Welcome back, friends!

Today I'll be going over a Yuri On Ice fanart I did of Yuri Plisetsky and Otabek! Yes, the newest ship everyone is raving about. Why is there a cat? Well, I was creating a fan comic with a friend of mine and it involved these two adorable boys who were tasked with cat-sitting, and there would be "ooh-la-la~" moments inside for the daring. (The comic never ended up being finished so I can't link it unfortunately!)

Time taken: 3-4 hours

Materials 🖌️

Wacom Intuos 3 Tablet, Medium
Paint Tool SAI

The Process 🖼️

The Sketch Stage

I know in the anime (YOI), Yuri and Otabek have a special kind of friendship - which is why they're perfect for each other. However, Yuri is known to be somewhat aloof and apprehensive to friendly gestures. Otabek is definitely on the kinder side, so he wouldn't be as hesitant to show a little more skinship.

That's why I wanted to show a budding friendship with a "hand over the shoulder" by Otabek and Yuri being OK with it, albeit a little pout in the corner of his mouth.

The Inking Stage (Lineart)

I said it many times and I'll say it again - linearting is my favorite step of any artwork. It's so calming and meditative to see smooth, orderly lines being drawn on the canvas. It is also nice to see concepts and ideas forming real shapes on the screen. No more disorderly "guesses" of what an arm should look like, etc.

This is also the part where the cat is no longer a blob. And I took out Yuri's design on his shirt because I got lazy. Hah!

Adding Base Colors

Now onto the part where we choose the basic foundation of colors! I tend to gravitate more on the saturated side when it comes to this part. I don't choose a pure black nor a pure white. Otabek's jacket is naturally black and Yuri's jacket is naturally white/barely light blue, but I chose not to see just basic black and white.

Our world is so full of beautiful imagery, why should we limit ourselves to just the polar ends of the "shades"? I love adding vibrancy and illuminating tones! Even Otabek's hair isn't exactly black. It is a very washed-out dark blue.

Adding Gradients

One of the easiest ways to add a lot of depth and bring out a picture's color is adding a lot of gradients. I find using complementary colors that are bright and almost neon helps with adding that extra dimension. Sometimes in really dark colors, I add a light blue or light yellow, regardless of what the base color is (somehow blue and yellow always look good!). And dark/saturated purple looks good as a dark gradient shade for almost anything.

The Shading Stage

Here, I begin to shade the folds on the clothing with using just darker colors of the base colors (I don't do anything fancy by choosing complementary colors or anything)... except for Otabek's neck! I really enjoy adding a dash of purple on skin to give it a slightly more realistic shade and just adds a nice touch.

If you notice in some areas of the clothes, some shades are faded out to blend with the base colors. I use Paint Tool SAI's brush & blend tool to blend in some colors that match closely with the base color. It gives you the effect of extra, integrated colors with minimum work because you merely blur the colors. I also use the mode "Fringe" for this shading layer to give a hard edge color on the shading.

If anyone is interested in knowing how I achieve these effects in the Shading Stage, please let me know!

Finishing Touches

For the last part, I add some final touches to give it a polished look. For this picture, all I did was add some highlights that you can see on Otabek's scarf, the boys' hair, and a bit on Yuri's jacket. They're small additions that add a lot of "pop" to your picture.