Bunny on Bunny: Process (Patreon)

1. The first step is always sketching and pencils. Since this piece features two characters in very close contact, I decided to sketch each character on a separate layer so that I could turn off the other layer to more easily work out the details for each character.

2. I also decided to ink each character on multiple layers, to make it easier to find the correct overlaps to erase later. Here you can see that I inked most of the front bunny on one layer and then used separate layers for each arm and the rear leg.

3. The layers made it a lot easier to ink and clean the second bunny, making sure that she correctly passes under the first bunny's right arm but in front of the legs on one side and behind on the other. Breaking it up like that makes it much easier to use Manga Studio's vector eraser to clean up the linework. It also makes it easier to shift various parts around a little bit, such as moving the second bunny's right hand forward just a touch for better composition.

4. I left off the hairstyles until this point so I could try out a few different styles and see what fits well. I also sketched in the spilling drinks after looking at some reference photos of drinks falling through the air.

5. Now that I've got everything finalized, I inked the remaining details but I kept the sketch of the liquid from the drinks uninked and stored as a separate file because that part is going to be an unlined effect.

6. Now I switch to Photoshop and start with basic color blocking. For authenticity, I took color samples for skin, hair, and outfit from an old photo of some authentic bunnygirls. Remember, when you have white parts, like the cuff and tail or the whites of the eyes, never actually start with them as fully white. Make them a light grey so that you can still use white for highlighting.

7. Next I did a quick rough shading of the whole piece to see what I wanted to do with it. I also picked a basic background so I could see how the colors worked together.

8. Next, I did the actual full shading, redoing everything in careful detail. Except I decided that the rough shading on the bunnysuits actually looked better in the rough sketch, looking more like proper satin. So I just kept that part and redid the rest. (The shading techniques are the same ones I used in "Sissy on a Leash" so you can read about them in the process page for that one.)

9. Next is a quick colored line application. This uses the same colored line technique that I always use. I turn the lines into a mask on a folder and put a solid black color layer on the bottom of that folder. Then I make more solid color layers for different line colors above it, using masks on each layer to color the lines.

10. Now I added the spilling liquid. I relied a lot on Photoshop layer effects for this one. I made three layers, two above the lines and one below. Each layer is a solid color layer with fill set to 0%. In layer effects, I applied a color overlay in white, turned down to 26%. Then I added inner glow set to white. Then I just started blobbing around, with a hard round brush with pen-pressure size, in each of the layers. After I was finished, I added another layer and used a soft brush to hand paint some highlights onto the water blobs. Well... I say "water" but it's vodka, isn't it? Still, the same technique would apply equally well to any liquid.

11. Then I just slap in a simple backdrop (I made a gradient layer and then played with the built-in filters a little until I found something nice) and I'm done!