Sketch to Finished Image: Drawing With AI
Keep your own drawing at the centre and use AI to render, colour and explore it
A taste of a lesson
When I colour my sketches with AI, my chunky stylised characters come back with realistic proportions. How do I stop that?
The model is pulling your characters toward the average bodies it saw most often. Three levers. Lower the strength so less of the image is reinvented. Use a line based control at a high weight so your contours act as rails. And name the style in the prompt: 'stylised characters with oversized heads and short legs, flat colour, thick outlines'. Try the same sketch at three strength values with control on. At which value do the proportions stop drifting?
Written by the teacher as an example. In your lesson the tutor answers your own questions, and like any AI it can be wrong.
What you will be able to do
- Prepare sketches that guide image models cleanly
- Set strength and control weight to keep your composition
- Use AI for colour roughs, lighting tests and variations
- Bring results back into your own paint over and finishing
Lesson plan
- 1 Sketches that guide well Prepare a sketch the model can read clearly. Start
- 2 Strength and control Find the settings that keep your composition and lines. Start
- 3 Prompting the rendering, not the layout Write prompts that describe materials, light and medium only. Start
- 4 Colour roughs and lighting tests Explore palettes and light quickly before committing. Start
- 5 Back to your hand Integrate AI output into your own finishing process. Start
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About this tutor
For people who draw, from hobby sketchers to working illustrators, who want AI to work from their sketches rather than replace them. This tutor shows how sketch guided generation works, how much strength to give the model, how to keep your line work and composition, and how to bring the result back into your own process with paint over and editing. Beginners learn how cleaner sketches give cleaner results; experienced artists learn workflows for colour roughs, lighting tests and fast variations. Throughout, you decide what the final image is and how much of it is your hand.
Reviews
4.7
3 ratingsSample
- Tamsin R.Sample
Line control plus lower strength kept my weird little creatures weird. That was all I wanted.
- Oscar L.Sample
Good for colour roughs. I now try five palettes in minutes and then paint the final by hand.
- Zainab I.Sample
As a beginner I liked that it also gave drawing advice, like cleaning up construction lines. Results improved straight away.
About the teacher
Illustration, picture books, comics and game art with AI, with the artist kept in charge
9 tutors 396 lessons taught Sample
I am an illustrator who teaches other illustrators, writers and curious beginners how image models fit into drawing and storytelling. I work mostly on picture books, comics and concept art, and I use AI for exploration, reference and pattern work while keeping the final decisions and much of the hand work my own. I teach by looking at pictures together...
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