일러스트・만화 투고&SNS사이트 - ART street by MediBang

Illustration Making (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

2021-02-26

Hello, I am Mido and I'm an illustrator. This time, I'm going to show the whole process from 1~10 in SAI!
I have been using SAI for more than 10 years now, which can express the delicate gradation of brushes and watercolors beautifully.
I hope that the making of this page will help your drawing and show SAI’s appeal to you.

The Rough Schethe

This time I will be working on the theme "Mouse Girl in Snow Country".
The canvas size is about between 2000~3000px (2000x2600px size for this tutorial).

The first step is to draw a rough outline of the person.
On top of that, add a new layer of hair and clothes with different colors of lines.
You can see the shape of the body clearly, so it is easy to dress it.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

After adding colors and a background, the rough sketch is almost complete.
Since I prioritize the overall image of the finished product, the details are drawn roughly.
As for the details, they are solidified while drawing in the line drawing stage, so I often make up for it by force without tracing the rough drawing accurately (not recommended).

Line Drawing
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

When I am working on a line drawing, I set the image stabilization to a high value, usually around 10, so that I can draw a smooth line drawing. When coloring, I lower the value slightly.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

I borrowed the pen settings (https://www.pixiv.net/artworks/44370569) distributed by a volunteer to use for line drawings.
It's very useful for line drawings because it gives a rough, analog texture like a pencil drawing.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Here is a rough sketch. The transparency is reduced to about 10-20% to make it easier to draw.
I draw the line drawing with the rough drawing colored, but as I mentioned above, I hardly follow the rough drawing...
The line drawing is now complete.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

In order to create a sense of perspective, I made the lines a little thicker in the areas where the hand is in front, such as the right arm.
I think that having both thin and thick parts gives the line drawing a crisp and clear finish that looks good as a picture.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

↑The part of the line drawing that is made thicker is mainly the outline.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

The line drawing layer is organized as above.

Undercoat
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

First, select the area outside the person using automatic selection.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Next, "Invert Selection" will allow you to select a person.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

I was able to paint the silhouette of a person by the bucket.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

I place color to a little more area than the area of the face.
Then select the outer part of the face and delete it to beautifully apply the color to the face.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

For the hair, place a color that extends beyond the line drawing as well.
Then, hold down the ctrl key and click on the person silhouette layer you just created to create a selection on the layer you clicked on.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

If you use this to flip the selection and delete it, you can easily erase the part of the image that extends beyond the person.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

↑Repeat the above steps to complete the primer coat.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

It is also recommended to change or brighten the color of the line drawing to match the color of each part, so that the line drawing will blend in better with the picture.

Coloring
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

When I paint in SAI, I basically only use the brush and watercolor brush tools.
I'm still working on the pen settings for the brush, but this time I used these settings to paint the colors.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

First:Pen Second:Watercolor pen

Just by quickly adding a watercolor brush to the area painted with the brush tool, you can easily create a very exquisite gradation without using blur. That's one of the good points of SAI!

Painting the eyes
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Erase the line drawing around the eyes and blur the eyes with Gaussian blur (around x2.0 to x3.0).

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Add one color shadow.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Add a gray color a little lighter than the shadow on top of the shadow you just added.
The eyes now look a little more transparent.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Draw the pupil and the edge of the pupil with a darker color than the shadow you just added.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Use the "Add" layer to add light to the lower part of the eye

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Now we have a rough paint job of the eyes. The last step is to add highlights to bring the eyes to life.

Painting the skin

Since the colors will not be coherent, the layers of each part such as skin, hair, clothes, and etc are basically painted with shadows so that they fit within three layers (original color, one shadow, and two shadows).

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Apply a thin layer of color all over the nose with one shade, leaving the upper part of the nose.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Use the two shadows to add color to the areas that will be darker, such as the areas that touch the hair and the lower neck.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

I used "Multiply" to add a light red color to the cheeks and nose. The addition of the red gives the image a girlish.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

I added a small highlighter on the cheeks and around the mouth to make it shine.
This completes the skin.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

This is the color I used for skin(original, first shadow, second shadow, cheeks “multiply”)

Painting Hair
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Next, I color hair.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

First,I use an airbrush to softly apply a bright color to the left side where the light hits.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Next, I use the first shade to apply the hair roughly, keeping in mind the hair strands.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

The last step is to paint the shadows with the second shade. This gives it a 3D effect.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

I painted the clothes and hat in the same way as well as the skin and hair, and got most of the person's color.
In my case, I use the normal layers for most of the painting, including the shadows.
I think it makes for a more convincing picture if you paint the different textures of the fur and clothes.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

The light source was colored with the upper left corner.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Hint
If there are too many areas where the shadows fall deeply, the illustration will have a heavy atmosphere.
Place a bright blue color in the area circled in blue in the image.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

A sense of relaxation was created by simply placing a few bright colors.

Background

This time, the background image is a winter forest.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

I roughly draw a silhouette of a tree.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

↑Add a layer under the tree drawn in the previous step, and plant more trees in a lighter color.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Add a gradient of darker colors with a multiply layer at the bottom of the canvas.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

I merged the background layers and blurred them strongly with Gaussian Blur.
I also drew only a rough silhouette of a tree, but the blur made the background look like that.

Now let's draw the branches in the foreground.
Since it is in the foreground, I drew it in more detail than the background.

First, I draw the silhouette of the branch as well as the background.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Next, I draw a pattern of branches with bright colors to create a 3D effect.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

I use dark colors to shade the branches.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Next step is adding partial bright colors and reflected light as highlights.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Finally, add nuts, snow, and birds, and your winter tree branch is complete.

Finishing

I blend the person and the background together.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

First, put this color (H:24 S:48 V:190) on the character with a multiplication layer of 30%.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

The next step is to use an additive layer to add warm colors to the areas where the light hits.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

On the normal layer, the area with the color looks like this.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

The right side of the image, which is darker as a shadow, is further colored with a multiplication layer to make it more light and dark.
The shadows of the branches are also added here.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Airbrush a thin layer of color onto the outline of the person on the screen layer.
It blends in with the background and creates a fluffy atmosphere.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

The layer structure for processing looks like this. A clipping mask is used to process the image on top of the layer folder that contains line drawings and coloring.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Comparing before and after processing, we can see that a warm atmosphere and lightness and darkness have been added.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Add ambient light over the background and people.
I added a warm color gradient in the screen layer to match the arrows.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)
Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Cover the top with a texture.
Select Paper Texture from the Special Effects on top of the Layers function, and set the layer mode to Overlay.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Comparing the illustration before and after the application, the paper-like texture has been added slightly.

Illustration Making with SAI2 (Mouse Girl in Snow Country)

Finally, blur the branches behind the character to create a sense of perspective.
Merge all the images together and complete!

How did you like this making guide?
SAI really brings out the texture and feel of the brush beautifully, so it's a perfect fit for thick painting.
With the new features in SAI 2, there are even more things you can express on the canvas.
I hope I was able to convey the appeal of SAI and how to draw with it in this making guide.
Thank you very much!

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