original drawn by weno

Using a filter to give it a good feeling. In order to make it look more analog-like, use a filter. Select all → copy merged → paste → Filter: Expression/technique: Edge detection → change layer style to "soft light" → adjust layer transparency to 30-50% After that the picture looks pretty much like this. If you save the above procedure as a macro it'll become much easier.

Create the line drawing, complete. Take a copy of what was created in step 7 (combined) and draw the lines in sai. When you're done, return to Photoshop, take only the line art layer, and adjust by adding hard light or tweaking the colors. I guess some people might think that the part from step 7 to 8 is just a bunch of trickery... At any rate, this completes the picture. Thank you very much for reading!

Hi. My name is Weno. This is my first "making of" tutorial, so I think there's a lot of room for improvement, but I would be very happy if you could read it to the end. The tools I used were Photoshop 7.0 and sai.

Rough sketch. Just draw some sort of sketch. Sometimes I write the concept and so on down as a memo. The pictures shown here have been shrunk, but I always draw the originals using 1024x800 pixels. Personally, this is enough. I think...

Color blending the lines. Draw above the layer from step 1. You may either group it with the lines (or in the recent versions, use a clipping mask) or color while preserving the transparent parts of the lines. At this stage, the image takes more or less its final form.

Adjusting the style. Draw above the layer from step 4. I don't do this very often, but when I want to adjust the colors I create a new layer here. I add light to parts that bother me, use "Hard light" and "Multiplication" and so in, and adjust the colors so that they look good. After this I rely on Photoshop's features a lot...

Drawing the lighter parts. Draw above the layer from step 5. Draw the parts where the light hits using the familiar "Dodge tool". My personal preference is to use cool colors for the opposite side of the main light source, where the reflected light hits. By the way, when using the Dodge tool, don't forget to uncheck "Protect transparent layers" from the layer style dialog (double click the layer thumbnail). This is especially important for people who are used to the tool from Photoshop 5 or earlier.

Cleaning. Drawing above the layer from step 3. Just draw while minding the edges. Also take care of any small corrections in this step.