Making Of Mambrino's Helmet

Here is a little demo of the digital process I've been using for my continuing Don Quixote series. First, of course, I do some small thumbnail sketches to determine the composition. Then I draw the image with a brush and ink. I scan the drawing, then copy and paste the drawing to create a new channel in Photoshop. This allows me to color over the top of my drawing, leaving the background blank. I add a layer of flat color, and place it underneath the line drawing. This keeps the lines on top crisp and unmuddled. Then I add a layer of lights and a layer of darks, to provide some shading and color variation, and to emphasize the forms a bit. Then I use a texture of old paper that I've scanned and place it over the color. Finally, I have another ink drawing I've created, which I scanned to create the heavenly light. I deleted the helmet area because I didn't want the light obscuring it. The image below shows the ink painting--in the actual image I've altered it from black to white, but I left it black here so you can actually see it. So then I turn the ink white, and voila! The final image. I've grown to enjoy digital processes--making images like this reminds me of intaglio printmaking, but this is much cheaper and faster.