I’m happy to say I finished my second full ClipStudioPaint illustration!
Close up of the face!
This one was originally a cat girl but the only cat like features left are the pointy teeth which I was unwilling to abandon haha!
Initial sketch, I wanted a fun pose and clearly didn’t know in which direction I’m going to go with this!
As always I draw a naked girl sketcch and get uncomfortable because I want to draw frilly clothes! So I abandoned half of the concept and posed her on a pillow but kept the butt out pose!
“Meooow!”
I had fun coming up with another lolita fashion outfit, although the front isn’t visible haha... I quickly realized the tail was too furry for me and the ears a bit too much considering how much is going on there already! So with heavy heart I erased them - I’ll draw some full cat girl stuff some other time!
So I refined the lineart and added in the shoujo-esque pearl strands and the obligatory rose/floral decorations. I was going to put down more but it is already way too busy so I reigned in my too-much genes and settled at that (for now!!!)
Then for the colors I knew it’d be some type of blonde and my favorite warm peachy skin color tones for the skin!
For the skirt I couldn’t help myself but toss in a tip dye pink gradient! I am obsessed with this because of Gwen Stefanis wedding dress from over a thousand moons ago
John Galliano designed wedding dress for Gwen Stefani 2002.
However I was STUMPED with the rest of the image colors...
My first color choices were.. GARISH!
Can I get an “Ouff!”
While I do want to combine those types of colors in some image I think this image just wasn’t the right candidate... so I toned it down!
I settled on my favorite color - pink!
To be honest I miss Photoshops color editing tools. I feel like that’s the one drawback I found for Clip Studio Paint. The color editing seems a little more limited OR I just haven’t figured it out yet... but I played around with the tonal correction options for a long time and ended up fixing stuff with a color adjustment layer in the end...
Once I got these colors down I refined my coloring ove many hours. I still highly enjoy using layered repeated lines instead color blending.
It’s just repeated scratched lines in the direction of the fabric. It’s really fun to work like this for me considering how I used an almost clinical approach it in the past.
To be honest I think it’s from my love for L. C. Leyendecker’s works. I love the way he uses lines to blend his colors. Every piece of his is so magical.
Leyendecker work example.
I finished settling on my colors but I felt like I needed something to make the image more.. shoujo!!!
So rose petals it was!
For these I referenced falling Sakura leaves and I’m actually proud with how they ended up. I actually blurred them after I colored them in then added a somewhat transparent later ontop for redefinition. I feel like it gives them a dreamy effect!
Blur effect + new layer of lines
Anyway I do love chiffon blouses so I had fun trying to recreate that translucent effect on her sleeves! It was definitely a fun experiment to have the skin shine trough the fabric.
I added in some light purples for shading!
Pre-Background work in progress
I decided on more of a periwinkle / purple tone for the background. I was tempted to place another lace like pattern down but again the image already feels a bit busy and the eyes are drawn all over the place so I opted out of it.
Instead I went for a textured color space. I decided to surround each petal and pearl with white lines, reminiscent of the movement of ripples in water.
Then I threw in white dots and scrappy looking stars! They are just so fun to draw and they look like sparkles to me so I love them!
And finally here is the obligatory process gif!
Thanks for joining me on this little adventure!
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