Pencil to Digital

"Pencil to Digital" Cedar Park, 2017
“Pencil to Digital” Cedar Park, 2017

I’m getting more comfortable using the Wacom tablet in Photoshop. For this one, I scanned the pencil sketch, then brought it into Photoshop, set the sketch as a top layer, with the Transparency Mode set to Multiply, and locked it. That let me see the lines on top as I painted on layers below.

I also used a technique for picking colors, which is to basically create your swatches on the canvas (like a traditional paint palette) instead of using the color picker or swatches window. It’s fast and keeps the overall palette consistent. Not that I have a lot of experience yet, but it’s a neat technique that I think I’ll keep using.

I only used color for this digital sketch, and left the existing pencil lines. My intention was to just practice with shading and using the tablet, and I spent maybe 40 minutes on it, but I like this look. And it’s fun to try new things!

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

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