1-I knew what I was going for, I wanted my character to be chatting with a friend in the rain, somewhere in a New York neighborhood, so I sketched it out as best I could, not so much to get the details done, just to get the generally tone and feel down before I forgot. It also helps the second sketch feel more natural. 2-Second sketch, not much changed except for the perspective of the background to make it look less flat and to make it easier to draw the house's stairs. Note, this second sketch isn't just to be extra sure the sketch is good, it's to add all the little details the first sketch (Focused more on conveying the scene) did not include. 3-I tackle things one at a time, so I drew her face and body first, this isn't a super complex/realistic drawing, so I only added enough detail to convey what I want (Hair texture and wrinkles in clothes) but not to much it looked too realistic. 4-Added the umbrella and glasses, I like drawing the glasses last, as the face is already confusing enough to draw, imagine having to juggle eyes, eyelashes, eyebrows AND glasses at the same time? Nah, better to just draw on top of it later. 5-I painstakingly did the background, I'm a people-person and I hate drawing inanimate objects, but what can you do? 6-Colors! I wanted a more serious tone which is why I didn't make the umbrella yellow with little rubber duckies printed on it, as much as I may have wanted too. I always have a reference of my character up to get the colors for the face/hair/outfit/eyes. 7-Shading! Normally I love this part, but it was a little difficult considering her face shape, but I think I worked it out. My character, Eithne's theme color is a dark purple, and the color fits a rainy day, so I made sure to add the color to the shadows. I used a soft yellow highlight because not only do streetlights tend to cast that color, but soft yellows look AMAZING with dark purples. I also added the actual rain, too. 8-Colored the background. 9-Saved the background from the program I was using (Paint Tool SAI) and then uploaded it to another program, FireAlpaca to blur the background. At this point I thought I'd be cool if the drawing looked like it was a screenshot from an old television show or something, and camera should blur backgrounds slightly. I added more soft yellow highlights, raindrops and made the rain slightly see through. 10-Added a purple filter, like I wanted too. 11-Added all the filters necessary for it to look like a screenshot from a crime/drama tv show.
