WEEK #4: Designing LOONA Fanmade Merchandise

Hey again everyone! I'm trying to get my posts back on its regular schedule, so here's what I've been working on recently! I've put in an order for some clear pouches that can be filled with pencils, pens, erasers and so on to print my illustrations on and resell at conventions. This design is of three girls from a Korean Pop girl group called "LOONA."

Who is LOONA?
LOONA is originally made of 12 members, but the three girls in this drawings are in a "sub-unit" or their own group within a group called "Odd Eye Circle." From left to right: Jinsoul, Cheorry, and Kim Lip. I recommend listening to this song by them if KPOP is your thing (this music video is where I got their outfits from).

Feel free to hit play while you read through this post!

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So now I'll break down my process. I spent hours developing each face to get their likeness as close as I could to the girls. Then I roughly sketched out their poses and clothes.

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I went over the sketch with cleaner lines and thickened the outer edges of the hair to get a more cartoon-y look.

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I darkened the background so I could easily see if I was within the lines. I filled the figures with blue on one layer to create a clipping mask. This makes it so that I can color without worrying about keeping within the lines every single time.

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Here, I've laid down the base colors and added simplified patterns and designs to the jackets.

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I managed to take screenshots during part of my process of coloring Kim Lip's face. In Paint Tool SAI, I used the brush tool to lay a thick line of red and softened the line (leaving just an edge left) using the water brush/tool.

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After finishing with adding red to all the faces, I shaded the hair and clothes loosely.

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This step can be tedious, but here I've preserved the opacity of the line-art and colored over it to give a softer feel. I might do a tutorial on related functions in the future for beginners!

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Lastly, I readjusted the position of the figures, created a grid on Photoshop to replace the ghetto-rigged one, added the LOONA logo, and applied a light purple tinge.

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The image I used for reference.

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Thanks for reading! I hope maybe some of you can appreciate LOONA's music! These pouches will probably print sometime next month or so. I hope to take pictures of them when I receive them!

Fall semester begins this Wednesday! I'm pretty anxious about it since my classes end around 8PM or so every weekday. The campus sends out a lot of e-mails about nearby or onsite assaults/muggings etc. so it makes me feel uneasy. Good luck to other students on here!

banner illustration by: @orenisme