20 Comments
User's avatar
Virginia Neely's avatar

You make it look so easy. It isn't quite that easy with my graphics app.

Expand full comment
Meaghan McIsaac's avatar

What app are you using? Does it let you create layers?

Expand full comment
Virginia Neely's avatar

Yes, layers is easy, but for instance moving from lines to colouring isn't as easy. I use Affinity Designer. I can colour a shape, but only if it's closed. Otherwise I can paint, but I don't like how the brush strokes look. I'm no expert, so I might be using it wrong, but I don't have any Apple devices so can't use Procreate.

Expand full comment
Meaghan McIsaac's avatar

Most of them, including procreate, work similarly to photo shop. I'm not familiar with affinity designer, but if I'm understand you right, you're saying you can colour a shape as long as the lines are closed? So if you drew a box and didn't perfectly connect the corners, the fill colour would spill out?

Expand full comment
Meaghan McIsaac's avatar

So what I do, is the lines just sit on top of the colour layer. So I make a layer below the lines. Then I colour the drawing in with one single colour. I don't fill, I actually colour it, being careful to stay inside the lines - like I'm colour in a colouring book. Once I have that single solid colour in the shape of my drawing, it makes it easier to do the rest of the colour. So on top of the one solid colour, I make a clipping mask (or if you don't have clipping masks, you can just select the one solid colour and then make a layer over top). That way everything a I colour from then on, like her hair, her sweater, the shadows, it will all stay within the bounds of the solid colour shape. I may not be understanding right, but I hope that helps!

Expand full comment
Virginia Neely's avatar

I'm terrible at staying within the lines, but yes, that helps a lot.

Expand full comment
Meaghan McIsaac's avatar

Don't worry about it being perfect, its just a method to make things easier for you to select stuff. Good luck!

Expand full comment
Virginia Neely's avatar

That's right.

Expand full comment
Artful Journey's avatar

Fantastic and thanks for sharing your knowledge. I really like it, and you have a wonderful and easy way of teaching the skills. I have to say though, I am a little jealous 😏

Expand full comment
Meaghan McIsaac's avatar

Thanks so much for reading! Hope it's helpful!

Expand full comment
Artful Journey's avatar

I follow the steps from your post and made a picture out of a painting from pinterest. This is how It went

Expand full comment
Joseph L. Wiess's avatar

You are an amazing artist. Your rough sketches look better than my completed wrecks.

Expand full comment
Meaghan McIsaac's avatar

Haha my rough sketch is only this decent on a simple pose like this - if she had a ffull body or was in an action pose, the rough sketch would be a mess of scribbles!

Expand full comment
Hedgy's avatar

Thank you for sharing your process! It’s so helpful to see illustrators work, and I can’t tell you much I appreciate a share the love attitude towards knowledge. Rather than gatekeeping. Such a great community and I can’t wait to hear more about your book progress.

Expand full comment
Meaghan McIsaac's avatar

Thanks so much for reading! So glad you enjoyed it!

Expand full comment
Sarah Allen's avatar

Oh my gosh this is so helpful! I love seeing the process. I've yet to figure out a coloring strategy I like, but yours seems so doable!

Expand full comment
Meaghan McIsaac's avatar

Yay! so glad its helpful!

Expand full comment
J. Curtis's avatar

I love seeing these process pieces, Meaghan. Really beautifully done and deceptively simple.

Expand full comment
Meaghan McIsaac's avatar

Thank you! So glad you like them!

Expand full comment