**FULL VIEW for animation please!**

Made this GIF to show someone something about painting without lineart, but then decided to upload it to my scraps because maybe some of you will find it useful too.

The drawing used for this is "Secrets of the Forest", you can find the finished image here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/10422210/

This is basically how my process goes for all my digital paintings, but I sometimes try different techniques as well. After all, I'm still learning. :P

1) I start with a really rough sketch that determines the composition of the drawing and posing of the characters. Underneath the rough sketch I also throw down some black and white rough shading just to help me see where my light sources will be coming from later on.

2) I refine the sketch further, fixing some of my previous anatomy mistakes and adding some more details as I go. I also usually draw in the clothes and accessories and stuff at this point. This stage is in no way clean line art; lines are still rough, but it's a lot easier to tell what's going on. If the rough sketch isn't SUPER rough, I could probably skip this step sometimes, but I think it helps in the long run.

3) Lower the sketch opacity to where it is just barely visible. In a new layer underneath the sketch, I block in the characters' silhouettes using a flat color. Keep the edges of this silhouette as clean as possible, because this is what defines the shape of the character. At this point, I also usually start painting the background in another layer underneath the characters. I don't really use lines at all for the background; I mostly just scribble in shapes and colors until it looks the way I want it to.

4) Within the blocked silhouettes, I start coloring in the actual colors of the characters. Block in the different colors for fur, hair, clothing, whatever. While doing this, I either lock the transparency of the silhouette layer and color directly on it, or I color it in a new layer with the silhouette used as a clipping mask. That way you can color more freely without worrying about messing up your silhouette.

5) Ideally, you should be able to hide your sketch completely at this point, but sometimes I think it looks better just to keep it there at a really low opacity (like around 8% or so). Either way, you shouldn't really be able to tell the sketch is there at a glance. Start shading over your color layers to define shapes and edges, keeping your light source(s) in mind. The shading in this step should replace your need for lines.

6) At the end I merge all of the layers together and do a bunch of final adjustments to complete the look of the painting. I play with the levels, saturation, contrast, and color balance, among other things. Sometimes it's also good to add some extra accents to the shading and highlights at this point.

And done!

So that's a pretty simplified overview of how I draw. There are a lot of other things I could get into more detail about, but I don't really feel like bothering right now. Maybe some other time. :P