A step by step tutorial on making a

collage using SketchBook Pro app

See more of my work at:

www.flickr.com/photos/suzi54241/

Exploring the New Digital

MurtaughSusan

I start with a scan of a letter sized ink drawing of my dog, Sausage, done in 2008. I’ve uploaded it to Dropbox. In the Gallery area of SketchBook Pro app I press the flower+ icon at the bottom and choose 1536 x 2048 canvas size, which gives me 6 layers to work with. And in lower area I navigate to the drawing in Dropbox.

The canvas opens in the Image Editor. I set the drawing layer from “Normal” to “Multiply,” in effect making the white background transparent. Next I want to add some color and texture to the dog. I make a new layer and drag it under the first. I navigate to my photos and bring in a picture of brown paper.

I erase all paper around the dog.

Hint: I collect backgrounds and textures. This particular one was saved from the app ArtSet. LetterMpress, ArtRage and many other apps have different paper and canvas backgrounds that you can export to your camera roll and import into SketchBook Pro. And do take photos to use as interesting backgrounds too.

I add a layer in between the top drawing and bottom paper, I paint in some color highlights. When I’m happy with the result I merge the painted and brown paper layers together.

Make a new layer on top of everything and using the camera option in the layers editor I take a photo of the dog biscuit. Use the eraser to outline it.

Hint: Do try to use good lighting. Natural sunlight near a window is terrific. When sun’s not out I use a small LCD lamp to help. A sheet of white paper at an angle makes for good light fills. Flashlights work as well. I find the onboard flash of phones and most cameras are too harsh. Also there are plenty of photography apps out there to help adjust a not so hot photo.

Adjust the size of the biscuit, using the Transform Editor. Then duplicate the layer two more times, Moving each into position. Merge the three milkbones into one layer.

Make another new layer and drag it to the bottom of the stack. Fill with a color or in this case I’ve imported a painting I did in ArtRage. You can paint it in SketchBook Pro too, there are always many options for backgrounds.

I’ve added some airbrush shadows behind the dog and biscuits. Then I put a new layer on top, with the Type Editor added the word Sausage and moved it into position. I locked the layer transparency (red circle above) so I could add a little texture and color to the type (zoomed in).

I’ve saved the original painting to the gallery and made a new SketchBook Pro document, same 1536 x 2048 canvas size. I took a photo of Sausage’s old dog tags. Once again I’ve erased the background to outline them. Next I put a layer below and brought in a screen snap of the original painting so I could manipulate the tags.

Hint: to take screen snaps, press the home button and power button of your iOS device, you will hear the camera shutter and the photo will be placed in your camera roll. I made this book using screen snaps.

Another hint: hate erasing? You can remove the backgrounds easily in PS Touch then copy the results back to a layer in SketchBook Pro. Make it even easier by shooting the photo on a white background.

I duplicate the tag layer three times. Then erase two of the tags from each layer, each remaining tag is on it’s own layer. Press and hold on one layer and the option to copy the contents of that layer appears.

Copy... from second painting> Save to gallery> open original painting and Paste on new top layer.

Hint: in iOS the ability to copy and paste between apps is a huge bonus. I often make vector gradients in the app Skribl, then copy and paste them into SketchBook Pro. Skribl is also useful if you need to set a paragraph of type, as SketchBook Pro can only do one line at a time. Just copy and paste between them.

Paste the second tag in, then merge layers as you go. In the second and third photos you can see how I arranged the tags and my current working layers. Not in photo, below the shadows layer is the background Art Rage painting.

I’d like to add a little fun and excitement to the piece now. I’m going to select an unexpected brush. From the last page of brushes, the dotted line. By pressing the adjust button on the top right of the editor you can change the brush parameters to your liking.

I apply the stokes on a layer between the background and shadows.

Once I’m happy with the lines I merge all the background layers together. I use Save A Copy to make yet another document, because I still have things I want to add and need to free up more layers. If I make a mistake I can always go back to the first document and redo if need be.

You can see the three active Sausage paintings in the gallery below.

Next I bring in some watch faces that I found on the internet. I duplicate the layer because I want them in one line, not two, erasing and moving until they’re just the way I want them then I merge the two layers together. I set that layer from “Normal” to “Multiply” mode to make the faces transparent.

See how the watch faces look printed on the painting? To finish up the composition I added some transparent circle brush dots, one on the middle milkbone. A couple behind the dogtags and one up by the watch faces. Now it’s finished, so I zoom in and sign my collage.

This took about two hours from start to finish.

Following are more collages I did with old drawings. I hope you’re inspired to create some of your own.

For more tutorials using SketchBook Pro go to: http://www.sketchbook.com/news/tutorials-from-gurus.html#.UuflDf16hjA

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Susan Murtaugh, is a graduate of the Chicago Academy of Fine Art. She’s worked over 45 years in advertising and graphic design, including 25 years as Principal of her own design firm. She’s used every traditional art medium. Since 2009, her preferred tools are her iPhone and iPad. She’s been featured in several group shows, online galleries, workshops and in local and international news. Her work and tutorials have been featured in Digital Artist Magazine and online. She has curated several international digital art shows, and has served for 3 years as Artist in Residence for her county’s public schools. She also teaches a masterclass at Autodesk University every year. She loves sharing the joys of mobile digital art. 

Susan resides in the Town of Two Creeks, WI with her husband and son.

See her work at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/suzi54241

MurtaughSusan