So, PaintTool SAI is high quality and lightweight painting software, fully digitizer

support, amazing anti-aliased paintings, provide easy and stable operation, this software
make digital art more enjoyable and comfortable.
SAI or Easy Paint Tool SAI ( SAI?) is a lightweight raster graphics
editor and painting software for Microsoft Windows developed and published by SYSTEMAX
Software. Development of the software began on August 2, 2004, and the first alpha version
was released on October 13, 2006. The painting application is available in both Japanese,
and an official English translation.
Above the color wheel are six icons. Selecting/unselecting various icons will toggle different
color selectors you can use. I like the color wheel, myself, so I don't ever use
the others.
To the right of the six icons is a drop down menu, the downward pointing
triangle. This allows you to select how you want to view the colors - VHSV, HSL, or HSV. Don't ask me what those abbreviations stand for. I don't
know. What I do know is that I like to use V-HSV, myself.
On the first row of tools below the color wheel, you'll find the selection
tools: the rectangle selector, a tool you should be fairly familiar with;
the lasso tool, which is basically just freeform selecting, and the magic
wand tool. There's two more advanced selection tools in the main toolbox,
but we'll talk about those later.
Below the three selection tools are a few navigation tools and editing tools:
the move tool, which allows you to move the layer you're currently on;
the zoom tool; the rotate tool, which allows you to rotate the layer you're currently on;
the hand tool, which allows you to move the canvas around to view different parts without
moving the layer; and the eyedropper tool, which allows you to select a color from the
image, much like any other eyedropper tool you may be familiar with.
Let's take a quick look at the other tools. Blur happens to be one of my personal favorites,
but it's also one of the hardest to master using well. We'll talk about that once we get into
the actual drawing part. The Eraser andBucket tools are reasonably self explanatory. The
tools I really want to talk about though are the ones people rarely
use: SelPen and SelErase. Sel is short for selection - that's right, these are the advanced
selection tools. When you draw with the SelPen, it will appear blue, but once you switch to
another tool it should appear as a selected area. As you'd expect, the SelErase allows you
to erase part of what you've selected. When using either Sel tool, anything you have
selected will appear blue. We'll see this in action as well during the drawing part, but for
now, let's move on to talking about the tool options which appear below the main toolbox.
The first option, mode for the tool, is relatively simple: normal, or multiply. Multiply will
change how dark the color appears, but you probably won't be using this much. To the right
of this pull down menu are edge sharpnesses for the tool. Basically, it's like using a real
pencil - how sharp you you want it to be? Play around with these yourself to get a feel for
them.
Size, min size, and density are easily the settings you'll use the most. If you are using a
mouse, ignore min size, as you won't have the pen pressure necessary for this option. Min

size affects pen pressure - i.e., how much you'll allow the size to vary, determined how how
hard you're pressing. I like to keep my min size at 0% in general, which allows unrestricted
size variation. (100% would be no size variation at all, your stroke would be the same size
from beginning to end). Density affects how dark your stroke will be. When I'm sketching, I
like to turn the density down to 27% to give it a more "legitimate pencilly" feel. Below that
are pull down menus to selectBrush type and Texture. You can play around with these as
well to your taste, but you'll most likely use (simple circle) and (no texture) in the
majority of your drawing. Ignore the advanced settings below that for now; you won't need
them much as a beginner, and even as a long time SAI user I don't mess with them too
often.

1. Undo. Keyboard shortcut is ctrl+z. You will use this more than any other button,
guaranteed. This undoes your last action.
2. Redo. Keyboard shortcut is ctrl+y. Redoes the last action you undid.
3. Clear selection. This deselects whatever you have selected. NOTE: This will not erase
anything in the selection - there's another button for that.
4. Invert selection. Selects everything except what you had previously selected.
5. Show/Hide selection. Toggles your view of the selection or not. NOTE: This will not hide
the material you have selected, simply the selection animation/or blue filter of the SelPen.
6. Zoom pull down menu. Zooms in on the canvas.
7. Zoom out.
8. Zoom in.
9. Reset view. Zooms out to the default, letting you see the whole canvas. Also straightens
it, if you've had your view rotated.
10. Rotation pull down menu. Rotates your view of the canvas.
11. Rotate left.
12. Rotate right.
13. Reset view. Zooms out to the default, letting you see the whole canvas. Also
straightens it, if you've had your view rotated. (Always kind of amused me that they have
two of this button)
14. Invert view. Flips your view of the canvas vertically. Useful for checking anatomy - if it
makes sense from both views, you're doing it right.
15. Stabilizer. Second most important tool in the entire program, and sadly one of the most
ignored. This tool will affect how fast you draw (don't panic when your tool is slower to
respond, it's supposed to do that) which allows you to draw smoother lines. I like to sketch
using a setting of 3 or 10, and a setting of S5 or S7 for lineart. We'll see this in action later.
Now let's migrate over to the Layer Panel and Navigator. At the top is the navigator, where
you can see where you're viewing on the canvas. It should be familiar to you if you use
Photoshop, or Corel, or some other painting program. You can change your view by dragging
the red rectangle around (yet more navigational tools). We'll skim away from the navigator
to the fun stuff below that, which looks like THIS:
Spoiler!

At the top are the Paints Effects and Mode. Mode is the cool bit, which
we'll talk about in the drawing section. Basically Mode is like color
effects - you might recognize multiply, overlay, etc. Paints effects.. I
don't use much. It's another texture thing with really depends on the piece you're doing.
Play around with it, but note that it affects the whole layer - not just the tool you're using.
Below Mode is the Layer Opacity. This changes how opaque the layer is, or how see through
it is. GHOSTLY LAYERS ARE GHOSTLY?!
If you're familiar with other drawing programs, the concept of layers should be familiar to
you. If not, go stick your head in a bucket. No, don't really, layers are simple. It's like taking
a piece of paper and putting it over another piece of paper - except the pieces are all
transparent. More like drawing on glass, really, with a white piece of paper underneath the
glass... But nobody draws on glass, so we'll go with the transparent paper thing.
Linework layers are something to pay attention to. Once you create a new linework layer,
you'll find your toolbox has an entirely new set of tools in place of the ones you'll have when
you switch to a normal drawing layer. Behold:
Spoiler!

The main difference between a linework layer and a normal layer is that
you can edit the curves and shape of lines by holding down the control
key and dragging one of the points that will appear, as shown below:
Spoiler!

You can also create more points while holding down the CNTRL key and clicking on the line.
The other tools are pretty self explanatory if you read the description, except for the weight
tool. The weight tool allows you to change the size of the line you've already made by
clicking on it. Simply set the size of the weight tool, and single click on the line.
Lastly, moving back to the Layer panel, there's the folder icon, known as the button to
create a new layer set. Go ahead and click on it. Once you have a layer set folder, you can
drag layers to it and they will become part of that set. Double click on the folder layer to
open/close it and view the layers within the set.
TIP: If you want to move multiple layers, move them into a layer set and then select the
layer set. Grab theMove tool from below the color wheel and drag away.

EXAMPLE:

Making the sketch is more or less drawing what you want. There's not
really any specific hints or tips I can give, except that using guidelines is
really helpful, especially for placing facial features in the correct place.
Anyway, here's a sketch of Pikachu that I will be using for this tutorial:
When you're done, merge all the sketch layers (if you have more than one)
and lower the opacity to around 30-50% so you can use it as a reference
for your outline.
. On the left hand side where all your layers art, click on the paper button with
a pen on top next to the New Layour button, like so:
This will create a Linework layer, a special layer with unique tools made
specifically for creating outlines. Basically, every stroke that you make on this
layer will turn the line into an object that you can manipulate. For example,
you can drag the line around, make it thinner or fatter, change the shape of
the curve, etc. There are a few pros and cons to using the Lineart layer:
Pros:

Less stress when making the outline. For me personally, there's a lot of pressure
to keep my hand steady and make my lines perfect. However, because you can adjust
the lines after you draw them, you can simply drag it around until it's exactly as you
want it.

Automatic smoothing. Often when you make a stroke freehand, it turns out shaky
and imperfect. The program will automatically fix the bumps for you though, which is a
huge relief when making large arcs and stuff.

Ability to adjust the pressure. You can adjustments to the pressure of the lines,
making them thicker or thinner regardless of how much pressure you put on your pen
when initially drawing them, which can help make your outline look more varied and
polished.
Cons:

Flexibility. This tool is not good for really detailed outlines, mostly due to the
automatic smoothing that I mentioned above. Just as that feature can be a blessing, it
can also be really annoying as it transforms your lines into something that you might not
have wanted, especially when it comes to making really tiny details.

You can't select and move a large portion of the outline. This has the potential
to get really annoying, because I often find myself in a position where I like the outline I
made in a specific part (let's say the fingers on a hand), but it's just a bit out of place and
I want to move all the fingers up a bit. If you were working with just a regular layer, you
can simply select the fingers and drag them up. However, on the outline layer, you can't,
so you can either redraw everything or wait until you're done with the outline, rasterize
the layer, and then move it up.

Crappy eraser. You'll notice that due to the vector nature of the lines, when you try
to erase only a bit of the line to thin it or whatever, it erases in ugly chunks, which
contributes to the small detail problem. This is because the eraser doesn't really erase

the pixels itself, but rather the strokes you made. So if you want to thin out a line you
have to adjust the pressure, which can get a bit annoying.
Basically, I would say that the Linework layer is good for simple images
but for anything complicated with a lot of small details, you're better off
freehanding everything. Of course, you can also do a combination of the
two and use the lineart layer to get all the large shapes out of the way
and then freehand the details. So long as the curve of your stroke is line
or less what you want, you can drag the line to the place that you
want it to be. For example, let's say I have this: I'm making the
outline of Pikachu's ear and I want that line moved more to the
right.

Click
are

Instead of erasing it and starting over, I can drag it to where I want it to be.
on the Edit button to the left of the screen where all the brushes and tools
or, as a hotkey, just hold Shift. Hover over the defective line. The
line should become highlighted with blue.
Now, hover your mouse over the endpoint of the line. The point
should turn pink. Then, while still holding down Shift if you're using
the hotkey, click, hold, and drag the endpoint to the place
where you want to line to be. In this case, I moved the
line more to the right, like so:

You can manipulate the

using the Edit tool. Feel
and just drag around
much you can distort it!

outline a lot more

free to play with it
the line to see how

COLORING
In order to go about this, select the Magic Wand tool located above the toolbox on the left:

This is basically the Bucket Fill version of Select. Now you want to
Magic Wand everything inside the outline. If there are little gaps in
corners and stuff that the Magic Wand can't reach, go back and use
the regular Select tool and fill them in. Anything covered in blue
means that it's selected. Here's what your image should look like at
this point:
Now, make a new layer for your base color
and move it underneath the outline (from
here on out make extra sure that you're not accidentally
working on the outline layer sure it's happened to me once or twice
and it really messes things up). Then, fill it in with the main color of
your image. Just to check in, here's how your layers should look up to
now:
Okay, now that you've
new layer on top of
(such as Pikachu's
that's not yellow and
can make them all on
color layer. It doesn't
chose to use only one

gotten the base down, make a

that layer, which will be used for the secondary colors
cheeks, eyes, and back stripes). Basically anything
does not touch each other should be in this layer. Or you
different layers instead of just all on one secondary
really matter, so long as it's not on the base color layer. I
extra layer since it's more convient.

Just use the Magic

when it's done:

Wand tool. This is what your screen should look like

Color each thing in

color's needed.

whatever

You've gotten

everything set up for the

shading and highlighting.
Now it's time to actually do it! Turn on the Preserve Opacity option
for both the base layer and the secondary color layer to lock the
boundaries and prevent any leakage outside of your outline.
The actual shading and highlighting process

This is another step that falls mostly in the

"artistic application" that I can't really
Basically, just make sure when you're
that you're mindful of wherever the light source
decide to choose and be consistent once you've
Other than that, shade away based on your intution or
reference image if you're using one.

realm of
explain.
shading
is that you
decided on that.
based off the

There's my first layer of shading. Everything seems kind of flat and bland, so I decided to
add on another, darker and more pronounced layer.

I'm going to stop

damn

there with the shading. Shading and highlighting are just way too
fun, so you have to make sure not to get carried away and make
overexaggerated shadows and highlights unless it helps to
emphasize the material of the thing your drawing. In Pikachu's
case, I'm shading in fur so there shouldn't be huge variations in
shadows and highlights. If you're shading in a smooth, shiny object like
metal or anything under harsh, strong light, then you can pile on the
darker shadows and super light highlights.

With the shading done, it's time to move onto the highlights. Since it's fur that
I'm coloring, there shouldn't be super bright highlights. I just used a light yellow and made
very subtle light spots on Pikachu's forhead and back. Not much else to say here.
Another thing that you can add that adds depth and makes the drawing more interesting
are backlights. If there are two different light sources placed at specific locations, there
can be a backlight effect in which there is a distinct, bright highlight on the
edge of the object, even if there's a shadow. Normally this
doesn't happen for everything but I like adding backlights
anyway because it makes the image more interesting and the
already existing shadows "pop" a bit more. Here's Pikachu with
the backlights, with arrows pointing to them:
Again, be careful not to go too overboard with this because it is really
fun to do. Since you're going for a sharp, distinct line, make sure your
blending is turned down to 20 or so. As you can see, this spices the
image up a lot more, although it probably won't necessarily happen in
real life
(similar to the white eye shines that are omnipresent in every single cartoon image although
if you look at actual photos of eyes they're rarely ever there... it just adds a spark that can't
be achieved with anything else though).
Smoothing out the colors
You can skip this step if you like, depending on what kind of feel
aiming for. If you look at the Pikachu drawing so far, you can see
colors rather "painty" and the transitions aren't really smooth. I
like this look, but because I want to make stock images that people
for graphics and stuff, this isn't really the "typical," flexible for any
coloring that I want. I basically just want to smooth out the colors.
To do this, select the Water tool:

The SAI water tool is the ultimate blending tool. These are the settings I use
and I pretty much never change them besides the size. Now,lightly go over
the areas that you want to smooth out. Make sure not to press too hard
because otherwise you'll end up blending too much and getting and overlysmooth feel (unless of course that's what you're going for). You just want to
get rid of the harsher color transitions. Here's what Pikachu looks like before
and after the smoothing:

you're
that the
normally
can use
purpose

Secondary Elements
Now that I'm finished with the main yellow body, it's time to
move onto Pikachu's secondary elements, such as his red cheeks,
brown back stripes, and black ears. Go to your secondary color
layer(s) and follow more or less the same process as the body.
I didn't do the eyes because they require more attention to detail
than the rest. Of course, Pikachu's eyes are different than a human's in that he doesn't really
have eye whites, and conventional images of Pikachu have relegated his eyes to nothing
more than two black circles with a white eye shine. However, I'm going to go for a more
sophisticated method and add more detail. There are many, many different ways to make
eyes, but here's an upclose,
step by step process that I
took to create the eyes:
1. I basically just
colored in the outer
edges a darker color
that's lighter in the
middle. I'm choosing
this point to make
Pikachu's eyes a brown-red color.

at

2. I made clearly defined black pupils in the middle of his eyes. For this I set the
blending to close to 0, since the pupils need to be dark and distinct from the rest of
the eye.
3. To highlight the difference between the pupil and the rest of his eye and to make the
eye more interesting, I added a brighter red around his pupil. This gives the eyes
more depth.
4. I used a 1-2px large brush (you can even use the Pen tool) with close to 0 blending
and made small, verticle (relative to the pupil) lines to make the eye look more
realistic.
5. I added the omnipresent white eye shines that give the eyes life. Make sure not to go
too overboard with these eye shines. Do these on another layer if needed because
you don't want the shine to blend in with the rest of the eye.. they should be
completely separate.
6. I could have finished there, but because it was weird seeing Pikachu with super
detailed eyes (since most of the time we just get those black pools that Nintendo
calls eyes), I decided to tone it down a bit and just made the whole thing less bright
and flashy.
Putting it all Together
Now, you can just stop here if you're happy with what you have. However, I always like to
tidy up the entire image and "unify" everything by making a "blanket" color layer. Although
it's not really that important because Pikachu is just more or less all yellow, if you have a
character with a lot of different colors and each color seems as if it's acting independently
and isn't really meshing in with the larger picture overall, doing this would be a good idea.

To make this blanket color layer, make a layer on top of ALL the other
layers you have so far (in my case, the blanket color layer is above the
secondary colors layer and the eye layer), just under the outline, and make
sure the clipping mask is turned on.
Now just go over your shading in one color. I chose blue because it's directly
opposite to orange and I thought it'd compliment Pikachu's yelloworangeness quite well. Don't be afraid to use a bright color because the idea
of this is to introduce another tint to the image
that makes it more interesting and just pulls
everything together. However, you don't want
to make your blanket shading too noticeable or
else your drawing will just look like a bright,
blue (if that's the color you chose) mess. The
point of this is to be subtle. Smooth out the
transitions with the Water tool after you're done.
There's a definite, but at the same time, subtle difference, isn't
there? If you don't like the look just skip this step but I think as long as you don't overdo it, a
bit of blanket shading never hurts.
If you decide to finish here, it's time to Export your picture and share it to the web if you're
into that. Or, if not, it's still good to change your .sai or .psd file into a universal format. Go
to File > Export As > .png (PNG). I recommend always exporting as a PNG format
because, although they take up the most space, it will give you the highest quality and leave
all the pixels virtually untouched. Handling your drawings definitely isn't the time to be
stingy with disk space.