My previous attempt at drawing Ellara failed, I did not like how I was rendering her so I decided to use reference this time but this suffers from the same issues, I need a tutorial on cel shading, None of my current day friends are artists. Anyways, here is an attempt, more ambitious than last time with respect to pose but I am not completing this either.

I guess this is why they say don't zoom in while making the lineart, I had drawn shoes in other direction thinking my sketch was wrong and forgot the heel on the right shoe.

and I really like how this rough cel shading was coming along, lasso and fill tool it took seconds and I am happy with the simplicity, I sure hope I do not over render it in the next step.

How do we achieve the subtle cel-shaded art with a mildly painterly look anyway? I hate how the skirt looks, and I have probably made a bad gamut mask too, maybe I should use more pastel colors. I likely used very desaturated cool shadows on right and saturated and warm shadows on left.

I really liked how this piece looked, so I tried to save it with heavy use of the liquify tool, overpainting and lasso to make the pose look dynamic, but my layers are a mess now and her face has this uncanny 3D look. I was about to render the ribbon but decided against it. I like this concept, but I simply do not like how this style is coming along; this is how it looks after rough masking. I'll be taking some tutorials, which would be for the best.