What are the steps for charming characters and beautiful hues? A making-of and interview with U35!

U35 (Umiko) draws beautiful characters that seem to come alive thanks to her flawless use of colors. She creates vivid illustrations that will make you feel the wind in your hair! Until now she has contributed with her illustrations to a number of light novels and art books, including Are wa Choukouritsu no Mochako da yo! (Harunobu Niwa/Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko) and Hyouryuu Oukoku: Nanmin Yuusha to Mezasu Top Idol (Gangudou/Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko).

This time we had U35 try out the new “Cintiq 27QHD” LCD pen tablet and draw something for us. In every day life, she uses a “Cintiq 13HD”. How will she like a graphics tablet that is almost four times larger? Will this have an impact on her work? Let’s find out together! Especially you, considering to get a liquid crystal tablet... Don’t miss this interview!

In the second part of the article, you’ll learn about U35’s favorite drawing tools and about her story - did you know she was an office lady before?

Let’s start with the making-of, shall we? But remember, this is just the beginning! Many more interesting contents await for you ahead.

Sketch/Lineart

I start by sketching on paper, then I scan it. I guess it’s easier to go digital from the very first step, but there’s something that makes me not want to leave pen and paper behind!

I chose to make my character the center of this illustration. I thought about three different patterns, and this is the sketch I chose among the three of them. I usually do plenty of sketches to decide the overall composition - they’re usually much more messier than the one I’m showing you.

Trying out colors

Before inking, I like to decide how the colors will look like. The character comes first, and when I finish with it I move on to the background.

I love summer, so this time I decided to draw thunderheads in the background. Originally I was planning to paint a blue sky, but I always paint a blue sky so it’s nice to change from time to time.

Main point! Choosing the colors according to what you want to emphasize the most!

This time I chose to emphasize the character, so I started from that to decide the colors. If I wanted to emphasize the situation, I would have started from the background.

What do you want to focus on? The characters or the overall atmosphere? Deciding that in advance will have a huge impact on your final result.

Inking

After deciding roughly how the illustration will look like, I proceed to the inking phase.

In order to give the illustration a sense of movement, I always think about in which direction the wind is blowing and keeping that in mind, I draw hair and clothes.

The whole lineart phase is a process of trial and error, so it inevitably takes quite a time.

Thanks to the “Cintiq 27QHD” large display, it was easier to achieve balance.

After I finish inking, I separate layers according to the colors I’m going to use. I do that in moderation, actually, because if you end up with too many layers it can get really hard...

Coloring the character

I like the classic anime style coloring, where all the colors are well separated, so I usually start with the base colors and proceed by adding shadows and highlights. Nothing out of the ordinary!

Once I choose my base colors I make some adjustments to adapt them to the overall atmosphere of the illustration. Then, I add details to all the different parts.

I want my character to be backlit, so I paint shadows roughly on most of her body. The idea is to have some daylight coming from the back, reflecting on the right part of her skin and clothes. Once the illustration is totally shaded, I add a slightly darker color to the line separating dark and light parts - under the eyes, on her hair and so on.

I follow the same steps for the clothes and the hair, too.

To give the illustration a feeling of warmth (or softness), I set one layer to “overlay” and made some adjustments to the hair. The character part is basically finished.

Coloring the background

For the background, I wanted it to convey a “end-of-summer sunset” kind of vibe.

I liked how the initial colors came out in the sketch, so I decided to keep them and add some details. After painting the clouds, I drew the city skyline on a separate layer.

I create a new “luminosity” layer and using one of the pictures I took as a reference, I try to recreate a city skyline during sunset.

As you can see I didn’t use anime style coloring for the background, so I had to adjust the main character colors to fit the scenery. What’s important is having the courage to change your initial colors! There’s nothing to fear, I swear. From this point on, I’m just making some minor fixes.

Finishing touches

The character was colored in an anime style, while the background looks more painting-like. We have to make the illustration look cohesive, and we’re going to achieve that by making some color adjustments and adding some effects.

For this step, I use Photoshop. I wasn’t sure about how I wanted the colors to look like, but then I decided to make those lights really pop out.

The character will end up standing out pretty easily, so this whole procedure requires to pay attention. I’m still studying to learn how to make it look better.

Here’s the final result!

This was a hard one to pull off!

From start to finish, it took me around 16 to 17 hours. The step that took me the most was inking - that alone took about 4 hours. But the “Cintiq 27QHD” made the process so much faster than usual!

Next Page : What are the merits of the Cintiq 27QHD?

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