Ask Birdkeeper Peridot

amphibizzy:

things evolve over time and what exactly goes down depends on the piece, but heres the key shit. if u see something u happen to not understand then try google n im sure there will be info or ask me seperately

i scan at a high dpi so that they match the scale of my digital only works (600-800 dpi tho its honestly excessive) then i bring them into photoshop and use the levels editor to make whites white and blacks black and find the optimal balance of everything inbetween which varys per peice a little

if you dont have ps or a program with a levels editor or similar, brightness and contrast sliders are your next bet (raise contrast, lower brightness)

remember to also remove all saturation bcs u wont need it

i also occasionaly use liquify to fix errors. i havent needed it much lately but no shame using tools avalible to u lmao. i mightve used it here to lower Marinas leg

then i bring it into sai and with a combo of magic wand and selection tool cleanup, i select the background to erase/fill in with white (or merge onto a white layer after) and spot cleanup anything on the drawing like remaining unnessecery texture on white areas and dirt

then, the simple answer is that i set the layer to multiply then go to town coloring over if needed and below it. but ive been doing much more now to bring color out, putting it in a folder set to multiply instead, with an overlay layer inside the folder with it to color the lines and affect the color underneath it further

do flats, put them all in a folder and clip your layers for additional lighting to them and go to fucking town

also, above everything, 5-15% of this bad boy, hue change if needed

remember, these r tools, not laws. go wild babey…

u can see finished examples on my art blog @apple-cores (art shown: [x] [x])