended up being pastel a traditional media. I'm | While painting colour concepts | pinkand blue (like the hair of most ‘most comfortable working with ink | andexperimenting with different | of my characters that Ive painted encilsand markers, andso | palettes in the sketching phase, Iwas ly). I’sexcting to experiment x when 'm painting | listening to musicand believe ior yrs that ve never used, tools. ‘ot, the Final colours ofthis her before have no idea what the end result | illustration were inspired So, prepare to meet Sunset a happy will ook like, so Fllmake sureto | Theard the line, “Day gives way to | gil thats winking atyou from my share in this workshop every nl tha’ when the dep red magazine! ) sketches The bref receive i pretty straightforward, with alot of freedom for experimenting. I start by sketching some close-up shots ofa woman in her 20s, making sure she's looking at the viewer and that she's smiling, always make the expression of the character I draw myself, so the sketching process has lft me in a really good mood! >»MANGA PORTRAIT The new concept worked for Ima Tim asked to make some more changes. B painting was looking litle too dark, the brightening the dress and background, and introducing low highlights in the eye. Sure! fm much more on how to take the painting further now. Making selections to separate out elements ‘Making selections isa long and tedious proces, but its worth the effort Some artists just paint on ane or more layers, but | ike to keep everything editable and «easy to select. So fr each element, lke the skin, the haieat the front hair at the back and the dress I make lat selections wit the Pen too} all on separate layers, Painting basic colours and shading ‘Once ve made. selection | usually just lock the Transparency or create clipping mask tothe exact shape layer and then start painting. 'm adding basic colours that I want to use asa reference and then some simple shading tall ofthe characte’ elements, such as her skin or dress This stage is more about finding the right colours than trying to make everything look perfect.Creating line art think that a key characteristic For manga-style artis ne art, s0 | always adit into my work at some point. Black lines would make the painting look too harsh, so use colours that Ive swathed fiom various places in the painting To change the colour initially picked Ian always lock the pixels ofthe layerand ty different ones, $0 theres no need to spend more time making selections —_ Painting hair texture Using the basic colours of the hari the previous step, I paint up and down, \with my custom Hair rush to make the strands look more like hair. As simple a it sounds, however, ittakes mea few hours to paint in all those strands! Softening the image In my opinion this phase drastically changes the Ilustation. Ino longer tick to selections but create anew troup above everything and then pai. [use soft Round brush to soften selected edges, such as the yellow ends of the woman's fringe with a colour picked from exactly the same place. This makes them look like they’t glowing. Painting in the stars Forstarsin the background I use the brush that can be downloaded from Adobe's Creative Cloud. From the Brushes menu click Get More Brushes. I's ane of Kyle's Spater brushes pack, called Dots 1. adjust the Spacing and Size fitter, add in the stars, then apply the Blur and Overlay filers, Now the stars look perfect. paint the stars onthe characters fae and hair on a separate layer by hand,MANGA PORTRAIT Introduce reflective light on the face ‘With such a colourful and strong environment, glowing hair and lts of star, Sunset’ face was lookinga litle lat and not part ofthe ronment, [ned to remedy this. On a Multiply layer Ladd some shadows to make her look more thtee-dimensional, and on another one set to Normal I apply some pink and yellow on the jaw line and blue on the neck, because those colours would have an effect onthe shadows, > Design a crystal necklace Its time for detailing, The sleeves of Sunset’ dress are missing crease ines, the dress itself receives afew brushstrokes, and then ladda diamond necklace i the shape ofthe Sun and the Moon to complement her look, Talso ada a few constellations to her hair to make her Applying the To finish off my processis almost always the same. 1 add a Color Balance ayer with Midiones at +3, -3 and +3, respectively, to push the reds, pinks and a lite further. {also flatten all layers asa copy above everything and apply a Gaussian Blur filter to it, erase the pars that I don't want blurred, and now Sunset looks much softer and finished. Even though her hai isnt pink, Ym pleases this painting ook me on a space journey beyond my usual at foie! Took even mote magical,SketchUp & Photoshop CREATE ANIME- STYLE SCENES Fei Ip combines SketchUp’s 3D modelling tools with Photoshop colouring techniques to create an anime-style background illustration Ke] Asinall-cosycaféin | makes the city looks slightly accurately. | think is easier to use the middle ofthe | diferent fom our daily compared to other 3D modelling town, surrounded by | environment, which helps to make it | software. build the main building Artist on plants and tees feel more interesting structure in SketchUp and erie ‘scene froma! ‘Aftergathering some related photo | output tas aclean line bli or Makoto Shinkai film. his | reference, llstan bysketchingout_ | My colouring techniqu {smy intial ideaas I planan the composition in Photoshop until | influenced by Japan 2D animation environment workshop. Here. | Timhappy withthe design ofthe film backgrounds, lke those seen in share how use SketchUp’ 3D scene. Then I'l move on to Studio Ghibli, Makoto Shinkai and ‘modelling tools to help mecreatean | modellingin SketchlIp.The program | Hosoda Mamoru films. {ove to Interesting background illstration. | comes in handy when T wantto draw study how they use colour an allay like to see buildings ata range | slightly more complex buildings. | capture light and a certain mood. In (of eights, with people having to use | enables me to explore different this workshop Il share some of my stairsto reach different level This | cameraanglesand.astshadows | own colouring techniques and tps. ‘Composition sketch Before I start sketching gather photo references of buildings and streets to make sure understand the designs. Im using my Sketch pen in Photoshop for my composition sketch, I usualy keep the paper size small to avoid drawing 190 many details. The sketch helps me to finalise the composition, and plan my light and shadows. Modelling in SketchUp Instead of drawing the outlines in Photoshop, Im using SketchUp to build the basic structure based on my composition sketch. Using 3D modelling can ep ‘me skip onthe perspective construction process, The models Ym building here are basic, but clear enough to suggest the underlying forms ofthe buildings. Details such as textures and plans wil be aig later, during the colouring stage, >>