Real to Digital

Here is a side-by-side of my most recent real-media-to-digital picture, since I just talked about doing it.  The image on the left is my unaltered original sketch, ballpoint pen on lined paper.  The one to the right has been altered.

The first thing I did was convert the raw sketch to black and white, altering the blue levels so that the notebook lines almost disappear (if you look closely they are visible in the altered version).  Then I added a color layer underneath my sketch, and a shadow layer over it.  A blah textured bg came next that I don’t particularly like, and last I added the shadow words and copyright.  Voila.  So essentially the end product is the same pen sketch that I came in with, just with more bells and whistles.

Real Media?

Yeah…I don’t use it much for my TLK fanart. I don’t have anything against real media, it’s just not as convenient for me. The picture above is my most detailed piece created entirely with real media, made with yellow paper, colored pencils, and fine-tipped Sharpie. I have a couple of others in my gallery, but few and far between.

I say real media is not convenient for me mostly because it’s hard for me to keep the supplies necessary to create all of the colors I normally use. Colored pencils are the easiest for me to use, but I need dozens of them in order to make a pic like the one above. It’s also difficult to fix mistakes made with colored pencils, since it’s mostly an additive process. Markers are likewise unforgivable, and if you’ve seen my one wholly-marker pic, you can see my lack of skills using them. Paints are my favorite as far as flexibility, particularly oil, but they’re just so messy to use…it’s a very involved process mixing the paints, switching brushes, having a clear workspace, etc.

I do still sketch and doodle, but I usually alter them or use them as the base for more detailed photoshop pics. In general, I just don’t bother with real media when digital drawing can be so much simpler. All the brush sizes I want, all the colors I need, and no mess…just my tablet, computer, and software. Done and done. Not to mention that handy-dandy “undo” function!