1. Intro: Why Turn Traditional Illustration to Digital?

Basically, the difference between drawing traditional and digital is on the tools. Drawing in traditional way means using some analog tools such as pencil, pen, markers, etc while drawing digitally means working on the illustration with the help of electronic device or gadgets like computer, smartphone, pen tablet/display, etc. Each way maybe similar in terms of planning from start to finished, yet has their own benefits and flaws.

 

For example, we’re now in a digital era where everything seems to need to be published digitally. If you used to draw in traditional way with traditional tools, you can’t just simply put your illustration in a frame and hang it on the wall then wish more people will come and see your artwork. You would need to turn that illustration into digital files, then upload it to a digital platform to get more audience recognize your work.

 

Whatever the motives, having the knowledge to turn traditional illustration to digital will come in handy.

2.) When It Is Necessary To Turn Traditional Illustration To Digital?

There are at least 4 occasions when it is necessary to turn traditional art to digital:

1.) When you need to publish the illustration in a digital platform.

2.) When you drawing a sketch by using traditional tools but want to finish it in digital.

3.) When you have technical difficulties with the digital device, so you need to do some part of the process in traditional way. For example, you can’t draw lineart properly digitally so you need to draw it traditionally.

4.) When you want to edit or enhance your traditional illustration with a digital touch.

3.) What You Need to Turn Your Illustration to Digital?

Let’s start with the most basic thing: turning the traditional illustration into some digital files that you can use later on an electronic device.

 

To turn your illustration to digital files, you need a scanner or a camera e.g. digital camera or a phone camera. Manually scan the illustration by using a scanner or take a picture of the illustration with the camera to generate the digital version of it.

 

Note: The image result would be too difficult to edit/process if it’s too dark and/or blurry. Using flash sometimes doesn’t help much, so if you choose to use digital camera or phone camera, make sure you take the picture in a spot with good light source or set up better lighting yourself. For example, here I’m using additional light from a rechargeable portable lamp to get more clear result.  

Take an example of how to do it by turning a traditional sketch into a digital file(s). When drawing a sketch but you want to working on the rest such as drawing the lineart and color it digitally, this tutorial would be useful:

1.) Prepare a paper, eraser and a pencil, then draw your sketch.

After finished, take a picture of the sketch by using a camera, or scan the illustration by using a scanner.

2.) Now after you have the digital version of the sketch in your device, open it in a digital drawing app. Here I use CSP to open the file on PC. Open the app, then click [File]->[Open] or [CTRL+O] to open the file.

3.) Adjust the size by cropping the image by selecting the area you want to keep with Sub tool:[Selection area]->[Rectangle]. Then go to [Edit]->[Crop(Z)].

4.) Adjust the sketch’s brightness and sharpness if necessary to make it clearly visible by clicking [Layer]->[New Correction Layer(J)]->[Brightness/Contrast…] and/or [Level Correction…].

5.) Now the sketch is ready, but the size maybe not in the size you need. Prepare a”digital paper” so it can be finished digitally in the proper size. [CTRL+N] or [File]->[New]->Project: [Illustration]. Set the size as you need, then click [OK]

6.)  Back to the sketch file, select the whole area with Sub tool:[Selection area]->[Rectangle], then [CTRL+C]. Copy then paste [CTRL+V] them on top of the new file. Adjust the sketch to fit the working area.

Note: If you edited the sketch with Correction Layer(s), select all the sketch and the correction layers, then right click->[Merge selected layers] first so the correction layer(s) will included in the copy-paste result.

7.) The sketch will form a new layer after you paste it. Set the layer opacity so it can still be visible enough to draw the lineart on top of it in a new layer. Click [Layer]->[New Layer] to generate new layers for the lineart, color, shading and so on. Now the sketch is ready and you can draw lineart above it, color it etc.

Note: Don’t forget to save the files by clicking [File]->[Save] or [CTRL+S]!

Check out this video to see how the sketch turns into full-color illustration in digital:

4.) Extracting Digital Lineart from A Traditional Lineart

Whether you have technical difficulties with your electronic drawing device or not, you might be need to draw lineart traditionally at times.

 

The step by step of how to do it similar with the previous tutorial with the sketch, only this time we need to ink the lineart until it’s done traditionally first before transfer it to the digital device.

 

Here’s the details on how to do it:

1.) Draw the sketch of your illustration on a paper, then proceed to ink the sketch with a pen or any lineart tools of your choice. Erase the pencil lines to get a clean lineart.

2.) Take a picture of the clean lineart with a camera or scan it, then transfer the file(s) to PC laptop to open the file in CSP. Click [File]->[Open] or [CTRL+O], find it inside the folder where you kept it.

3.)  Prepare a new file by clicking [CTRL+N], or [File]->[New]->Project: [Illustration], or simply clicking the [New] icon as seen in the picture below. Set the size you want for the illustration, then click [OK].

4.) Back to the sketch file, click Sub Tool: [Selection Area(M)]-> [Rectangle] then select the whole picture. [CTRL+C] then [CTRL+V] all to the “digital paper” you have prepared previously in step 3. Adjust the position and the size of the lineart as you want.

5.) Turn the lineart into a fully editable lineart by clicking the lineart layer, then set the mode to [Multiply]. Next, click the [Layer Property] window->[Expression color (preview)]. Choose [Monochrome] in the drop-down menu. For more details, check the red marked section in the following image:

6.) Click the black colored box on the [Expression color]->[Change expression color] section on the right to make the lineart’s background transparent.

7.) Clean the excessive lines (if any), stains, and other unnecessary parts with [Eraser(E)] or select them with Sub Tool: [Selection Area] to select the part you want to clean up, then click [Delete].

8.) Adjust the lineart so it will look smooth and crisp by using the filter and blur command. Select the lineart layer, then choose [Filter]->[Blur]->[Blur(strong)(F)]. Fix the messy lines with Sub Tool:[Pen] or anything you like to draw the lineart digitally.

Note: I recommend to fix the messy lines with Sub Tool:[Pen] or anything similar with the tool you used when drawing the traditional lineart so it wouldn't look weird when mixed.

 

9.)  At this point, the lineart is ready and you can continue to draw the rest of the illustration by adding color, effects, etc by using digital device such as pen tablet/display etc.

Check out the following video to see the full color digital illustration:

5.) Edit and Enhance Traditional Illustration with a Digital Touch

We’re done turning the sketch and lineart drawing to a digital, now what if it’s a colored illustration you need to turn to digital? What if it doesn’t look good on screen? Perhaps the color doesn’t look right, it’s photographed badly, or maybe need to add some effect to make it look better? Try to fix the image by using some tricks for a better scan/photo result in CSP.

 

Take the picture below as an example. This one came from the same lineart as the one in the previous tutorial, but done traditionally by mixed of color pencils and pastels.

Here’s some tips to make this kind of picture looks better (optional):

1.) Open the file in the CSP to process the illustration. Make a new file and edit it until it only has the image e.g. crop it and delete the unnecessary part.

2.) Fix the illustration by choosing [Layer]->[New correction layer…]->[Brightness/Contrast] and/or [Level Correction] to adjust the image’s sharpness on screen. You can choose one of them that you think will look best or maybe using both of them if necessary. Adjust the value just by move the slide until it shows the desired results, then click [OK]

3.) Aside of adjusting the value, you can try to use [Layer]->[New correction layer…]->[Gradient map]. This option can give a different feel to an illustration as each map bring a different nuance and color variation to a single picture that even the same picture could look different. There are plenty sets to choose from the dropdown menu so pick one that fit best to your illustration, then click [OK]. Adjust the layer mode and its opacity until it shows the best result possible.

4.) Can’t leave the background just the way it is? Try to fill the empty space with decoration and/or effect if necessary. Check what you have in [Decoration(B)]->Sub Tool: [Decoration]. In this picture I’m using [Light Crosshatch] to give some dark atmosphere.

Note: Place the decoration and background in a new, different layer to make it easier to edit anytime without disrupting other part of the image.

 

5.) Aside of using [Filter]->[Blur], if you want smoother appearance, e.g smoothing pencil mark or uneven color from the traditional tool you used, try to use Sub tool:[Blend] and/or [Blur]. Just gently rub the surface.

6.) Continue to fix parts that need to be fixed like excessive lines, redrawing the faded lines, etc. In CSP, there are plenty of assets that could mimic traditional tools such as color pencils, marker etc. If you used one of them for your traditional piece, you can search for similar tools that already available in the app, or just search for it in assets library.

 

Take on this pencil I’ve been using from assets library as an example. It has a good pencil texture  for a digital tool:

Check out the timelapse for this tutorial here:

6.) Bonus : "The Puzzle Method"

Last but not least, there’s one more method called “The Puzzle Method”.

 

I called it like that because this method combines pieces of individual image that have been drawn separately, then gather them together digitally into one image to produce one complete illustration. This method can be useful if you find it difficult to drawing all of the illustration’s elements in one picture at once traditionally or can’t decide where to put something in the illustration, etc. Just think of it as a traditional way to bring out the layer effect in an image.

 

Here's a simple and short example of how this method works :

1.) Plan an illustration and draw the sketch. I draw a piece of cake from sketch to inking process on a paper traditionally, which I plan to finish the coloring and the rest digitally. After cleaning the sketch, scan/take the picture and transfer it to digital device.

2.) Draw a small figure in other piece of paper or drawing area. Same as the cake, clean the sketch then scan/take the picture and transfer it to digital device.

3.) Prepare a new file as the main, then copy and paste both linearts there (each of them will automatically forms a new layer after being pasted into the area). Set the layer mode of both linearts to [Multiply].

4.) Next, turn the linearts into editable ones by changing the [Expression color] in the [Layer property] section. Set the mode to [Monochrome], then click the black colored box on the right to make the background transparent. Adjust and set the position of both linearts.

5.) Erase the unwanted parts and smooth the lines by clicking [Filter]->[Blur]->[Blur (strong)(F)] if necessary. Fix the messy and broken lines.

6.) After the lineart is ready, add new layers to continue working on the illustration by adding the color, shading etc as needed.

 

Because this is a tutorial that focus more on how to turn traditional illustration to digital, I won’t go deeper about coloring or finishing process aside of few I have mentioned before that I consider as the most relevant to topic, but there are 4 basic layers here aside of the lineart layer:

-Base color layer below the lineart layer.

-Shading layer.

-A layer that set in [Add Glow] mode for highlights.

-Background layer (optional)

More or less, when combined, the final result would look like this:

Note: It’s optional whether to keep the linearts separated with each other by putting each one into a different layer folder to make editing easier, or combine them into one by merging the lineart layers like I did here.

Check out the whole process in the timelapse below:

7.) End Note: Conclusion

Whether you’re in an emergency situation or not, having the skill in both traditional and digital drawing can be useful. There are things you can't do by just using traditional drawing technique, and vice versa. Both ways can be used interchangeably at times, even complete the other.

 

If you like this tutorial, give it some love by clicking like button, and thank you for reading this far!

 

Check more of my artworks at IG @khoiruunisarf

 

Want to know how to turn traditional to digital in comics/manga? Check link below: