(Pressing down with different levels of pressure on the tablet will adjust your brush size, but not the opacity of the brush.) Keep initial lines loose, exploring the shape.

Start sketching! Just as you would with traditional media, keep your grip light on the Wacom stylus during sketching.

Just like a pencil, you’ll be able to build up the line over itself and darken areas as you go. If you want to mimic drawing lightly with a pencil, set it in the 20% range.

If you want to replicate pressing hard on a pencil, raise the opacity. Now set the opacity, how opaque or translucent your lines will be. For sketching, I like to use a hard-edged brush, so I’ll leave this at 100%. Next, choose the brush’s hardness, which determines whether the edge of the brush is hard or soft, by clicking on the small down arrow next to the brush size. I’m a big fan of ballpoint pens, so I’ll be using a brush size of 10. Think of this new layer as a piece of clear glass on which we’ll be sketching.Ĭlick on the icon that looks like a small paintbrush to select the Brush tool.Ĭhoose a size that’s similar to your favorite drawing tool by going to the Options bar. Because the file has just been created, there is only one layer: the solid white “Background.” Click the icon at the bottom of the Layers palette that looks like a square with a folded corner to create Layer 1. On the right side of the Photoshop window, below the color palette, is the layers palette. After you’ve made your selections, click OK and a blank canvas will appear. A resolution of at least 300 will ensure that we can print a nice clear copy of our sketch when we’re done. I set my image size to 8 x 8 inches and the resolution at 300 pixels/inch or “dpi”. Open a new file in Photoshop, choosing the options that are right for you. Just follow these simple steps, and you’ll be on your way to Photoshop sketching awesomeness just using the brush tool and the layers palette. The advantages? Digital sketching allows you to create your desired image and experiment with an endless variety of brushes, colors and styles-easily, naturally and without consuming valuable materials. (Okay, bad example.) But the next-generation of sketching uses a Wacom stylus and tablet and Photoshop instead of the traditional pencil and pad. “Sketch” and “paper” go together like peanut butter and jelly, coffee and cream, and Sonny and Cher.