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Digital Drawing in Photoshop – Intermediate

with Erika Wiseman
4.9 (54)
Follow along with Erika in creating a mermaid from start to finish in Photoshop and learn lots of pro techniques!
English English, French, 1 more Spanish
3+
hours
29
lessons
Intermediate
level
Erika Wiseman

Your Instructor

Erika Wiseman is a freelance digital artist with a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts. She has been creating art for over 15 years and made a name for herself on Instagram.

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3+
hours
29
lessons
Intermediate
level
English
English, French , 1 more
Subtitles
  • Spanish

What you’ll learn

  • Start your sketch on a blank canvas in Photoshop
  • Paint a beautiful, high-quality digital illustration like a pro
  • Adjust your Brush tool so drawing feels natural and smooth
  • Add nice effects to your artwork like blur, texture, and contrast
  • Unify the character and the background so they fit well together
  • Discover tricks to make adjustments quickly and easily
  • Learn advanced techniques to speed up your workflow
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Description

In this course, Erika teaches you a tried-and-proven painting method that changed her whole relationship with digital art! In the past, she used to struggle with creating clean linework digitally, becoming frustrated with the long process and unsatisfactory results.

Today, she’ll walk you through her entire workflow of creating a beautiful illustration completely digitally from start to finish! You’ll learn pro tips and techniques to take your artwork to the next level, that will wow your audience and make you proud!

Erika will show you exactly what tools and features to focus on and which ones are non-essential to digital art. You’ll get a well-rounded overview of everything you need to know about digital drawing and painting in Photoshop, so you have the needed tools and confidence to create your own amazing artwork!

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Who is this course for

  • Artists familiar with Photoshop who want to learn how to draw/paint digitally
  • Artists looking to brush up on Photoshop’s features and tools to enhance their workflow
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This course includes

  • 3+ Hours of on-demand videos
  • 7 Assignments (PDF)
  • Photoshop guide (PDF)
  • Layered file of completed illustration (PSD)
  • 1 Process images
  • Bonus material
  • Access to Erika’s exclusive Discord art community
  • Certificate of Completion
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Used in course

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What you'll need

  • Digital drawing software such as Photoshop or similar (see examplesAffinity Photo, ArtRage, Artweaver, Astropad, Clip Studio Paint, Corel Painter, Krita, Inkscape, IbisPaint, GIMP, Rebelle 4, Photoshop, Paintstorm Studio, Procreate, MediBang Paint, SketchPad, SketchBook, TwistedBrush, Vectr...)
  • Some experience with Photoshop needed
  • You'll learn more if you have a drawing tablet
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Lesson Plan

Expand all sections
01

Getting Started

17:56

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Photoshop may seem a little overwhelming at times. But rest assured that with Erika as your teacher, she’ll dispel any confusion, focusing ONLY on the essential tools for drawing.

Since the brush tool is the most important one for a digital artist, she will go over it in detail. You’ll learn its ins and outs, so you can adjust it to feel as natural and smooth as a regular pencil or paintbrush!

INCLUDED:

   1 Assignment

   List of Recommended Brushes

   Photoshop Guide


1.1
Getting Started
02:07
1.2
Canvas Size
01:12
1.3
Brush Tool
08:13
1.4
Finding your Favorite Brushes
05:39
1.5
Assignment
00:45
02

Starting Your Illustration

36:03

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One of the all important questions: How to start off your sketch digitally? You’ll learn exactly how in this lesson.

Erika will guide you through her entire sketching process and show you nifty tricks to help you on the way, such as: flipping your canvas to ensure your artwork is balanced, using the handy Liquify feature to adjust parts of your sketch, and duplicating layers to save previous versions, which you can restore if you need to!

INCLUDED:

   1 Assignment

   1 Line-art image


2.1
Starting your Illustration
02:20
2.2
Rough Sketch
09:10
2.3
Refined Sketch
06:37
2.4
A Fresh Perspective
04:06
2.5
Preparing Sketch for Color
13:02
2.6
Assignment
00:48
03

Coloring your Character

28:52

In this lesson, Erika will discuss how to choose colors, different factors to consider and tips for creating a harmonious palette.

Follow along as she walks you through her entire coloring process and learn cool tricks along the way, such as: using the Clipping Mask and adjustment tools to easily change individual colors and locking pixels to prevent accidently coloring outside the lines.

INCLUDED:

   1 Assignment


3.1
Intro to Color
04:33
3.2
Coloring your Character with Clipping Masks
03:55
3.3
Easily Changing your Colors
05:10
3.4
Adding Color Variation
09:55
3.5
Coloring your Lines
04:58
3.6
Assignment
00:21
04

Clean-Up

29:50

At this phase, Erika tweaks the illustration more by darkening some areas, painting over some messy sketch lines, and do some blending to give it a polished look.

You’ll also discover a great time-saver tool: Masks! A mask will allow you to hide and reveal certain parts of your layer without permanently erasing them.

INCLUDED:

   1 Assignment

   2 Bonus images


4.1
Clean-Up
20:27
4.2
Masks
08:47
4.3
Assignment
00:36
05

Backgrounds

39:41

Let’s dive into the wonderful world of painting backgrounds!

Erika will demonstrate the tried-and-proven methods she uses to create them and explain essential concepts, such as how lighting affects your choice of color tones and understanding the division between the foreground, midground and background planes.

INCLUDED:

   1 Assignment


5.1
Background Coloring Process, Part 1
19:21
5.2
Background Coloring Process, Part 2
20:07
5.3
Assignment
00:13
06

Fitting your Character into the Environment

17:44

Discover useful tricks to unify the characters and background smoothly, making the environmental lighting and color affect the character in a realistic way. This prevents your character appearing out of place in the environment, avoiding that ‘cut-and-paste’ feel.

INCLUDED:

   1 Assignment


6.1
Color Harmony
02:59
6.2
Lighting
14:27
6.3
Assignment
00:18
07

Finishing Up

23:37

In this final lesson, the last few adjustments will be made to make the entire illustration pop with magic. Erika will teach you about ‘Adjustment Layers’ that sit on top of the layers like a filter. They can be adjusted separately from the artwork, giving you even more flexibility.

Learn how to add effects like blur, texture, contrast, the cool ‘Chromatic Aberration’ and perhaps a new tone that unifies the color palette of your illustration even more!

INCLUDED:

   1 Assignment

   1 Layered Photoshop File

   Set-by-Step Process File

   Final Image


7.1
Saving
00:53
7.2
Final Adjustments
22:01
7.3
Assignment
00:43

Student Feedback

54 customer reviews & ratings

4.9

Course rating

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5 star
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Best Suited for
Intermediate
The level is determined by a majority opinion of students who have reviewed this class. The teacher's recommendation is shown until at least 5 student responses are collected.

(Based on 54 reviews)

Most Liked
Great step-by-step process 49
Clarity of Instruction 48
Engaging Teacher 43
Showing 10 reviews of
54
reviews & ratings
SA
Stefano A.

3 years ago

Verified Purchase
Excellent, very clear and well explained.
I recommend it for All levels
1 person found this helpful
SK
SOFIA K.

3 years ago

Verified Purchase
Excellent course, clear and well organized!Thank you!
I recommend it for Intermediate
1 person found this helpful
MB
Micaela B.

3 years ago

Verified Purchase
this is my second course with her and i guarantee that you'll learn a lot, she's very precise and helps you with all the shortcuts and tricks of photoshop, i loved it!, she's also very organized with her work, so that also helps to organize yourself while drawing.
I recommend it for Intermediate
2 people found this helpful
Lénou S.

3 years ago

Verified Purchase
This course is great ! I learned a lot of things :) Thank you <3
I recommend it for Intermediate
Sonali_Parab

3 years ago

Verified Purchase
The overall course was very knowledgeable and detailed.
I recommend it for Beginner
1 person found this helpful
FH
Farah H.

3 years ago

Verified Purchase
clear with useful examples
I recommend it for Intermediate
RH
Raquel H.

2 years ago

Verified Purchase
Great, recommended 100%
I recommend it for Intermediate
SE
Steve E.

2 years ago

Verified Purchase
Besides being a wonderful illustrator, Erika is an engaging and extremely helpful instructor!
I recommend it for Intermediate
SR
Stefanie R.

2 years ago

Verified Purchase
Well done, detailed and inspiring course. Thanks for sharing Erika !
I recommend it for Beginner
Roa'a A.

2 years ago

Verified Purchase
Great course, thank you so much
I recommend it for Intermediate
See more reviews

About the Instructor

Erika Wiseman
Digital Artist and Illustrator 4 courses

Erika Wiseman (aka Erika the Goober) is a freelance illustrator and character designer who lives in the US. She loves drawing cute, colorful things and experimenting with new drawing techniques.


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Many lessons in our courses apply to both digital and traditional art. In a few tutorials, digital drawing software, e.g. Photoshop or Procreate for iPad is required. However, for the majority of lessons it is more about the underlying concepts and all that is needed is a pen and paper.

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Erika Wiseman Digital Drawing in Photoshop – Intermediate
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