Things You'll Need:
- Graphics Tablet (I use WACOM)
- Adobe Photoshop
- Knowledge of Photoshop's Pen Tool
- Paper with what you want to recreate on it
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Step 1
The size of your sketch needs to be small enough to fit under the flap in your graphics tablet.
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Step 2
Get Photoshop ready to go with a new document however big or small you want it to be, and place your paper with the picture underneath the flap as said in step one. Then, zoom in or out to adjust what size you want it to be drawn, create a new layer, set the color to black and opacity to about 50%, and I would also suggest a 2-4 pixel brush (Make sure the hardness is 100%).
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Step 3
Get out your WACOM pen and start tracing all the lines on your sketch. Don’t worry if they are not exact; you can make changes later. Once you are done, look at your work. As long as the lines are recognizable as whatever you’re recreating, you’re doing well. If you don’t like using a pen tablet, you can switch to a mouse now.
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Step 4
Now change the opacity back to 100% and change the color to black. Select the Pen Tool (which is right above the Text Tool) and make sure that the “Paths” option in the upper left-hand corner is on, and also check to confirm that you are using the Pen Tool, and not the Freeform Pen Tool. Create a new layer called “Outlines” and use the Pen Tool to outline sections (Since after you make a curve with it, you can’t go perfectly straight, so you'll have to break it up, preferably into new layers) of it and right click and choose "Stroke Path", and then right click and choose "Delete Path". During this stage you can make changes to any mistakes you may have made in your original outline.
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Step 5
Once you are done tracing your outlines, hide the layer with the original rough outlines so you can start coloring! Make a new layer between your initial rough outline layer and your other layers (This makes it so the colors won’t overlap your outline) and name it something like “Middle Area Color” or something else that refers to the area you are coloring. Color it in with whatever color you want, and create a new layer above your colored layer and name it something like “Middle Area Shading”. Use the Pen Tool with a brush size of about 2 or 3 to make the outline of the shading, and then color the rest in normally. Make a new layer named something like “Middle Area Highlights”, and do the same thing. You’ll soon have that area complete!
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Step 6
Now repeat the process on the rest of the areas. Make sure that all you’re coloring layers are under the outline layers, and congratulations! You have successfully recreated a sketch and colored it in Photoshop. Don’t worry if it’s not just right, you’ll get used to it with practice.
