TONAL DRAWING and FULL COLOR RENDERING

While the rendering tools in Photoshop are quite extensive on their own, the introduction of tonal sketches into this process - those drawn traditionally on paper and then scanned into the computer - can offer the visual artist a powerful one-two rendering punch.

While it is possible to achieve the most exquisite of "paintings using only the stylus and the mouse, the following techniques can produce the same results- often faster and with the added benefit of repurposing the preliminary drawing material.

There are three effective ways to approach a rendering that incorporates a preliminary sketch.

The first approach allows the drawing to show through some or all of the illustration and attempts to utilize the paper texture that is found throughout your sketch.

The second approach uses the preliminary drawing as a map. The end product of this rendering process is that the drawing becomes entirely covered over.

The final approach will result in the softening the texture while retaining the tonal information of the drawing. This technique will be discussed as an advanced technique later in the semester...