Halloween Girl

I sat to draw and this happened. Made it a Halloween theme and broke it down into the steps on how I develop a picture. The entire image was drawn on the computer using a Wacom Tablet and Paint Tool Sai.

I start with little rough thumbnails to see if the picture will interest me in continuing.

If I like it, I zoom in and add a some detail, developing the character a bit more.

Liking where it's going I take the small sketch and enlarge it. Now I do rough clean up, working out finer details. At this point I start thinking about colors. Since her bloomers look like a pumpkin, I'll stick with the typical orange and black Halloween themed colors.

Once I get the inks, I'll make changes if necessary if certain lines don't make up or if angles seem off. This particular image worked out pretty well so i didn't spend too much time on it. From beginning to end, I think I spent about 4 hours working on this image.

I start the coloring only working with 3 layers. A flat base color, the shadows and a layer for highlights and added detail. Sometimes I'll add a 4th or 5th layer for tweaking, but I'll usually combine them and keep it at a minimum.

Usually when I get to the end of finishing a piece, I'll show it to someone to get opinions, for me its always dynamaito. Other artists might point out suggestions in color, composition and details. But its always the non-artist that gives the most interesting feedback, like "the body looks weird," or "I can't tell what's going on in the picture..." Never take offense, but always take it into consideration, it'll make you a better artist in the long run.