[1] Finishing the stage

First I’ll add some finishing touches to the stage.

 

 

 

■ Shadows

 

I’ll paint some layered shadows.

 

For the first layer, I use a yellow-toned green, imagining the yellow light blending with the light blue of the stage.

 

For the second layer, I use a bluer, less saturated color.

I drew an overall shape for the shadows of the foliage and painted the characters’ shadows coming forward due to the light from behind.

 

 

 

■ Light reflections

 

Next I will paint the light reflecting on the stage.

I imagine the stage as being made of a solid, reflective material.

 

① I create a new layer underneath the two shadow layers and paint vertically with a soft yellow color as the light hitting the stage.

I add a gradient to the stairs so that the light fades gradually from the highest step.

 

Then I create a new layer above the shadow layer to paint some reflective light in the shadows.

I use a slightly dimmer yellow than the lights and softly add reflected light under the flowers, at the characters’ feet, and under the stairs.

Now I’ve finished painting the stairs.

 

[2] Finishing the foliage

Next I’ll paint the foliage.

 

I paint the shadows of the flowers on a [Multiply] layer so that the petals look slightly transparent, and paint the shadows of the leaves on a [Normal] layer.

Again, I layer up warm-toned shadows and cool-toned shadows.

 

[3] Finishing the lights

I paint in some extra details to make the lights look like they are softly shining like moonlight.

 

I add a layer above the “lights” layer and use a brighter color to paint a blurred circle at the center of each light.

 

[4] Coloring the line art

Finally, I paint the line art of the background.

To make the background look further away, I use colors that look more faded than the characters.

I use lime-green for the lights and the light parts of the stage, turquoise for the dark parts of the stage, and a brownish orange for the flowers. I clip each of these layers to the line art layers to change the line color.

 

[5] Overall finishing details

Now I’ve finished painting the background, so I’ll add some final finishing touches to the overall piece.

 

I’ll make the characters a little bit darker so that they look like they are being lit from behind.

 

① In the [Layer] palette > “girl” folder > “ef” folder, I make a new layer with the blending mode set to [Color Burn], then move this layer to the bottom of the folder.

 

On this layer, I paint with a faint violet color, then use the transparent watercolor brush to paint a gradation from lime-green from the girl’s head. The gradation also adds a sense of distance.

 

I thought it was a bit dark like this, so I adjusted the opacity of the [Color Burn] layer.

I reduced the opacity to 20%.

 

I added a color burn layer for the cat in the same way.

▲ This is how it looks when only the “bg” layer and line art are visible

 

When painted like this, the cat looked very dark, so I adjusted the color of the dark blue background and raised the brightness and saturation.

 

Finally, I added an [Add (Glow)] layer at the top of the layer palette and painted some little firefly-like lights around the illustration.