So, I've been colouring this comic for about 9 years and I've never really been happy with the leather effect. The idea was to draw a line and smoosh it around with the smear brush, but somehow it usually ends up looking like a line again after the comic has been shrunk down to web format.

On the other hand, I've made massive strides in the way polished surfaces such as metal armour or catsuits are rendered. So it's time to have a rethink with the leather.

At the top, we have the traditional method I've been using. Below, some experiments in improving it, both on Jakob's trench and also on the demon's wings.
Realistic leather is difficult to do - this is probably the best I've seen on FA: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/20844823/ (the gloves in particular)

I'm not expecting to get up to that level, and even if I did, I colour two comics a week and have other stuff to do as well so a process that takes days per page is no good.

But this seems to be a happy medium, or at least an improvement over what I was doing before. If people like it I might go back and redo the current chapter of Epsilon and Project Future to match. (I don't like changing style mid-chapter)

Comments are encouraged.