Does Anyone Do This?

[Art Vulpine]

Hello all.

Let me give you a basic rundown of my early steps of drawing. I first hand draw a sketch on a piece of paper then scan it into the computer. I then bring up my art program and create a layer above the sketch layer and trace over each line. Once this is done I delete the sketch layer and now just have a line art layer where I then create layers below it for coloring.

Does anyone else do this with hand drawing something and tracing it over on an art program or do others mainly just draw using an art program skipping the hand drawing step?

 

[Zeitzbach]

If you're used to drawing on the computer already, you will just sketch the whole thing on the computer.

But before then, yeah, used to scan-and-drawold picture like 4 years ago when I couldn't draw craps with tablet.

 

[Alexxx-Returns]

I used to do that, eventually I got the confidence to phase into drawing entirely on Photoshop. Haven't looked back.

 

[PlusThirtyOne]

That's almost exactly what i do. The sketches are done on paper simply because i draw when away from the computer. (or home entirely) Once i'm at home though and have some time to do my stuff, the process is done in Open Canvas and Photoshop without paper. Sketch on paper or OC, "ink" in OC, color, touch-ups, after effects and lighting in PS.

 

[Gator]

i usually skip the hand-drawing part because i'm goddamn lazy. it would make things way easier for me if I just did it that way, though. i even plugged in my scanner just to encourage myself to do it more. i feel like i have way more control when i draw on paper; i suck at tablet drawing.

 

[SkyboundTerror]

My drawings started out on the 3DS's Swapnote and Colors!, so I'm actually faster and better drawing there than I am drawing on a tablet. What I'll sometimes do is barf out a sketch on the 3DS and bring it over to the laptop and finish it up there. It's janky as hell, but it works for me. I am trying to ween myself away from the 3DS, though.

I used to scan my drawings, but then I forgot how to printer scanner wi-fi wat. Technology can be a bitch at times.

 

[Maugryph]

I do most of my painting in Photoshop on a blank canvas. The first thing I do is make a new layer. This is my sketch layer. I then do a quick gesture sketch. After that I set the layer to 30%. I create a new layer and refine the image on this layer. Next if I am painting I will create a base color and put it below my refine layer. Then I will create a layer on top of my
layer and start painting with opaque colors.

Standard stuff.

 

[Zenia]

Before I got my tablet, this is what I would do. Then I got the tablet and started practicing on it. I now prefer to do it all digitally. Getting the sketch just right with tools on the art programs is great.

 

[ForgetLilliet]

I do the same thing. I'm really bad at coloring digitally so I usually louse that up and end up with a terrible end result... But my pencil sketches look nice, I think.

 

[TyDye]

I usually do lots of rough sketches online in programs like FireAlpaca and Paint.NET, then upload those to Photoshop and go from there. Before I had my tablet though, I never did any drawing online. Tablet = Furfag Pocket Knife

 

[Moogie]

I've never done this, but now that I've got a scanner I should give it a try. Although I'm super comfortable with my tablet, so if I were to give it a shot it'd just be experimental to see the difference.

 

[Art Vulpine]

Oh yes, I remember starting out trying to draw with a mouse on GIMP. Not a pretty sight. Thankfully I have my Wacom Tablet.

I definitely am trying to switch from going from hand drawing to digital to straight digital as it would reduce the time preparing it. I also find it hard tracing over what I hand drew and uploaded as the lines don't perfectly match the sketch lines.

 

[Zenia]

I also find it hard tracing over what I hand drew and uploaded as the lines don't perfectly match the sketch lines.

Yeah, that just takes practice. For a while I used the 'pentool/linework' options in programs, but the result isn't as lively I find. Once you do a billionty pictures, you'll have lineart down no problem digitally.

 

[monochromatic-dragon]

Its what I've been doing so far; when I first got my tablet I tried sketching with it but I've found that its much easier for me to think about what I'm doing on paper. I feel like its holding me back though because I'm trying to get into digital painting. Essentially I have to sketch it on paper, then sketch it again in SAI or photoshop or whatever I'm using. Then use the digital sketch as a base for the painting.

 

[Taralack]

I think you'll find literally every artist does this.

PS. it's not called tracing, you're making it into a lineart.

 

[SkyeLegs]

Almost, but I don't even trace the sketch with the tablet. I use a real pen and ink over the sketch, scan it, and use threshold to turn it into clean lineart. Then I just do the colouring digitally. Unless you have a tablet with a built-in screen, I find it hard to draw nearly as accurate with a tablet as I can do by hand on paper.

 

[-Sliqq-]

Yeah. The only difference is that I use a camera instead. "The art struggle"

 

[Art Vulpine]

Interesting. I'll have to look on the Threshold options for FireAlpaca. Perhaps if I do what you do with doing the line art by hand then using my art program to color/ shade it.

And yes, I know it's line art not tracing, but at the time I posted it the word tracing was on my mind.

 

[MischievousPooka]

I do that a lot of times since I tend to draw a lot when I am out/not near a computer. But I don't always computer ink over the lines, sometime I just color on layers above when I do art without lineart.