Outlines in Photoshop

Lately, if I have a few minutes at home—instead of the shop—I've been using Photoshop to zoom in and outline with my Wacom tablet. It's incredibly precise. So much so that I get frustrated.

But a quick zoom on, say, an eye lets me capture the exact shape in no time. There's nothing wrong with a light box or some tracing paper. But neither let me get this precise.

Here's a quick and small example. A client came in and want her specific rubber duck tattooed on her. So I took some photos and picked the angle I liked best.

I opened it up Photoshop and adjusted the levels for higher contrast. Then, with the new levels set, I brought in the extra elements she wanted: a sailor hat and dog tags.

After I had the piece ready, it was just a matter of tracing the outline. So I created a new layer and started drawing on it with the Brush tool at 6 pixels wide and 90% hardness.

Here's a close-up of what's going on. I have a system of lining, cross-hatching, and dotting areas based on comparing levels of light and dark.

This process took me about 45 minutes. To be honest, I could have drawn and traced the duck on a light box in 15 minutes. But because I had a bit of extra time and I wanted to add my touch to this rubber duck, it was worth the extra half an hour.

No matter the outline, there's always the freedom to do whatever you want. Once I have the basics in the skin, it's then my call to strengthen highlights or darken shadows based on what contrast I want for that tattoo. And here's the final result...