An Unorthodox Wednesday Post, Asuka Rising
| 07 October 2009
Today, as a sort of bonus, I am going to post the process used to create the Asuka and EVA piece. It's not anything terribly special, so nobody take notes. But there might be a test at the end of lecture today, so anyone who is absent is going to get marked off.
Step 1: The initial penciling
Alright, first thing's first: putting pencil on to paper. This is where most of the decision making takes place, and where most corrections happen. You've got to nail it here or you're going to have a hell of a time fixing it later. Because the later in the process you go, the more you pile on top that you're going to have to fix as well. Also, in this relatively empty and clean state, it's a lot easier to point out where you jacked it all up.
Step 2: Draw shit everywhere
Drawing is akin to making a pizza. If step one is to make the dough and sauce, then this is the part where you put on toppings. It's entirely up to you, your style, and preferences to how much you add, what you add, or how you arrange your pepperoni to spell whatever lewd message you want it to spell. This is what I call "the fun part" because there's no decision making here, just the fun of drawing stuff.
Step 3: Flatting
Keeping in line with the pizza analogy, scanning it is tantamount to putting the pizza in the oven and cooking it. And......well, that's where the analogy ends. Once it's in the computer, you take it into the coloring program of your choice (MS Paint, Corel Draw, the Family Fun Activity Coloring game on the Colecovision), and start away. This step is optional, or you can incorporate it into another step, but flatting is one I find to be essential. Basically, you're seperating the elements so that you can select them with the wand tool. Here, colors don't really matter because it all gets covered by the...
Step 4: Base Colors
Base colors. This doesn't look like much but it's actually a very important part. It's adding in the shadows to the piece, and the overall tone. This step is important to establishing color harmony and making sure that it doesn't end up looking like a kid's coloring book.
Step 5: Cut in Highlights
Whether you use cuts like me, or cel style, painterly, or you stick the stylus up your butt and fart, you need to add in highlights and midtones. This is the phase that gives the picture the overall UMPH. You're rendering in shape, definition, tone, and various other synonyms for the same word.
Step 6: Special FX!
My personal favorite step, the special effects, color holds, and hitting "save and quit." Like the "fun part" earlier in the lineart phase, this is the equivalent step in coloring. Here, it's all about what you prefer and your own tastes. You could go as far or as short as you want. But it's all about what's in your heart...
And that's all there is to coloring on the digital!
So I hope you enjoyed this little tour through the debut piece here for The SITE. Oh, and by the way, anyone who is shrinking/expanding the jpegs in-sync to the music player in the corner, let me just say that you're not doing it incognito. My analytics program is telling me that there's some rhythmic clicking going on....this is PHN, ENEMY OF THE BEAT, calling it a day. Excelsior!