Calendula Cavendish

    A little while ago I scribbled out a little character. Lately I've been taking this imaginary subject as sort of a mental template for dedicated practice; basically if I can't think of anything to draw or need to warm up, I'll draw her to test things out.

    I've taken to calling her Calendula Cavendish after yellow flowers and bananas. Her fashion sense or lack thereof is cobbled together from oddities of Ishoku-hada gyaru and Joshi pro wrestlers. I haven't decided what she is, exactly, perhaps some sort of sunshine elemental that brings illumination wherever she goes. Also maybe I need to lay off the Swiss cheese and consult the optometrist.

    The first piece is a run of techniques I'm already familiar with in CSP. My typical workflow is a mish mash of:

1. Underdrawing sketch
2. Lineart on a Vector layer
3. Base layer for flats, which is also used to apply a mask for the following layer groups:
1. Flat colour zones, and
2. Values
1. Highlights [Screen]
2. Deeper tones [Multiply], applied over
3. Half tones [Color Burn]

    Nothing fancy, kind of a basic brute-forcing of stuff, but I'm working on spotting the light souces with a bit more fidelity. The cel-shading method is a lot of work, so as an experiment I played around with how lazy I could be, and how quickly I could drop colours onto lineart when winging it.

      I have a general sense of things but my painterly sensibilities are lacking. The workflow for this second piece was something like:

1. Underdrawing sketch
2. Base layer used for mask
3. Greyscale halftone
4. First pass of colours; this includes a mish-mash of flat color drops, some basic values
5. Second pass of colours to cover the initial underdrawing, and
6. Extra contours to drive contrast

    I have a lot to learn still, but I think pursuing a lineless style could go somewhere with some refinement of the process.

    Doodling, it's a neverending journey.