This piece is called Oiran Summoner. It’s a passion project that was created in my free time, and I’m currently working on a world based on the Oiran who summon monsters with their musical instruments. I started by sketching in Procreate , then painted in Photoshop .

I would often go back and forth with parts of the piece by using the exclusion layer over it. This allowed me to attempt something a little different every time. The exclusion layer is also great for atmosphere, resetting your values and unifying your colour a little bit if you feel you went too far on your contrast range too early (if you need to build your own art setup, see our guides to the best drawing tablets or the best laptops for drawing ).

01. Character sketch

(Image: © Christian Angel)

After concepting my character, I made a couple of thumbnail sketches and ended up going with this one. I knew I wanted the light source to kind of hit her lap and not her face directly.…