Digitize Your Drawings: Learn how to turn your original drawings into digital works of art

How to Digitize Your Drawings with Karla Jodoin: Turn your ink drawings into multi-use, digital masterpieces with this beginner, step-by-step course!

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)

• 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

This tutorial is not for you if:

• You’re looking to digitize originals created in colour (e.g. watercolour) or pencil sketches

• You have an advanced understanding of Photoshop and Illustrator 

• You don’t have access to Photoshop

• You don’t have access to a digital camera or scanner

You’ll learn:

• How to prepare your ink drawings to be photographed or scanned

• Tips on how to photograph your images in both natural and artificial light for the best, most clear image

• How to properly scan your drawings

• How to save and open your drawings in Photoshop

• The tools I find most useful for cleaning up and editing drawings in Photoshop while preserving as many of the original details as possible

• How to create a isolated image of your drawing with a transparent background in both Photoshop and Illustrator

• How to save and export your final image

• Several ideas on how to use your now digital drawing