workflow study thread

>>2887056
Honestly it's dangerous as fuck to try to find some universal "rules" on what makes a good workflow, especially since digital is such a flexible medium. The best workflow is the one that works for you personally, and there are numerous different approaches that often contradict each other but are all equally valid.

Also if you always stick with exactly the same workflow you will always get the same end result. This might be desirable for client work since it is consistent, but it can potentially be harmful for your own personal growth.

>>2887082
You speak wisely.

I'd like to have one line based clean workflow that produces consistent results that I'll be using to draw porn and build up a fanbase.
On my personal blog, I'll try to get into a lineless concept art and experimenting, so that I can land a job in a studio once porn starts to bore me.

File: luminosity.png (880KB, 668x808px) Image search: [Google]

880KB, 668x808px

one process i use often is to make the entire painting in greyscale, then make it a luminosity layer. By painting beneath the luminosity layer you can change the hue and saturation without affecting value so you can use all sorts of filters and crazy nonsense without ruining your values.

If you hate happy accidents and like to have complete control over everything, it's usually a reliable process.

here's a really sloppy example using greygirl

>>2887119
I feel like when people paint in greyscale first it's often obvious and looks artificial, do you have any tips on avoiding that? Isn't it a hassle to keep the colors all correctly placed under the greys too, without going outside the borders of the shape?

>>2887171
ruan jia says to only do the rough in greyscale to get the values structure right, then add colour, don't get into rendering and then add colour

>>2887171
>I feel like when people paint in greyscale first it's often obvious and looks artificial, do you have any tips on avoiding that?

Don't treat it like you're coloring it in, Remember that each plane has it's own distinct hue and saturation. Often times the values don't allow for certain colors to be vibrant. The easy way to fix that is by using levels and curves. But the painterly way is to work in passages and glazes.
Don't just put down some flesh tone, gradually build up to it in passages.

>>2887174
RJ's way is a lot less autistic and more intuitive, but the general idea is that luminosity is always a good last step for a process because you can control every color. If you painted something and it looks muddy you can fix that by making the painting a luminosity layer then manually adjusting the color relationships.

it's a bit like Lab, if you've ever worked with that before.

Can't post gifs because of size limit, but here:

http://mr--jack.deviantart.com/art/Alyna-Sunshower-Process-286541735

http://mr--jack.deviantart.com/art/Vaakia-Process-269186106

http://mr--jack.deviantart.com/art/Kalia-Process-255795663

>>2887171
The problem probably is that those people then just proceed to tone it all in one hue and that is not how natural color works.

This is my process. I only paint in such a structured way when I have a commission.

>Stage 01
-Posing and taking selfies
-Reference gathering
-Goal setting
>Stage 02
-Thumbnails
-Gestures
-Thinking drawings
-Paint values and colorize on top to get a pallete
>Stage 03
-Block in with low opacity markers
-Draw with the smallest pen possible
>Stage 04
-Lay values underneath the drawing with the airbrush
-Use the lasso to select materials
-Paint only in one material at the time (skin, metal, wood, etc)
-Use multiply to paint ambient occlusion
-Paint textures and adjust them with Wrap
-Adjust lighting with overlays/multiply
>Stage 05
-Draw lineart on top with SAI vectors
-High Contrast Overlay
-Auto Color
-Auto tone

>>2887056
This might sound retarded, but anyone know how digital artists get such a polished, final look? Their works always have such defined and sharp edges, but regardess of how much I spend on something, it always looks kind of messy.

>>2887352
*how many hours I spend on something

>>2887352
the edges usually come from clipping masks and the lasso tool

>>2887352
Work at high resolution and downscale

>>2887056
Depends on the style your'e going for. More cel-shaded styles tend to finish the lineart first. Kantoku has a completed lineart done first.

>>2887056
Here's my process:
1) Sketch out the idea.
2) Paint on top of it. Usually all done in one layer.

How I approach it depends on how well I visualize my idea.

>>2887582
That is an efficient process, fast.
What's your solution(s) when clients ask for corrections?

>>2887606
Change the part they want corrected unless of course it's a major part of the image since we already agreed on the layout. Time is money and all that so they can pay more then. I think the idea with clients is that you communicate with them in advance and get an idea of what they want and get something down on paper.

1 think of what you want to draw
2 sketch until it's finished

>>2888332
Draw the owl is truly genius. People just don't understand it.