Want to make drawings like this? Following is a brief walkthrough from reference photo to a finished watercolor drawing. Uses Illustrator, Painter, and a little bit of Photoshop.
First, I start with a reference photo in Adobe Illustrator. Sometimes I use a Poser render for this part.
I trace the major shapes of the body, exaggerating the curves.
Now I start adding shapes that are suggested but not shown in the reference.
I extrapolate the legs, which weren’t included in the reference.
At this point, the reference’s usefulness is finished.
I draw in the clothing.
I block out the hair shapes.
I add hair detail. Not too much, since this is supposed to be a quick and simple-looking drawing.
I add facial features.
I export these lines into photoshop and do a Threshold adjustment on the hi-res bitmapped image.
Now I ‘Flat’ the image using aliased fills. This will allow me to make clean and precise selections during coloring. I start by selecting the whole figure.
Then I start breaking it down into regions.
More breakdowns…
Finally, flatting is finished. I open the file in Corel Painter and hide the flats.
Using Digital Watercolors, I take the wash brush and start painting light washes, with no regard for precision.
More washes…
Now I make precise selections using the magic wand on the hidden flat layer. I start painting full colors using the coarse mop brush.
When all the coarse mop painting is done, I export back to a Photoshop format.
In photoshop, I lightly paint some of the lines, add a signature, and it’s complete.Thanks for reading along, and I hope this is useful!
2 Comments
You make it seem so darn easy!!!!
Thank you this is very interesting. I will definately give it a try. Kimberly