Sabre
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2021 Halloween Coloring stages
🕑 Added 2025-05-14 21:20:42 +0000 UTCIn the same folder where I found my old Halloween drawing, I also found a breakdown of the stages I worked in coloring and shading the characters. This was almost universal for my drawing process a few years ago, but these days, my technique has shifted more to using fewer layers and 'painting' more. It's still interesting though, so lemme break it down for you:
1. This first stage is just the lineart. It could be (and probably is) several layers.
2. Base color layer. Here I've filled the lineart with a single block of color (technically, it's a gradient). This is still standard practice for me in most drawings. I work in photoshop, and photoshop allows you to use one layer as a clipping mask for another - The base color layer, when acting as a clipping mask, defines where other color layers laid on top are allowed to be.
I'm very precise when I draw this layer, ensuring that the color precisely follows the outline defined by the lineart. That way, I never have to worry about coloring outside the lines: I can flail my stylus like a crazy person on the next layers, and it'll always conform to the silhouette of the base color layer's clipping mask. This not only saves time, but allows me to focus on color and shading, rather than where my brush strokes are going.
(The colored lines for the bandages and necklace are not actually part of this layer - they're colored sections of lineart that are only becoming clearly visible with the dark background to contrast)
3. and 4. Fur shading layers. I'm not sure why I've split this into two... it's probably because I wanted to do some rough initial shading, and then do more detailed shading without messing up what I had originally accomplished.
5. Detail coloring and shading. On separate layers from the fur, I color and shade all the details; bandages, gold, tongue, paw pads, candy, etc... this is usually done on several layers, again, for convenience and simplifying my work flow: For instance, on the loincloth, there's four major colors - brownish red on the belt, beige, blue, and yellow. If they were all in the same layer and I accidentally go over the lines and color over an area I had already finished, Ctrl+z would be my only option. If I just erase my mistake, I'll be erasing the area I had originally filled in. But if the four colors are separate layers, I can erase either color without affecting anything else.
