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Here it is: this month’s tutorial! It’s on making your sketch presentable. Basically, if you have a rough sketch and not a whole lot of time to wrap it up, what are some ways you can make some quick and efficient modifications so that it’s good to post, share, or send out to your client? I also talk a bit about how you can present your rough work in an appealing way simply by adding a background color, tweaking the colors, or adding a signature.

I also talk a bit about using masks. If that part went too quickly, check it this simple resource by Adobe which explains them in more detail: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/masking-layers.html

This tutorial has a lot of overlap with previous ones. If you want to apply techniques from this video to quickly add more mood and lighting, definitely check out this tutorial: https://www.patreon.com/posts/tutorial-video-41372669 And if you want a more in-depth tutorial on how I choose my color schemes, check out this one: https://www.patreon.com/posts/tutorial-colors-39277902

I hope you guys enjoy this one! If you have ideas for future tutorials, don’t hesitate to let me know, your suggestions are so helpful! In fact, this tutorial topic was suggested to me by a patron (unfortunately I can’t figure out who, because navigating my message inbox here is a disaster and it would take me too long to scroll back - so if you’re the patron who suggested it, please reach out!). And as always, if you have any questions, don’t hestitate to ask!

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Comments

Willmann Fabrice

Thank you for sharing tips about how to finish a piece! I love the stuff you showed at the beginning of the tutorial (the animals studies and mushrooms), your style and skills are amazing!

Kathleen Bonnici

Hello, was wondering, do you currently have a video demonstrating such techniques on Clip Studio Paint? Thank you!

Loish

hey kathleen! unfortunately I don't, because I've never used it. but when I get around to trying it I will do my best to create some resources!

tobidrawsdigitally

I'm always excited about your tutorials! I'll definitely watch it later the day and I'm sure it will help a lot to improve!🙂💪🏻

Adri

this tutorial really opened my eyes on how to go about sketching in general. thank you so much for taking the time to make this! I also love how you've become more confident talking to the camera (drawing tablet? haha) as these tutorial videos progressed!

Azure Claw Comics

This is my first tutorial of yours that I've seen, and it's amazing! I'll have to figure out how to apply these ideas to my own stuff, eventually!

lilly geißer

this was really helpful thank you! :)

Rebecca Cortés

This helps me a lot. I often feel like my art is crap when I browse through IG or such, but now I see it's just a presentation thing. Thank you so much!

RenRelic

Ive been waiting for this one! I want to post my sketches however they neber look put together and always loon 9ut of place on my page. Thank you!

Sabrina Schmeing

Thanks for this tutorial! I especially liked the short example of how you present work to your clients very far at the end! That was very helpful and creates self confidence for when I will (hopefully some time next year) present work to clients. The professional look you created is really simple and efficient. Thanks for all the insights! 🤗

Kingsley Onwuchekwa

This tutorial has essentially enlightened me on putting effort into making my sketches presentable. Thank you Loish, topics like these are not usually talked about but they do make a difference in what we do as artists! I'm glad I'm a patron💜

Radka Kopecka (radu.k.art)

Wow, this was so useful and valuable, I love every bit of it! I will have to watch it again and make some notes, because there are so many great tips, thank you so much for this, Lois! Also, that client work at the end - omg, so cute!!!!! Can I ask if it was released and if there was a book/movie/game or what? I would be interested to see more of it :) Lastly, for the next tutorials I would like to see some tips on drawing animals or bringing a narrative (story) into the illustration. Big thanks again, you're the best teacher and I don't regret not going to art school anymore (at least everytime I finish watching your videos :))

mlara_artescape

Great tutorial with lots of great tricks! But I have a question about masks. I appreciate you explaining how masks work, but I am not sure I understand how it differs from a clipping mask in terms of result. In the end, whether you draw on a clipped layer or create a mask, the end result is the same in my eyes. Or maybe I just can't see the potential of masks haha, would love your feedback on this!

Sharon Tu

I love this! Best ever! Your 2nd to last step of the contour colors you mentioned that in procreate you don’t have to create a new layer like photo shop. Is that done by just using pencil only for color edit saturation or created a new layer then use pencil? Am I making sense lol?

Adelle Gough

Thank you so much for this, it's helping me finish up a page of sketches I've got going on at the moment! It's also making me realise how much I often resonate with sketches and "rougher" work more than polished work. I'd love to know more about how you go about finalising a group of smaller sketches on one page with that subtle but yummy look (I've got in mind a page of purplish poses you did recently where you push the shapes, I really dig that). I always want to put more detail in the faces but needn't. Also would love to see tutorials on clothes, animals, plants, and stylising and pushing shapes 😊

ChrisiaDraws

Absolutely loved this tutorial! I feel compelled to do some sketching so I can try and polish some without rendering to death :D Thank you for all the great tips!

Falco

Great info here, thank you so much!

Mona

When I was a child I loved David Attenborough documentaries, I watched them with sparkle eyes :D. And my eyes sparkled again :D I enjoyed this tutorial sooooo much. Thank you :)

Stephanie Dowling

I love this so much! Thank you so much. I tend to have a problem where I end up in a middle ground - I've gone too far into the rendering phase when really I wanted to just have a polished sketch like this. By that time, I end up finishing the painting and I've worked on it for hours. This should help me tremendously!

Harold Maduro

Wow, I have been working with Photoshop for 20 years (just not illustration), but this takes it out of the park, thank you for sharing your process. Can't wait for the weekend to dive in.

Loish

having limited time has been helpful for me! just knowing that I can't spend too long on a piece usually gets me focused on wrapping it up fast. many of my sketches turn into paintings so I definitely know where you're coming from :)

Loish

thanks adelle! I have the same thing. I can feel super drawn to a rough, sketchy piece, but be bored by a dazzling rendered piece. that roughness is what appeals to me the most. that's why I try to push myself towards rougher work sometimes, even though it can be tempting to just smooth everything out.

Loish

yes you're making sense! so in the newest version of procreate, when you click on hue/saturation, you can choose layer or pencil. if you choose layer, it applies the modification to the entire layer. but if you choose pencil, you can just paint the modification on the areas that you want it. so you don't have to make any new layers and add masks, you can just instantly create this bright contour effect :)

Loish

I think it's no different from clipping masks in essence! I just tend to use masks instead. more or less the same idea though!

Loish

so glad you found it useful! i think almost everyone loves seeing rough work, so the more we can share, the better :)

Loish

thanks! yes I agree, it's such an easy way to present your work but it has a huge impact!

Kolja Kähler

Hey, very useful! I‘m doing a lot of this all the time, but in a very chaotic way - you showed a more structured way to go about this. Also a few new tricks, and most importantly, in the future I‘ll think more about polishing the focal area rather than everything. I‘m happy :)

Krystal Blackmouth

Thanks so very much, I’ve been working with digital for a while but I always feel disconnected and at times frustrated with it because I always treat it like traditional. This usually creates overworked hour(s) long pieces that I’m incredibly dissatisfied and refuse to post, then I retreat back to my traditional mediums. Thanks to your tutorial I feel so confident I can tackle a finished work in less than hour. Thank you again and I hope you make more of these informative tutorials.

Nehal Yasser

I like you ... because it's very useful!

Genesis

This was sooo helpful thank you so much 💖 I would love to see a tutorial on how yo create different compositions, like making illustrations that are not boring, how to come up with ideas and actually put them on the drawing to make it look more magical. I hope that makes sense 😅

Loish

hey krystal! it sounds like traditional is more your comfort zone, and there's nothing wrong with that. you can also work in a mix of traditional and digital, where you scan / photograph your traditional works and make some final adjustments and tweaks digitally! hopefully this tutorial gives some ideas for that :)

Madita Muschket

This was very helpful! Especially the tips for client work. Thank you very much for this 😍🙏🏻

Alex

This was great! Thank you so much :) Speaking of tutorial suggestions, I'd love one on inking a sketch? I can do a rough sketch I'm happy with but when it comes to inking it I really struggle haha so a (line weight?) tutorial would be awesome to get your insight into what you think about when doing it :D

Chelsea Leonhardt

This was incredibly helpful! Thank you so much for addressing so many aspects of your art - wonderful :)

Nadine

Oh my god this is so helpful THANK YOU SO MUCH LOISH FOR SHARING THESE AMAZING TIPS ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Merritt Andrews

WOW. This is one I will be referencing A LOT. So much great information in this. THANK YOU!

Catfruit Studios (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-13 21:00 This is incredibly helpful, thank you! <3 I'm a freelance artist and I'm looking to get into doing concept art and I'm so lost, so I actually really appreciate seeing your character sheets. :)
2021-03-30 14:42

Loish

I'm glad you found it helpful! I get extremely positive reactions to the presentation format I use for my clients, it's such a small thing and yet has so much impact.

Niquey

I finally got a chance to watch this! I agree with everyone else. These tips are sooo useful. I've been trying to find a way to post more on Instagram, and if I did more presentable sketches like this, I think I would feel proud of my work rather than throwing up random unfinished stuff. Thank youuuuu!!

NeonDabo

Hi Loish, love your tutorials. I have to say, I searched out this Patreon page after seeing a video on youtube. It was a digital Painting Demo for "Syn Studio Art School / École d'art" That was a really good demo, you might want to ask to see if you can make that one available to your Patreon people. Been following your work since Trichrome Blue, what,11 years now, always one of my favs. Thanks! Chris. PS: I also would love to be able to share images of work with you, maybe have a stream where you give advice on submitted work . Just a thought! Thanks

Juan Tobías

This was very useful!!! Thanks!

Loish

I'm so glad you liked it Chris! I did post a link to that one here as well :) Might be good for me to add it to the resource list in the pinned post! Thank you for the suggestions and support!

Tina Kavčič

This tutorials has been really helpful and insightful and I really like how structured it is, it makes the whole process much easier to understand. I also loved seeing a peek in your presentation of client work. Have you considered making a video for character concept art process? I would be very interested to see how you do more conceptual work.

S (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-13 21:00 Hi Loish <3 I have a little question about this very helpful tutorial. Will it be available in your store ? Unfortunatly I was'n a patreon during march. But I'm interested by an off-line version. More particulary to heard it again, when i'm not at home <3 Thank you for your answer and have a lovely day !
2021-04-13 07:58

Loish

hey esteve! Unfortunately it's only available through the feed, sorry about that. I haven't considered selling my tutorials through my store, but I might do that at some point in the future. thanks for the suggestion!

Loish

hey tina! I haven't considered it but it's definitely a good idea for the future! I will add it to my list of ideas for future tutorials :)

Omari

Hey loish love this very insightful, just a quick question, what pencil do you use for your sketches, it produces such clean lines i love it !!

Bii

I loved this tutorial and took a ton of notes! super helpful and am looking forward to applying what I learned! do you happen to have a work around or alternative for the gradient tool in procreate? I unfortunately don't have access to a desktop version of ps and even ps mobile doesn't really support this tool very well :( thank you for your time! 💜💜💜

Piotr Kostecki

Another fantastic tutorial. Many thanks for sharing your knowledge, it is immensely helpful!

Violet

Loved this a lot tysm!

Mac

This was really helpful ! Thank you !

Lauri Panopoulos

Hi Lois, I finally got a chance to watch this tutorial. It was very helpful and I learn so much by watching the consistency of your workflow. I’m glad you touched upon sizing images properly for the web. When preparing your art for Inprnt do you use tiff or jpeg and are there any tips to keep in mind when doing so? Also do you do test prints at home in either .psd, .tiff or .jpeg before uploading to Inprnt? As always, thank you for sharing with us.

Loish

glad you liked it I generally use jpg for INPRNT, the size is quite large and it's the highest quality jpg so it tends to work out well! I don't do test prints either.

Herrmann (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-13 21:00 is it possible to download this video for watching it offline or it's too late ?
2021-08-27 10:20

Loish

hey herrmann! that's only possible for the people who were patrons during the month that it was posted. for all other patrons, it's only available through the feed!