Author: Heather Goff

I am drawing using an wacom intuos tablet, a stylus, and Painter 15 software.

I like to start with a neutral color canvas, so that I can draw in darks and lights.

Here are screen shots from a drawing in progress, February 11, 2015.

My computer screen is large enough that I can easily view my reference photo beside the drawing canvas, which facilitates sketching from it.

For this drawing, I created a dark brown canvas to start.

I then created a new layer and started a rough sketch with the fine point pen brush. I use the fine point pen brush for the whole drawing.

Once I have a rough sketch of the composition, I start blocking in solid colors on a new layer. I work with an opacity of around 30 on these brushes, so that the background canvas shows through.

As I start adding in details, I create new layers for each grouping of details.

I added the ukulele strings on their own layer. With the brush tool in painter, one can choose straight edge or free hand. Most of the drawing uses free hand, but for the strings and edges that truly need to be straight, I switch to the straight edge brush. By drawing the strings on their own layer, I can draw/paint under them if I need to add colors to the fret or body of the instrument.

This screen shot below shows my layers at this point. The sketch is still very rough.

At this point I zoom in to the photograph, and in to my canvas so that I can put in more detail and clean up the scribbly-ness of what was put down from the more distant view. My eyesight is not great, so being able to zoom in to view the detail is an amazing luxury.

This shows all the layers that I was working with at this point in the drawing. The beauty of working in layers is that you can draw under a layer that has already been created, or manipulate the opacity of a layer, or turn it off completely. The process is very facile.

I am drawing using an wacom intuos tablet, a stylus, and Painter 15 software.

I like to start with a neutral color canvas, so that I can draw in darks and lights.

Here are screen shots while a drawing progressed on October 1, 2014.

I start with a new layer that I sketch the composition on with the fine point pen brush. I then created several layers, one with a darker blue and one above with the teal blue. I then used the eraser tool to scratch down between the layers. The color of the canvas is seen in the flowers. 

The flowers were drawn with the fine point pen brush, adjusting the size and opacity.

I then drew over the background with the fine point pen brush using different layers, adjusting opacity.

Here is what my layer pallet looks like. I’m rather embarrassed that I don’t label my layers, which means if I want to find where a certain color is to change it, it involves hiding them one at a time until I find the layer that I need. Ideally, each layer would be neatly labeled. But since these sketches are all, for the most part, done in one sitting and very spontaneously, I can get away with my lack of self communication.

I draw digitally, using a wacom tablet and Painter software. My computer screen is large enough that I can reference a photo, putting it beside the canvas that I am drawing on.

I like to start with a neutral color canvas, so that I can draw in darks and lights.

Here are screen shots while a drawing progressed on September 30, 2014.

Today, I drew from a photo that I took of my  husband, filleting a fish for our dinner.

I start with a very loose sketch.

I then zoom in so that I can see what I’m drawing.

I am drawing using an wacom intuos tablet, a stylus, and Painter 12 software.

I like to start with a neutral color canvas, so that I can draw in darks and lights.

Here are screen shots while a drawing progressed on December 4, 2012.

If you could zoom in and see my pen strokes, you’d see that the image is drawn with very loose and, often,  scribbled lines.