Greetings, Artisan!

Someone dropped a comment question recently asking for basic digital drawing advice...

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​Which 'pencil' tool in Procreate was the best. Because none of them seemed to have the same feeling as a traditional pencil. ​
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​I said that the honest truth is that all digital tools still pale in comparison to the feel of traditional ones. ​
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Let me know if you agree... but this has been my experience so far.
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Despite the great leaps of technology and materials (the plastics in my wacom pens have improved in their 'feel' over the years, since my humble Artpad 2 back in 1997) It's still not great.
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​However, there are two key ideas I have found really useful when dealing with digital lines and drawing.

The first is that any brush will do, as long as you learn how to use it (this is a major part of what I teach in the Line and Color Academy)

The second is that I have been using the same Sepia Line layer setup on pretty much all my art for over 20 years now.
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And I find it actually makes quite a difference to how traditional the drawing feels.
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I know it doesn't make much sense, but hang with me for a sec...

A few weeks ago I released two videos covering a technique I've been using for some time in my digital workflow - using sepia lines for sketching and illustration.

Why I Use Sepia Lines

I've found that using sepia instead of black for my digital linework adds more energy and life to both the process and the final result.
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This is something I discovered while trying to find ways to make digital sketching feel more... natural.

I actually discovered this idea first while trying to make my scanned pencil drawings not look really muddy when I colored them. I think I saw a really old Japanese magazine where an artist did the same thing.

This is a good example of how I used it way back when:
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When using this approach, I find I can get a pretty high level of contrast between the white of the paper and the line just based on the color. Even with faint lines, there's still a fair amount of contrast.

It also trains me not to draw with a death grip - somehow the contrast of the colors helps with staying lighter for longer.

The real benefit comes when adding color. These sepia lines tend to blend with the colors underneath in an interesting way.

The drawing becomes part of the story rather than sitting separately from the colors. It's especially helpful when working with semi-finished illustrations that don't need to be super polished...

The Basics:

If you haven't seen it yet, my first video explains how this approach works:

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The Technique:

• Create your initial sketch on a layer
• Create a white-filled layer beneath your sketch
• Create a new layer above your sketch
• Fill this top layer with a bright sepia/orange color
• Set the top (sepia) layer to "Overlay" blending mode
• Clip both your sketch layer and the sepia layer to the white layer
• Set the white layer to "Multiply" blending mode
• Add a new layer beneath this group for coloring

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What's great about this method is that the construction lines and sketchy marks tend to fade into the background visually. I can leave some of the construction visible and it doesn't compete with the final marks - they just become part of the overall texture of the piece.

Demo:

In my second video, I demonstrate this technique while creating a character portrait in Procreate:

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The video shows the entire process from a rough thumbnail through to the finished illustration.

Here's a version of the final image (I added some noise and paper texture in Photoshop after):

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The Brush?

I got a lot of questions in the comments about the brush I use in Procreate for this technique, so here is a link to it via Dropbox:

​Download my (really basic) Pencil for Procreate​

(Psst, it's the original default chalk brush from Photoshop... the same one I have been using for 20 years.)
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I also quite like the 6B pencil that comes with Procreate...
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Here's another piece created in Procreate with final color and texture in Photoshop. This uses the same technique for the lines.

I have been trying to do more personal art recently (and actually posting it online). It's been good to make some art without having to record the process.

This has also been a good opportunity to explore a new style of art ritual for me where I chip away at a personal piece throughout the week.
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If you are interested in building a ritual or learning more line and color tricks like the Sepia Lines, my Line and Color Academy is all about this stuff:

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Cheers!
Tim