Before I start, I choose the brush I want to use. The brush that works best for me is a simple squired shading brush with a little bit of texture.

I also make sure my Sub View window is on. When I paint, I like to use drawing refrence and the Sub View window is very helpful for me. This way I can arrange the refrence that I want wothout putting it actually on the canvas.

Pose

The first thing I like to do is to draw several poses. Doing that helps me to decied what is the best pose for my character. You don’t need to invest in that part too much: use stick figures for now.

I choosed the one from the left top cornner. Now I’m coping this pose for new canvas and adding a sketch with more shapes and volume. When I done, I lower the opacity.

Silhouette + Shading

Now it’s time for silhouette. I use dark grey for this part, It helps me see if the character’s pose works for me brfoe I go to the next stage. When the character is all in one color, I can see that I made the legs too short and the shoulders too wide- so I’m fixing it now.

I darken the background, and convert the the whole figure to grey. (I choose Grey- 50%, then go to Edit-> Convert to Drawing Color) Now when the figure is grey, I can add shading and lighting. So far I’m not warring from being perfect, just to know where the light comes from.

Now It’s time for clothes! I’m using refrence images from pintrest of indie fashion, wich I put on the Sub View window.

Details

How I’m adding details?

I use about 4 shades of grey, switching between them. I draw on the same layer with the base color, switch between shades and let pen pressure to mix the colors. Even though I’m adding details, for now I’m focuse more on the general shapes and less about anatomy.

Now I have a charcter, a background and clothes. The next thing I like to add are face and hair. I draw them at the same time.

I want to change on of her hands. Using refrence images, lasso tool, and redrawing I redraw the hand. But I still couldn’t decied how to fix the fingers- so I draw line on new layer to guess the locations.

I’m adding folds for to clothes now. And by now, I’ve gotten used for the image- So I flip the canvas. This helps me see better where I need to redraw.

Next- feet.

Let’s Fix The head

Thank you Clip Studio for finally, adding the liquify tool. It’s so much easier than using the tool property. It feels so much more intuetive, though I use usually both.

I switching between the liquify tool/ tool property, and the brush tool to fix the twisted psrts.

Colors + Extra!

I like grey scheme because now I can color each part on new layer (in color mode property) and if I regret the colors, I can change easily later. This metheod works for me best. I also can use gradient maps this way, and I feel like I getting a better range of colors than if i had tried to blend the colors alone.

And now it’s time for the best part! I use the effect brushes or any texture brush to add more intrest for my illustration.

And that’s it! This is how I making my Illustrations. I hope it was somewhat helpful.

Motivational Tips I Gives to Myself:

*Remeber to take breaks! You don’t have to finish your art work today. It’s better to work an hour a day for a week than to work seven hours a day without breaks.

*It’s digital- if some parts ain’t working, you can easly delete them without destroying the artwork. Yes, delete and start again!

*Don’t ever compete with anyone in a non-friendly way on your art work! It’s ok to compare yourself to another artists and think “I like what they do, I want to draw this way”, but never feel like you in an endless competition. Your art has it’s own place in the art world as any other.

*Art is a process. Remeber that you’ll get better after some time.

*Everyone get better at their rate.

*Critic is just an opinion, but if it’s respectful is worth to listen

*Remember that you make art becuese you love art, and not because anyone forced you to.

*Not every artwork has to be perfect.

*No one was born creative. Creativity is a skill that you need to develop.