Bellatrix Process
Maybe someone will interested? I wanted to show you guys anyway, so here goes ^^
So I originally wanted to make a bandwagon ship piece, but when I started drawing Luna for this one (surprise surprise it’s Luna guys), I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to pose her. So I thought I’ll move on and come back. That didn’t happen, obviously.
Trix also looks tired here because she’s in mom mode. My ships were going to be parental/marriage/woke up like this beauty type ship pics, but as I kept going and that didn’t happen, I just made her look gentle instead of tired.
For the lineart, I drew it by hand with the stabilizer at 30% on a vector layer. I use Manga Studios, btw, very good program. I also edited the lines by individual vector points, fading the ends, flattening lumps, etc. until I’m satisfied. I loved her hair here. I also did line her eye but it got flattened with the coloring as I continued, sorry
Simple coloring and such. For the eyes, I usually gradate and blend manually with the original color in the middle, darker shade at the top, and lighter shade at the base. But Trixie’s being what they are, I used the gradation tool for the purple and pink, while adding dark purple at the top and light pink at the bottom. Then after coloring her, I colored the lineart with the same outline colors the show uses. I also try never to use black or white for anything. It makes shading and highlighting impossible to see. Her lashes and brow are a dark blue, while her eye “whites” are a light yellow. The eye highlight, is in fact white.
I shaded Trix with black here, then changed the layer type and opacity on the two layers I used. For her hair, I changed it to Hard Light, and lowered the OP to 45%. For her pelt, Hard Light as well and 35%. I also blended the edges, and erased little circles for interest. I added a shadow gradient of black to her hair, and another, also black, to her pelt. For her mane, Hard Light at 35%, and for her pelt, Overlay at 30%. Originally I had them on the same layer, but separated them to experiment with layer types and liked this combination. It made her colors more vibrant. Note: I don’t let the shading on separate layers overlap.
Below, I highlighted with white, two separate layers again. Both at 100% OP. Mane, Lighten setting. Pelt, Color Dodge. I shaded the eye because I forgot to earlier. Also added my sig.
And that’s it. Tips are always appreciated, and I hope I maybe could help someone with my small amount of knowledge. Remember it’s all about perception. These are not my settings I use every single time. I observe and decide what works best ^^