Can someone explain to me this one part of this speedpaint?

[u/kolerz10]

I watched a speedpaint and I’m kinda new to art so I’m trying to figure out how people do stuff, but I came across this one part where the artist says they put down flat colors in each layer and then use a multiply layer to give it a shadow effect, my problem is how he manages to then render the eyes and other parts seemingly with an alpha lock but without getting affected by multiply. Ive spent hours trying to decipher it but Im very frustrated right now and would like to know how they managed to do it

https://youtu.be/n4-oG-3Ir6M?si=03mXPzqkjCKScX6Q

[u/melancholiess]

Honestly, he really had to use different layers and layer modes to achieve that coloring. My theory is that I think he either masked off the eyes, or colored the eyes separately and alpha locked to not mess with anything else on the face. Then he used clipping layers to achieve that kind of coloring. He could have really used anything, but I would probably approach it with some multiply, glow (for the highlights), color dodge, etc.

I recommend either watching a dedicated tutorial for anime eyes or just playing around with your art program to see what you like :)

[u/kolerz10 → u/melancholiess]

It’s kinda confusing isn’t it. At 9:00 you can see the whole rendering layers and idk how he achieved it if multiply is on top of all of that. Any clue? 

I’ll keep playing around to see what I find

[u/YoiFennec]

It doesnt really show but my guess is he used another layer over the eyes without multiply mode. Just a normal layer.

[u/kolerz10 → u/YoiFennec]

At minute 9:00 you can see some layers for the rendering and assuming multiply is above all of that, how would he manage it? Hmm, I’ll try to keep playing around 

[u/AndrewWilsonnn]

It's a mix of erasing the multiply layer, overpainting, and painting below the multiply layer. I'm not quiiiiite sure how he lays on the eye coloring so vibrant under the multiply layer, but I can help you find a way that works without having to duplicate it fully.

https://i.imgur.com/ABCyblC.png

Here's a step-by-step of what I would do in order to imitate his work. In my art I generally separate shading layers by type (Shade over Skin, Shade over Clothes, then Effects over Everything)

For the eyes, say we have shades on a level of 1-10. In his flat, he lays down Blue 5. Paints the multiply layer over it. That gives you a good base to work with.

What I would do next would be to then hide the multiply layer and just focus on the eye (Step 3 and 4). Add in a light highlight at the bottom, vibrant. Add in a shade at the top, deep and rich (Don't just decrease the black, shift the color wheel a bit too, add some contrasting color)

Once you've done that, turn the multiply layer back on, see how it looks. Does the vibrant bright stand out enough for you? If not, start erasing bits of of the multiply layer until it really shines through (Step 5).

Finally, ABOVE the multiply layer, add in some highlights in your chosen color. This way they will be nice and vibrant over the darkening effects of the multiply layer. I would classify this (Step 6) as a "Post Processing" layer.

For the layers of each step, here is what they look like on my end:

https://i.imgur.com/Q3K2HcM.png

https://i.imgur.com/57DorMw.png

Now for my personal advice:

Multiply layer is great for a vibe check, but can be finnicky if you want to do whole paintings by just erasing it's effects, because you're left with pretty static colors. You end up needing to do a ton of underpainting just to get the multiply you erase to look right, or you need to paint different colors onto your multiply layer to get it to look right. It's a pain to learn, it's a pain to do consistently, and will make every piece super reliant on it.

Instead, use it as a way to gauge colors, apply it to one "section" at a time using a clipping mask, erase bits of it, then overpaint.

https://i.imgur.com/j28wqgQ.png

https://i.imgur.com/FkMNDdS.png

Seriously at this point any of my big painted pieces are just flats with shading, then toss a whole boatload of corrective effects on top, adding/erasing until it looks good. One of my paintings had a folder of like 20 different corrective effects over everything, from fog to multiply layers, to overlays, glow dodges, darkens, lightens, all sorts of wacky stuff.

For inspiration, I really like watching Lack's speedpaints. They bounce around a bit in how they set up stuff, but for the most part it's Rough Sketch -> Flats with Shade Tests -> Refine Inks -> Detailed shading overpaints

https://youtu.be/SU4VdA-uSQA

[u/kolerz10 → u/AndrewWilsonnn]

Oh so it’s mostly a combination of erasing multiply and coloring both underneath and above the multiply layer. Your pictures are very helpful as well, I’ll analyze these as I practice some similar exercises. Lack is also an artist I like so I’ll make sure to watch his videos more carefully with what you said. Thank you so much. My only doubt left is how the artist managed to lighten up the eyes right after placing the multiply layer and starts rendering. I guess maybe he used a selection then made a mask above the multiply layer? Because when he does a stroke through the face, it only affects the eyes similar to alpha lock but there is no visible selection so it’s very confusing how he manages to do that 

[u/Ok-Policy-8538]

there are alot of cuts in the video.. pretty sure at some point he had extra layers added that he merged down but it was not recorded or cut out.