Illustration Case-Study
Sailor Moon Fan-art. :D

I actually sat down with the intention of doing a Holiday-themed illustration, but somehow wound up drawing Sailor Moon instead. As always, see the full-sized image and the working process under the cut!

Final Image

I fell in love with Sailor Moon when it first aired in Canada but I’ve never done any Fan Art of the characters… or Fan Art of anything really. Figured it was about time to remedy that. Here’s my take on Usagi Tsukino (or Serena as I knew her) and Luna. I’m actually pretty satisfied with this painting. I worked in an entirely different manner for this - most notably using only one layer for the majority of the piece. I also went straight into color work instead of doing a grayscale painting and layering colors on top afterward. The result is something a little different for me, but if I can pull it off again, I think I’d like to keep working like this. Admittedly it took a bit longer than usual. Each screenshot below represents a few hours of work.

Working Process

I started off with a fairly tight drawing in my sketchbook. Nothing was completely refined because I knew I’d change it in the painting.

Instead of working grayscale first like I usually do, I went straight into a color test. It really helped that I’m working on a character with a color scheme already defined.

Several hours later and I’ve worked up the main areas of focus in the picture. The character’s face always takes the longest to finalize as it’ll (hopefully) be the focal point of the image. I also changed Luna’s expression a bit.

Spent a bit of time working on her brooch and ribbon. Also changed her arm placement to create a more dynamic pose. Hand on the hip is much stronger than hand bleeding off the page.

Refine, refine, refine. I really struggled with the skirt without reference images but in the end, it’s believable enough.

And finally I just had to refine her gloves and change the background to be a bit more Sailor Moon-esque.

And she’s finished!

One Response to “Illustration Case-Study
Sailor Moon Fan-art. :D
”

1. Jenn says:

   December 28, 2009 at 8:30 am

   OMG jared I love thisss~~! Your coloring is getting so awesome!!! I love it! Gorgeous!!! <333

   Reply