My Illustration Method

I received another request asking more detailed information about my method. If anyone is actually reading this thing, here is my response:

Happy to help. I've definitely been narrowing down my method. I do the elements of my drawing with pencil and scan that into Photoshop. After arranging the elements into the composition I want, I colorize that layer to a sepia and set it to "multiply" which makes it transparent to layers below. I create a layer below that where I color in all my flat colors (it's not filling, it's on it's own layer). I then create another layer where I do my rendering. So it looks like this:

top layer - line art set on multiply (or darken if I don't want it that visible)
middle layer - for rendering (sometimes this layer completely covers the bottom layer as I like to have variation and texture in my colors)
bottom layer - flat color (don't ever delete this layer as it also makes it super easy to select certain areas you need to render)

I then pull it into Painter and save a 2nd version. Painter is still not 100% stable, and I've had it quite on me - wiping out the file I was working on. So I save back and forth between two files while working.

In Painter, I select the object I'll render on the bottom layer, move to the middle layer and render. I've found about three or four brushes I use almost exclusively: "Artist's – Impressionist" gives me a wonderfully textured look. "Oils – Smeary Round" is the biggie, and "crayons" which almost burns the color which is great for skin tones (boy do you have to set the opacity low and use light colors!). I use a few others occasionally, but those are my workhorses.

One thing I've found is Painter is lazy about keeping colors true. I've pulled files in and out of Painter where the color has totally changed on me. Photoshop is the stable program, so I always pull my files back into Photoshop and adjust my colors there, saving the final file from Photoshop (using that bottom layer to select the spots that need work).

Hope this is helpful!