Lineless artwork (and icons) tutorial

This is how I mostly create lineless art in Photoshop and Manga Studio as well as Adobe Illustrator (the shape building method is actually borrowed from Illustrator)

About the program:
This tutorial is for  artists who are already a bit familiar with PS and know about layers, clipping mask and other basic stuff. I don't include any shortcuts or explanation to basic things as it would be too much text and you can either find it via Google or at PS manual/help section.

About the brushes:
I like brushes with grungy feel and irregular edges, but the method works perfectly for smooth brushes or any other brushes. You can find the tools you like here on dA (it has tons of awesome brushes!), around Internet, buy them on Gumroad, or go directly to your Default Brushes window in PS and grab Charcoal Large Smear and other cool stuff that is already built-in. You won't believe how useful the default brushes are. moreover it's not the brush that defines your art skills, it's your skill that defines the brush choice!  

About building shapes:
There are various methods including the notorious Pen Tool XD 
You can use outline + bucket fill, lasso tool or just block in with freehand brush strokes, it really depends on personal preference & whether you need the base quickly or have enough time for drawing. 

About the colors:
I usually pick colors from reference or from color wheel. I also have that crazy Swatches palette, part of it you can see on the screenshot, but it's too specific and I won't offer it as no one can navigate there properly 'xcept me XD
Shading tip: if you want your shading to look more interesting and vivid, pick magenta or purple and apply it in Multiply or Colour Burn mode, adjust the Opacity and see what happens! Violet and magenta can really enhance your image especially on the skin tones. Or you can check Itten's color wheel and try experimenting with color like a pro

About reference:
It's good and common to use reference especially when it comes to fanart. However I strongly don't recommend you to trace on top of photos/screenshots/pics, not only due to copyright reasons, but mostly because it won't let your hand get used to moving freely while drawing and your eye to measure the correlations properly. Best solution is to make a separate layer with reference and switch it on when you need to check details or keep a neighbour window with reference file. 

Download the tutorial for full view pls. Good luck at drawing! 

You can also download my Marinette icon here for free