How I cel-shade in 2021
Hiya folks, today I bring you another how-I-color process but this time for a piece I did for 2021. Please note that this is not a tutorial since I am bad at explaining things, but I'll do my best to explain everything I did for this. All of this is exclusively done in Clip Studio Paint (Ex).
First off, I started on a yellow canvas and sketched out the character (Kutsuuko, who is owned by aquabIooms on twitter) and the roses on different layers using a brush called にじみミリペン (nijimi milli pen) which for some reason no longer exists in the Clip Studio Assets website.
Then, I painted the sky using a brush that I completely forgot what it was.
I then added sunlight and some rays using a modified version of the soft airbrush brush. To paint this, I searched up terms like "anime field of roses" and "person in sunlight" to get a good idea of what I wanted.
Next, I turned off the sky and sunlight layers to do the lineart which gave me a hand cramp from all the roses I had to draw. I turned the layers back on just to show my progress.
I then did the flat colors for the entire piece, but added a bit of block shading to the roses to give them more depth.
I then added the shading using two separate fill layers, one for cel-shading and one for soft shading, for both the roses and the character, using the linear burn layer option.
After this, I added highlights using a soft airbrush and setting the layers to add (glow).
I then wanted to add some depth of field so I flattened the layers for the roses, copied it and then blurred it using the Gaussian blur filter. I then used the masking tool so that only the edge of the canvas for the roses are blurred.
I then added more sunlight along with a halo effect for the sun which is a gradient that can be found on the Clip Studio Assets site here: https://assets.clip-studio.com/en-us/detail?id=1740669
Next, I added some "dust" and orbs of light using the default droplet brush with a few particle size and density modifications. I set the layer to add (glow), copied it, changed it to the color orange, and then blurred it so it gives the dust a "glow".
And then finally, I wanted to give it a 'glow' effect to the whole piece so I saved a copy of it, imported it as a layer into the illustration and then used Gaussian blur. I then set that layer's opacity to 11%, and finally it's done.