Step-by-step: Make your digital art look traditional

1 After sketching out your subject, block in some large areas of colour. I like to start with a high chroma shadow and reserve the white of the canvas for my lightest values. It’s not necessary, but I usually prefer to work with Photoshop’s Natural Media Brushes, because I can achieve a nice brushstroke aesthetic. 2 Add a watercolour photo texture (set to the Color Burn layer style) to capture that grainy watercolour look. Apply a thin Inner Glow on Multiply to depict the dark edge- effect of watercolours. Then lock the layer’s transparency and blend in some lighter value of the same hue into the middle of the colour space. 3 Tighten up the details and add more layers of colours to enhance the watercolour glaze effect. I’ve set my top layer of detail to Multiply to achieve this. For extra realism, use gradients of colour and slight hue changes in your colours to simulate the slightly inaccurate blending of pigments on a palette.