Process - Relient K Chibi Magnets

It was around 2005 when our cousin introduced us to Relient K. He lent us a copy of their album MMHMM and I was around 12 years old then. Ever since, I've greatly related to most of their songs and we'd dream of them visiting here in the Philippines. I thought it would be awesome if we could see them live and tell them how awesome they are.

Years later, and behold, they were here and I had the privilege to meet them! Last September 28 and 29, I've been to their shows and also had the privilege to meet them and gave them these cute magnets.  It was an awesome time.

In this post, I'll talk about the process in making the gifts I gave the band - chibi magnets of Matt Hoopes and Matt Thiessen.

First off, I drew both of these awesome guys on a sketch paper,
doing my best to make them look similar to the two Matts.

Using the pen tool, let's trace the characters to form lineart.
You can check here for an awesome tutorial on how to use the pen tool.  

Lineart's a little close to being done. It still looks messy, so we'll adjust them in a bit.

More lineart. Looks really cute! 

Now we'll add the colors, using the pen tool and adding a clipping mask for the shadows.

Now we add more detail by using the brush tool to add some life to the colors,
again using a clipping mask.

Now that the kawaii chibis are done, let's make the magnets!

I visited an office supply store and purchased some magnetic paper. Then used that paper and printed the images.

Cut the magnets carefully with scissors and here they are! Ready to be given as gifts to the most awesome bromance ever, the two Matts of Relient K. 

Here are some photos I took from Relient K's show. 

Thank you so much guys for coming here to the Philippines!

P.S.: They love the magnets and posted a photo on their Instagram. It feels awesome!

Process: Coloring a Cartoon Illustration for a School Club

I just finished coloring an illustration for my previous school. I really like how it turned out and would just like to share with you all the process I did in coloring with Photoshop.

The Cute Drawing

Here we see the drawing and the book with some characters and the words "Youth POWER". This is for a club we have in my high school, promoting the reading of books in the English language. 

The illustration is colored nicely with crayons, and I really like the characters the artist made. The wide happy grin really brings out a lot to these characters, making the image of the club look fun. 

Using a scanner, we scan this drawing and then proceed to opening it in Photoshop.

The Tools

The three main tools I used to color this in Photoshop:

Pen Tool (for making lineart, for filling and for making shadows)

Ellipse Tool (for creating perfect circles)

Clipping Mask and Layer Mask (for the shadows and other details)

Text Tool (for adding the small text)

Now There Are Lines

I used the pen tool to make the lineart. There are other ways to make the lines, but I use the pen tool and trace over the lines from the drawing. After that, I proceeded to color the words in the middle, also with the use of the pen tool.

Color is Life

 

With the use of the same versatile tool, I proceed to give color to the characters. First with their hair, next is the skin, and then later, the other colors (like the owl, their clothes, the books, the computer).

Now to bring life to their cheerful faces..all looking so excited to read their books. Using the pen tool, I trace the original drawing, also making changes to the paths when I feel like it. You can see that most of their eyes are different from the original drawing. Using the ellipse tool, I hold down shift to make perfect circles for the eye lights.

Details and Shadows

 

Here's where we make use of the pen tool + clipping mask combo to make things easier. I won't be explaining that and layer masks in detail but you can get a headfirst here. What I did here is add the shadows like in the book. It's not too noticeable in the characters though.

Finished Coloring!

With the other details added, this is finished and with this, I think the book club is going to soar to great wonders! Well, do you think I did well?

 Feel free to comment what you think!