#and just watch every coloring tutorial u can find on yt or tiktok or wherever

[southern--downpour]

hello Virgil when you have the time you should explain your coloring and lining process

they way i do both lines and ESPECIALLY color changes basically every time i draw but yeah sure! im also p bad at explaining myself so idk if this is gonna make sense to anyone but me!

(first off dont draw on pure white canvases!! itll psyche you out and intimidate you because of the blank canvas, also its fucking eye bleeding!! i like going with a medium/light grey but ive seen people use a beige or light brown too just anything but pure white. also helps to just get SOMETHING onto the page if your having trouble w/ artblock, doesnt matter if its good it just has to be something u can work with. trust the process 100% and if it doesnt turn out good theres no shame in restarting from scratch, at least the idea is out of your head and easier to work through what was wrong)

my sketches are usually super messy and i go through like two to four different layers of refining it before starting lineart, and with lineart i usually use either a simple hard round brush or a sketchier one if im doing painting? my go-to ones are the default G-Pen in clip studio edited a bit to fit how i like pen pressure and 1834113 and 1761353 in the asset store but i like messing w/ whatever i can find on there and whatever feels fun at the time lmao so its not very consistent

i try and keep my lines pretty thin on the inside and thicker on the outer edge? as well as adding bits of cross-hatching and hatching both in the lines and when i go in with shading!

i keep my lineart brushes pretty minimal with the pen pressure as im not the best with my pen control and just change the size of pen as i go lmao. More prevalent when i'm doing super clean lines for comics and not sketchy ones like this for painting but its generally the same, i'm not the neatest person when it comes to lines

I draw a lot of the individual parts (head, facial features, hair, clothes, hands, etc.) on separate layers so if something looks wrong i can either wipe the layer entirely or go in with the transform tool and not mess with the rest of the lineart in the process lol

(also i saw someone keep the eyes and facial features visible under the hair but erase where they meet the lines for the hair? and just yoinked it for myself because it looks super nice lmao.)

starting colors is almost always the same, where i just go in and block in the base color for each part (skin, hair, clothes, etc.) on a separate layer to make going back and editing colors a lot easier. with painting like here i also go in and add basic shading, mostly around the skin! usually i add a darker & warmer color around the cheeks, nose, eyes, fingertips and joints as well as in places where theres shading like under the head and under the nose.

also in the darkest parts of the shading like under the head/neck and under the nose i like to add a light bluish/purpleish color very lightly as a bounce light! it doesnt always fit with the piece but it does look very nice when i can make it fit so i try to remember to do that lol.

(I dont take many progress shots or timelapses so i apologize for not having the best reference images lmao)

if im doing painting, after finishing the base colors & light shading i put everything ive done into one folder and make a clipping mask over top of it and paint over it!

i usually add more detailed shading + heavier highlights on places like the nose and edges of the skin showing to make it look nice and shiny lol

(i dont have any recent drawings i can show progress pics of but just trust me on this) if im doing cell shading though i do the same thing with putting the lineart and colors into a layer, but add a multiply layer on top of it and pick a pretty saturated color to go in with the shading. if i have a background i try and keep in mind what colors are in the background and what the lighting situation is to make sure the characters blend into the background more realistically. also airbrush tool and the add glow layer is your best friend in this situation

usually after that i go back and color the line art! I pick the darkest color in a part of the drawing like the clothes or hair, make it warmer and darker and go in on the innermost parts of the lineart with it and keep a lot of the outer lines black for contrast

then i just go completely fucking ham with overlay layers and gradient maps lmao, they ARE the fucking best and are usually what i use to finish off a drawing lol.

usually i use a combination of just fucking with the default "sky" graidents in clip studio or one set i got from the asset store (1814319) on a soft light layer at like, 10-30 opacity because it gives it a REALLY nice look. again just keep in mind the lighting situation (darker night? daylight? funky bright colors?) and just go until it looks good lol.

that's basically it? though tbh i tend to just grab onto whatever technique or tip i saw on tiktok or someone on youtube do and use that, as well as changing how i color hair/skin depending on what i think looks nice at the time. none of my shit is consistent what so ever so i just kinda change things or try new brushes/coloring styles on the fly if i think it looks nice lmao. pure essence of fuck around and find out every time i open clip studio

really hope this makes sense to anyone but me and hope this was helpful!

#virgil arts #virgil asks #long post #(?) #honestly best tip is just browse the clip studio asset shop and try as many brushes as u can #and just watch every coloring tutorial u can find on yt or tiktok or wherever #just try shit! #eventually youll find stuff you really like and wanna go with #my entire style is a mish mash of my favorite shows or comics or artists styles that ive yoinked and blended together #(((((specifically stole the way abd illustrates draws faces if u want to know how i draw faces just binge his yt channel))))))) #((((also i go tt the way i draw hair 100% from ikimaru and the general homestuck fandom back in the day)))) #also one of the best bits of advice ive gotten is to not worry about finding a style #eventually if u just start adding cool shit u see other artists do itll just come naturally to u #pure trial and error motherfucker! #tho tbf i learn mostly via the 'trial by fire' method #where i just throw myself into something im not remotely qualified to make and figure it out as i go #because eventually if i do that enough i do in fact get really good at the thing im trying to learn! #thats how i learned background stuff! #(also. if u dont have clip studio. u can do most of this shit sans gradient maps in any program) #(ALSO CLIP STUDIO IS BABY EASY TO PIRATE BUT YOU DIDNT HEAR THAT FROM ME) #(I FOR SURE OWN A COMPLETELY LEGAL COPY OF CSP)