Why convert your hand drawings to digital? Here are 5 reasons.

When you draw on paper, trace, or in a sketchbook - do you then digitize your hand drawings? If the answer is no, maybe it’s time to reconsider. In this article, you’ll learn 5 reasons and benefits why everyone should consider digitizing their analog sketches.

1 - Safety Backup

Imagine a cup of coffee just spilled over your sketchbook. Now, all the hours spent perfecting your drawing officially go to waste with the new brown stain. But, the ending would be totally opposite if you have digitized your drawings.

Digitized artwork acts as a backup, a safety net in case of loss or damage to the original.

2 - Easy to Share

Say your client from 1000 miles away wants to see your work progress during a video conference meeting. A digitized drawing can do just that. Or, you might want to post your drawings on social media to win more commissioned projects.

In these cases, if you know how to digitize your drawing properly, you can show crispier and sharper line work in the softcopy via email, USB, or messages. Digitized artwork looks more appropriate on professional occasions (eg: communication with clients and colleagues), as well as showing your work portfolio on social media platforms.

3 - Non-Destructive Editing

Once digitized, you can edit your sketches and drawings in non-destructive ways. From cleaning, sharpening, coloring & texturing your drawings — without having to worry about making a minor accidental mistake that would destroy the whole piece. Plus - you can change any of the edits at any time, now or in the future!

For artists, this means not only more safe editing possibilities to improve the drawing but also a peace of mind.

During the digitizing process in Photoshop (or similar software), take advantage of using:

multiple layers,
smart objects,
smart filters
layer masks,
and adjustment layers

to make your illustration easy-to-edit at all times.

This allows you to edit anything at any point in time, with peace of mind knowing that you won’t destroy the artwork. If you want to learn more about this topic, I shared these details in one of my online courses which I will talk more about later.

4 - Iterations, Revisions, Feedback

Digitized drawings make it quicker and easier to iterate ideas. You can create multiple variants or alternatives to your drawings. Most importantly, it allows you to quickly make revisions based on the feedback from your client or your boss.

As you can see now, digitizing your drawings improve overall workflow efficiency. Making changes normally cost hours on paper, but will only take a few minutes or less time if you do it on a tablet or desktop software.

This skill is invaluable as it increases work productivity, especially if you are working on a bigger project with more complexity, or if you’re busy on a few projects at the same time.

5 - Stand Out From The Crowd

Once you are familiar with digitizing drawings, slowly and surely you will find the unique visual techniques and styles that makes you stand out from the crowd.

In conclusion, digitizing your drawings not only improves workflow productivity but also presents endless possibilities and encourages creativity. Certainly, there are many softwares out there that can help digitize your drawings, but personally, I love using Photoshop (or Procreate on iPad).

If you're interested in the details, I'm sharing all the ins and outs of my process for putting your ideas on paper, improving their composition, perspective, and shading,

and taking it to the NEXT LEVEL in Photoshop in my new Domestika course Architectural Drawing: From Paper to Photoshop.

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Digitize Your Drawing - 5 Benefits to Go From Paper to Photoshop