In-depth tutorial on how to Draw, Paint, Add highlights & shadows in Krita - Chibi Ninja

>> Blade and Quill.

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>> Hello, everyone.

Today I am going to show you how to
draw a chibi ninja, how to like color it

and add simple highlights and shadows.

Let's get started.

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We are going to build this
character one layer at a time.

Grab your HB pencil brush, make sure that the
opacity and the flow are both set at 100%.

Use any size for the brush.

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Draw the head first.

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Now, let's stop for a moment and look
at what we have accomplished so far.

This is what I call mapping.

I set a few references points, I establish
the size of my character and I start

to create some sort of fighting pose.

So that's not bad for a beginning
but obviously it's very hideous.

And you know what, it's okay, it's
how everything starts; ugly and messy.

So let's keep going.

Decrease the opacity of this layer.

Create a new layer above.

If the layer below is still too opaque, you
can always decrease its opacity a little more.

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So time to make the very first improvements.

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For now, I am going to draw
the shape of a katana

but I may replace it later with some nunchaku.

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Decrease the opacity of the second draft.

Remove the mapping draft,
you don't need it anymore.

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Create a brand-new layer
above and draw more changes.

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You are going to repeat this
process over and over

until you have reached a
point where you are satisfied.

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Time to ink.

I am going to grab my ink brush.

If you want to find all the inking brushes
available in Krita, set your tag to All.

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In the search bar, type Inking.

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And here are all the inking brushes.

Depending on what you have
uploaded on your Krita,

you may have less or more brushes than I do.

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Before you start inking, make sure that the
stabilizer and the pen pressure are turned on.

Now, draw a few lines and test which
size is better for your project.

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If you want to calibrate your
brush, go to the edit brush setting.

If you click on this side of the panel, you will
see that we have several calibrating options.

We'll focus on the size.

Now, look at this preview panel.

When I move points in the graph, the shape
of the line in the preview channel changes.

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Back to our project, we have created
a brand-new layer on the top.

Taking your time, you are
going to ink your project,

just remember to change the
size of your brush as needed.

Use the eraser to help you
shape or clean your lines.

And finally, don't forget that you can
still make more changes to your design.

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Time to color.

I have removed all the sketch
layers created earlier.

As you can see here, I added a
palette docker to the interface

with all the colors I am
about to use on the character.

It's always a good idea to have
things already picked and organized.

If you want to use a custom palette like me, go
to Settings, choose Dockers, move down the list

and click on the Palette right here.

For those of you who don't know how to
create and customize a color palette,

I explained how to do so in
one of my earlier tutorials.

Use the timestamp in the
description of the video

to skip directly to that section of the lesson.

Grab the freehand brush,
activate the stabilizer;

you can calibrate the tool to match your needs.

For this project, I set the distance
to 50 and the delays to 9 pixels.

We are going to create a new
layer below the line art.

But before we go any further,
let me color the background.

Click on the background to make it active.

Select a color from your palette.

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Use Shift plus Backspace to fill
the layer with your selected color.

All right, now that this is out
of the way, I am going to go back

to the layer I created earlier
and rename it Outfit.

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Time to choose a color.

I'll grab some gray.

Now, at the very end of this
video, I will change this shade

to a darker and almost a black color.

Now, if I started right away with a dark
shade, it would be almost impossible

for me to see what I'm doing, right?

So it's very important to work with a
light color first and then change it later.

Grab the magic wand, make
sure that the fuzziness is set

to a low value; 10 is a good number.

Set your grow shrink selection to 1.

This way when you select an area, the
selection will touch your line art.

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I am going to quickly select all the outfit.

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By the way, the reason why my magic wand
can recognize the boundaries of my line art,

even though I am not on the line art layer, is
because here I set the action to all layers.

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All right, I think I've selected
everything I need.

Now, the only thing left
to do is fill my selection

with the gray paint I selected earlier.

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And I'll undo the selections.

Let's have a closer look.

Because I set the grow selection to 1, there
are no gaps between the paint and my line art.

Now, depending on your work, you may have to
set the value to 2 or move it back to zero.

Click B to switch from the
magic wand to your brush.

Time to add highlights and
shadows to the outfit.

We will do so by using clipping masks.

Create two new layers on the top.

Now, select all the three layers.

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Create a group.

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Click on the first layer and lock the alphas.

Do the same above.

Rename the first layer S for shadows, --

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-- and set its blending mode to multiply.

Rename the second layer H for highlights, --

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-- and set its blending mode to screen.

Let's work on the shadows first.

Click on the layer to make it active.

I am going to stick with my gray color.

In the color wheel, I'll just slide the
cursor up to get a darker shade of that color.

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Now, the only thing left
to do is paint my shadows.

Take your time when adding
your shadows as you paint.

You'll go back and forth between
the eraser and the paintbrush.

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You may also need to rotate your canvas a lot.

Click on the Number 4 as many times as
you need to rotate the canvas to the left.

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Use the 6 to rotate it to the right.

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To reset the canvas to where
it was, click on the Number 5.

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Time to add the highlights.

Back in the color wheel this time,
I am going to move the cursor

down toward a lighter tint of that gray.

Change the size of your brush and
start painting your highlights.

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Now that you have all your shadows and
highlights done, you can decrease the opacity

of both layers, just keep
playing with different values

until you reach the effect you want to achieve.

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Before to move to the next step,
I am going to rename my group.

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We are ready to paint the wooden sticks.

Create a new layer and rename it Weapons.

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Let's choose a new color.

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Grab the magic wand and select
all the areas you need to select.

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Fill your selection with your
color and undo the selections.

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Click a bit to switch back
to the freehand brush.

Now I'll stop talking and let you watch.

Don't forget that you can always
pause the video when needed.

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We are going to start changing our colors.

Let's start with the eyes.

Choose any layers and hit Control plus U.

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Here, play with different lightness,
saturation and hue settings.

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Before to continue, I'm going
to rename my group.

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All right, time to recolor the outfit.

Click on your base color
layer and hit Control U.

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Here, because I started with a gray
color, the only thing I really need

to do is make it darker; it is that simple.

For your project, you may have to
tweak the saturation and hue as well.

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We are going to create a shadow.

Click on the background to make it active.

Create a new layer on the top.

Grab the ellipse tool.

Make sure that the fill is
set to a foreground color.

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Now, choose No Outline in
the next drop-down menu.

In your color palette or the
color wheel, choose a dark color.

Any color will do.

Create your shape.

Now, go to Filter and choose Blur.

Select Gaussian blur.

Move the cursor toward the
right side of your screen.

Stop when you are satisfied with
the effect you want to create.

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Now, a while ago, I created a flower paintbrush.

I am going to get it.

As usual, I set my tag to All when
searching for a specific brush.

In the search bar, I am going to
type flower, and here is my creation.

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I'll just add three flowers;
and time to add my signature.

And voila, we are done.

Next tutorial, I would like to show
you how shapes can make your life

so much easier when drawing animals.

So I'll see you next time.

Until then, have a great time
creating art, [foreign language].

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