Draw you cartoon using a black fineliner.

Scan it using a high resolution such as 300dpi (dot per inch).

Advanced Tip: When you draw your cartoon make sure you 'close' all your lines so they are completely joined up. Otherwise when you fill in the colour is will bleed to the rest of the image.

We now have to tidy up your scanned image, so it will fill properly.

Right click on the Background layer in the layer window and select 'duplicate layer'

Now make the 'background' layer invisible by clicking on the eye next to it, as seen in this picture.

We now want to get rid of the white paper.

Select the magic wand tool.

At the top of the screen ensure that the Tolerance is about 20 and untick the 'Contiguous' box. This will mean that all of the white is selected when you use the magic wand.

Select the white with the magic wand and press delete.

We now need to tidy up the lines.

Image > Adjustments > Desaturate

Image > Adjustments > Levels, then

In the levels popup window more the three arrow heads fully to the right.

This has made the lines in your drawing pure black rather than a shade of grey.

Advanced Tip: Now is a good time to save your work.

Now we can start filling the character.

Select the Paint Bucket Tool.

Double click on the colour palette to select a suitable colour.

Add colour to a part of your drawing using the Paint Bucket Tool.

Now we need to add the shading.

Select the colour you have added to your cartoon with the magic wand tool. Hold down the Shift key to select more than one area.

Selecting the colour means you do not accidentally edit the rest of the image. You will only be able to edit things inside the selection.

We are now going to add the shading to the T-shirt.

With the colour you have filled selected by the magic wand tool make a new layer.

Layer > New > Layer

Give is a name that makes sense. Eg. Tshirt shading.

Make sure the new layer is selected in the Layer window.

Change the layer type from 'Normal' to 'Multiply' in the drop down menu you can see here.

Now we are going to set up the gradient tool to start adding the shading

Select the gradient tool. It is sometimes under the paint bucket tool. Press and hold the left mouse button on it.

Your palette should still have the original fill colour in it.

Important: You must also select multiply instead of normal at the top of the screen when you have the gradient tool selected.

Across the top of the screen select the gradient type that is the colour fading into transparency.

The gradient tool is quite simple. Experiement of a new picture. Draw a line and notice where the gradient is drawn. Experiment using the Liner and Radial gradients.

We are going to use the radial gradient that draws a circle.

On the T-shirt shadow layer we are going to draw some Radial (circle) gradients to add shadow.

However, when we draw the line to make the circle we only want the tip to overlap the T-shirt

Start off of the T-shirt and draw a line that overlaps the edge.

You should now have a subtle shadow on your fill colour.

You can repeat this over and over again to add all the shadows you need.

This method gives a nice shadow than using dodge and burn.

To add the highlights...

Make sure the magic wand selection is still there.

Make a new layer

Alter the 'Normal' for this new layer to 'Screen'

Do the same after you have selected the gradient tool, select 'Screen' instead of multiply at the top of the screen.

Now when you do a gradient, it will add highlights.

Continue with the rest of your cartoon using this technique.

Fill a colour,

Select the colour with the magic wand

Make a new layer

Alter the type from Normal to Multiply or Screen

Use the gradient tool.

Email us in your final creations and we will put them of the website.