(NSFW) Need Help on Drawing Alternates

[Evangellos]

Hey there,

I'm working on a personal project to improve on anatomy, some storytelling through art, and trying to work on alternates, however, even after 2 years of drawing I have not learned how to do alternates such as a clothed / nude version of the same image in a reliable way.

I am a patron of Fluff-Kevlar and regularly donate on his streams and have benefited greatly from his art and tutorials, and while I've seen his recorded videos, streams, etc. I am still unsure how to successfully make an alternate to my art, giving the viewer options.
I'd like to eventually make an interactive x-ray flash and/or release .psd's with alternates for viewers as that's always fun, giving the viewer options to whatever suits their interest, but for the life of me I can not find any tutorial on how to do so.

If anyone has any recommendations, guides, sites, suggestions, I would be much appreciated for any help provided.

Here is the art that I'm working with:
Nude: www.furaffinity.net: Defiance [NUDE] WIP by Evangellos
Clothed: www.furaffinity.net: Defiance [CLOTHED] WIP by Evangellos

Files attached as well (NSFW).

Thanks!
Evangellos

**Edit** May have posted in the wrong forum. I am really sorry about that. I should have paid more attention to which thread I was on.

 

[MissNook]

Hello!

Well, what I can tell from you example is that you didn't take enough time to draw the clothed version. Alternated version are not just a version, they should be seen as a whole illustration as themselves (they should stand by themselves).
Now for the specific advice, I would say to look at how other artists do it. For x-ray for example, I've done one for a friend and it was my first attempt. I selected a bunch of pictures with x-ray thanks to a search without looking at who draw it but more about if I liked it. Then I took the time to look at each of the pictures I selected to find what I liked and what I didn't like on them, and then proceed to draw my version. On the process of drawing I looked again at those drawing references to learn and see what to do when I was stuck or unsure.
I know that I have still a lot of practice ahead of me to do something more interesting though, but that was a great way to begin without undergoing too much frustration

Hope that helps ^^

 

[Evangellos]

Hello!

Well, what I can tell from you example is that you didn't take enough time to draw the clothed version. Alternated version are not just a version, they should be seen as a whole illustration as themselves (they should stand by themselves).
Now for the specific advice, I would say to look at how other artists do it. For x-ray for example, I've done one for a friend and it was my first attempt. I selected a bunch of pictures with x-ray thanks to a search without looking at who draw it but more about if I liked it. Then I took the time to look at each of the pictures I selected to find what I liked and what I didn't like on them, and then proceed to draw my version. On the process of drawing I looked again at those drawing references to learn and see what to do when I was stuck or unsure.
I know that I have still a lot of practice ahead of me to do something more interesting though, but that was a great way to begin without undergoing too much frustration

Hope that helps ^^

Hey there, thank you for commenting and providing some advice.
I wanted to clear up that the examples were the current WIP's.

I think the thing that I'm wondering about is that I don't know the correct order of layers in my art so that the loincloth version meshes will with the previous nude base version. I can sort of wing it, but it then requires me to build up everything from scratch and is a very tedious process to show the alternates whereas with Fluff-Kevlar's .psd's the viewer only has to hide/unhide the layer for all of the changes to show without any editing problems.

Basically I've viewed how Fluff-Kevlar does it in his recorded videos but they're often sped up too fast, even when using a program to slow it down. He locks layers and masks, but I have been unable to figure out how to use them properly and even trying to look on videos or tutorials on youtube about what they do, I don't understand how they are exactly useful.
I guess I wish there was some tutorial somewhere where an artist covers this process, adding alternatives of clothing/nude and the proper layer editing needed to accomplish this.

I'm not sure if I'm explaining this correctly.
Thank you nonetheless.

 

[MissNook]

Oh, I think I see what you mean, those masks are really really useful for alternates! Do you use photoshop or another software?

The idea is to have a mask where white means visible and black invisible (or the opposite, depends on the software). You don't change your original work, you just state what you want to be visible. It's really useful. Here's a video tutorial for photoshop: helpx.adobe.com: Use masks to hide layers in Photoshop

For clothed version, I would add the mask layer on the clothes to be able to erase part of the clothed where I feel fur would be in front and things like that.
For x-ray I may want to use the mask layer on foreground objects, be it clothes, furnitures and so on and even on the actual character to have the layer with the x-ray under the actual body and make it appear by hiding only the body part (example the belly)

Personally I use them for the sketch/line part only at the moment. I wanna draw the whole character before putting things in front of him/her so I usually check what it would look like without the hidden part at that moment to gain time if something doesn't feel right ^^

 

[fralea]

When I do alternates I draw all the sketches first. So I have a sketch for nude and one for clothed. (I don't normally do linearts but if I do then I finish all the linearts before moving on to colouring.) Then I finish the colouring on the nude one. Then do the colouring for the clothing on a layer/layer group on top of the nude ver, able to turn it on and off to make adjustments.

I've seen people do the opposite as well though (clothing first). There isn't really a right or wrong way, just streamlining what works best for you.

Your problem with the loincloth seems mostly picking the colours. Look at the light in the image, its yellowy. But you have drawn the loincloth pure white, so it sticks out. (Also I think missnook already pointed to this but you didnt' shade it as much as the rest of the drawing)