Intro: Ghost Pirate

This is the final result of my drawing. I created it all on my Android tablet using Sketchbook PRO and Wacom Bamboo stylus.

I also made a picture of my tablet with completed drawing in sketchbook and picture of my saved work as I progressed.
As I did whole work on my tablet I couldn't grab a screenshot showing tools I used for particular steps. I added pictures :)

STEP 1: Let's Start!

I started with blank page of a new document. As this is Android tablet I didn't know how to capture a screenshot... So here you can just see blank image which was my first step :)

Edit: i got an idea that I can take a picture! So here it is :)

STEP 2: Now... Sketch!

I did very, very rough sketch. I just wanted to quickly grab my concept of what-wherw-how many-how big :)
You can do your sketch better than I did :)
So... put on your sketch water, moon, raft and pirate of course! You can add more to that.

STEP 3: Water, Oh Yeah!

Start to paint water for your pirate. Create new layer for it to make it separated from your sketch.
It has to be dark blue as it's night. Work a bit on shadows for waves and move forwad to the next step.

STEP 4: Moon, Stars... It's Getting More Romantic?

Now it's time for the sky, moon and stars. But don't be confused - it is not supposed to be romantic! It's just a background.
This part I did while traveling by train so the stars are not necessarily dots as expected.... But I kept it on separate layer so I could fix it later. You can do the same with any part of drawing.
For the moon you can use circular guidelines - absolutely amazing tool! I just wonder if it would work with stars, too? Feel free and try it.

STEP 5: Adding a Raft

Now paint a raft. Create a new layer for it and keep it on separate layer. It's brown as normally rafts are made of wood. You don't need to pay attention to make it immersed in the water - you can do it later. So just focus on lights and shadows. You'll use eraser later to remove some parts of raft to make it look immersed.
Keep the raft on separate layer as you'll need it at the very end of your work and for immersing, too.

STEP 6: Painting Some Items on Raft

Now start to put some items on raft: broken mast, treasure chest, and the yard attached to the mast.
Try to paint every new item on a new layer. When you're done with it you can merge the layer down or leave it on separate layer. This approach is handy as you can remove whole layer when you're very unhappy with your work.

STEP 7: Time to Sail!

Now we're ready to add sail to the mast and yard. This is a ghost raft so the sail need to be full of holes and jagged. To make that effect use special brush - the "painting" like brush which strokes looked like multiple parallel lines. This gives wonderfull effect of jagged sail. Remember to paint it on separate layer. If you do so, creating holes will be just simple use of eraser.
This step is also using eraser for immersing your raft. Put your raft layer into about 50% transparency for that task. Try how much transparency works for you:. the goal is to see water below raft to be able to erase pieces of raft cauciously. So when you see water look how waves are shaped and remove boundaries of raft - start with top of the wave, then move transparency back to normal and see the effect. Play around as long as you like :)
At this step I fixed my stars :) To make them look like mine use pencil tool and paint little transparent dots (I used 3 different colors: white, yellow and red)

STEP 8: Pirate!

It's time to paint pirate! Create a new layer fro the pirate and try sketching different positions for him. For mine I decided to make him sitting on a chest. You can place yours whenever you want.
There are some unquestionable pirate-attributes that you should consider for your character:
- wooden leg
- eye cover
- hat
- sword
- sometimes hook instead of one hand
- ughly smile with missing teeths :)
- beard

When you're done you can merge your layer down to the raft.

STEP 9: Final Step - Ghooost

Now it's time for the final step - let's make our raft with pirate look like a ghost!
To do so make sure that you merge all your items related to raft and pirate into one layer. However keep it separated from background (water and sky)!
When all your raft&pirate stuff is on one layer change this layer blending mode to either "Screen" or "Add" - both works well. I picked "Add" for mine. Looks nice, huh?
If some parts of it looks to bright or too little transparend you can fix that by erasing them with eraser (put your eraser to be about 90-95% transparent to get lighter effect)

You're done! I hope you had fun :)