So the first step! - this is the original scan with the levels adjusted to darken the pencil lines. The contrast has brought out some texture in the paper, and rather than remove it, i decided to use the paper grain to help build up an antiquated, etching-type feel to the drawing. Texture plays a big role in maintaining an organic feeling in digital art.

Here the drawing is further darkened to provide a base midtone value. After some experimenting i found this to have the greatest efficiency - the majority of the drawing will have this tone, and now i can quickly lighten or darken portions as needed. All modifications are done on duplicate, or copied layers so i can always salvage some original linework or texture, as needed.

Areas of the image are dodged and burned (terms from photography, used in developing film for lightening/ darkening images by controlling the exposure - in this case controlling the value of the pixels.) Using mostly soft-edged brushes i build up the forms, working in all three modes offered by the tool (shadows/ midtones/ highlights).

At various stages i use a Mezzotint and/or Film Grain or other noise filter, cutting its effects down to about 5-10%. i found it necessary to do this to preserve or enhance some areas of texture, which were too soft or blurred. Some of the dodging and burning is done with customized brushes that have texture built-in.

The finished piece has turned out rather nice. After many hours of playing around with the mouse (that’s right — i don’t have a tablet. so what!). In finishing (and at times throughout) i use the smudge tool as well to blend some areas, and used filters to re-establish the texture. A larger image of this work can be found in the Artwork galleries of the site.