My digital art workflow pretty much works the way my traditional workflow works.

1st – Pencils.
I start with my pencil sketch of my idea and get the basic shapes and the feel for the piece. I sometimes will place multiple layers with different angles and positions for hands and other things incase I want to change it. I do not erase much, again incase I like the old version better.

This piece is of a Jester. The idea came from a co-worker who was having some trouble times. I felt this reflected his attitude at the time. I know kinda creepy right?

2nd – Inking.
Now on another layer I begin inking the picture. I go through a variety in different brushes in procreate to get the line stroke I need. In traditional art I would more than likely be using a few .3, .5, and .6 Pentel inking pens, laying the lines in thicker when needed. I also make separate layers sometimes for elements I might want to change out later like this guy’s right hand.

In the original sketch, that hand is a fist. I decided to change it to the middle finger to reflect the mood and attitude of this angry little man. The image here is with the middle finger down.

3rd – Colors.
At this point I have most of the lines I want down and now it’s on to coloring. traditionally I would use some Alcohol based markers like Copic or Spectrum, but since we are working digitally I use some brushes that imitate those tools. I also use some flat brushes to lay in broader areas of color and work on several layers so that I can go back and change things if needed. I also use some blend tools to make some of the areas smooth together. I do back and add some highlights and some more shadows. One nice thing about digital is the amount of mistakes you can fix and you can alter the color when needed.

4th – Background
This is something that unless I have a specific scene for, traditional art I do not do a background for. Usually I would leave it white and scan it and place a background in digitally. With digital art I can play around with it directly without any scanning. I still do digital art without backgrounds of course and the one nice thing about digital is you can have the multiple versions. Your possibilities are only limited by what you think you can do.

5th – Touch Ups.
One final thing I like to do is zoom in and do some touch up work. If not adding a background this can be technically step 4. Anyhow, I usually go back and add some more “inked Shading lines” in on a different layer so that I can turn them off and on. Sometimes I go back and tweak the colors some. Sometimes as with this piece I go back and enhance the picture to make it pop out or give it some presence. With this one I did a solid white and black lined border with variant thickness. I also did this on separate layers so that I can turn them off if I do not need them.

In closing I have to say that working digitally not only gives you more assets for future projects that are already ready to go, but it also gives you many, many possibilities. Years ago I tried to work digitally working in Photoshop and using a Digital Tablet my wife bought me and an old Apple Performa Power PC 6116CD. It worked but it did not work like what I am used to with Paper and Pen. You needed great eye/hand coordination. Now the iPad gives me a tool that I can add to my artistic arsenal to help me keep creating new and better things.

Here is a look at the Jester from start to finish.