Introduction

EDIT: I apologise for the absent of the video. I lost my old channel but I’ll try to retrieve the video somehow. Thank you for understanding!

Hey! I'm Shin and for this speedpaint, I'll be sharing my complete process of creating lineless illustration.

Process

My usual process consists of 8 steps,
1. Ideation
2. Sketching
3. Base color
4. Shading
5. Details
6. Lighting
7. Color correction
8. Texture

Ideation

For ideation, this is where I finalize the general idea and focus of the illustration. For this illustration, the general idea is a couple on a night date under bokeh lighting while the focus is the lady. To achieve this, I was already thinking of making both background and foreground( the man) blurry so that the lady is clearly focused.

Sketching

Next, the sketching. It's good to draw several thumbnails to ensure the result you want to achieve. I try different angles, perspective and apply different rules for each thumbnails. First,I sketch some on my sketchbook then I import the one that I like into Clip Studio Paint.

Rough thumbnails.

Final chosen thumbnail before imported into Clip Studio Paint.

Messy lineart on CSP.

Base Color

After I'm satisfied with the sketch, I apply base color. At this point, as long I get the general shapes, it doesn't matter if it's a bit messy because I'll clean up the outline later. Each base color has their own layer. I use pen brush and color fill. Once all the base colors are filled, I clean up the outlines using pencil brush. It gives the subtle pencil effect and I really like it.

G-pen brush for base color. Real pencil brushes for facial details.

Shading

Now it's time for shading. I use several several brushes and a blender. I apply shading on new layer clipped to the base color layer on multiple mode at 80%,60% and 40% interchangeably. First shading, I use pen brush for basic shape or lines. Once it's done, I use blend brush to give the soft shading look. But keep in mind the direction of the blending depends on from which area you drag it to. For example, while shading the hair, I carefully blend it from the shade color into the base color. If I feel like the shading color is overwhelming, I'll drag the base color back. Some parts I like to give texture, for example her eyeshadow and hair shadow. To do that, I use real pencil brush. I apply the same techniques to other parts. Sometimes I use soft brush to give the depth effect.

Details

For details, I usually put more effort on the hair. I add hair strands to make her look more lively. Other details such as the flowers, I just use 寝そべり鉛筆 brush . As for the background, I use simple color and shapes to complement the mood and color palette. Personally, I find it to be balanced when the background isn't as highly detailed as the characters. This allows the viewer not to be overwhelmed with too much details and it also helps in focusing what matters.

After both characters are fully colored, background settled, it's time to play around with filters. Since my initial idea is to make sure the lady is the focus, I use gaussian blur . The background has slightly higher percentage of blur than the foreground, but both are below 25%, otherwise the lady would look like she's floating.

After shading and details.

The background and foreground are blurred.

Brush I used for the flower bouquet.

Lighting

Now the lighting. It's good to know where's the source of the lighting is. For this one, it's coming from above, in a form of fairy light. I use bokeh brush to give the blurry lighting effect and the layer is on add(glow) mode at 20%. I decided to blur them a bit, again to fit the depth. Then I add lighting using the same color on the characters, for harsher lines I use pencil brush and soft airbrush for softer lighting. Then I add gradient of the same color with the same value of layer to make it slightly brighter while darker gradient on the lower part.

Color Correction

Since the overall colors look a bit washout, I use color correction layer, tone curve to slightly increase the dark values.

Texture

Lastly, I apply textured paper with the effect of texture combine at the strength of 15% to finish the look.

Difference between texture and without texture.

Tips

Here are some tips that helps me a lot in my art process.

1) I always use sub view tool for reference placement. I find it to be more efficient rather than placing reference on your project as it can be distracting. Other than referencing, I also use it to easily pick up colors from my existing illustration as you can hover over it to color pick.

2) I don't usually use eraser since most of the eraser brushes don't have the effect I want. For example, in the speedpaint, I erase parts of the lady's head while simultaneously making it looks like hairlines by using the same pencil brush but without color. It gives the same effect of eraser but with different texture.

3) Color history is a must have for me. Sometimes I need to use the same color I previously used, so having color history on display really speeds up the process. Color pick is an excellent tool, but when the colors are already mixed, it's a bit harder to retain the previous color that you may need to use.

4) Color palette is a life saver. If you're like me who doesn't have good sense of color judgement, I do recommend downloading existing color palette provided in CLIP ASSET. Here are my personal favourites.