Introduction:

Oh boy. New tutorial time. Let’s explain the different ways you can make a line and wash illustration-both digitally AND traditionally.

As far as I know, there are four methods. Shall we explore each one?

Method 1:DIDW

Everything is digital: the watercolor, the ink, everything. If there is any analog, it’s usually a hand drawn sketch. The cleanest method:

A comic panel made with DIDW

This method is perfect because it neither involves the time and/or hassle that both ink and watercolor have. With just a stylus, you could have a beautiful watercolor piece without making a mess!

However, there is one major downside: this method can be too clean. Artificial, even:

There are ways to mitigate this. You could make your own brushes using the analog drawing utensils you like to use:

Or if you don’t know and/or are too impatient, you could always download the brushes you need, be it from the clip studio asset store or elsewhere.

 

 

FREE

FREE

NOT FREE

DIDW Summary

Method 2: DITW

It starts off similarly to method one, but instead of painting the inked drawing, the inked drawing is printed, then painted on with traditional watercolors. If you love inking over watercolors, except for the likely chance of messing up badly or, heaven forbid, spilling ink, this method is for you:

A part of a character illustration made with method DITW

Also, if you messed up on painting the outline, no sweat. Just print another outline and paint as if nothing happened.

One thing to note, however: the inked, printed out outline could look…fuzzy, for a lack of a better term:

A close up of the DITW painting with a close up of a painting inked traditionally

The line art’s fuzziness could interfere with editing. meaning that while the edited lines look OK with lighter colors:

With dark colors…not so much:

Until I find better ways, this is my least favorite method.

DITW Summary

---

Method 3: TITW

With this method, simply draw a very clean sketch, print it out, and ink and paint traditionally. This is all traditional; very minimal, if any, signs of digital work:

A part of an illustration made with TITW

This is perfect for those who would rather want to draw analog than digital. And if the outline is printed out, there’s no need to sketch with a pencil and not having to deal with unwanted marks and missed spots! That being said…

Same piece zoomed in

See those tiny little dots near the line work? This happens when the outline is printed and the line art aim is clumsy. Luckily, they’re only noticeable when zoomed in…or edited sloppily. More on that later.

How visible that line is is determined by how dark the outline is. A lighter sketch means the lines are less noticeable…but that makes the outline harder to see, leading to clumsy line art aims. Likewise, a darker sketch could make tracing over the outline easier, but good luck trying to edit out the black dots from the work.

Personally, I recommend setting the sketch layer at most 15 percent and at least 10 or even 5 percent. It helps if you sketch in a light gray color:

TITW Summary

Method 4: TIDW

After printing out the outline or sketching it in pencil, the line art is inked traditionally,

then painted on digitally. This is preferred if you ink traditionally and love watercolor but hate watercolor’s wait time and unpredictability:

An illustration made with TIDW

Yes, if the outline is sketched digitally, the pesky dots are still there, but since there’s no paint, it’s at least easier to edit them out without paint getting in the way.

TIDW Summary

Editing

If you do paint your watercolors with TITW, DITW, and to a lesser extent, TIDW, you have to edit them so that you can share them with the interwebs. Let me try to show you how. Emphasis on try.

First thing is to scan your painting, obviously. If you paint on 10x14 paper and you have a A3 scanner, great! If not, don’t worry; there are tutorials on how to scan in parts:

Once the piece is scanned in, it needs some adjustments before it is either ready for publishing or drawing secret pencil marks on.

Got it perfectly straight and cropped on first scan without losing information? Perfect! If not, some adjustments may be necessary like this drawing here:

Now the problem with editing watercolor pieces -especially ones made with methods DITW and TITW- is that not only do you have to make the blacks black and the whites white, but have to do so without blowing out the watercolor:

The best way for me is this: in your photo editing software of choice (Photoshop, gimp, etc.), go to levels and adjust the nodes until the blacks are black, the whites are white, and the color is not overblown:

An optional step is sharpening the edges by going to {filters}-enhance-and then unsharp mask. Be sure not to make it too sharp:

Finally, adjust the hue and saturation until it’s comparable with your real life painting:

I would say that this is the rule, but in reality, it depends on trial and error. Just mess with the settings until you’re happy with how it turns out!

Conclusion

…And that is how you make a watercolor piece using four methods! Of course, if you know of any better methods, let me know!

Until next time…