Digital Art

Step 1:

1. Starting with a scanned image from an earlier photo shoot Sorry, its blurred because I don't have model release on this image.
2. There is no work required on this image at all, we are going to use it to trace over.

Step 2:

1. We create a new layer in white over the original image
2. Then drop the opacity so the image can be seen through it

Step 3:

1. Create another new layer above the white.
2. Using the pen, I then select colours in the original photo layer and paint over the image in fairly broad sweeps.
3. Using Preferences, I have set the penpad's pressure sensitivity to pen width. This lets me simply control the width of strokes. I'm also using the airbrush tool with a fairly soft edge.

Step 4:

1. Create another new layer above the broad strokes
2. Switching to a much finer setting, I draw on the stripes, following the curves of the figure underneath.
3. The penpad pressure sensitivity is still set to control width, this lets me the shape the stripes to provide thickness for full on stripes, as well as controlling the overall shading of the stripes.
4. While I'm working I have the second layer turned off, and the opacity of the white turned down too since I need to see the original image fairly clearly at this stage.

Step 5:

1. The overall look is a little washed out, so I drop in a new layer and set it to multiply, this is a great technique for restoring over-exposed images by the way.
2. Crank up the opacity on the white layer to lose the image and here we have the final result

Hints, Tips and Observations

1. Firstly, the use of layers as working tools should not be underestimated. I frequently set up layers with gridlines, guides, scans and other works which will not appear in the final image but help me create the working image

2. When using the Preferences, Penpad settings, be careful when you use the mouse. For example, when pedpad is set to width sensitivity, then you can't use the mouse to draw a single pixel line! I still fall for this on a regular basis.

3. I find I generally use the pen sensitivity just for width, colour is not generally useful to the way I work and opacity I would rather control through the tool settings for the tool I'm using at the time. That's because its quicker to get to the tool settings, that shuffle through the preferences dialog.

4. I use the Wacom PenPad - In short its great, if you use PSP even slightly frequently I cannot recommend the use of pen highly enough. Firstly it makes my work much more fluent. Secondly, I can tool around PSP much faster with a pen, no mouse shuffling to get from one dialog to another etc.

5. Finally, I always reckon its worth playing around with a completed image a little more just for the fun of it. Pretty much by accident I came up with these variations: