This step can be slightly different depending on your drawing methods. I personally don't have a tablet, so all my sketching is done on paper. If you do have a tablet, you can probably do things differently. For my purposes, I'll be going over how to do it with regular paper drawings.

Step 1: Scanning.

The first thing you want to do is clean up the drawing as much as possible before you scan. If you draw anything like I do, this isn't always easy. It's also not very important. It's really just to keep your sanity during the drawing.

Sometimes, if I know I'm scanning something specifically for the sketched version, I'll do the rough sketch on tracing paper first, and then transfer over. That's for another tutorial, though ^_^.

Once your drawing is ready to be scanned, open Photoshop and choose your scanner from the list. This can be found under File > Import.

I usually scan in color at 300 dpi, but you might find different settings to be optimal, depending on your scanner. I don't recommend going higher than 300 dpi, because it's not necessary and will just use more resources.

Once the settings are changed to your liking, you can go ahead and scan your image. I recommend that you preview first, and then alter the selection area to cover only your drawing… that way you avoid waiting while your scanner scans in blank paper.

Step 2: Pre-Ink Preperation

This step is optional, but it makes things a lot easier while inking.

Looking at the picture here, you see the "Background" layer. Make a copy of this layer by either right-clicking and choosing "Duplicate Layer" or by dragging the layer itself onto the "New Layer" button () at the bottom of the layers window.

Once you have the copied layer, delete the original background layer. I make it a habit of doing this with every layer, because I hate having a layer that I have limited options with. You can delete the layer by either right-clicking and chosing "Delete Layer" or by dragging it onto the trashcan () at the bottom of the layers window.

Now, create two new layers, and fill them with white. I usually just click the button twice, and then use the paint bucket () because I don't like using the top menus when I don't have to. ^_^;

Move one of those two layers under the drawing layer, by dragging it down. Then lower the opacity to 75% on the white layer that's above the drawing. You can name these three layers if you want, but I usually don't. It's pretty easy to remember which one is which of these ones.

You can see why I set it up this way if you click on the eye next to the sketch layer, making it hidden. I do this once in a while during the inking, just to see how the lines look at that point. The top, partially transparent layer is so that the lines stand out more, so you can see what you're doing.

The drawing so far.

Move on to Inking Your Sketch