Welcome to Chrissie's "How-I-Like-To-Draw-And-Color" Walkthrough/Tutorial/Whatever. Basically, I'm going to walk you guys through how I like to do my pictures.

There are many other methods to draw digitally and mine isn't the right one. It's just the one that I like to use.
- A graphics program like OpenCanvas or Photoshop or Painter, etc.
- A tablet (you can attempt to color with a mouse if you have a steady hand, though)
- Music (to listen to so you don't drive yourself crazy)

Create a sketch of what you want to draw. First I'm going to sketch out the pose for my character. I like to sketch in blue. (This is also the part where I have an artist block and don't know what I want to draw.) Sometimes I go through a couple of poses until I find one that I like.



Once I have the initial pose set down, I use another color to flesh out the body.



Then I use another color to create the clothes. I might even use multiple colors just so that I'm not so confused.



Next I resize the picture to about 125%-150% larger than I sketched it out.

After that, I set the layer's opacity down and create a new layer for the LINEART. I use black to create the lineart. I personally don't really care about making lineart super detailed because I enjoy coloring more than making perfect lineart.

Also, when I do my lineart, I zoom in to about 200% or more so that I can line easier.



Zoom and CTRL+Z are your friends. USE AND ABUSE THEM! Also, don't be afraid to flip the canvas horizontally to line it better.



After I finish the lineart, I delete the sketch layer (you can keep it if you like) and lock the transparancy on the lineart layer. I also set the lineart layer to Multiple/Multiply. I create a new layer under the lineart layer for the BACKGROUND.



On the background layer, I plan the background. It doesn't have to be fancy or anything, I just don't want my background to remain white.

I make a new layer right above the background layer. Now it's time to color. I lay a basic flat skin tone where the skin is supposed to be, not caring about if it's within the lines or not. I'll erase the excess color later.

I like to shade and highlight all on the same layer, but you can use different layers if you wish.

Shading: First I take a color that is darker than the flat color and roughly shade where the shadows should be.

Make sure you think of your light source when shading but I'm not an expert on that, so yeah. (Pls ignore the fact that I really didn't follow lighting all that well, haha.)



Then I blend the colors in so that it blends in more. To blend, I eyedrop the color where the two colors meet and just brush on there and repeat the process until it's all blended.

After this, I add in another set of shadows to emphasize more dark parts and blend.



For the highlights, I make certain parts of the picture lighter. Cheekbones, nose, parts of the lips. Etc.



I use this coloring process for the rest of the picture except for the hair (which might be part of another walkthrough, I don't want to do this anymore). I do a separate layer for each different color. A layer for hair, a layer for skin, a layer for the shirt, etc.



When I finish coloring, I erase all excess colors, merge the layers together, and resize and TADA. I'm done.

Finished product:



So basically, this is how I do my digital art sometimes. Maybe you've learned something, maybe you haven't. Besides, it's fun to see how art is made.

Meh, I might make a better walkthrough/tutorial later.