Monkey Pirates!

I thought I would do a few posts on how I finish an illustration. I always start off on paper with a red pencil.

After sketching, rubbing out, sketching and rubbing out some more I finally get something I'm happy with. I then use a fineliner (staedtler triplus) to go over the lines. I try and not make too many mistakes. If I do then with only a little bit of cursing, I tell myself not to worry.

 

I scan it into Photoshop making sure it's at least 300dpi. I use the levels tool to darken the pen lines and get rid of the red pencil (regular pencil is harder to get rid of). I then select all of the pen lines and copy them into a new canvas. This makes sure that you're only left with nice sharp lines.

Now even though I've gotten rid of the pencil I'm still not happy with certain parts of it. I use the eraser tool to get rid of mistakes and edit parts of the drawing. You'll notice a difference in the boy's eyes - I never get eyes right first time!

Next it's onto colouring!