aaaww cute! ^^

ty~

may i ask how you sharpen your line edges? i mean i just started using the pen tool, and i prefer not to use pen pressure when confirming the stroke. i tried lowering the eraser opacity and trimming them off...but is there another way you go about doing it?

I just use the eraser at 100% opacity. :) Generally I ink at about a 2 point brush in SAI ... and then go through and trim the edges of each line off with a 2 point eraser.

I can't just use strokes like some artists can, either. :< I have to manually go in and fix all the line edges. I don't use pen tool, either, I use just the regular brush.

so you draw that smoothly on your own?! 0.0

Yes, but I also work REALLY large. xD Like ... I zoom in a LOT for each stroke. xD It helps keep things smooth.

ah ok. dewd yoo crazeh

This is why about 75% of the time I spend on each piece is just for inking. o: I'm so slow. Everything else is easy.

coloring takes the longest for me

Do you just color with a brush? If you have PhotoShop (SAI too) you can cut down time massively by using the magic wand and fill tools. o:

well...i color everything myself. like a coloring book. i dont like SAI. i stopped using the magic wand tool because it leaks outside the ink a little. the filler tool always leaves a small white outline unfilled. watch me be doing something wrong XD.

You can fix this! Okay, so, in PhotoShop, you're going to need two layers. You have the lines on one layer, and the color layer underneath that. Click on the line layer, outside of your character. Then go to Select --> Inverse. This should select your entire character. Go to Select --> Modify --> Contract, then put 1 or 2 pixels, depending on your lineart size. This will contract your selection a little.

Click on the color layer, then go to the fill button and fill your selected area. You may have to fix up a fewwww things, but it's not bad. <3

If ... none of that makes sense, let me know, I'll whip together a quick tutorial. xD It's a REALLY fast method and it works well, it takes up a heck of a lot less time than coloring everything individually (as I used to do).

thanks so much! <3 the contract method made a huge difference. although i have one question. say the character takes up alot of the page, as it is at an angle or position, or even close enough to not be in the center of the page to be selected completely. and the magic wand tool only selects a portion of the character, can that be fixed?

Yup. Click with the wand, then hold down shift, and click another area. You can select as many areas as you want, the magic wand will just keep adding areas. ^__^

If you accidentally select something you don't want, just right click, and then go to 'Subtract Selection.'

With the Magic Wand/Select tool, you can also select individual areas for coloring this way by using the 'Modify --> Expand' thing in much the same way. o:

thanks so much for your help! uh..any shading tips? ^____^ i do that the hard way too...im trying to learn and figure things out about photoshop i stil ldont know. and ppl have been helping me, including you

I'm still not very good at shading myself, but I can tell you what I do. xD

I generally stick a layer inbetween the line and color layers, then set it to approximately a 50% opacity (although I play around with this level depending on the lighting). Then I just grab a color darker than the base color, and go to town. You can also make several layers of shading, with some darker layers.

Gradient shading is a little more complicated, I'd probably have to make a tutorial for that. xD It involves extensive use of the gradient fill tool.

oh i see. what i do is i use black, and lower the opacity and use it freely. but. is there any way you know of to keep the color steady? for example, shading, then going back over it and it makes it slightly darker the second time you color over it, and so on.
is there any way to prevent that? i normally zoomin to shade, and when i zoom out to cover another area..its hard not to go slightly over where i shaded before, and it causes them to overlap eachother...and that doesnt look nice.

Oh! You don't lower the opacity of the brush. :) You lower the opacity of the layer itself. ^__^ Then you just use a regular brush at 100% opacity. :) That way it's just like regular coloring.

Also I wouldn't suggest using black as a color for shadows unless you're using gray as a base color ... otherwise it just looks washed out/flat. Dark blue-purples or practically any other color is better. xD

lol DERP! go me!!! <3 thanks so much for all your help, and for bieng kind enough to take the time to give me pointers ^_^

Fft, no worries. xD If you figure out an easier way to do any of this, let me know, too. >> I'm always looking for shortcuts.

" If you accidentally select something you don't want, just right click, and then go to 'Subtract Selection.' "
or you can press alt and click the magic wand too ^^

also, for tazzi, a note: If the magic wand selects only one portion of the character instead of the whole thing, then your lineart is most likely "broken". Take a 1-4 pixel brush (depending on your lineart size) and zoom in like 200%, looking around for where it's broken at. that'll fix it :3

Oh hey, I didn't know that about alt. :) Thanks!

woooow it looks awesome ;v;

ty xD

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5299254/

Going to do one more with Gouta as cub soon :> Hopefully this will catch on and be the next "big thing" :D