Rob Sato’s paintings are surreal and grandiose scenes of strange landscapes and dramatic battles. Machinery, insects, corpses and trees collide in bizarre arrangements that are truly fantastic. Enjoy.

In my previous post I gave an overview of the entire illustration process. This post covers Step 1: Creating your linework.

How do you turn a messy sketch into a finished artwork? For me the key is using reference images and working my way slowly from rough drawings to a really neatly inked drawing.

Working in such a methodical way takes time, but drawing the linework is by far the most important stage of creating your artwork. I’m building the image up in layers, and this is my foundation. It wastes a huge amount of time if you try to make changes to the image once it’s been colored, I so tend to go slowly and be extra critical of myself.

1. Draw a paper sketch

Before you start drawing on your computer you need something like this, a rough sketch. I only work roughly  on paper because I don’t have easy access to a scanner, so I’ve gotten used to drawing directly with the tablet. Since I trace my reference material anyway, drawing an elaborate pencil sketch would waste time.

However drawing is a great tool to get your brain working. Despite my messy sketches, my final illustrations and drawings always manage to resemble each other, because during sketching I make important decisions about the composition of the work. And I’ll often draw and redraw a scene many times before it feels right.

Looking at the image below you can see that virtually every element of the finished work is present in the sketch: the mirror balls, the mushroom table, flowers on the dresser and a satchel on the floor.

The transition from sketch to inked work:

2. Use the right tool

This might be basics, but Illustrator gives you many different ways to draw:

1. The Blob Brush
2. The Pencil Tool
3. The Paintbrush Tool

When I first began working in Illustrator I used the Blob Brush for everything  (my illustration above, Fairy Tale, was inked entirely using Blob Brush). This is because when Blob Brush is set to be pressure sensitive, this tool feels close to natural drawing. But this tool also has a major downside, because it doesn’t have the flexibility of the Pencil Tool or Paintbrush Tool.

Blob Brush works by creating a shape path as you draw. Take a look at these example lines. The Blob Brush and Paintbrush Tool are both using the same pressure sensitive brush, so the lines look very similar. But when you select the image you can see that the line made by the Blob Brush is not a line at all, it’s a single shape. In comparison the lines created by the Pencil Tool and Paintbrush Tools are strokes that can easily be edited.

The difference between the Paintbrush Tool and the Pencil Tool lies in how their default settings differ. The Paintbrush Tool draws with the current Brush applied. The Pencil Tool won’t, unless the current Appearance includes a Brush and the New Art Maintains Appearance button (in the Appearance palette) is on.

What this means is that while how the Paintbrush and Pencil Tools usually work differently, their strokes can be edited the same way, by changing options in the Brushes and Stroke windows. The options you’ll need to change the most frequently are the stroke weight and profile, but there are also a lot of other options worth experimenting with. When you decide on what you like you can save your settings in the form of a Brush, (I always work with the same round, pressure-sensitive Brush).

You can also create really complicated lines using Pattern Brushes. Check the Adobe Hep Section on Brushes for more information.

• In the first column the line width varies because the Paintbrush Tool was set to be pressure sensitive, increasing or decreasing the stroke weight doesn’t change this.
• In the second column I changed the stroke profile of an even line to create variations in line width.
• In the third column I changed the line completely by applying different Pattern Brushes.

Take note that you can also change the Paintbrush Tool Options by double clicking on the tool icon. Changing these settings changes how Illustrator interprets the information sent from your tablet, and turns that drawing into a stroke. You can  change settings such as smoothing, fidelity etc. Try experimenting with a few different setting before you begin drawing.

3. Let’s get Started

Now let’s looks at how I use these different tools in practice. I often use Blob Brush for my rough work because it’s quick and easy to use.

The initial rough sketch of the composition:

After drawing my rough composition I trace a rough outline from my reference images:

I redraw my traced image a few times to add details such as hair and clothing. I also exaggerate my figure’s proportions, to give them longer limbs. Photo’s of dolls are used as reference for the faces:

Here’s another example:

When I’m happy with the rough line drawing I redraw it as neatly as possible using the Paintbrush Tool. My brush is set to be pressure sensitive, so I can vary the line width as I draw.

After drawing the linework I edit the appearance of my strokes by changing options in the  Brushes and Stroke windows.

I can also use Simplify to remove unnecessary points, and I can manually remove and edit points. If you’re not used to working directly with anchor points the Adobe Help section on drawing has a lot of useful information; including Drawing with the Pencil tool,  Drawing with the Pen tool, and Editing Paths.

The rough sketch redrawn neatly with the Paintbrush Tool:

4. Drawing the Face

To draw my faces I like to combine reference images of real people with dolls and manga.

For this work I began by working with a photo for reference:

But the expression seemed wooden, and it even though the reference I had was of a woman, my figure looked very masculine. These later images were based on images from manga of a cute girl screaming. The result is an image that’s slightly exaggerated but doesn’t look unnatural:

I usually have to spend a bit of extra time duplicating and redrawing the face until I’m satisfied with the expression:

It can also be helpful to draw in some rough shading so that you can see the contours of the face clearly:

5. Cleaning up the Linework

When I’m satisfied with the neat sketch I select all my linework and use outline stroke to turn my linework into a shape path.

This allows me to do a few things:

• I can fine-tune the linework by adjusting the individual anchor points manually.
• The Pathfinder window gives you a bunch of different tools for manipulating shapes.
• I can re-size the image without affecting the line weight.

As I work I make sure to change the colors of areas I’m done with to help myself keep track of my progress. Which means that I can use Select Similar to easily select and deselect either area.

The cleaning work in progress:

The finished linework:

Let me explain more clearly what I mean when I say “fine tuning”

This is the my (relatively) neat drawing, done using the pressure sensitive Paintbrush Tool:

As you can see each line is a single stroke:

In comparison this is the finished linework after outlining the stroke and editing. The differences are:

• I’ve erased any accidental overlaps.
• Lines are smoother because I’ve removed unnecessary anchor points.
• I’ve also manually corrected areas where the line width wasn’t correct, such as the line of the wrist which was too thick.
• My lines end in corner points, which makes them look beautiful.

Let’s take a look at the process on a single line on the palm of her hand:

This is stroke as it is after being drawn with the Paintbrush Tool. Notice that the black line doesn’t follow the blue stroke exactly, this is because Illustrator smooths the line a bit to help you.

After using outline stroke the stroke is changed into a shape path:

To create a corner point at the top and bottom of the line, I drag an anchor point over to “fold” the line.

I then use unite from the Pathfinder to create a compound shape of the area. This cuts the line into separate shapes along the folds.

Notice how new corner points have been formed at the fold:

Using the Direct Selection tool I select the new shapes at each end and delete them:

The finished line:

Since I’m done with this area I change the shape color.

Now repeat by a thousand until you’re done.

6. In Summary:

1. The rough trace is drawn using Blob Brush.
2. The image is redrawn neatly using the Paintbrush Tool.
3. After using outline stroke and cleaning up the image I’m finished.

7. Drawing the background

While drawing freehand is definitely the best for figures, backgrounds often have a lot of geometric shapes. These can be drawn using the Line Segment Tool, and other shape tools like the Rectangle and the Eclipse Tools. Illustrator also has a Perspective Tool that can be useful for this, although personally I don’t use it much.

Drawing the geometric background:

The image after erasing the excess lines:

While the previous image looks okay, the lines are rigid and look a bit mechanical. To make it match the rest of the hand-drawn linework we can cheat by adjusting the stroke width and profile settings to makes the lines taper naturally:

Here’s a close-up of how changing the stroke profile changes a geometric shape:

 
…And you’re done ^_^

More or less, because while it’s not necessary to do the same fine editing with the background, I still use outline stroke on all my finished linework. This is because I need my linework as a shape path for Step 2: Basic Coloring.

The illustration of Hiromi Sato resembles the cutest scrapbook you’ve ever seen. Full of textiles, buttons and wool, Sato layers patterns to create collage-like images with fairy tale themes. I love the sweet mori girl aesthetic of her work. Enjoy.

For a while now I’ve been posting updates on my works in progress, explaining a bit about how these works come into being. But these posts were never intended as a proper tutorial… until now.

This is the definitive tutorial to making anime/comic styled artworks in Adobe Illustrator using my own method.

But before I begin with the hard stuff, let’s get an overview of the way I work and the way I structure my layers.

The basic process:

1. Create your linework.
2. Create a layer for the base color; this is the local color, or actual color of an object.
3. Create a layer for shadows, depending on the lighting you will probably want another layer for very dark shadows as well.
4. Create a layer for highlights.
5. Create a layer for lighting and atmospheric effects. Finish off your image by tweaking colors, layer opacity etc until you’re satisfied.

Each of these steps correlate to separate layers in your image (this is a simplification; each layer is actually a group of multiple layers). These layers build up to create you final work.

The basic structure of my artworks. Layer 1 is at the top, and Layer 6 is at the bottom:

1. Specular highlights
2. Atmosphere/Light effects
3. Normal highlights
4. Linework
5. Shadows
6. Base color
7. Duplicates (Invisible)

Your layer order will get even more complicated if you want to objects to overlap, which is useful if you want to change things later on.
Here’s an example. This image is actually made up of four pictures: foreground , object, middle ground and background:

This means the layers look something like this:

1. Specular highlights
2. Atmosphere/Light effects
3. Foregound (Yellow)
1. Normal highlights
2. Linework
3. Shadows
4. Base color
4. Object (Green)
1. Normal highlights
2. Linework
3. Shadows
4. Base color
5. Middle ground (Aqua)
1. Normal highlights
2. Linework
3. Shadows
4. Base color
6. Background (Purple)
1. Normal highlights
2. Linework
3. Shadows
4. Base color
7. Duplicates (Invisible)

I hope this gives you some appreciation of the complexity of these images. That’s why naming layers and groups in so important, I’d literally be lost without them.

There’s another thing that’s really important is that Duplicates layer. Whenever I do something to radically change a layer, I make a duplicate, and I move it to my Duplicate layer. I do it occasionally, just in case something happens.

It can be difficult to copy from one vector file to another. Because of the way I color my images I need the placement of each layer to be pixel perfect, and Illustrator doesn’t copy the multitude of opacity settings assigned to group of layers (if someone knows a way around this let me know). My solution is just to make a duplicate. It’s quick and easy, and when you need it you’ll thank me.

And this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t save you progress… regularly save and  save as.

Part 2 of The Origami Cupcake Tutorial will focus on the foundation of your image, the linework.

After you’ve got you linework picture perfect you can begin coloring. While this might sound difficult I make it easy by dividing the task into different steps. These steps correlate to separate layers in your image (this is a simplification; each layer is actually a group of multiple layers).

The basic process I work by is:

1. Create your linework.
2. Create a layer for the base color; this is the local color, or actual color of an object.
3. Create a layer for shadows, depending on the lighting you will probably want another layer for very dark shadows as well.
4. Create a layer for highlights.
5. Create a layer for lighting and atmospheric effects. Finish off your image by tweaking colors, layer opacity etc until you’re satisfied.

Everything after Step 1 can be considered “coloring”, depending on how you define it, since each of those steps individually don’t really produce anything. It’s only when you see all the layers on top of each other that you get that magical ‘Tada!” moment when you see the full effect.

So let’s get started on Step 2.

When I’m doing the rough work, I like to do a rough color sketch. Here I’m playing with the girl’s hair color:

My initial concept for this work was to have the scene set in a very girly looking boudoir. Which meant lots of pink. But I had difficulty deciding on a color scheme for the girl’s dress. Creams and pastels just seemed to fade into the background, and busy patterns were out for the same reason. After trying red and blue dresses, I finally decided on navy black. It contracts wonderfully with the other character’s white skin, and serves to anchor the image.

But I still wasn’t happy with that Barbie doll pink… I liked the idea of the curtain looking a bit like a stage curtain, which meant rich red velvet. And that darker color meant I had to use a darker palette for the entire image.

I also added a kimono falling off the figure’s shoulders. The kimono gives the image a shot of bright orange-red to contrast with the maroons and purples of the background, and along with the turquoise obi helps to balance out the image.

Now I begin with the neat coloring. Essentially you turn the linework inside out, to swap the negative and positive space.

Here’s an in depth explanation of the process, and this is the finished result:

Evan Wilson is a painter specializing in realistic paintings with the same kind of natural lighting techniques used by the Old Masters of the 17th century. Much like the Old Masters, Wilson uses rich textiles in his work, contrasting the sheen of silk and embroidery with the luminescence of skin. The result are rich, seductive works. Enjoy.

Modern Antenna creates amazing contemporary kimono designs. Their simple and bold graphic prints are incredibly versatile, and can be styled in fashions ranging from chic to cute. J-pop group SCANDAL rocked these Brit-punk inspired co-ordinates for their album SCANDAL SHOW.

Check out the official Modern Antenna site here (all Japanese unfortunately).
SCANDAL pics via Comtrya Sugoi.

Since I’ve accumulated a small mountain of images on my hard-drive, I figured I should share it on Tumblr. As well as featuring my own work, subscribers will be treated to cute Japanese pictures, arty pictures, and a lot of random stuff. It’s like my stream of my consciousness, online. Please check it out here.

Feel free to leave your details in the comments below if you’ve got an account of your own.

While there’s not a lot of information about these paintings by Manami Koike, the work speaks for itself. Delicately painted as if in soft focus, these works reflect on the place of the Japanese woman within the Western imagination, and the mysterious allure the kimono-clad woman, whether she’s an oiran, geisha or even a virginal bride.

Itchiku Kubota is an artist recognised for his unique contributions to the art of kimono. A master of traditional decorative techniques, he attempted to recreate the lost tradition of tsujigahana. After decades of experimentation Kubota eventually merged modern innovations with ancient tradition to create his own unique decorative technique. Kubota’s planned masterpiece was a series of eighty kimono called the Symphony of Light, in which vast panoramas, flowed between kimono. While Kubota was unable to finish this work before his death, his son and daughter continue their father’s work today.