Normally, I wouldn’t mind if someone has an opinion about my drawing skills, everyone is free to think what they like.
What I do find frustrating, however, is when someone makes a strong claim without understanding the amount of time and effort that actually goes into each illustration. Dismissing all that work so casually shows a lack of awareness of what really happens behind the scenes.
But don’t worry, it’s not your fault if you don’t have an artist’s eye to tell the difference between the natural shortcomings of a human illustrator and the typical mistakes of AI-generated images. So let me explain my process step by step.
I work on a Huion tablet (an older New1060Plus model), which means I don’t have a screen tablet where I can see my hand directly on the canvas. I draw while looking at the monitor, which takes getting used to, but it’s simply how I’ve adapted to work.
Everything starts with character design and then a very rough sketch. Once the idea is clear, I refine the lines and clean them up. My habit is to finish the eyes first, completely, before moving on to anything else. Then I block in the base colors, body first, then clothes and hair. After that, I add shading to bring depth, followed by texture details where needed.
If a character needs a variation, like different poses or alternate arm positions, I use the finished base and adjust it, repeating the same process: clean lines, base colors, shading, details. It’s a careful, step-by-step workflow, and every illustration you see has gone through this process.
And regarding character design, as I’ve mentioned before, like most illustrators, I use photo references. Usually these are images of models, cosplayers, or sometimes adult film actresses, since their body types or poses can be useful when shaping a character. From there, I adapt and adjust those references to fit my own idea of the character. The end result is always filtered through my own drawing process and interpretation.
Here are some screenshots of the Cathy project in Krita, showing the layers and my drawing process.
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At this point, I think it should be clear enough, I honestly don’t see what I would gain by lying about it. If it were AI, I would just say so, and it would save me a lot of work and hours spent on these illustrations.
And just to add something else: I’ve always been more comfortable with realistic shading rather than a pure anime look. I mean, I'm better at shading with more realistic volumes. The newer illustrations you see are drawn in a simplified style mainly to save time, since my original style is much more time-consuming and, honestly, not as visually appealing. Over time, I’ve adjusted my approach until I found a style that takes me relatively less time to produce, though even then, each illustration still takes me on average 2–3 hours. This new style is also more flexible, as it allows me to more easily create traditional frame-by-frame anime-style animation, aiming to capture the feel of an OVA or anime series.
That’s the new artistic direction I’ve decided to take for the project, and those who have been following my process know how much thought and effort has gone into finding this balance between time, quality, and appeal.
Anyway, I won’t waste more time repeating myself, I’ve got plenty of new illustrations to finish. Thanks to everyone who has shown genuine interest and shared constructive feedback. (And apologies if I’ve shared a few too many images in this post).