Another quick step-by-step demo, on a simpler piece. This technique is quick and easy and I can do it in my sleep now. When convention time rolls around and I have to do dozens of these, it comes in handy… but it gets old. Makes me want to break out the oils, or at least do a complicated gouache piece with a full background an no outlines.

Luckily I have a dozen of those complicated kinds of pieces I have to get ready for Dragon*Con, which is in a month. A MONTH. Pardon while I go panic and paint all day.

Step 1: Sketch, transfer.

Step 2: Since this is on dark-ish paper and the character is yellow, I lay down a white base layer. Without it, the yellows end up very dark and neutral. My advice when painting on dark paper: do a test sheet so you know what colors might need assistance.

Step 3: Add shadows. This time with brown; I didn’t want to get fancy because yellow tends to turn green or orange when you use bright colors for the shadows. This is a downside to using white under the yellow.

Step 4: Add the base yellow color.

Step 5: Add accent colors, fill in the name.

Step 6: Highlights! Tools: magical white gel pen.

Step 7: Re-line. Done!

Bowrll is copyright herself. I half-turned her cute little snake character into a cephalopod; hence the confusion.