While digital drawing has emerged as one of the most popular “new” techniques among artists, there still is something so special about creating a hand drawn piece with pen on paper. Many artists are able to make a living selling their original drawings, while also benefiting from turning their drawings into digital versions of their original work. 

By digitizing your drawings, you’re opening up the doors to new ways of selling your artwork. For example, there are many online platforms like Society 6 or Redbubble where artists can easily add their digitized drawings to countless items like t-shirts, mugs, bedspreads, shower curtains - you name it! And while you still may want to sell your original artwork, making prints from your originals is an amazing way to generate revenue long-term from just one item. This is especially true if you’re able to license your work to other companies to use on their products. One example of this is when I sold some of my floral ink drawings to a wallpaper company and they turned them into large-scale wall murals. 

This tutorial is for you if:

You’re a beginner and want to know how to digitize your drawings using either a scanner or digital camera and Photoshop. 

You have or have access to either a scanner or digital camera 

You have a basic understanding of Photoshop (e.g. how to create layers) or willingness to follow simple Photoshop instructions

You work in pen or ink

You want to learn a different or new approach to digitizing your work than you’ve been previously using

You want to sell prints of your original drawings

You want to create different products using your drawings