Sketching
Start with a pencil sketch and a rough color study. The sketch records the drawing, while the color rough lets you try the main colors underneath it. Keeping them on separate layers means you can move part of the sketch or change a color without having to redo both.
These draft guides describe the intended workflow and include features that are still in development.
What you'll learn
- Use a pencil preset and pen pressure to draw the sketch.
- Select and transform one part of the drawing, then clear the selection to keep drawing elsewhere.
- Put rough colors on a layer below the pencil lines.
1. Set up the sketch
Create a new document for the illustration and name its first drawing layer Sketch. Choose the built-in Pencil preset and use brush size and pen pressure to vary the mark.
2. Revise part of the drawing
To move a hand or resize the head, use a freehand selection to enclose that part of the sketch, then transform the selected area. This changes the selected pixels on the active layer. Confirm the transform and clear the selection before continuing to draw; otherwise your strokes remain restricted to that area.
The selection and transform references cover adjustments that need more control.
3. Add a color rough
Create a layer named Color rough below Sketch and use a broad brush to block in the subject’s colors. Keep the background on another layer beneath it if you expect to revise it separately. These marks are a color study, so they do not need to follow the sketch precisely.
Keep the pencil lines on Sketch. If they become difficult to see against the colors, temporarily hide Color rough. The rough colors will remain available as a reference when you make the final base-color layers.
Continue to Line art with the sketch and color rough still separate.