Rain - Step by step

Added a downloadable version of this image because the preview doesn't really cut the mustard!

Here we go! Got all of it saved!

This is the image currently in use on the main site's banner. I wanted to have something a bit murkier to go with the theme of the comic but also something I could easily step into with Small Troll's coding.

So the layout might look a bit funny on its own, but it definitely works with the site itself.

So, the sketch. Omar's body changed shape so many times so I can only show you this one. *sweats nervously* Lining Jack and Erwil was a breeze, but Omar and his brolly gave me some trouble. I figured out while doing this that if I just draw a rough oval and try to work out the perspective of the pins (and to make sure there's an even number of them, at least 8) before cutting off the edges it'll look decent. This is gonna help me so much in the future to draw umbrellas..

The background is a speedpaint. I didn't want to include too much detail in it because it's going to sit behind all the website elements and I wanted the focus to be on the characters. Loksley and Sketchcote didn't need legs. We can hide all that behind the smog.

Rain. Rain is fun and easy. I've tried lots of different things in the past but I feel this method works the best to draw it. I use quick long strokes with a low opacity brush for the background and then sharper strokes in the foreground. We didn't need a huge amount of depth in this piece but there could be a bit more low opacity rain in the back. ..It does look like I left some random hooks in some of the drops. Need to make sure to erase those in the future

Everything in the background was black and white to start with, including the rain. But white rain never ends up looking good so I stuck a purple layer on top of it and enabled Clip Mask to give it a little color. The houses and their lights were redone a few times. It's a quick job as it's meant to be just a rough silhouette with yellow specks as windows to give you the impression that we are in a city.

Loksley and Sketchcote didn't really need anything too elaborate considering they're meant to be lurking in the backround and the image gets resized a huge amount. Always watching..

Karo gave me a pointer to add a little bit of blue to Omar and the little serpent. I'm not as brave as she is when it comes to adding blue to the deeper shadows so there's only a pretty faint hint of it, but it was definitely needed to soften their tones against Jack's colours.

Lotsa raindrops! Could use more to be honest! Same purple hue for them.

Overlay and Lighten/Screen layers on top of everything are a must use nowadays to soften my lineart and give the colours a bit more variety in general. It's something I would not have dared to try without Karo pushing me to give it a go. I've learned a lot from her that's for sure!