Lets Emmanimate!: How to do work Like Emma does work!

What you will need:

A laptop/computer/mac
Tablet (or a mouse if you prefer working with that)
Sketchbook and pencil (these are optional if you prefer not to sketch on the computer. In which case you will need to scan the images in afterward.)
Photoshop
Illustrator
Food and drink for energy and sustenance. Depending on your workload and work pace, you might be there a while..

Step 1

Open the blank file (I always use an A3 sized file) and begin your basic sketch, using a blandish colour. You can use the opacity tool to change how clear it is later. Don't worry about how messy it can get. I always get scribbly in the first few steps. That can be dealt with later.

Here is the finished sketch. A basic look of what is happening in the scene. However, we need to tidy it up a tad as there's no guideline for the linework I will be doing in illustrator.

Step 2

Now we pick a darker colour to see over the orange I originally used, after changing the opacity to make it lighter. We add a new layer and get drawing. As you can see, I'm actually moving the position of one of the pigeons. I wasn't happy with where it was originally.

Step 3

Now that I'm happy with the lineart and where the pigeons are, I clean it up, add a new layer and lineart the specific pigeons in their respective colours. This is to help me tell the difference (even though I know which character is which but I've been known to derp on stuff like this before) and also to make it easier to separate the Illustrator lineart from the sketch. Black on black is never a good idea when it comes to stuff like this.

Now its illustratin' time!

Step 4

There we are. See how crisp that looks! I basically use the pen/pencil tool (depending on how curvy the line is or how lazy I am) and the lasso tool to select small sections of lineart to make them chunkier. I wasn't able to seperate Lilac's back from her wing so the line on her back is thicker than I would have liked. It doesn't bother me too much as I'm colouring the outer lineart to match the inner colour.

Now to save the file as an AI and then back to Photoshop!

Step 5

To add colour to the lineart, I lock the layer by clicking the square, NOT the lock. Clicking the lock doesn't seem to work for me for some reason, not sure if thats the case with everyone else. Then I choose the colours and use the pencil to colour in (the paint can miss bits due to how soft it is) or the paint can to fill in bigger areas.
Now that the lineart is harder to see, I now have to use a colour separate to theirs in order to make them stand out more and make them easier to colour.

Step 6

This aint too hard. Colourin' time! I always have separate layers for separate parts, such as the eyes, the markings, beak, feathers and so on to avoid certain parts being coloured over. I often colour just along the outline and fill in the colour using the paint can. Lazy but speedy, which I imagine one needs to be in this business.
Here, I coloured under where the eyes and beaks would be as it helps me find them easier. I also got rid of the white around Pink's pupils, preferring to make them tiny instead. Adds more to the blankness I think. I'll leave the wider eyes to Tweak's design.
MAKE SURE THAT THE LIGHT AND DARK FEATHERS ARE ON DIFFERENT LAYERS. AND DEAR GOD MAKE SURE LILAC'S FEATHERS ARE ON A LAYER OF THEIR OWN. THIS IS CRUCIAL.

And voila! Pigeons sans le background! And also sans texture. Time to change that now...

Step 7

The reason the coiloured feathers need their own layer is because of the different filters. The males (and Blue) use Sponge and Lilac uses Rough Pastel. If you have her feathers on the same layer as the other pigeons lighter feathers, she will don the sponge texture as well, which we don't want.
Basically go to filter on the top bar, scroll down to artistic and you will find the two in there.

Hurray! Our pigeons are all colourful and individual and whatnot. But now they are floating in space! We can't have that... time to add a background!

Step 8

I'll be honest, my strengths are with characters and I'm still hmming and hawing over how to do the background. However, I have arsed around with shapes, colour and so on to give a basic impression of a setting. To be honest... I think I like it. I was considering using photographs but this might work too. I'll think deeper on that though obviously.

And finally...

"I'll Plucking KILL you!"

And thats how Emma makes concept art! Or indeed any art. Although it often depends if I'm experimenting with styles and whatnot but thats how I generally make this crap. Hope this actually makes sense!

I still need to share my new and improved character sheets and a few elevations I've got done but until then, I will close with some more concept art I've done over the past few days.