From Pencil Sketch to Digital Character

I'm sure there's a faster, more efficient way to do this, but I'm VERY new to digital illustration. I'm also very old school--I LOVE paper and pen or pencil. They will always be my first love. But I'm having a lot of fun trying some new digital lettering and illustration!

For this little lady I did a quick sketch in my Bullet Journal and I ended up really liking the little character that emerged. I love to see the evolution and process of art so I figured maybe you do too. So here are the steps I used.

First, I scanned the page onto my computer.

I then isolated the image in Photoshop by basically painting out all the background.

I used an Instagram filter to lighten up the image which got rid of the ghosting that was coming through from the page behind it. There are still some dots from my Leuchtturm1917 notebook showing through but I'm ok with that. I think they add character and once I add the color they'll be barely visible.

I then opened the lightened image in the ProCreate app on my (new!!) iPad Pro and added some digital color and added back in some of the shading that was lost when I lightened the image.

And lastly, (still in the ProCreate app) I added some lettering for a fun, playful touch.

Bullet Journal Pages 44-45

I'm tracking some things this month on this page. We'll see how it goes. I'm not normally this organized with that kind of stuff but I'm trying to change some habits and make some new ones and need some motivation.

The next page was pretty much a total loss. I don't love how my little crying cartoon came out. But then I last minute added that little sketched character to my Thursday spot and (as you can read on the page) I like her. I took a scan of the page, isolated her and added some digital details. I'll show the step by step process in another post.

Bullet Journal Pages 42-43

The "Hey Let's..." page is a fun way that I like to take notes sometimes. If you follow the lines you CAN with a little work make sense of it. :) Sometimes I'll put the date in the center and journal all around it. It's a sort of mind mapping I guess. Plus I think it's pretty. I've done it forever.

I love that quote by Jose N. Harris. And I think that little pop of color at the bottom of the page is just right!

Silly Little Scraps of Paper

Sometimes I do my little doodles in my Bullet Journal. And sometimes I do them on little pieces of cardstock--especially if I want to use Sharpies or Prismacolor Markers. Because, though I ADORE them, they bleed through the pages of my journal. I put all of the drawings in a drawer of the buffet that sits next to the table where I draw. Not sure what I'll do with them all but opening that drawer and seeing them all there always makes me happy.

Recent Lettering Challenges

 Prompt: Advice

 Prompt: Black

 Prompt: Ocean

 Prompt: Photo

 Prompt: Saturday

Prompt: Yesterday

Bullet Journal - Page 16-17 FINISHED

Remember these pages? Well, I've been working on them all month and my little memory calendar is complete. This was FUN! I will definitely do this again in the future!

Bullet Journal Pages 46-47

I'm starting a new Instagram Lettering Challenge for June and decided to put them all on one page in a calendar of sorts. Though I'm just going to scatter them around the page--not in the order of the days. This one is called Meet Me In June. 

Stay tuned to see the finished page at the end of June.

Bullet Journal - Pages 40-41

Just simple Daily TO DO lists on this spread. But I did practice A LOT of different types of lettering. Yeah, there's really no rhyme or reason to it at all.