The following is an excerpt from tips and techniques provided by a designer using Photoshop 4. He based his techniques from a current project of creating illustrations for a story of a mythical city in a magazine. According to designer, what is exciting about using computers is that artists and designers like him are now able to fuse present technology with traditional art. They are able to do things that used to be done in traditional art, but much faster and less waste with onset of digital technology. This is due to fact that designers are able to change and edit illustrations and ideas even if it's already at final stage of project. Even with changes, result of project rarely differs from original thrust and objective.
Stage 1: Sketch and Digitization Sketching and digitization are almost same in both traditional art and digital technology. In traditional art, an artist usually starts by making a sketch on paper. With Photoshop's graphic palette, it nearly replicates same feeling. Nevertheless, designer is quick to add that shaping a drawing on paper is still faster and more intuitive than doing it on computer. Although he also admits that even if basic drawing is done on paper, computer techniques can produce interesting effects such as halftones that are otherwise not available with drawing pencils.
Stage 2: Preparing Layers After importing sketch into Photoshop, image should be converted to sepia tones before working on color. To convert to sepia, go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation, check Colorize box, and use sliders to colorize lines into brown, reddish ochre, or yellow. This method provides a silkiness feel to line. In sepia, lines of sketch yield halftones that are more delicate, resulting to an image that is easier to view but retain its basic structure.
The designer suggests adding colors that do not compete with lines in drawing. This may weaken lines from original sketch. At same time, sketch should not also overpower colors. In effect, designers should blend two elements to find right balance.
On choice of sepia, designers should look at technical rather than aesthetic considerations. Brown tones result from a mixing of all colors, so when picture is colored, paint colors will blend more easily with lines. However, using sepia is not an absolute rule, although it does provide softness in drawing while preserving its descriptive character.
After turning it to sepia, create two new layers. From layers palette, set background layer in Multiply mode, and insert it between two virgin layers. The designer suggest putting colors on what he calls 'under layer', beneath sepia line drawing layer, and adding detail and finish to 'over layer'.