Work in Progress Shots of Firo and Raphtalia, The Rising of the Shield Hero

The full process of each artwork usually takes around 3 to 5 days. This painting in particular was relatively simple so the full process only took about 8 hours spread out between 2 days.

It all begins with a very rough sketch of the basic idea and sometimes a drop of color to set the overall mood of the picture. 

A very common step for a lot of artists is to refine the sketch in to a polished line art. However, we like to skip directly to coloring. This allows for small changes to be made fast without being restricted by the line art. 

We always try to keep the background and the character on different layers. Often each character will also get their own separate layer to make coloring easier. 

More details are slowly added.

Finally some light adjustments are made after all the details are painted. The adjustments are made by creating a new layer on the very top, with the mode set to "Overlay", extra light is painted on with a soft airbrush. 

And there you have it. The painting is complete!