Honestly, I didn't know how this work was going to turn out when I first started it. But I suppose everything starts with a little inspiration from somewhere. The Inuyasha theme "Grip!" is probably one of my favorites out there. One line in the song is:


"Reach the end, so we can smile."

So what WILL happen at the end of Inuyasha? What would make them smile? What would make ME smile? Well, this is how I envisioned it... and I called it "The Last Dream."


SKETCHWORK

It starts off like this: Originally I did have this planned as only the top sketch, of Inuyasha in his human form. For this, the reference I used was a character model sheet from one of my artbooks for the details of his face and costume.

Usually this goes fast, about fifteen minutes to get the sketch down. But when I was done with him, I suddenly realized I'd forgotten his osuwari beads. Last-second addition. Heh-heh.

By this point, I figured I wanted something more in the picture.

Why is his last dream to be a human? In my eyes, his decision would definitely be made because of his love for Kagome. So I wanted to put her in the picture. At first I wanted them kissing, but the simplicity of him holding her as he's changing into what his heart desires seemed to look more like what I was aiming for, so I stuck with it.

After this stage was done, tme to scan and move on to the fun part.

CLEAN-UP

I use Photoshop for my artwork. For the clean lines, I scan in at at LEAST twice to three times the size I want the finished picture to be. Unless I'm planning to print, the resolution is usually only 150 DPI.

Using the pen tool in Photoshop, I simply drew the paths around the original sketch. At this stage, I also cleaned up some porportions and curves, but for the most part, everything stays as it was on the drawing.

The paths are traced using a 3-point paintbrush tool. I also split the image into its two parts: Inuyasha-human, and Inuyasha-Kagome. For Inuyasha's human form, I eventually used a deep red line instead of black.

The details such as the hemming on Inuyasha's sleeves I usually deal with in the next stage, which is the fun part...

 

COLORING!

This is what I call the "flat color" stage. For the colors, I took several screencaptures of episodes as reference. I also realized that THIS version of Inuaysha would turn out a bit dark, since his human transformations only happen at night.

The colors are painted on a layer beneath the line art.

Did I ever mention that layers are the best thing since sliced bread? WOOHOO!!

At this stage, I also add in details such as the hemwork on his sleeves, as well as other small details like seams and other contours that I didn't make in the original line art.

The Inuaysha/Kagome porting of the artwork is also treated the same way, so for this part, I'll just show how I worked with human Inuyasha.

PAGE 2 ~ Getting some depth!

Inuyasha characters © 2003 Rumiko Takahashi
Tutorial & artwork © 2003 Kurohime

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