How to Paint Digital Art. From Screen to Canvas. Full Process.

I'm excited to take you through my process of transforming digital art into a real painting. Let's dive into the steps, tips, and tricks to bring your digital creations to life on a physical canvas! 

Step 1: Priming

I’m using a wood panel because I prefer it over canvas, but you can use any surface you’d like. I start by priming my panel with a light coat of white spray paint. I use spray paint because it’s faster and dries quicker, but you can, of course, use regular primer or gesso. After the first coat is dry to the touch, I make sure to do a light sanding with high-grit sandpaper (300-400). This ensures a super smooth surface (that’s the goal here). After the first coat dries, I apply a second coat to get nice even coverage.

Step 2: Transferring the Design

Once the base coat is dry, I use a projector to transfer my digital design onto the panel. To get everything lined up, I found the best method is to open your design in Photoshop and use the Transform tool to manually drag the corners of your design in line with the corners of your panel. This ensures everything is nice and straight. I also make sure to set my display to never-sleep so I don’t have to worry about any interruptions. 

Step 3: Tracing the Design

With everything lined up, it’s time to trace the design onto the panel. This step involves outlining all the major elements to create a solid guide for painting. In this case, I’m just using a regular pencil, nothing fancy here. (If you don’t have a projector, see below on how to use the graphite transfer method as an alternative.)

Step 4: Laying Down the Base Color

Next, I apply my base color using fluorescent spray paint. In my case, my paint is transparent so I can still see my line work just fine, but if yours is not, you’ll probably want to do this BEFORE you trace your design. Depending on your work, you might not even need this step altogether.

*Important Note

Yes! This IS the same design I used on the trashcan I painted for Coachella. I was NOT able to keep the trashcan unfortunately and I really liked the design + had left over paint. So, I decided I'd make myself a little something just for me to keep and hang in the studio.

Step 5: Outlining with Posca Markers

Using my trusty Posca marker, I start tracing all the main outlines. Depending on your work, you might want to do this step at the end. I like to do this first since it helps me get the details and tough spots out of the way first, and then I can focus on painting in the larger fills.

Step 6: Transferring Complex Designs

For more complex parts of the design, I’ll use the graphite transfer technique. I’ll print out the design to scale, then using a soft 6b pencil, rub the graphite on the back of the design. After that, I’ll flip it over and align it on my panel. I’ll trace over the design using a ballpoint pen and like magic the design is transferred. This ensures I get super nice and crispy lines. I also make sure to mark my positive space to avoid confusion when I start the painting process. 

Step 7: Painting the Larger Fills

At this point I’ll speed through all the larger fills using an appropriate size brush. I’ll switch to a tiny one if need be to get any last details in as well. 

Final Touches

The final step involves going back over the design to catch any missing details and cleanup any smudges or mistakes. In this case, I had painted over some areas, masked them off a bit, and re spray painted them to ensure everything was nice and clean! 

Conclusion

If you've never painted your digital work before, DO IT! — you won't regret it! The transformation from digital to physical is truly something magical. It’s a feeling I’ll personally never get over and hope you won’t too.

Cheers.

How to Paint Digital Art Full Video: