Miss Mab’s CG Art Tutorial

[Prof B Hunnydew]

HI All

I thought This would be Good to have Here on this Forum.... Because Amber Inspires some many of us.  And the kind spirit that she is that she share some of her "tricks" with Photoshop....  (I have this in a Word file, but I can't e-mail it to Amber, if she will trash it before reading it.)
     PBH

Miss Mab's CG Art Tutorial



Hida hi, I figure since I'm actually working on something and maybe people are suckers...I'd show a step-by-step in how a piece comes out...well as best I can. If people are expecting a fully detailed tutorial highlighting each and every tool I use to go through...then this is so going to disappoint.

I've decided to use the Mischa image I'm doing since I managed to scan a sketch (normally I go right into inking) If you don't mind that is Mischa. If you don't want me to, I'll take this thread down.

Anyways...:

I use a mechanical pencil that has blue lead in it. Mostly because I like the fact blue lead doesn't smudge hardly ever and that it looks pretty. Downside would be that a lot of small details gets lost if I try to scan a preview of anything.

I normally start with the face/head in a picture than draw a quick pose guide via stickfigure-mation. This is all done very lightly though since chances are I'll go through seven poses before settling down on the most boring and non-difficult.*cough*

One might notice a lot of stray lines, as one advantage to drawing fast and light is that I get to make a lot of sloppy mistakes in trying to decide which one looks best. Most often I draw a really light and quick version (messy messy messy), then go back through again with the blue pencil and pick out the lines in particular I want to keep and draw them darker...which is what is seen here.

One might also notice some sparkle attempts near the can and shiney marks on her face/chest. That's my little indicator that I want to do something shiny or special since I can get away with leaving blue-pencil marks as a guide. It also gives me a slight visual into deciding what I might want to keep.

I should point out that in most pictures, I draw the body-frame first then add clothes...which gets a couple curious glances when drawing since people at first glance think I'm drawing naked figures. *cough* moving on!

Inked Line:



As you can see, I've gone through with all the lines I wanted to keep and inked them. I've also cleaned up the sketch to remove all old traces of the messies.

I use a set of Zig pens because I like them and they come in 5 different sizes. For most of the picture I use the 03 size, though for parts that require me to go long distance (like on the shawl) I will use 05. Very fine details get 005. Once its all inked, I will often go through with a 08 pen and outline the frame and outer parts to give it a bit of depth contrast.

It's also in this part of the process I would go through with Photoshop and edit a few things that bug me. Luckily there were only 5 on this picture.

Overall this part of the program is pretty boring...personally I loathe my black & white art. Partially because since I don't bother with a lot of hatch-marks and pen-shading, it looks very flat to me.(which is also the reason I prefer colour in DMFA now) Then again I could always make a killing in the colouring book industry.

In case anyone wonders, I scan the images at about 300dpi and I colour them at that same DPI...the last thing I do is resize them. As a result, this is about a 100% of Mischa at the moment.

Example 1


As I said, I'll see what I can do about framework but that really is the few things that don't come out well when it comes to trying to give examples for multiple reasons.  (Really that is the biggest woe of tutorials in that people always seem to want the solutions that are the most impossible to translate. X_x)

   I will take a quick moment to describe the method I use in Photoshop to get rid of the messies.(that inked picture was an example of a cleaned picture)

   As I said before, I scan at 300 DPI, and no matter what the page texture as well as the remaining lines will get scanned. The trick for me is my two good friends adjust saturation and adjust levels. In Photoshop 6, the program I use, both can be found in the Image dropdown.

Lesson 2
     Adjust Hue/Saturation is a thing that will turn your image into a complete grayscale image yet you still get to use all the colours. Selecting it I get 3 little bars in which I can fiddle with hue(alters colours) saturation (alters intensity) and lightness (cmon...you should know this) I turn saturation down to -100.

     After that, its adjust levels...which one would get a strange graph-image. Adjust levels basically will make your image change from one of many different levels of gray into a pure black and white, but it lets you pick the level of it yourself. The trick is to bring both points on either side of the graph (located at the bottom corners) together in such a way that your image looks nice. This takes a bit of practice as all scanners scan differently. My current average is around 150 when the two points meet. A good way to practice is to zoom in on a particular area and adjust until you find a setting that leaves the fewest stray black specks but doesn't remove your lines.

     Now this method doesn't get rid of ALL specks, but luckily most of the remainders are so tiny that when you resize at the end they will disappear. Unless you want to print them full rez...in that case you likely will have to hunt them all down come finish time.

     As a final note, I should mention that I colour images on a second layer, leaving the background underneath it for emergencies. This is more preference than anything...and that particular method is more complex than I feel like talking about right now.

The Base Colours


Really base colours are the easiest to add physically but hardest mentally. All I really use is Mr. Fill button since there are now no patches of shades trying to get in my way. I don't use the anti-alias tool so all my lines stay solid and not get eaten away. However base colours means I have to decide which colours I am using and in what way. And when one is considering shading and highlights, a good middle colour works well. This also leaves me to get a good estimation of if the colours match well.

   In this picture, you will notice that I have had to shade her legs red despite her going to be wearing blue sheer pants. That's mostly because the effect will be one of the last things I do, and the same goes for adding text and effects on her soda can.

   But there she is...and now it is time to add the first layer of shading.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

   As one can see, since I don't use crosshatching, shading is an important thing for me IMO. Anyone who keeps track of my regular art might also notice that in DMFA I only really do one layer of shading plus hair/eye highlights and in my normal art I often do multiple levels plus soft-lines.(which will be done on this picture) And that is because of time.

   First level of shading is an important thing since it acts not only as a guideline of where other shadows will be, but because it should have a stand-alone quality. Important factor to remember in shading is light direction. Most of the time my light source will be in the top-left corner of the image and so shadows and shading and highlights should try to show that.

   When it comes to shading, really I can only say that the best method to get better is practice. It takes far more than a tutorial to get people to stop curve-hugging...I know it did for me. When people shade, a lot of them have a tendency to what to hug the contours of the line, making shadows that run parallel to them...and the end result often is not the most desired. When you cast a light on something, there are going to be parts that get completely shadowed simply, because the thing in front of them is hogging the light. A person much wiser than me gave the advice that going fast and loose with the first level of shading is often better since it is more or less a depth-adder and can be more lenient. When you go into the next level of shading you can start being picky with details of things.  But as you can see, the picture is taking a bit of shape now.

     As for method, I tend to dominate nowadays with the lasso tool (no anti-alias!) and fill tool. Lasso tool allows me to select particular areas and fill them in. It takes a bit of practice but I like it as it is faster than my old method of simply using the line tool to make my outlines. Regardless, this really is a case when experience outweighs technology as the important part comes from simply knowing or estimating what all needs shading. And that really has no tutorial that I can properly give.

    As a side note, people might notice I have already shaded/highlighted her eyes...and that is mostly because they are so small and easy to do I often just do them first and fully right off the bat.

     And as always, a full-sized shot of the image. As you will see, there are a few rogue white specks. Those get fixed up near the end, as right now they aren't that important.



I use blue lead because its what I'm used to and like. I would never tell people it is the better lead since I have seen people who are able to whip out art on etch-a-sketches that defy all logic. Lead type, program, whatever...they are all simply tools which is up to the person to decide what works best for 'them'.
Anyways...I managed to get a couple other parts done before work so I'll put them up. I'm hoping to get the whole picture done by late this evening.
But the stuff I'm covering in this part might be of interest to some people since it involves me being sneaky with layers and such...

Shading Level 2



    This part is really more a repeat of Shade level 1 in that I now go through and add a second level of darkness to the shaded, which helps bring out certain aspects. It also is used to make reflective ness like in the top and jewelry. Unlike the first shading level, I should stress that this level of shading is best used more sparingly. A lot of first mistakes (and even I still do it a lot myself) are that a person will shade the second shade level along the lines of the first...in that it looks parallel to the first. Arms are notorious for that since it is a long part of the body and one feels tempted to add a little extra shadow along it for extra boost.
    Really this gets better with practice as you start to figure out what shadow looks good or more natural. The second level of the shading, if anything, should be subtle and not something to catch ones eye. A good example would be Mischa's ears.
   This would be a time I shamelessly plug figure drawing classes as nothing helps you figure out what shadows work best on a body than having to draw them all the time in real life. At this point, the picture has most of its darkened parts...but Mischa is a rubber genie...which means it is time for...

The Highlights



This is the part where things really start to stand out and shine...no pun intended. Highlights are often a more difficult thing since it is very tempting for most people to simply try to make them inverse shading. That or they will try once again to hug the outline of the image like their shading...which ends up giving a bevel effect that appears rather flat as both light and shadow or on the edges and leaving a massive amount of base in the middle. Highlights should only be used in the part that would be most likely to be catching like.

I admit I'm still trying to master the highlight art myself...try to remember also that light-source is still in effect here.

This is also the time when the lasso tool really comes in handy...especially with hair. It's a whole lot easier to outline the parts you want shaded and fill them in than to try to draw those highlights one by one. Mischa is a good model for this since she is supposes to be naturally shiny. For more regular figures it is often best to use only a softer subtle highlight. Like the second level of shading, most highlights should simply enhance your image and not dominate it.

Now...at this point Mischa is looking pretty near complete...some people would probably say she's good to go. However now comes the part, where I start putting tricks of the trade. The next part I'll be handling Mischa's pants...
As you can see in the highlight image we just discussed, it looks like her legs surrounded by a flat level of blue shade..., which isn't too far off. I put it off to last because I need to have her legs shaded, as I'll be whooping out the layers.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Layer Effects

      Remember how I said I made a second layer to colour on leaving my outline underneath? That's where this comes in handy. The layer I colored on has lots of shading now and I need to select all her pants areas...which will take forever to do if I do it using the magic wand tool and that layer. So instead I go down a layer and use the magic wand tool (if you hold onto the Ctrl button while clicking, you can select more than one area...if you didn't know)

Photoshop screen 1

Note in the bottom right the layers, the pants colours are selected all by their lonesome, and over the original image.
    Having selected all the parts of the pants, I go back to my colored layer and create a new transparent layer over it. And then I use the pant colour I have to fill it.  Now, that I have the pants, all by their lonesome.  I simply lasso and fill and shade/highlight like I have been doing for the entire picture. One should be careful to remember that the only thing on that layer is the blue pants so clicking off it will result in all the transparent turning colour...which is easily fixable but should be remembered.

Photoshop screen 2

As you can see, the pants now have their own colour and shading...which isn't too terrible a look. It is sometimes tricky trying to shade for clothes like this with the lines being all sneaky...but with practice one gets better.

Note on the layer window (the one on the right) the opacity is set to 100 on that layer...which means that all the colour is visible...which covers up the image below. That isn't what I wanted...otherwise I wouldn't' have bothered with all her leg shading. And so...I adjust the opacity of the pants layer..., which is the reason I did it all on, a separate layer to begin with.
 
Photoshop screen 3

Note the opacity is now at 58%...and you can now see the legs combined with the pants shade...giving the two combined a slightly transparent see-through effect of the pants. Near the end of the whole picture I will flatten the image and the two will look as one...but for now I'm going to leave the opacity since later I will be adding background (albeit a cheap generic one) which will require me to have stuff behind the pants.

Photoshop screen 4

This concludes the lesson so far...and as always...current close-up.


Final stretch...as everyone has seen, the image has bit by bit been taking shape and form...and colour to bring it up to the finishing touches. Now it isn't a surprise to anyone I like colour...and that is why I go as far to colour the very outlines of my images...

[Manawolf]

I think there may have been some resizing problems posting the pics, otherwise, a definite help for any hopeful artist.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Softening the Outlines or Coloring the Lines


Perhaps it is the most ironic thing that I get asked about this particular phase the most.  A lot of people seem to think I have some magical trick to colour all my lines and make them so soft and silky smooth or something.

The sad truth is...it is almost all done with the pencil and fill tool and a whole lot of patience. As I said, I colour full-sized, at 300 DPI...which means I can zoom in to see pixel by pixel. So I choose one shade darker than the darkest shade of a particular section (for example the hair lets say) and I go through and start to make little line marks, separating the part I want filled from the rest of the image. And then I simply use the fill tool to fill in the black lines with the colour. Then I'll go to the next part and the next...usually one colour shade at a time. For this piece I did hair first, then jewelry, then skin, then pants, etc etc...Resulting in that effect.


That's really all there is to that...all it really takes is a good deal of patience to want to carefully go through it all.

Don't get me wrong, there are a couple "tricks" one can do to do something like that faster...but this is the method I primarily use so that's why I'm talking about so nyeh. XP

Moving on...the actual figure of Mischa is now more or less complete...meaning it is time for the background image!
The Background



At this time, I will tend to flatten most of the image (save for the transparent pants. Then I will duplicate the layer and go through deleting the parts I want to show through to the background. The reason I do this is because the particular method I use likes to make white shines I take for granted and turn them into transparent. This is boring and detailed and nothing to concern unless you are all attempting multi-layers.

It's about this time after I will combine the pants and the actual body, and then resize...shrinking it all down to the size you see here. I do this mostly because it is easier to make a background on a smaller image than a larger.

After reading through Mischa's powergamer profile, I noticed her description mentioned bubbles, so that is a theme I used to put the background together. All those bubbles really were made using the hollow circle airbrush tool and some solid circle smaller airbrushes.

Its generic, its simple, but overall it doesn't distract too much from the figure which is what I mainly shoot for. I've also added the words to the soda can.
I should note that all this background is being done underneath the actual figure on a layer below it...which is a bonus since I can test various ideas and concept without having to worry about messing up the character I spent hours coloring. Once I get what I want, I go into the last things.


I will add the little copyright information last, and usually tuck it to the side. Oftentimes I have a habit of adding the characters name really big in the picture cause I like it and also to bug people who like to take images and edit names out.

The final effect I do is I will duplicate the layer Mischa is on again and apply a gausian blur..., which makes it fuzzy. Then I adjust the opacity, which adds just an extra hint of softness. This tends to vary on the picture and how I feel.
And there you have it. I hope that some of this was informative or at least not horribly mind numbing. I'd like to thank Mischa for being good sport and model and letting me use her image as a demonstration.

And I hope you enjoy the image Mischa. You were lots of fun draw.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

I think there may have been some resizing problems posting the pics, otherwise, a definite help for any hopeful artist.

CLicky the image for the original size

:(PBH

[Amber Williams]

AIIIIE! Old art! *claws at her eyes*

[Manawolf]

Oh come on.  It's only a year or so old, your art was already stellar by then.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Oops

Sorry Amber

*Stop Amber with firethrower*  "NO Amber, the little peeps need the art lessons"
PBH

[Amber Williams]

Anyways...on a more serious note, its not really my call to sticky a thread...especially if its just something as minor as a single tutorial.

It would have to be discussed with the other admin/moderators...especially Clara since she is the major moderating force of the art forums.  But really, IMO, its not a thread that really warrents sticky-status.  I appreciate you moving it from the old forum to new, but it's not really a thread important enough to deserve permanent notice...else there would be likely 5+ stickies of tutorials whenever one came around.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Thanks Amber, I guess, it was a nice thought, but I still like having this over here....PBH

[Manawolf]

Yeah, otherwise we actually end up like Jack with 11 stickied art topics, one for each artist.

[Netami]

And a mod with an overflated sense of purpose. 

[James StarRunner]

Oh, I remember this! It helped me out with my colouring (though I should do shading more...)!

[Fizzbit]

I've thought about making a "Tutorial" Sticky in which each artist could put up their individual techniques, but I'm not gonna sticky each and every tutorial, or else yeah, as Amber said, there's be half a thread page of stickies. If I do end up making a Tutorial thread, I'll move this thread into it.

[King Of Hearts]

Oh gods, THANK YOU! I was looking for something like this!

I tried my hand at photoshopping color before but layers confuse the crap out of me.

[Xss]

Great! Thanks for posting it again here! I was so sad when I checked it on the old forum to see all the pics were gone, I thought it was completly lost! 

[Prof B Hunnydew]

I've thought about making a "Tutorial" Sticky in which each artist could put up their individual techniques, but I'm not gonna sticky each and every tutorial, or else yeah, as Amber said, there's be half a thread page of stickies. If I do end up making a Tutorial thread, I'll move this thread into it.

Thanks Clara

I would be nice to have a Tutorial thread, but Not just for this one.


PBH

[Jack McSlay]

dunno about making all tutorials in one thread, it would get cofusing. it there's a bunch of tutorials, woudn't be a wise idea to create a tutorial forum?

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

... Or even a tutorial page on a webserver somewhere? And link to it from the forum?

... just saying...

[Amber Williams]

The truth is, I tend to really dislike tutorials to an extent.  Far too often I find that for every person that it helps, 3 others will use the tutorial as a crutch and as a means to regurgitate rather than develop.  That and far too often, I find a few people seem to not understand the difference between using a tutorial to help figure out a particular trick versus using a tutorial to draw/colour for them.

[Netami]

Nobody comes up with a unique style over night. Sometimes crutches are used only until people get their legs working. A question to any artist: How long did you draw a certain way you knew wasn't exactly "your own."

[GabrielsThoughts]

How long did you draw a certain way you knew wasn't exactly "your own."

well, since I have no consistant style that I recognise, therfore it = my own. 

however I i also use refrence materials and occasionally use mirror checks (view art through a looking glass) to see if the bodies are in proportion.

[Amber Williams]

Nobody comes up with a unique style over night. Sometimes crutches are used only until people get their legs working. A question to any artist: How long did you draw a certain way you knew wasn't exactly "your own."

That is very true yes.

I dont think any artist here started off with something totally their own style.  The thing is that there is almost always an underlining current of understanding that really takes off when an artist is on their own.  My grudge on tutorials tends to stem that some don't really show people how to draw so much as how to draw this particular way/thing.  And oftentimes the method is abandoned so much as the finished product...leaving an artist no real understanding of how something works that way.

My earliest experience with tutorials was a "how to draw Sailor Moon" guide which basically only showed you how to draw a particular character in a particular pose.   While you could easily follow the guide to get a quasi-decent replica, it really didn't teach anyone anything of how to branch out and move on from there.

Guides are great, references dandy, there is nothing wrong with studying how someone else to learn a trick or two.  The key is just knowing...and knowing is half the battle!  *GI Joe theme!*

[Zina]

For my, "How To" books should be used as a place to learn tricks and tips, not a starting point if you're just beginning.
I dunno...I'm mostly self taught, and it took me years to develop my own personal style. I'm still developing it.
While "How to" books might feel like a short cut at first, they really just hinder you in your process of finding your own unique style.

[RJ]

I rarely use tutorials for more than picking up a tip or two. I have fun figuring things out my own way. Though, the chibi tutorial I made was more in jest than anything serious. My style takes ages and is annoying beyond belief. I doubt any artist would want to follow anything like that.

I learnt to draw from Sailor Moon as well, using those weird colouring in pages as slight references before I moved onto Pokemon, and to an extent, DBZ and Digimon (seeing as those were the first popular animes ever introduced to Australia). Then I moved onto those 'How to draw manga' books. Luckily I got a good one that really helped.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, Amber, but I understand your complaint to be about:
a) bad tutorials, which, since we're writing it, we could fix,
or b) people not using tutorials to learn, but to fake it.

While we can do something about the former, the latter is up to the budding artist themselves, and, while we, as a community, could offer suggestions and coax them into the direction we feel they should be moving, at the end, it boils down to their choice. And there's very little we can do about that.

For my take on it (and I'm -so- not an artist :-) I'd say -making- a tutorial requires a tutorial in and of itself - while one could make one fairly easily, making a -good- tutorial requires time, thought, and effort.

I guess I'm saying "just because -some- people misuse a tutorial, should we stop having them for the folks who get something good out of them?" - especially if the folks who actually benefit aren't massively visible, and simply learn to get better, and lurk?


Please, slap me down if you disagree - that way I might learn something :-) But more seriously, this -is- all in my opinion, and I'm not going to be upset if everybody disagrees with me. ... well, not -very- upset.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Tutorials are tools or instructions on how to use the tools... and as with tools, they can be used them and mis-used them by the budding artist.   So many artist I know, want to have commends to specific things that may not look right in their drawings.  All good artists seem to cry out for feedback, so that they can get better and grow beyond the tutorials..

So, Amber seems to be saying that  Tutorials can be good but you still need an instructor or someone to challenge you, beyond the tutorial and beyond your little comfort niche, we all seem to draw yourselves into.

So, Amber draw me a Transformer...or Just a Giant Robot...(just kidding)

PBH 

  BTW I hate to say it, but BAD tutorial are likely the ones which are titled "how to draw "a some Icon character.
   ex. Minnie Mouse, or Ziggy or Sponge Bob

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Ah, that makes more sense. Thanks Prof! :-)