This was project was a lot of fun. Character design for a children's graphic novel. The entire illustration was done with Adobe Photoshop. (With the exception of a very light sketch before the digital process to get the positioning of the characters visualized.)
Followed by lead is the ink! Well...This is digital so not really. But you get it. The blacks were added and kept in to make it feel more comic book like. Hard lines generally assist with that "cartoony" look. One thing I tend to do as a personal signature is add a light shadow to the lines. It helps make them look more natural and less flat after color.
Coloring is the funnest part for me. It allows me to recall the good ol' kindergarten years. What a time to be alive. At the top left of the piece you can see the word "Light" written. This helps me remember and visualize where light is coming from. In this case light is shining down from the left, traveling to the right. From there I add colors accordingly.
After color we add our shadows. Now the characters really come to life and spring off the page. After adding a flashy, colorful background, we're left with this!
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