What are sketch and line art process like for digital artists? since their processes are very different, do they do [ gesture sketch → rough sketch → refined sketch → line art] or [rough sketch → refined sketch → line art] or they scan their traditional refined sketches on a software and do the line art digitally?
Every artist/illustrator works differently. Some prefer to start with paper and scan then vectorise their work, while others might work directly on screen using something like a wacom tablet.
I would tend to say that if you can imagine a paradigm for creating digital art, there is a product that will do it.
There was a time when vector based and pixel based paradigms were separate things, but that distinction has long since been bridged. Input devices run the gamut of ways of connecting the human to the computer. Emulation of brushes, pens and pencils, cutters, engravers, airbrush etc etc becomes ever more sophisticated for those wanting that. Handling components as digital objects bridges the gap into emulating other media still.
Parametric control of function can be adapted from the world of CAD. And now we are beset with generative image generation.
You can work multiple ways -
There’s a process very much like pencil-> ink → colorize. Another way would be to create shapes, and poke and prod them to fit, then overlay with finer shapes and poke them into shape. That;s the advantage of digital - it’s not indelible, you can stretch or prod elements of the picture to refine shapes, (“make the nose a little sharper… make the chin more pronounced by pulling it out a bit”) You can copy and repeat an element. You can play with the colour balance and hue of a part of the picture, etc.
As mentioned - everyone is different. It also depends on the effect - are you going for a comic book (ink outline, flat colours) look? Realism? Somewhere in between (like a Mucha painting)? What you are aiming for will determine partly how you proceed. Some old master oil paint technique was to paint out the dark areas on the light canvas, then refine by adding the level of shading, color, detail over top. You can do that digitally too. Others start with photos, or elements cut from photos, and embellish them. No end of choices.
If you want any type of digital art instruction, just ask YouTube. they have thousands of DIY instructional videos. I did a quick search, and there are many for example “how to draw with Gimp” (Gimp is a free software that works like Adobe for art or photo manipulation)
Countless of them start on paper first, then do the line art digitally over their traditional refined sketch/preparatory drawing on a software and I do know countless of artists do their art on the screen on a software with a graphics tablets, I was talking ways of their sketch and line art process that artists make.
There are plenty of different methods.
For working with line art, you can either scan or draw onscreen (with a table, it’s easier). Digital drawing means it’s easier to go back and erase sections. You can also choose a style - ragged like a pencil, solid lines like ink, or lines which vary in width like a soft brush.
One advantage of digital is working in layers in some software. Once you have your “line ink” you can create a leayer behind it to hold th colours, so putting on colours with virtual brushes you don’t overwrite the exact shape of the original line art. And so on.
Some dispense with lines as a first step. I.e. Draw a pink oval using the shape tools. Prod it into more of a face shape. Draw a smaller oval as one of the eyes - pull and prod it to have the pointy corners of the eye, anothe circle over top for the pupil, etc. Copy that and flip it once it’s done, to get the other eye. SAme with the ears…add necessary lighter highlights and darker shadows. Rectangles for the Torso and arms, push to more subtle shapes. etc. No outline art necessary.
Another technique is to use something like Blender (free!) to create a 3D model with virtual scuplting, then pose it and render it. Blender even has a tool called “Freestyle” to create the line art outline around the rendered result. Ideal if you plan to do a graphic novel and need to redraw the same character over and over in different poses and angles. With computer, you can take that redered 2D result and add it into an existing computer drawing.
There is no special way. the world is your digital oyster.
I’m learning how to draw, but I’m not showing process yet.