I decided to try my hand at coloring with Promarkers again. I drew the lineart of this character a while ago, and then I forgot about it until I recently found it in a pile of half finished stuff. I try to keep my work area organized and tidy, but sometimes unfinished drawings just end up in the WIP stack and stays there for a long while…

Anyway, I took some photos along the way, thinking that I might as well share how I tend to go through the coloring process. Keep in mind that I’m a total newbie. I’m not saying that this is the way to do it, as I’m just documenting my own learning process here.

Step 1: Skin color

I begin with the palest skin color. Here I went with Vanilla for the base color, and added Soft Peach for her cheeks, elbows, knee-area and ears. I used Putty for some of the darker shadows on her neck and below the skirt.

Step 2: Hair color and skirt

I went with a rather cold color for her hair to compliment the warmth of the skin color. Her hair is a made up with a combo of Tea Green, Cool Aqua and a hint of Denim Blue. I also used Tea Green on the shadow part on the inside hem of her skirt. The skirt is colored with Pear Green and Marsh Green.

Step 3: Leaf, Eyes and green shadows

This step is pretty straightforward. I used the pale green named Meadow Green to indicate folds and shadows on her top. I also layered Meadow Green in combination with Lime Green and Leaf Green for the leaf (duh!). The eyes are colored with Amethyst.

Step 4: Details, schmetails

Not much new in this step, just some final touches. I added highlights in her eyes and on the cheeks with a white gel-pen. The eye highlights are almost compulsory in anime-style illustrations, but I’ve also seen some artists use highlights on several parts of the face and body, so I thought I’d try it out. I used Sunflower and Lemon on the various accessories, and added some more shadows with Ice Grey 1 on the “faux” leafy part of the clothes.

And here it is, the finalized version. Well, finalized as in that I’ve taken a photo, boosted the colors and removed the bakground color. As always, colored drawings like this looks best on paper (and I can just forget about scanning it with my sad excuse of a scanner). Any comments and tips would be most appreciated.