Intro To Basics Of Digital Art: Outlining a Drawing in Photoshop

[E.r.o.s]

Hello everyone, it's been a while since I've posted any discussions, and it have come to my attention that you guys are ready to start on basic digital art. Now, i am not expert on the subject but there are a few things I can teach you that I myself have learned along the way. Let's get started.

 

Today discussion will be how to outline a drawing in photoshop. Many of you want to learn how to draw anime and digitalize it, well, this is your second step. This takes place after your drawing is already finished by hand. If you have a drawing tablet, this tutorial does not apply to you. This tutorial is for people who want to learn to outline with a COMPUTER MOUSE.

 

This is the final result:

 

 

1) First of all, you gonna open your file (drawing) on photoshop. You do this by clicking the Tab "File" and then "Open":

 

 

Original Drawing:

 

 

2) Next, you must make two new layers. Click on Background layer, and then click the symbol with the many lines and select new layer. Name the first one "BG White", and the second one "Outline".

 

 

 

 

Now we got three layers:

 

 

3) You are going to click on the BG white layer. Then, you are going to use the Paint Bucket Tool () and click on your page to make the background white! Afterwards, you are going to click on the "eye symbol" next to your "BG White" layer () to hide the layer.

 

4) Now we are going to start outlining. First you must click on the outline layer. Next, select the "Pen tool" () and you are going to create a path over the lines on your drawing, like this:

 

 

Now, keep following the lines, you don't need to get the whole drawing in one piece, do little by little till you are completely done. Zoom in if you need to! Now, you will need to "stroke a path" in order to get the outline done. Follow this steps every time you are going to close a path before starting a new one! Tip: your path don't need to be "closed" if order for you to stroke it~

 

a) First you gonna select the brush you will be using to make the outline. I like to use "Charcoal pencil" and set it to to around "23" maybe a bit thicker. Make sure you have "black" on your color panel or any other color you will like to use to make the outline.

 

b) Now that the brush is set, you need to go back to "pen tool", double click on the screen and select "Stroke Path". Don't select "Stimulate Pressure" unless you are going to do decorations or little soft details or something minimal. Make sure to select brush.

 

 

 

c) After that, you gonna need to delete the path in order to start a new one. First, double click on the page, then select "Delete path". Now you are ready to start a new path.

 

5) Continue creating paths till all of your drawing is outlined! Once the outline is done, select the eye symbol next to the "BG White" layer to unhid it. Now u r ready to begin coloring! Good Luck and hope it works for you guys!

 

[MisuChan]

i cant wait to try this out on photoshop i have been using other programs for this im gald you wan use photoshop for this to!

once i have done one i will share my experience whit you!

[MisuChan]

it works really well

i was surprised how good the end result is compared to my usual program!