Sketch Practice

PS CS2.  A page that started with digital gesture drawings that I used for practicing various things, some that you can see, such as refining the sketch with contour, volume/shading and cartoonification, and some that you can't see, like working with layers.  The gesture drawing was made on one layer.  I then lowered the opacity of that layer, created a second layer and did the outlines on that one.  Then I created a third layer, on which I used the lasso tool to select various parts of the anatomy that I then toned/shaded with the brush tool.

Working in passes like this is the same with digital as with traditional media.  The benefit of working on separate layers, however, is an advantage of working digitally that enables one to isolate each stage of development and make changes to it without affecting the other stages.  

Hey.  I'm not saying it's good, just that I'm getting the hang of it, which includes getting in the habit of thinking in context with the digital environment.  Just as when inking when one has habitually to mark the inkwell and wet lines on the paper in order to avoid accidents, one has to check tool and layer settings and be aware of what layer is active when working digitally.  These habits are peculiar to the medium and must be made integral with the work flow.

Note: the original gesture sketches were done from video tapped life model sessions; the lighting was invented.  Yes - it could have been done more carefully and neatly.  Next time.  This was just to get the gist of it.