The Creative Mom

Everyone dig out that little pencil sketch you’ve got stuck in a drawer or on a bulletin board.  You know the one, the one you want to add some color to, but you don’t want to mess it up.  Let’s digitize your artwork.  It’s easy!  I’m using Photoshop CS3, but this tutorial will work with lesser versions as well.  It’s best to pick an outline drawing, one without a lot of shading for this simple project.  I’m assuming you have at least a basic knowledge of the program, but you shouldn’t need more than that.  I’m going to use this sun drawing as my example.

1. Scan that sucker. I’m not going to spend a lot of time telling you how to work your own scanner.  Just make your resolution high (300 is good).  

2. Darken that line.  Open the scanned file up in Photoshop and save it.   Now comes the first fun part.  Go to Image –>  Adjustment –> Brightness/Contrast.  Increase both the Brightness and the Contrast sliders until you get a dark line, but not so much that you loose detail.  You can also go to Image –> Adjustment –> Levels and use that panel to darken your lines and brighten your background if you are more comfortable with that.  Either way you do it, the goal is to get a dark line and a white background. 

3. Clean it up.  Now take your eraser tool and get rid of any stray spots or lines.  At this point, if you are happy with your line drawing you can continue to color right away.  If your lines are a bit weak you can duplicate your layer (Layer –> Duplicate) Then change the top layer from “normal” to “multiply” in the drop down menu at the top of the layer panel.  This can darken your lines a bit.  Now flatten your image Layer –> Flatten Image.  

TIP:  At this point I like to make my pencil lines look more like ink lines.  I do this when I want a clean look rather than a sketchy look or if I want to do some alterations.  If you have Adobe Illustrator CS2 or higher you can take advantage of the Trace command.  

-Place your cleaned up drawing into a blank Illustrator file.  File –> Place

-Go to Object –> Live Trace –> Tracing Options

-Go ahead and check the preview box so you can see what you are doing.  Now you will need to play with the settings to find what you like best.  For black and white line drawings I like the Black and White Logo setting, but the default setting works fairly well, as does the hand drawing setting.

-When you’re done simple copy your newly traced drawing and paste it into Photoshop.

4. Add some color.  In the Layer panel change your line layer to “multiply” and click the lock button so you don’t accidentally color in your line layer.  Now add a new layer below your ink layer.  Name this fabulous new layer “color”.

5. Okay NOW add color, really. Now we add spot color to each section of your drawing.  Some drawings are easier to do this way.  If yours doesn’t have a lot of closed sections then you’ll need to skip down to the hand painting section. Select your ink layer.  Using your Magic Wand tool select a section of your drawing you want to color.      Now switch to your color layer, and using your paint bucket tool fill that selection with your desired color. Yeah! Color!  Now repeat this process with each section of your drawing.

TIP: In order to eliminate some white background pixels from showing through after you have your section selected go to Select –> Modify –> Expand and type in 1.  This expands your selection just enough to give you a clean fill. 

6. Time for some handy work.  For the sections that are not closed off you will need to use your brush tool to fill them in.  Zoom way in and take your time.  Make sure and color in the color layer so you don’t alter your ink layer.  

7. Shady Characters.  Now lets do some simple shading.  Using your magic wand tool again select various colors.  Now, using a large, soft brush with a low opacity drag a bit of a slightly darker color on the correct side of your selection.  Repeat this process as needed. 

8. Finishing touches.  Now add another layer and give your masterpiece a background.  You can add more elements using the same technique to add to your work.  Congrats! You’re a digital artist. 

I hope this was a little helpful.  Photoshop can be a daunting program, but it really can be a lot of fun to use.  This simple method only touches the surface of what you can do once you dive in.  Please add to this with any advice or additions you have.  I’ve found that there are as many ways to create as there are artists, and digital media is certainly no exception.  Good Luck!