Revamping scrapped artwork is a great way to improve the skills of any artist. It is a great measure of your improvement and changes in style over time. Back in 2007, I had a caricature drawn of me at an event, which I later used to practice vector styles in Photoshop. Fast forward some years, and I’ve recreated that old artwork with improved skills as a digital painter. This tutorial will show you how I transformed that old vector illustration into a true digital painting. Let’s get started!

Tutorial Assets

The following assets were used during the production of this tutorial.

• Old Cartoon (Feel free to use your own)

Step 1

Cut and paste a previously scrapped cartoon into a 1800 x 1650 document at 150 dpi with a white background. Use Free Transform while holding down Shift to make sizing adjustments, then center the image. Trace that image using a high opacity, soft, black brush.

Step 2

Since this cartoon is based on an actual person, quickly collage several photos together of your subject for reference. This reference will help when modifying the trace to look more like the subject. By keeping the reference black and white you can concentrate on just the characteristics of those features. And later on when figuring out how light should fall on the face, you can always reference the collage again.

Step 3

Modify your original sketch by using your tablet to redraw features to look more like the subject. In this case, I paid attention to the eyes, nose, and mouth to achieve this effect. Don’t worry just yet about making the cartoon more anatomically correct, you can save that for the painting later.

Step 4

For sketching curly hair, draw the curls so that they interact with each other, looping with one another and bunching together. For a quick cheat, draw only one side of the curls and use the Lasso tool to copy and paste a new layer of curls for the opposite side. Flip and rotate the curls so that the copy isn’t too obvious, though any similarities will be covered up during the painting process.

Step 5

Add a new layer. Using the Elliptical Tool, create a large circle behind the cartoon with a stroke of 7 pixels. With the Pen Tool selected, right-click to create a Vector Mask. This circle will enclose the background scenery for the painting. You can leave the extra details for any of these additions until we start painting the image.

Step 6

You can create a theme around your cartoon as I did. Since the original caricature artist drew me from their point of view, this where I can add a little flair to make it my own. I love vintage lifestyle and fashion, so I incorporated it into the drawing by adding a flapper style headband and halter top.

Step 7

I always start off with a base layer of solid color for my paintings. Add a new layer underneath the trace layer, taking a soft brush at full opacity to fill the cartoon with color. Add another new layer above the base, and use this layer to add more shape and definition to the cartoon while experimenting with color. Originally inspired by the warm, romantic colors of sunsets for the background, I wanted to keep this color scheme consistent with the rest of the painting.

Step 8

I use mostly the standard round soft brushes at medium to low opacity to paint the character. For a smoother look, take the Smudge Tool at 50% strength and wiggle it over an area to blend the colors softly together.