"Sweet Citrus" Process

This one was a little different from my usual way of working because I wanted to try experimenting with new methods! I also want to talk about this one specifically since it touches a subject that a lot of people avoid at all costs: tracing.

With tracing, the big, unshakeable rule is to never trace anything that you didn't create yourself or that you don't have permission / the rights to use (yes, this includes photographs). As long as you're following that guideline, I think it has the potential to be both a great practice method and, more generally, just an interesting and potentially useful tool to keep in your pocket. Even celebrated fine artists of the past and present have utilized things like projectors, and many artists, especially comic artists, will trace or even simply run photographs or 3D models through a filter. These can be time-saving measures, but sometimes they just do it to get a particular look that they like. I want to emphasize that as long as you aren't stealing from others, there is zero shame in taking shortcuts or utilizing methods that aren't strictly from your memory. Just make what you enjoy making however you enjoy making it! It's your art!

So with that out of the way, here's how I made this and why I did it the way I did:

1) For this I took a photo of a box of satsumas in a grocery store. I thought it would be interesting to try making an image out of a "found" composition - it not only helped me practice being more flexible since I couldn't build it from the ground up to fit my needs precisely, but it was also an easy way to train myself to better recognize what makes a composition appealing and to keep an eye out for things that could be useful to me later. I then took a separate picture of a peeled satsuma, which I placed into the image.

2) Rather than going straight to lineart, I quickly traced this image using the airbrush tool in Paint Tool Sai to be used as the sketch. I wanted it to be more of a basic guide than a 1:1 copy. This allowed me to be a little quicker and looser, helping me avoid the stiff, rigid lines that are typically associated with tracing. It also allowed me better understand the basic forms of the oranges - rather than focusing heavily on tiny sections in order to slowly follow the lines, this let me quickly gauge the general shape of things as I went along, so I came away with a much better understanding of how it all works. I feel like I can draw a pretty good satsuma now haha!

I also add in the little rabbits, which are not referenced since I unfortunately do not have access to actual tiny little rabbits.

3) While doing the lineart, I place the reference image off to the side. I don't trace this any further, but I do look back to it for reference now and then. This helps me add detail back in without losing my own personal hand-drawn touch, and it also helps me further internalize how to actually draw this stuff. For a better look into how I handle lineart in general, you can refer back to my standalone lineart post.

4) I open up Clip Studio and start flatting. As usual, I love warm colors, so I try to keep these on the warmer side. Even the "green" is actually color-picked from the orange section of the color wheel - I talk about this a little more in my color post!

5) I add some shading and some very, very minor highlighting. Here's a sample of the highlighting just to show you how minor it is:

6) I lock the opacity of the lineart layer and start coloring the lines, which is a process that is also covered in the previously mentioned lineart post. I don't use a ton of colors - just my usual reds. Here is the full range I used:

7-8) I wanted this to feel a little like an old advertisement that your grandmother would have hanging in her kitchen, or like an illustration from an old storybook, so I altered the lines and added a few textures to make it look more weathered. I cover the process behind this method in my finishing touches post!

9-10) Some closeups!

And that's it! I really wanted to feature this one since I feel like there's a strange taboo among artists where we want everyone to believe that we whip everything out of our memories like a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat, so we avoid discussing methods that make us feel inferior. So this is me telling you to use whatever you have at your disposal and to stop worrying about doing things a "real" artist wouldn't do! Real artists have used every single trick in the book - I promise you aren't doing anything that isn't already widely practiced by some of your heroes. As long as you use a little common sense and either create or obtain the rights to the reference material, you're golden! Experiment and have fun!