SKETCHWORK

And here's how it all began. Actually, I started drawing this during lunch over musubi and Pepsi. Originally, it was only Inuyasha by himself. I was intending to add Kagome later, which I did in blue.

This doesn't take long at all. The inspiration of course came from the manga chapter. So there's no real deep meaning behind it other than I wanted to just capture the whole "hold me up" moment, and when Inuyasha was letting out his Kongousouha.

I also realized that there were just a few subtle differences in his new "Joukasareta" form, mostly in the eyes. A little more narrow, and his fangs are more pronounced, of course. But other than that, the biggest difference is his eyes and face-stripes. Hee...

CLEAN-UP & LINEWORK

Again, I'm using Photoshop for the coloring. Using the Pen Tool, I just drew over the original drawing, and used the 3-pt paintbrush tool to stroke it. Used a few different clean-up techniques to get the look I wanted.

While I'm at this stage, I'll also clean up proportions and other curves, bascially looking at a few references from character sheets and other drawings from the anime/manga, so I can get the look right.

At this point, I also used the 3-pt paintbrush to add in details like extra folds in closthing, the "beat up" lines on the characters' clothing.

Tessaiga's blade comes in at a later point, but the indication lines were drawn in at this point.

FLAT COLOR LAYER

Using the eyedropper tool to select colors from screenshots I took of Inuyasha and Kagome, I colored in the Flat Color Layer. This layer comes in behind the linework.

The particular screenshot I used for the color reference on this drawing was one of Inuaysha just after he'd fought Goshinki. Inuyasha is still in his full-youkai state, and he and Kagome are in the same shot on that. With both characters in one shot, the colors are basically what they need to be.

LIGHT & SHADOWS LAYER

It's pretty neat how just a little shading can really bring life to an image, isn't it? The shadows and highlights are colored on a layer (actually, several layers) above the Flat Color Layer.

First, decide where the light source should be. The light would basically be coming from the front, from Inuyasha's blade. I also decided that I didn't want to overexaggerate the lighting and color useage (as I'd done in "The Last Dream") so I used two layers of shadow and no extra hotspot highlighting.

I also wasn't quite sure how I'd treat Tessaiga's blade at this point, so I just left the space uncolored where the blade was going to be.

The blade (which will have all the special effects and other fancy stuff), comes next.