Magic Mannequin Swap - Process

1. In Clip Studio, I draw rough thumbnail to get the basic concept down.

2. Rough sketch. I make a more formal sketch to finalize the layout and poses. I used Clip Studio's 3D models as references and a perspective ruler to lay out the environment.

3. Final sketch. I use separate layers in multiple folders for the various props and the character which makes it easier to plan, especially when so many of the parts overlap. If you look closely, you can see that I draw some parts that I know will be completely hidden behind others, particularly the basic body shape, to make sure it will all make sense together. Keeping them on separate layers also makes it easier to shift the positions of individual features when final details on foreground features might change the layout needs.

4. Inking. I scale the canvas up to four times the size and use a variable-width inking brush for the character and a constant-width brush for hard things on vector layers. I use lots of different layers for different parts, which makes it easier to overdraw and erase as needed. Planning for the line coloring later, I try to use a different vector layer for each part that would be differently colored as linework such as one for the character's skin, one for everything that will have black linework, etc.

5. Color blocking. I set the folder containing all the different inked vector layers as the reference layer. Then I made new raster layers underneath and started filling in the flat colors. Sometimes I used a round pen, sometimes the color fill bucket, usually with the fill set to follow only the reference layer, stopping at the middle of a vector.

6. I added a grungy texture to the sidewalk and wallpaper textures to the shop window walls, using distortion to match the perspective of each surface.

7. Form shading. I create a solid color layer (linear burn), using dark brown for inside the window and dark blue for outside, and start painting in the basic form shading with a soft airbrush. I always start with shading at full and then use the airbush set to clear to paint away the shading, painting with light. For the hair, I used color burn for richer shading and start with a general, soft watercolor brush to get lay in some stronger hairs for a sense of texture, then use an airbrush to establish the overall form, then use a fingertip smudge to add some extra detail. For the more chiseled parts, I used a different shading technique. starting with a hard brush to make something like cel shading, then using watercolor brushes to add midtones, then using the blur tool to smooth the shading out where appropriate. With the fur, I do the same as with the hair but start with scattered blotches instead of streaks and I do a lot more smudging to create more texture.

8. Cast shadows. I make new layers set to multiply, blue inside the window and brown outside, and start painting in the cast shadows with soft brush, using a smaller brush in places where the object casting the shadow is closer to the thing the shadow is on.

9. Backlight. For the secondary lights, I used a desaturate pink layer and a white layer (set to screen). Then I paint with a soft airbrush on opposite sides of shiny objects. The forelight is used only on the shiniest parts, mainly the decorations. When I combine it with the form shading, backlighting really makes the characters pop. I don't use any backlight on non-reflective objects. On the hair, I used the fingertip tool to streak in the shape of the hairs. Outside, I used blue instead of pink.

10. Shiny. For the shine, I used a solid white layer for the primary shine, painting with a soft watercolor brush, then another, stronger white layer, painted with a variable-width brush for specular highlights on just the shiniest surfaces. For the shine on the hair, I started with thin strokes with a soft watercolor brush, then use an airbrush to add a soft glow to groups of streaks, and finally use a soft round brush to erase a few streaks in the middle of each group. I also added a pale yellow layer set to screen to airbrush in some soft highlights in key places. After painting all the shine, I use the cast shadow layer to make a selection and delete the shine from anywhere covered by shadow.

11. For the natural blush, I add in a raster layer and airbrush red just on the skin for the cheeks and places where bone is near the surface of the skin. I used the same approach for make-up. I also used a white scattered circle brush to add a glittery effect to the eyeshadow.

12. Colored linework. Since the linework is still all vectors in Clip Studio, I simply selected the vectors and changed their color to whatever colored linework I needed, sampling from each section and then shifting the color to be more saturate and dark, more or less depending on how hard or soft I want each thing to feel. The hardest things I keep black. Then I collapsed all of the linework into raster layers, locked the pixel transparency, and used an eraser to fix up any places where different color linework crossed over each other or a multiply brush where the shadows were deep enough to require darker linework.

13. Eyelashes are done with a simple raster layer painted with a black variable-width pen. Then I lock the pixel transparency for that layer and use a soft pen to paint in grey streaks for texture and then soften the look with a few strokes of a black soft airbrush.

14. For the glass, I added a simple solid white layer, set to very low opacity, and added a few stronger streaks of white for shine.

15. For the magic effects, I started with simple solid shapes, then used a soft round brush to add form to the clouds and a variable solid brush to add brightness to the inside of the zaps.

16. I used a sparkle stamp to add some sparkles around the poof clouds.

17. I used simple font layers to add some sound effects.

18. Finally, I added word balloons to add context. I prefer drawing my own curve balloon so it has fewer points and is easier to edit.