Demo sketch to color

As I've mentioned before on several occasions here on the Academy's blog, class demonstrations are a valuable assett in helping our students develop their own skills and knowledge base. Here's an example of a class demo I created in a recent session of the Teen Program. Afterwards, I scanned the original sketch (A) and took it into Photoshop to continue the demonstration for our students and visitors to the blog. Click on the art for a better view.

Once the original blue line sketch was scanned, I used it as a foundation to paint the image digitally. The first pass was to establish basic gray scale values (B). I continued by adding color through a series of layers that I set at levels of transparencies to tint the gray tones (C). In my final pass I used the same method to punch out a few highlights and enhance the background color (D) keeping everything simple and graphic.

By combining one's traditional analog skills with a digital illustration medium such as Photoshop, it's easy to create art that will work for your portfolio as well as enhance your online presentation.