Step One

All right, so here’s the rough sketch. Very rough, obviously, since I didn’t bother trying to refine any of the lines or get rid of the erasure marks and graphite smudges. But it’s only going to serve as a template for the CG and won’t show up in the final result anyway, so I left it as is. When I draw something I make an effort to stay away from the usual perspectives, or the generic sitting/standing/etc. poses; that way the resulting sketch doesn’t look like something that’s been copied from some official image elsewhere. I won’t consult another picture if I can help it. If I don’t know how a joint bends in a certain way, or how a body looks in a certain position, I just check the mirror. Proportion is important as well: I can’t make the heads, waists, hands, wrists, and feet too small or too big, the muscles need to flow naturally, and the length of the legs and arms have to be proportionate.

Step Two

Okay, this part’s not really necessary, since one can just use the “Multiply” effect to apply color directly onto the sketch, but since all my sketches are unforgivably sloppy, I have to clean them up first by making a whole new and much crisper outline. I actually prefer this because this allows me greater freedom over the outline itself—I can blur it, color it, texture it, and do anything else I want to it without affecting the rest of the picture. Anyways, I started off by creating a new layer above the sketch and using the Paint Bucket tool to fill with solid white. This layer I labeled “Background”, since this was where the backdrop of the CG was going to be. I then reduced the layer opacity to 40% so that the sketch was made much lighter, created another layer on top of the “Background” one, and labeled it “Outline”. This layer is where the tracing starts.

Step Three

Now comes the most boring and most time-consuming part: the actual tracing itself. Thanks to the transparent white “Background” layer, it’s much easier to see what you’re tracing over. Since I work with very large sketches, I used a round black 2-pt brush set to 100% opacity to manually re-draw the entire thing. Others use the Pen tool to do this, but I prefer to re-draw using the Brush tool because I feel like I have more control over the rendered outline. Also, since art errors seem to become more obvious the cleaner a drawing is, I also spent this step correcting mistakes like lopsided eyes, incorrect body proportions, and the like. I only traced the two central figures here for the “Outline” layer since I wanted the spiderwebs binding Miroku’s arms and the outline of the spider youkai on different layers. I checked the final cleaned-up outline by returning the “Background” layer back to 100% opacity.

Step Four

Finally we move on to color. I made separate layers, all underneath the outline layer but above the sketch one, for each distinct article that would need a base color (i.e., brown for Sango’s hair, purple for Miroku’s kesa, gold for the shakujou, etc.), and used the Brush tool set to 100% hardness to apply the base colors. I call them “base colors” because they’re the colors that are going to determine the hue of the shadows, highlights, and various tinting effects. When I was new to making CGs of the IY characters, I used anime screenshots or images to pick out the base colors, but after a while, I learned to identify them on my own. To minimize layer confusion, I labeled each layer according to which article was being colored in it (i.e., “S(ango) Skin”, “M(iroku) Robes”, “Prayer Beads”, etc.). I admit, all these layers will take quite a bit of space on a PC, but I tried to cut down the number by having two different articles on the same layer, which works as long as they don’t touch (in this CG, I used one layer for the color of Sango’s chest bandages and Miroku’s kesa). This might all seem extravagant, but I utilize this method for a very good reason. At this point I discarded the original rough sketch layer at the bottom.

Step Five

Okay, on to my favorite part of the CG-making process: the shading. First I picked out a light source (in this case, I decided on moonlight radiating from somewhere right above Miroku’s head), and kept that in mind while I worked on shading so that I had an idea where the highlights and shadows would fall. Because the colors are on different layers, I just checked the “Lock Transparency” box of whichever layer I wanted to work on, and was able to add the shadows and highlights without having to worry about going out of the color lines. To apply the shading, I used the Brush tool with enabled airbrush capabilities, selected a soft round brush, and set its opacity accordingly: if I wanted the color to be lighter and more subtle, I lowered the opacity levels, and when I wanted it to be brighter and more vivid, I cranked them up. Airbrushing tends to mix hues, so I dabbed a bit of the original base and shadow colors into the blank spaces so that I could use the Color Picker to retrieve them when I made touch-ups. I also used the Dodge, Burn, and Smudge tools to aid in the shading process.

Step Six

Once I was done shading the colors, I fixed up some details and added a couple more. This is another reason why I’m fond of assigning each color their own layer: it makes it much easier to tweak one colored area without disturbing the rest. For example, I selected the layer with Sango’s skin color and clicked Image --> Adjustments --> Color Balance, which I then used to alter her complexion to a slightly pinker tone. I drew the youkai blood on another layer and experimented with dry media brushes to find one that could give me a “spatter” effect. I added some hair to the spider legs and gave them a bit of texture by selecting the layer they were on and applying the “Texturizer” filter to give them a sandpapery look. The best thing about having an outline on its own layer is that you get to change its color and/or appearance; in this CG, I went ahead and applied some color to the outline itself by turning on the “Preserve Transparency” option and painting directly on the black lines. I have this habit of coloring in the eyes last.

Step Seven

Now for the background—I merged all the color layers together so that there were only three: the spider youkai layer on top, the layer with Miroku and Sango (which, for some reason, I like to dub “S&M”) in the middle, and the white “Background” layer at the bottom. I then erased all those color spots since they would be of little use at this point. It’s best that I have at least some reference for the background, but for this CG I was too impatient to go look for one, and besides, all I wanted was just the interior of a room, so I improvised. First I used the Gradient tool on the “Background” layer so that the backdrop was a nice, two-toned, gloomy-looking blue. Next I went to work on the window right above Miroku’s head by using the Rectangular Marquee to cut one into the background layer, then made another layer underneath it for the outside scenery. To keep the room from looking too one-dimensional, I used the Brush, Burn, and Dodge tools to create the illusion of depth, as well as the impression of bright moonlight leaking in from the window. That done, I opened yet another new layer on top of the “S&M” one and below the “Youkai” one, and named it “Spider Webs”. I then proceeded to painstakingly draw in the spider webs holding up Miroku’s arms, and then shade them once they were done.

Step Eight

Now all that’s left is to blend all the parts of the CG together. I used a soft brush to draw moonlight reflecting off of whoever and whatever was nearest to the window. Then I selected the “Youkai” layer and used the “Brightness/Contrast” tool to darken it before Gaussian-blurring the entire layer to give the CG a sort-of dimensionality. Then I clicked back to the “S&M” layer and used the Color Balance option to infuse some blue tones into Miroku and Sango so that they would blend smoothly into the backdrop (I admit I was rather loath to get rid of the original warm colors, but those would have been more appropriate had their scenery been a meadowland awash with sunlight instead of a gloomy moonlit interior). That done, I selected Filter --> Render --> Lighting Effects to apply some overall lighting (I used the “Spotlight” light type, as always making sure that the light was emanating from the direction of the window), then Layer --> Layer Style --> Drop Shadow to add the final shadows (this was easier than actually painting the shadows cast by the spider webs). From there all I had to do was flatten the whole image and I was done. The complete final version is, of course, available at the “Fan Art” section.