✑Here's the lineart I'm starting with! I'll be working on witch Reynir. For this I used Microns for the lines (my loves), Crayola colored pencils for all the black and the hair, and then Prismacolor soft core colored pencils for the rest of it. They're very expensive but easy to blend and lovely in general, but this does work for lots of other pencils apart from the Prismas, you just have to avoid pressing too hard (except in the deepest shadows).
✑The hair is already colored because I started this at camp without my phone. Hair coloring is an entirely different kettle of fish that I shall tackle sometime else :0
✑I already had a color palette in mind for his clothing and skin and such (I write down the colors that work best for each character's coloring). This makes it a lot easier because I like to plan out my coloring and such, like so:
✑Compare the first image and this one - where did all those lines come from?? What do they even mean?? Curry why do you mess everything up and create chaos wherever you go??
?? FEAR NOT MY FRIENDS ALL IS WELL
✑This maps out all the highlights and shadows! I take the shadow color for each of the large areas and lightly outline where the shadows will be. The light source is from the upper right corner, and I map out more of the texture and folds by doing this too. This keeps me focused, with a more consistent light source. Also, it's good if you don't stop while doing this because I guarantee you that you will forget what all the lines mean if interrupted @__@
✑On the face, I take my darkest color and go ahead and color the darkest darks in.
✑I start with the darks because it blends better when you color the lighter colors over them, giving softer edges, as compared to going from light to dark and having to work more for those lovely airbrushed looks
✑Now, I go in with a soft pink and add a bit of blush because Reynir is adorable with blush. This also gives life to your skin, and as long as it's not too red, it won't look embarrassed! It will also look very soft and nice under an even tone of the main skin color.
✑This step does require a bit of hand control because you have to gradiate the blush as it radiates outward or else you'll end up with very harsh circles, which can be hard to pull off.
✑In this step, I go in with the lighter shading color and extend the shadows, filling in more of where they'd be on the face instead of just the darkest darks. There will always be shading around the nose and eyes. This helps the nose stand out on the face and makes the whites of the eyes look brighter! I usually do some eyeliner-esque shading around the eyes too but I skipped that on this drawing because it's small and that would overwhelm his face.
✑Here I just went over all of his skin with the base tone! This starts the blending process, but now everything is washed out D: CALL 911 THINGS ARE UGLYIFYING WHAT IS HAPPENING NOTHING IS OK
✑Except I lied there, everything's fine, that's normal and good. If you go over something and it looks washed out with not enough contrast, that's a side effect of going over it with another color. Prismacolors or any soft colored pencil will do that and that's why this step is here: I go back over the darkest darks with the darkest shading color again, to reassert them and bring the depth back to this picture. If you have harder pencils like Crayolas, this step may be unnecessary as you should still be able to see the bottom colors perfectly fine under the layer of the base tone.
✑There you go, you're done with the skin coloring! If you want to blushify him even more just go ahead and go over it again. Honestly you can go over any of the other colors again to bring them back out, I just like a soft feeling to the entire thing.
✑Now I have colored in all the black spaces I marked earlier! (Apart from a small section of hat I had missed at the time I took this picture.) These will be the darkest values in your shading. In this picture, some of them weren't quite dark enough for my liking, so I went back in and colored over them again - you have to adjust your color scale to the darkest darks so make sure they're dark enough that the lightest lights don't get blurred together with midtones :0
✑You can see that I've started to get a gradient under the skirt - those tiny little arrows pointing down indicate the direction. It's all a dark spot but I decided to add some tonal variation for visual interest.
✑Now I've started to color in the midtones! This requires an ability to make a gradient if you want smooth shading. If the darks get mixed in and there isn't enough contrast, darken the darks some more. Contrast is EVERYTHING.
✑Here's more of it colored in! To get a smooth transition between light and dark I use some light hatching, which you can see if you look closely. It has a nice feeling to it and I mainly use it on clothing, not skin or hair, because it does take away from the smooth appearance of skin and the fluidity of hair.
✑All the black is done! I continued doing the last 2 steps for the rest of the arms and shoulders. That's how I handle monochromatic shading - lots of soft shading and ranting about contrast
✑Here I hecked up and forgot to take progress pictures, but I used three colors: Crayola black, Prismacolor 70% cool gray, and Prismacolor 20% cool gray. Darkest to lightest as usual and then returning with the black to reintensify shadows.
✑NOW for the legs and hat band! I love you guys love them Reynir legs, so this mainly has pictures of legs instead of his hatband.
✑I take a lilac-purple, my shadow color, and color the shadows in veeeery lightly. You don't want to overload the paper with this color already because you'll be going over this layer multiple times and once it's completely covered with a color, the others don't layer or blend very well.
✑The actual tights will be pink, but if you use a different color than just darker pink for shading, that creates visual interest :0
✑Now for a light layer of the base color! Don't press too hard for the same reasons mentioned right above. The process of blending has already started and some people could stop here, but the thing is, we're gonna PUSH THIS SHADING TO THE MOSTEST BESTEST and do some more cool stuff! The main reason why we're continuing is- you guessed it- the lack of contrast between light and dark.
✑Take the purple from before and REALLY hit those dark darks! Fight them with every bit of power in your body! F I G H T T H E M
✑However don't make the darkest areas too big or you'll risk losing the impact of the purple in the shading. Start a touch of a gradient, but don't worry if it's not too much, because you have one more step before all your legs are done!
✑Take your base color that you didn't press too hard with before and use it like you're shading with a whole new mid-shade color! Go over the darkest darks and the first shading layer but extend it a bit and gradient the crap out of it. You can do it. You can do it my young padawans. It will look hecka rad, even though it's completely counterintuitive (shading a color..... WITH ITSELF??
??
? WHAT THE HECKIE). Just trust me on this one.
✑SEE IT LOOKS REALLY NICE I TOLD U BRO I TOLD U MAN
✑Now for that hella swanky witch broom. Take your lightest broom color and scribble a bit. It's okay, it's a broom, it's gonna be messy. That's its thing. It makes it look rough and textured.
✑Take your darkest broom color and scribble some more. Look at that, it's starting to come together! Brooms are ridiculous, it's okay if it's a touch of a mess. Take one more middle-ground color and stroke in whatever you haven't filled with your previous scribbles, and tada!! You have a witch Reynir!
✑Look at this cutie patootie isn't he adorable
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