How to Create a Drawing in Photoshop TUTORIAL

Can you depict in Photoshop? Certain, if you know how! Using Photoshop to describe may audio like a weird idea, simply many professional artists utilise it on a daily ground.

In this tutorial, I'll teach yous how to describe in Photoshop. I'll show you all the basic tools and nowadays a step-by-step process of Photoshop drawing—from sketch to colour, shading, and special effects. In my opinion, this technique is the best way to describe in Photoshop if you're a beginner, but y'all tin modify it later to create your own personal style. So if you're interested in drawing in Photoshop for beginners, this will be a perfect tutorial for you lot!

What You're Going to Learn in This Adobe Photoshop Drawing Tutorial

• How to draw using Photoshop
• What is the best mode to draw in Photoshop
• What are the cartoon tools in Photoshop
• The easy manner to shade in Photoshop
• How to draw in Photoshop using Clipping Masks
• How to blend in Photoshop

Follow along with u.s.a. over on our Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel:

What You lot'll Demand

For this tutorial nosotros're going to need a reference photo. Using references is not cheating—it just means you draw something you lot see instead of something you imagine. You can find good, high-resolution references on Envato Elements. I used this i:

• Beautiful Scene With a Leopard Family

Envato Elements is an awesome resource where you can download many Photoshop deportment, add together-ons, and brushes, similar this artistic and matte painting brush set, perfect for calculation texture and realistic traditional drawing textures to your Photoshop art.

ane. What Are the Drawing Tools in Photoshop?

In this section, I'k going to explain the basic drawing tools of Photoshop. If yous don't consider yourself a total beginner and you're interested in the drawing technique simply, feel free to skip to section 2.

Step 1

Open Photoshop and create a New File. First, we have to determine the size of our canvas. You can modify it afterwards, simply it always comes at a loss of quality, so choose wisely. The bigger the size, the more details you lot can fit in, only likewise the harder information technology is for your calculator to manage. Permit's use the dimensions 5000 x 3500 for at present.

Pace 2

The new file has been created, and we're ready to draw! But starting time, take a expect at the Layers panel. In that location's a unmarried layer hither for now—the background filled with white. To keep your lines separated from the groundwork, you need to create a New Layer. Just click the plus icon to do it.

Stride 3

Press B to utilise the Castor Tool. If y'all draw something on the canvas at present, it will be fatigued on the layer that is currently selected. Click the eye icon next to the background layer to see that it stays separated from the lines. Because the lines are separated, you can employ the Move Tool (V) to drag them, or press Control-T to resize and rotate them.

This line is separated from the white background

Step 4

Change the color now and describe something over the kickoff line. Yous'll notice that they're merged—you can only move them together. Simply if you create a New Layer and depict on it, then these lines volition stay separated. So always pay attention to what layer you're drawing on. If you want to make sure y'all won't draw on a certain layer by accident, you can lock it.

Y'all tin remove these layers by pressing Delete to clean upwards the canvas.

You can lock the layer to avoid accidents

These lines overlap each other, but as long every bit they're on separate layers, you can motility, edit, and delete them individually

Step 5

Correct-click on the canvas to open the Brushes palette. It includes all the default brushes. You can too open this console by clicking this icon on the right.

Step 6

Test a couple of brushes now. You'll observe that they're pretty small—information technology's considering the canvass is then big! To change it, you can press Z to utilize the Zoom Tool and "get closer" to the canvass. So you can hold the Infinite key and drag the canvas to motility across it. To zoom out, concord the Alt key when using the Zoom Tool, or press Control-0 to reset the view. If you have a hard time remembering the shortcuts, just use the View menu.

Y'all tin can besides temporarily rotate the whole canvas past clicking R. Press Escape to reset the rotation.

Using the Zoom Tool doesn't make the canvas bigger—it just makes information technology appear so

Step 7

You can too change the size of the brush. You tin exercise it by dragging the slider in the Brushes panel, only it'southward easier to simply use the square bracket keys: [ and ]. When drawing, I keep my fingers over them all the time to change the size of the strokes dynamically.

Yous can change the size hither, but in cartoon information technology's faster to employ the shortcuts

Step 8

We're almost ready to outset drawing, merely kickoff cull a sketching castor. Y'all can pick whatever of the default ones, but if you experience none of them fits your sketching style, you can create your own brush. Select the brush that seems to be the closest to your thought of a perfect sketching brush and open the Brush Settings panel—information technology's right over the Brushes panel.

Step nine

You can at present experiment with the settings to see how they bear upon the strokes of your brush. Y'all don't have to know what these settings do—merely change them and run into what happens. You tin can also change the settings in the upper bar.

I've started with the "Difficult Round Pressure level Size" castor and modified it this way

Pace ten

When y'all're washed, click the plus icon to salvage these settings equally a new brush. You lot tin now create your ain brush group and drag your new brush to information technology.

Footstep 11

Alternatively, you can install brushes made by other artists—you merely need to download the brush set, like this pencil brush ready from Envato Elements, and drag information technology into the Brushes panel.

One more thing: remember to Save (Control-S) your artwork every time y'all do something important.

2. How to Prepare Your Reference for Photoshop Drawing

Step 1

Before we starting time cartoon, open your reference in Photoshop, then go to Image > Epitome Size. Get in 500 px wide. If you want, you tin get to Image > Epitome Rotation > Flip Canvas Horizontal—I think my reference looks amend this style.

Personally, I like my characters facing the left side!

Step ii

Go to Filter > Filter Gallery > Artistic > Cutout. Adjust the settings to turn the scene into a set of geometrical shapes. Remove as much detail as possible while keeping the general outline of the elements.

3. How to Describe Line Fine art in Photoshop

Step 1

Now we tin can start drawing! Remove all the examination layers and create a new 1. Keep your reference photo in sight—you can use the PureRef app for this purpose. Start by blocking out the master shapes, focusing on the proportions. Thanks to what we did to the reference a moment ago, it's easier to copy the geometrical shapes without getting lost in the details. Angles are also easier to re-create than round shapes. Continue your brush big, and don't zoom in too much. Focus on the large movie for now.

Don't try to make it perfect all at once. Retrieve that yous tin can utilize Control-Z to undo a error, or utilise the Eraser Tool (Eastward) to erase information technology. You tin can also use the Lasso Tool (L) to select a function of the cartoon and move it to some other place. Press Control-D to deselect when you do information technology.

Because my castor gets thicker when I press harder, I tin depict the get-go lines more subtly, and make them darker and thicker when I want to accentuate their final position. The thick lines embrace the sparse, exploratory lines.

Step two

When you're done, lower the Opacity of this layer by dragging the slider in the Layers panel. This will let united states to use the sketch as a support for the adjacent stage of drawing, without creating a jungle of lines. Switch your reference to the original photo.

Footstep 3

Now create a New Layer, make your brush smaller, and continue drawing, this fourth dimension adding all the details and fixing the proportions if necessary. Don't try to keep it clean—it's all the same a sketch, just a more than detailed 1. It'due south adept to clarify the elements in the scene to copy their 3D form, not merely the outlines. Understanding what you're drawing will assistance you with shading after, and information technology's also a necessary pace to be able to draw from imagination in the future.

This doesn't use to Photoshop cartoon only, merely to cartoon in general—even so, since digital art is often considered to exist easier than normal drawing, your expectations for your start attempts may be higher. Whenever you feel frustrated, keep reminding yourself that there'due south nothing incorrect with you—information technology'south but harder than it looks. Command-Z may assistance you remove your mistakes, but there's no shortcut to draw something the correct manner.

Flipping the image horizontally from time to fourth dimension volition help you see the whole image with fresh optics and brand certain mistakes more noticeable. You can assign a keyboard shortcut to it to make it more convenient.

Step 4

At present, time for the final lines! Hide the start sketch and lower the Opacity of the second one. And so create a New Layer, zoom in, and depict the final, clean drawing. Keep your brush small and your strokes shine. It'southward practiced if these strokes are dark and pretty hard-edged—this will make information technology easier to create the Clipping Mask subsequently.

Have your time—creating skillful line art is a skill on its ain, and you shouldn't blitz it just because you've spent then much time on this cartoon already. Make sure to include a variety of lines in your line fine art—thick and sparse, tapered and rounded. Accentuate certain parts strongly, and others subtly. Yous can hide your sketch from fourth dimension to time to meet how you're doing and what else needs to exist accentuated.

Step five

Create separate line art for the branch, or any other objects y'all have in your scene that overlap the previous elements.

Step 6

Hide the sketch layer and name the line art layers and so that you can instantly recognize them.

Information technology'due south practiced to make a habit of naming the layers—the more than of them you have, the easier it is to get lost!

4. How to Colour a Drawing in Photoshop

Step ane

Have the Magic Wand Tool (W) and click the expanse outside of the line fine art. If information technology doesn't select the whole element, alter the Tolerance. Then go to Select > Inverse to select the inside of the outline.

Brand sure your outline is continuous, without any gaps—otherwise the automatic choice will not work

Pace 2

Create a New Layer under this layer, and use the Paint Bucket Tool (Chiliad) to make full it with any color. Deselect with Command-D. Give this layer a proper noun, something including "mask".

Step 3

Practice the same with the other object or objects in your scene.

Step 4

Permit'due south add together the colors now. Select the background layer and click the circle icon on the bottom. Select Slope and create a bluish-white gradient to create the effect of a cloudy heaven.

Step 5

Select the first mask and create a New Layer. Hold the Alt cardinal and click the line betwixt these two layers. This will create a Clipping Mask—at present yous tin can draw all over this new layer without risking going outside of the lines.

Pace vi

Use this method to fill the objects with a unmarried color.

Step vii

A single, compatible color is pretty boring, so let's add another, similar color using a difficult castor.

Step viii

At present we demand to blend these ii colors. Find the Castor Tool in the toolbar, and so hold its icon to reveal a card. Select the Mixer Brush Tool. Adjust the settings to create a blender castor that works just the way y'all expect it to—a soft circular brush can be a expert base for the default blender, but textured brushes create nice effects besides.

When you find the perfect settings, save them as a new brush, just like before.

Experiment with these settings—there are many methods of blending!

Step 9

Use this method to add equally many colors as you need, simply for now focus only on the large areas of color.

Step 10

Now add together some other layer and color the details. Coloring the details separately can be useful in instance you want to change anything important later. However, the blender brush may not piece of work if you want to blend things from two different layers.

Stride 11

Allow's add ane more than layer for the spots. This design, although very time-consuming, volition make the leopards expect more detailed even without intricate shading.

Recollect to "wrap" the body with the spots—don't just draw them one by one

5. How to Shade in Photoshop

Step 1

Permit's shade our drawing now! Create a New Layer on superlative of the previously clipped layers, clip it, and fill it with white. Then click the Normal button to reveal the list of Blend Modes. Select Multiply. When you lot paint on a layer in Multiply fashion, the colors become transparent—instead of covering the colors beneath, they darken them, as a colored glass would. That's why it's perfect for drawing shadows!

Pace 2

Depict the shadows on the lower part of the trunk using a hard brush. Apply green yellow rather than black—this will make the shadows look more natural, as if filled with lite reflected from the environment. You can keep the shadows precipitous or blend them, depending on the way y'all're going for.

Footstep 3

For a more realistic outcome, utilize a few levels of darkness—brand the biggest area of shadows quite bright, and then find the areas that need more shadow and darken them. The darker the shadow, the smaller the area it should comprehend. Y'all don't have to copy the shading in the reference directly—sometimes it's better to use simpler, more anticipated shading in your drawing.

If y'all switch back to Normal mode, you'll exist able to come across the shadows separately from the colors

Step 4

Add together one more white Multiply layer. This time, paint some sky-colored shadows on the top and left side of the body—this will make them look more than three-dimensional.

Footstep five

Do a like matter with the branch.

6. How to Cease a Photoshop Cartoon

Stride 1

Let's terminate the groundwork now. Suit the gradient if necessary to get in fit the colors you've chosen later. Then create a New Layer and go to Filter > Return > Tree. You lot tin can pick any tree you want, but I think Shrub will work best here.

When information technology comes to colors, y'all don't take to stick to your outset option—experience free to modify your artwork to the very end!

Step two

Apply the Movement Tool (V) to place the tree in the lesser-left corner. And then agree the Alt fundamental and drag to create more trees in this area.

Footstep iii

Hold the Shift key to select all the tree layers, and then press Control-East to merge them. Lower the Opacity to simulate some atmospheric perspective.

Step iv

Now merge the trees with the sky, and become to Filter > Mistiness > Lens Blur. Adjust the settings to create the upshot y'all like, and so press OK.

Experiment with these settings

Step 5

Now it'due south time to terminate looking at the reference and focus entirely on your work. Take a good expect at it—is there anything you'd like to change? Because every result has been practical to a separate layer, y'all won't have any problem adjusting them.

Y'all can duplicate the layer past pressing Control-J to make the effect stronger, and lower its Opacity to brand information technology subtler. You can create a New Layer on top and paint on it to add more details. You can blend the shadows some more, or add new ones. Experience free to spend as much fourth dimension equally you need at this stage to make your prototype every bit good every bit information technology can possibly exist!

Pace 6

When you're washed, select the whole cartoon past pressing Control-A, and and then get to Edit > Copy Merged and paste the copy into a New File. Go to Image > Epitome Size and requite your cartoon a more than sensible size—something around 1000 px wide. Now your file is gear up to be saved every bit a PNG and shared on social media!

If y'all prefer a more painterly style, you tin can also remove the lines and/or pigment over them. However, go along in mind that finishing the artwork this manner may take as much time every bit you've already spent on it, or more!

Good Job!

Now you know how to draw using Photoshop! You know how to draw the start sketch, how to create the line fine art, how to add the colors, how to shade, and how to finish the artwork. At present, using Photoshop to describe doesn't audio like a crazy idea anymore!

Photoshop Painting Brushes

Creating custom brushes in Photoshop is possible, but it takes some time and skill. Instead, you tin utilize brushes created by other artists! Here are a couple of propositions from Envato Elements.

Artistic & Matte Painting Photoshop Brush Set (ABR)

If you need a basic, universal brush set, try this 1—it contains 22 brushes designed to simulate various traditional tools. It may look elementary, merely the truth is you don't need anything else to create wonderful artwork!

Pencil Brushes Photoshop (ABR)

Whether you need a pencil but for the first phase of drawing, or you desire to create an artwork that looks as if information technology was fatigued with real pencils, this castor set is a great choice. It contains 31 brushes, and some of them will save you a lot of time during shading!

Shader Brushes for Photoshop (ABR, EPS, PNG)

This professional person brush set volition permit y'all to achieve a unique fashion of shading. It's perfect for minimalistic illustrations, but these textured brushes volition be great for photorealistic artworks also!

Stipple Brush Prepare for Photoshop and Illustrator (ABR, AI, EPS)

Stipple shading is a method of shading using a series of tiny dots grouped together. If you lot like this style, thanks to this brush prepare you won't have to draw all these dots by mitt—these brushes come in different sizes and densities to create a realistic and natural upshot.

Photoshop Ink Brushes (ABR)

Ink drawings look actually cool, but ink is not very forgiving. Yet, if y'all utilize digital ink, you go the same consequence without all the pressure! This castor set contains 12 ink washes brushes, 12 sketching ink brushes, and ink stain brushes—combine them all for a fantastic terminate outcome!

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How to Create a Drawing in Photoshop TUTORIAL

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