“Primaries”
The very first thing I did was find a good reference photo for the kind of pose I wanted to do: https://s1.postimg.org/rnh9h51vz/ab9e965c.jpg
TO start off, I got all of the elements positioned in the right location and on the right layer (for the most part).
Then I cleaned up the pose by masking onto insignia shapes.
For a more 3D coloring effect, a positioned gradient backgrounds over their costumes, using the line details of the body items to help figure out placement.
Then I colored in the pose pieces with the darkest color of the gradient circles they were behind (all one color; primary, secondary, and line color) and made some of the colors for some of the gradients transparent, so they’d blend together better.
Repeated the previous two steps for the rest of the coloring, except I actually masked the gradients on here to keep the shape of the heads as well as show hair details. Didn’t like the way the hair was looking on the man (tried several colors/transparencies) so I just made it entirely invisible and added a pattern to act as his hair.
To finish the piece, I added some highlighting and shading to their faces as well as patterns on their costumes and the woman’s hair. Then I hid the masking shapes, added a background, and called it good to go! For now least, might tinker with it more later.
