Whisper Elmwood - Character sketch

Please click any of these images for a full view.

This is Anna-Lu 'Whisper' Elmwood, the main character of the trilogy of novels that I am working on, titled 'The Empress of Nareku'.

This image exists only in cyberspace - as I drew it from start to finish in PSCS3. The following images show my work process.

I start off with three layers - the background, the black line work and the red linework. I always start with a nude form, to get the anatomy and pose correct, so that the clothing, once added, falls naturally and with the shape of the body in mind.

In actuality, this image is roughly 8 inches wide by 11 inches tall. Or 2480pxls x 3508pxls.




I then lower the opacity levels on the two line layers to 50% and create a new layer, leaving it at opacity 100%. This makes it easier to ink over the rough lines. As I work, I erase the now redundant linework underneath the inking, to lessen the confusion.




As I go, I try to keep the inking clean and simple, with little embelishment - and I try to add in the details as I find them. At this stage, I start to outline where the folds in the cloth should lie, according to the shape of the body underneath them and how gravity will affect the material.

Of course - I also allow for it being a 'dynamic' pose, which requires a bit of movement in the clothing.




Once I have completed the line-work, I completely delete the two rough-sketch layers, thus removing any trace of the initial rough sketching. I now have two layers - the background and the line work. To this, I then add the details that I missed during the original inking-stage.

At this stage, I also changed her expression slightly, to make it more welcoming.





The finished image is created by adding another layer, between the background and the lines, on 'multiply', on which I add the white, using the paint-tool at opacity level 40 and building up layers of colour to hint at lighting.


Here is a close up of her face, if you want to see! ^^

So there you have it ^^

I'm not sure whether I'll colour this properly - it was a trial, to see how well I could do this using my new computer/tablet/PSCS3 system - apparently I can do it well XD

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