How To Draw On Adobe Photoshop

Can yous depict in Photoshop? Sure, if you lot know how! Using Photoshop to depict may sound like a weird idea, but many professional person artists apply it on a daily basis.

In this tutorial, I'll teach you how to draw in Photoshop. I'll show you all the bones tools and nowadays a stride-by-footstep process of Photoshop drawing—from sketch to color, shading, and special effects. In my opinion, this technique is the best way to draw in Photoshop if yous're a beginner, but you tin can change it later to create your ain personal style. So if you're interested in drawing in Photoshop for beginners, this will be a perfect tutorial for y'all!

What Y'all're Going to Acquire in This Adobe Photoshop Drawing Tutorial

How to draw using Photoshop
What is the best way to draw in Photoshop
What are the drawing tools in Photoshop
The easy way to shade in Photoshop
How to draw in Photoshop using Clipping Masks
How to blend in Photoshop

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What You'll Need

For this tutorial we're going to need a reference photo. Using references is not cheating—it simply ways you draw something yous see instead of something you imagine. You can notice good, high-resolution references on Envato Elements. I used this one:

Beautiful Scene With a Leopard Family

Envato Elements is an awesome resources where you can download many Photoshop actions, add together-ons, and brushes, like this artistic and matte painting castor set, perfect for adding texture and realistic traditional drawing textures to your Photoshop art.

1. What Are the Cartoon Tools in Photoshop?

In this section, I'm going to explain the basic cartoon tools of Photoshop. If you don't consider yourself a full beginner and yous're interested in the drawing technique only, feel free to skip to section two.

Footstep 1

Open Photoshop and create a New File. Kickoff, nosotros accept to decide the size of our canvas. You can change it later, only information technology always comes at a loss of quality, so cull wisely. The bigger the size, the more details you can fit in, just also the harder information technology is for your computer to manage. Let's use the dimensions 5000 x 3500 for now.

Pace two

The new file has been created, and we're ready to draw! Merely first, take a wait at the Layers panel. There's a single layer here for now—the groundwork filled with white. To keep your lines separated from the groundwork, you demand to create a New Layer. Just click the plus icon to exercise it.

Footstep 3

Printing B to utilize the Castor Tool. If you draw something on the sail now, it volition be drawn on the layer that is currently selected. Click the eye icon side by side to the background layer to run across that information technology stays separated from the lines. Because the lines are separated, you can use the Movement Tool (V) to drag them, or press Control-T to resize and rotate them.

what are layers for — This line is separated from the white background

Step 4

Alter the colour now and draw something over the first line. You'll notice that they're merged—you can only move them together. But if yous create a New Layer and describe on information technology, so these lines volition stay separated. And then e'er pay attending to what layer you're drawing on. If y'all want to make sure you won't describe on a certain layer by accident, you tin can lock information technology.

Yous can remove these layers by pressing Delete to clean upwards the canvass.

how to lock photoshop layers — You tin can lock the layer to avoid accidents

multiple layers — These lines overlap each other, but every bit long every bit they're on separate layers, you tin can move, edit, and delete them individually

Step v

Correct-click on the sail to open the Brushes palette. Information technology includes all the default brushes. You can also open this panel by clicking this icon on the right.

Step 6

Test a couple of brushes now. You'll notice that they're pretty minor—it's because the canvas is so big! To modify it, yous can printing Z to use the Zoom Tool and "get closer" to the canvas. Then you can hold the Space primal and drag the canvas to move beyond it. To zoom out, hold the Alt key when using the Zoom Tool, or printing Control-0 to reset the view. If you have a hard fourth dimension remembering the shortcuts, simply apply the View carte.

Yous can also temporarily rotate the whole canvas by clicking R. Press Escape to reset the rotation.

Zoom tool — Using the Zoom Tool doesn't make the canvas bigger—it just makes it announced so

Step 7

You can also change the size of the castor. You can do it by dragging the slider in the Brushes panel, but information technology's easier to simply use the foursquare bracket keys: [ and ]. When drawing, I keep my fingers over them all the time to alter the size of the strokes dynamically.

how to change brush size — Y'all can change the size hither, but in drawing it'south faster to utilise the shortcuts

Step 8

We're almost prepare to start drawing, simply first choose a sketching brush. You can pick any of the default ones, but if y'all feel none of them fits your sketching fashion, yous tin can create your own brush. Select the brush that seems to exist the closest to your idea of a perfect sketching castor and open the Brush Settings panel—information technology'south right over the Brushes console.

Step 9

Yous tin now experiment with the settings to meet how they affect the strokes of your brush. You don't have to know what these settings do—but change them and see what happens. You can also change the settings in the upper bar.

sketching brush settings — I've started with the "Hard Circular Pressure Size" brush and modified it this way

Step ten

When you lot're done, click the plus icon to salve these settings as a new brush. You can now create your own castor group and drag your new castor to it.

Footstep xi

Alternatively, you tin can install brushes fabricated past other artists—you just need to download the brush set, like this pencil brush set from Envato Elements, and elevate it into the Brushes panel.

One more thing: recall to Save (Control-S) your artwork every time you do something important.

ii. How to Prepare Your Reference for Photoshop Cartoon

Step ane

Before we start drawing, open up your reference in Photoshop, so become to Image > Image Size. Make it 500 px wide. If y'all want, you tin go to Image > Epitome Rotation > Flip Sail Horizontal—I call back my reference looks better this mode.

flip image horizontal — Personally, I similar my characters facing the left side!

Step two

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

3. How to Draw Line Art in Photoshop

Step 1

Now nosotros can offset drawing! Remove all the test layers and create a new one. Continue your reference photograph in sight—you lot can use the PureRef app for this purpose. Start past blocking out the main shapes, focusing on the proportions. Cheers to what we did to the reference a moment agone, information technology's easier to copy the geometrical shapes without getting lost in the details. Angles are too easier to copy than round shapes. Go along your brush large, and don't zoom in too much. Focus on the large picture for now.

Don't try to make information technology perfect all at once. Call back that yous tin can use Control-Z to disengage a error, or use the Eraser Tool (E) to erase information technology. You tin also use the Lasso Tool (Fifty) to select a part of the drawing and move it to another place. Press Command-D to deselect when you do it.

Considering my brush gets thicker when I press harder, I can depict the starting time lines more than subtly, and brand them darker and thicker when I desire to accentuate their final position. The thick lines cover the thin, exploratory lines.

Step two

When you're done, lower the Opacity of this layer by dragging the slider in the Layers panel. This will allow us to use the sketch as a back up for the next phase of cartoon, without creating a jungle of lines. Switch your reference to the original photograph.

Step 3

Now create a New Layer, brand your castor smaller, and continue drawing, this time adding all the details and fixing the proportions if necessary. Don't try to keep it make clean—it's however a sketch, just a more detailed one. It's good to analyze the elements in the scene to copy their 3D form, not just the outlines. Understanding what you're drawing will help you with shading later, and information technology's also a necessary step to exist able to draw from imagination in the future.

This doesn't employ to Photoshop cartoon only, just to drawing in general—notwithstanding, since digital art is often considered to exist easier than normal drawing, your expectations for your first attempts may exist higher. Whenever you feel frustrated, keep reminding yourself that at that place'due south nothing wrong with you—information technology's only harder than it looks. Command-Z may assist you lot remove your mistakes, only there'due south no shortcut to describe something the right manner.

Flipping the paradigm horizontally from time to time will aid you run across the whole image with fresh eyes and make sure mistakes more than noticeable. Y'all can assign a keyboard shortcut to it to go far more than convenient.

Step iv

Now, fourth dimension for the terminal lines! Hibernate the first sketch and lower the Opacity of the second one. So create a New Layer, zoom in, and describe the final, make clean drawing. Go on your brush small and your strokes smooth. Information technology's expert if these strokes are night and pretty hard-edged—this will brand it easier to create the Clipping Mask later.

Accept your time—creating adept line fine art is a skill on its own, and you shouldn't blitz it just considering you lot've spent so much fourth dimension 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. You can hibernate your sketch from time to fourth dimension to see how you lot're doing and what else needs to exist accentuated.

Footstep 5

Create carve up line art for the branch, or any other objects you have in your scene that overlap the previous elements.

Step half-dozen

Hibernate the sketch layer and name the line art layers so that you lot tin instantly recognize them.

name the layers — Information technology'southward expert to brand a habit of naming the layers—the more of them y'all have, the easier it is to become lost!

4. How to Color a Drawing in Photoshop

Step ane

Take the Magic Wand Tool (Westward) and click the area exterior of the line art. If it doesn't select the whole element, alter the Tolerance. And so go to Select > Changed to select the inside of the outline.

use the magic wand to select — Make sure your outline is continuous, without whatever gaps—otherwise the automatic selection will non work

Pace 2

Create a New Layer nether this layer, and use the Paint Bucket Tool (G) to fill information technology with whatsoever colour. Deselect with Control-D. Give this layer a proper noun, something including "mask".