maru

thanks for this nice ask! i use paint tool sai, specifically the anglicized version that you can find online.

lets draw bernie fire emblem and go through my process.

first off, my brushes.

this is the brush i use for sketching, coloring, and cleaning. sometimes for highlights in the eyes or the rough first patch of shading, i also use ink pen, just the default settings.

this is my blending brush. if you give it a texture, blending stuff wont look as boring as it otherwise might. 

now, let’s draw bernadetta.

(1) first of all, the rough sketch. i start out with just shapes and then just keep going, all on one layer.

(2) then, i clean that sketch up a little - not too much, you dont need it to look perfect. i dont like drawing lineart at all, so this is what i work with - the sketch, a bit cleaned up, put on multiply. i change the color of the sketch according to what im drawing. for example, if i draw a character like inigo, whos got brown skin and hair, ill end up with yellow, orange or red lineart. if i draw a character during the night, ill use blue lineart. if its dusk, maybe a strong purple. you can change this later, as well.

next, below, i fill in the colors, usually about a layer for each color i use. i usually start out with the hair and end with skin, but it doesnt really matter. try to use colors that vary in saturation and brightness - if everything is very saturated, things end up looking blinding, but if everything is desaturated, it might be boring to look at. this isnt a hard rule, of course, but for this kind of normal illustration with neutral lighting conditions, its good to keep in mind.

now, onto shading. here i used the ink pen for a moment. take your base color, in this case bernies purple hair. the highlight is less saturated, and moves up the color wheel, more toward a reddish tone. the shadow is more saturated, and moves down, toward a blue-ish purple. you can also make the highlight more saturated than the base and the shadow less saturated than the base, but i think its best to decide on one or the other. moving along the color wheel rather than just decreasing or increasing brightness will also help making the picture more vivid.

for hair and gauntlets, i just put on the shadow and highlight and blend it out with the blend tool. for skin and fabric, i use a different method.

first, add blush. blush should be far more saturated than the skin color. i added a touch of deep red in the middle as well for depth. this should be blended.

the shadows on the skin, however, i fill in with ink pen. some parts of this need hard lines, like the outside of the ear shadow, the lower side of the nose shadow, etc. you dont just want an airbrushed look, but a defined line. for this, i use a shade that is slightly more saturated than the base color, but not as saturated as the blush.

then, i add a lowlight color to make the shadow feel more dynamic and interesting. you can go many ways with this - if you check the coat in the next few images, youll see that i used a less saturated color to counteract the very orange shadow. in the case of her skin, i used a more saturated color that is very pink to mimic her hair. i cant really explain this step well, because most of the time, i get to that shade through experimenting.

blend some of the lowlight, but make sure not to ruin the harder lines of the shadow. i did it on the same layer as the base color because im lazy, but you could easily make a clipped layer, add the shadow, and then preserve opacity to make sure everything stays clean. for my purpes it doesnt really matter though since ill be going over the whole thing during cleaning again.

in the circled areas, i took the blush color and gently airbrushed some on for depth and warmth.

heres the rest of the shading. as i said, i used a less saturated reddish tone for the lowlight in the cape. for the bow and cape, i opted out of highlight, because i imagine them as made out of a sort of thick, unreflective fabric. 

now, all thats left to do is clean! i make a new layer atop everything, zoom in a bit, and go over it all with my brush and the eyedrop tool. a lot of my WIPs look like this, with a part of it very crisp and clean and most of it still sketchy and vague lol. colordrop from everywhere, and create something nice!

in the end, this is the finished picture! i turn the blend on my brush up and down depending on what im doing and what i need. the cleaning process takes the longest by far.

The BIGGEST Youtuber Collab In History - #TeamTrees

Screenpics from the charity announcement video today! 

Jack’s streaming this Sunday 10/27 2pm(?) BST on his channel raising funds for the Arbor Day Foundation to help combat climate change! 

Here’s the charity pin!