Is it possible to achieve a traditional feel and look with digital tools? (YES)

Hey folks!

My name is Michael Guimont and I’m a Visual development artist! I have been working in the entertainment industry for over 10 years now on video games and animated features!

 

When I first started using a digital tablet for drawing, way back in the days, I remember having a really hard time getting used to the different feeling you get from using a digital medium compared to what I was used to with my traditional pencils. The versatility, the feedback of the pen on the paper and it’s precision was unmatched. I was able to get over it eventually, but the desire to find a similar feeling and look always stuck with me through my journey.

Three years ago, after countles purchases and tries with brushes available online, I finally decided that I had enough and that it was time for me to create the brushes I always sought to have! So, I spent a year making and testing these brushes in my everyday work. After that full year of using these new tools daily and making sure they can cover all of the ground their traditional equivalence could, I was finally ready to share my tools online for you guys to enjoy as well :)

And now, I can proudly say that YES! we can get a very convincing look and feel digitally to what is available traditionally!

 

 

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With the proper tools...

Like I mentionned earlier, I tested countless brushes, and none came close to what I was looking for. So if you want to achieve the same results I’ll be getting in this tutorial, I highly recommend downloading my brushes!

 

Here is a video showing a real life comparaison!

I personally work on ultra smooth paper because I love that look :D

 

 

The main brush set (4$)

This main brush set includes many tools and a walkthrough of how they all work as well as a tutorial so you can see the possibilities and how I use them! It is available to purchase online from these sellers:

The free version (just the pencils)

This version is the Beta version of the set I’m currently using. It is made using a different texture and of course doesn’t have all of the other tools included in the paid version! Still, those are really great to get a feel for what to expect with the premium brushes!

 

 

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The Walkthrough

Now is the time to get our hands dirty!

for this walkthrough, I’m going to be drawing a cartoon chinese dragon eating take out food! The theme is silly enough for me to have fun and be able to show you the basics of the technique I use to create such artwork. Here is a look at what the final image will look like:

It looks pretty convincing right?

It’s almost as if I made this using real graphite on vellum paper! The look of it is smooth, while still retaining this nice paper grain. I aimed at this particular look after analysing tons of artworks from the concepts of the 1990’s American animated features. Back then, everything would be hand drawn, even the visual development and to me, nothing comes close to the beauty of these artworks!

If you are interested in digging more about this look, Search for these amazing artists online: Paul Felix, Marcelo Vignali, Luc Desmarchelier, Armand Serrano, Frederick Gardner, Peter Chan, Paul Richards and the list goes on!

 

Allright, now let’s start!

 

 

Video Follow along

In this version, you can see the full Clip Studio Paint Ui and the tools that I use, however, since I tend to rotate my canvas a lot when I draw digitally, it can get confused in some parts!

And so I also made this “stable” version for you guys to enjoy as well :)

In this video, the screen is locked, but you won’t see the tools I use in the Clip Studio Paint Ui

You will be able to watch every stroke I make in this video. I will also be going to explain in real time the choice I’m making and how to get the best out of the tools! I highly reccomend you watch it so you can see how the process is similar to real life graphite drawing and so, it takes some time to build up the desired look!

I’m not trying to cheat anything in this video, I try to rely on the same technique I would use traditionally to get even better results. A big part of what makes traditional drawing so special is the limited ressources that you have and your inability to use ctrl+z. So embrace those little imperfections and let’s get started!

 

 

1 : Setting up the workspace

Once you have downloaded the tools, all that is left to do is to install them (drag and drop them in their proper menus). It is mentionned in the tools package, but I’ll repeat myself here, please make sure you check your pen pressure sensitivity, otherwise you wont get the same feeling I made these brush for!

If you are using a wacom tablet, use the settings on the left (what I use)

if you are using another tablet (xp-pen, huion, ipad etc), use the settings on the right. Be careful to also use the designed tools for the later!

For some unknown reason, the brushes don’t behave the same on different support and in order to provide the best tools, I adjusted the settings so you get a similar feeling on each different device!

This is how I organised my workspace! This way, I get access to the brush settings quickly and all the other tools I might need handy :)

 

After all of this is done, you are ready to start your sketch!

 

 

2: The sketch

Doodles and research

This is the first part of any creation! the goal here is to establish the main ideas, themes, shapes and mood.

I usually do some quick doodles on a sheet of paper just to throw my ideas quickly on the canvas. once I understand what I want to make, I start doing research to make sure I build from elements that the viewer will recognise and understand.

I had an idea of what a chinese dragon looked like in my head, but doing your reasearch is a vital part of being a good visual development artist. That way, you ensure to uphold the specific characteristics of the elements you want to portray.

It’s a fun and relaxing time to learn more about your subject and it can even spark more ideas for your drawing!

When I do my research, I use a program called PureRef to gather all of the material I collect in one place. It’s like a giant board where you can write notes, pin images and arrange them in a proper way. It is one of my everyday tools for my job! You can get it freely over here:

Although you wont see in it the video since it’s on my second monitor, I will give you a glimpse of what my board looked like for this project. I blured the images since I don’t have the rights to each and everyone of them!

Once I have a good grasp on my subject and have an idea or two of where I where I want to take this drawing, it is time to head on to the thumbnail phase of the process.

 

*If I’m not confortable with the subject I’m about to depict, I usually do some studies of some references in order to get acquainted with the material :) That way, the creating process will be much more fun since I’ll understand my subject better!

 

 

2.1: The thumbnails

For the thumbnail, I create a new document in Clip studio and add my special graphite texture on overlay at the top of my layers. It will add just a nice touch on top of everything and will break the digital soft look that some tools might bring. If you have purchased the Main brush set, you will have a document with these settings already available, so just open it :)

 

Since I usually use a non photo blue pencil for my traditional sketches, I made a special gradient that will give the very same look to your drawings!

Put that gradient layer just under the document’s texture layer and you are good to go!

And so, I select my trusty pencil brush and start drawing!

I really love how responsive the Tilt setting of this brush behaves as well as how it builds up texture :)

 

 

At this stage, it is important to remain loose and small! They are called thumbnails for a reason! When drawing traditionaly, they wouldn’t be bigger than your thumb hehe! :p

 

I sketch out the main proporions of my dragon, I go with the flow and don’t get too bothered with the details at this point. I’m trying to find the right gesture and the proper symbols that will help me convey my idea the best. I want something light hearted and joyful. I also want the dragon to show flexibility in it’s long body!

 

Now, just look how rough this drawing is, urk! I wouldn’t usually show this to anyone, but hey, this is how I start my drawings. Once I’m satisfied with this part, I create a new layer and prepare myself to establish the final sketch.

 

*You will see how later in the process, I realise that some elements could be better balanced. I didn’t see it at that point, because this thumbnail is just a springboard for me, no need to be to perfect and precise. Since I quickly found a satisfying pose, I went with it!

3: The final sketch

I lower the opacity of the thumbnail, maybe scale it if needed and then I start working on the final sketch. If I was to do this traditionally, I would be putting a new sheet of paper on top of my thumbnail that I might have enlarged at the printer previously and would turn ond my light table so I can clearly see the drawing under my paper.

For this part I still remain loose and flexible!

It is now the time however to assess what worked and what didn’t in the thumbnail. For example, in the thumbnail, the rice bowl and the dragon’s tail shared a similar size which downplayed the hierarchy in my composition. I fiexd it and had to also correct the posture of the dragon as a result. Since the whole image is a delicate balance, if you change one thing, there is a high chance that you will also need to balance other in your drawing! I decided to add a couple of props to add a bit more context to the image, and after that, I was pretty much satisfied with this final sketch.

4: Rough lineart

Alright! time to ditch the blue sketch and move onto what will become my final drawing! (Obviously, I keep the blue drawing around, I just lower the opacity so I can draw on top)

 

For this first step of the drawing, I draw a quick lineart without worrying too much about making my lines as perfect and defined as I like them. (I’m usually very conscious of my lines so this is a good exercise for me to let go :p). This is meant only to have a clear target to aim at and a nice boundary for the next part of the process!

 

So put on some music and relax, aim at defining the key elements and we’ll take care of the rest afterwards!

5: Laying in some values

Once I am done with the rough lineart and that I’m able to properly understand every part of my drawing, I grab my Chamois brush and start laying a large base value all over my drawing. Since the main color of my dragon would usually be a red or a orange, I aim for something close to 30% dark value or higher.

 

what I like about the chamois brush is that it has a very soft texture contrary to the pencil brush that has a rougher one. It’s ideal for a base block in. If you are familiar with charcoal drawings, some artist use a pouch filled with charcoal powder and they achieve a really similar look to what we have here :)

6: blending it all together

Once my main value is laid down, I grab my Finger smudge brush and blend everything together just a bit!

I like working that way, because it evens out everything in a nice way and dirties my canvas enough so that I don’t fear of messing it up. I don’t know if any of you get stiff when it’s time to properly define your drawings, but I know I do and making a mess helps me out so much to get over that bad habit of mine!

I will finally erase some parts of the smudged graphite in areas I want to keep white such as the eyes, the antlers, the teeth, the mustache, the rice and the bowl, etc.

 

 

7: Value pass

So once everything is set up this way, I now move onto the real refining and detailing!

Just liek with traditional media, you build up the values to the dark. So I take my time and carefully add the shadows that will define the forms of my character. I might add a new layer on top of everything, draw the part that I want and then collapse it. This allows me to have even more control over what I do than what is usually doable with analog mediums. If something goes wrong, I can always Undo or Erase the parts that don,t work and collapse it on the final drawing once I’m happy!

 

The way I usually work at this stage is I add some darker marks with either the chamois brush or the pencil brush and then blend them using the finger smudge! In real life, I would use a stump or a tissue and do the exact same process for my graphite drawings!

 

It’s exactly the same process as a real life drawing!

Once I’m happy with the overall values, I erase the dirtyness that I created around my drawing. this will really make it pop out! You might find some mistakes here and there, but they should be easy to fix at this stage!

And what do I do after all of that?

Well, I blend everything a second time hahaha!

I know it sounds stupid, why wash away all that I’ve established? But since I aim at making a really smooth look to this drawing, it makes sence to unify all of these elements together once more I guarantee it! Also, I’ll have a clear template to follow! All that is left is refining the lineart and darkening the areas that needs attention!

8: Refining everything

And so, here we go again, refining and defining the elements. I take my time and squint at my drawing many times to see if everything reads well. If it doesn’t read when everything is blurred in my vision, I know I have to fix something!

 

*if you have made a proper lineart in the step #4 and have kept it on a separate layer as a copy, you can bring it back for this step, it’ll save you some time ;)

 

So yeah, I mainly keep adding shadows and defining the edges of my elements with lines until I’m satisfied. I will also define the textures and patterns more precisely. There is no real way to define when it’s time to move on from this step, it’s up to you and your standards. Just have fun and once you get bored or don’t feel like you are adding anything more to your drawing, move on!

This is the last part of the “drawing” phase!

It’s all about making everything pop with… Highlights! So I get my eraser out and wipe out some areas here and there to really bring the definition of form and material to a finish. This is going to bring the values to a real finish!

 

If like me, you are cautious when erasing and want to make sure not to mess up all that you have built so far, you can also change the blending mode of the eraser to -Normal- and paint the highlights on another layer! it will have the same texture you would with an eraser, but will allow you better control if you were to make a mistake :p

Just don’t forget to merge every layer at the end and Convert brightness to opacity in order to get rid of that “paint”. That way, you’ll get transparency instead of pixels!

9: Image result

Voila!

There you go folks, after all of this hard work, slow buildup and meticulous drawing, you should get a result pretty similar to that old school graphite visual development look!

 

Although it stills feels a bit digital in some areas… hmmm allright, I’ll tell you my secret to make everything a tad more accurate!

10: Last adjustments (final look)

Once the image is finished and ready, I usually merge everything. When working on a sheet of paper, you only get one layer anyways :p I take some time to push the values a bit using either a Tone curves or a levels correction filter. I crunch them to make the dark darker and the white pop even more. But this step is up to your preferences!

After that, I apply a small Gaussian blur of 2.3% This will even the too sharp digital look that we might get. A scanner would most likely get you all of those crisp details, but once we put the drawing in .JPG and compress it for publication online, we get a slight blur happening. So once again, trying to mimic what happens in real life!

I will also add some dust, speckles and graphite dirt and smudge here and there in the drawing using the Graphite powder brush.

On a normal sheet of paper, there is a high chance that you will have smudged some of your drawing with your palm or left some speckles or graphite powder and so, i try to replicate that same process here!

Lastly, I add a paper texture under everything to give it that authentic look! There are tons of these available online and on the Clip Studio Asset Store. Just find the one you like most and bring it in your document for that last touch!

 

Here is an example:

And there you have it folks! A real tradigital graphite drawing!

 

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and that it made you want to try this out!

Thanks for your time and have a nice day!

 

Michael G.

Bonus!

Here are a couple more example of what I can do with these brushes :)