I wanted to make a quick overview of how I make some of my artwork! With digital art, I work in Photoshop, so any reference to technical tools are through there. These steps obviously vary piece by piece, but with digital works the following is usually what I do to make a drawing complete. I drew up a quick doodle for this tutorial to replicate the process so I can show you all how a fast piece comes together!
1. Sketch
Sketching is where all pieces usually start, unless you’re some magician and can just create art just by drawing out of nowhere (I’ve seen it happen). For this piece, I went on some figure drawing websites and just doodled some pretty girls until I filled the whole screen. I highly recommend this, it’s a lot of fun.
Feel free to be messy, sketchy, and loose with these drawings. This is the part where it’s just a sketch- not a finished piece! Not all of my sketches look great, but some do! Digital work is a lot more lenient than traditional art as well, so don’t feel too stressed if sketching is difficult.
2. Clean up line art
After sketching, regardless of whether or not I’m using the line art in the end, I straighten out my line art. In this piece I decided to keep using it, but in a lot of my other pieces I ditch it to give it a more flat, “cutesy” look with just blocked colours. For this step I like to use a colour that’s a shade darker than the background.
3. Block in colours
This is where you just push in all the flat colours so that you have a rough idea of what the final piece will look like! This is also the step at which I would get rid of the line art by cleaning up the colours, if I chose to go that style. Working with line art is a lot easier though, since your colour edges don’t have to be perfect. I always go lighter/less saturated than I intend to, because colour correcting with adjustment layers is a lot easier with going darker (and looks better) than it is to look lighter (in my opinion).
I do this with the lineart as well, changing the layer mode to not be a dark magenta (this one I swapped to Luminosity, so it reflected the skin tones a bit more).
4. Add textures, patterns, and colour correct!
Add some depth by using colour in cheeks, adding shadows, making the eyes darker! I also added patterns on some of the shirts- flat patterns, no need to get fancy unless you want to. For quick works, flat patterns work great! It makes it look like you’ve done a lot more work than you actually did.
I also go in with a layer adjustment mask and amp up a little on saturation and contrast to make the subjects pop a little more.
5. Add a simple background if you want, toss on your signature, and export!
When I make artwork with complex backgrounds, I start with the background first. With simple drawings that are less drawing-intensive, a simple background with a pattern brush works just as well, or even just a rectangle! It gives a little more pizazz and depth without really taking away from the drawing. I preferred this drawing without a background, but experimenting is a huge part of the ride!
Finally, don’t forget to add your signature or artist mark. This is super important! Mine has changed a lot over the years, and I enjoy seeing how everything from my style to my sign improves over the years.
Hope you all enjoyed this, or at least found it a little helpful!
