How to Turn a Personal Sketch Into a Poster

So you just spent all this time sketching up some cool designs in your sketchbook and you're not sure what to do with them. Why not show your family and friends how awesome of an artist you are by turning those drawings into posters? In this tutorial I'll show you some tools and techniques to use in order to create posters from your own personal sketches. I created this poster at TechShop in San Francisco. You can learn more about TechShop at their website, http://techshop.ws/. This tutorial is easy and can be replicated anywhere with many variations.

You will need:
- A sketch
- Access to Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator
- A printer
- A scanner
- Good quality paper
- Creativity!

Step 1: Scanning Your Drawing

First things first, you need to get your sketch from your sketchbook onto a computer. I was able to use a scanner to do this, but if you don't have access to a scanner you can always attempt to take a photo of your design.

Step 2: Photoshop Your Design

Once your have your scanned design on your computer open up the file in Photoshop. Crop your photo to the desired size and begin editing.

Step 3: Editing the Design

You'll want to click on the "Levels" button in adjustment and then adjust the arrows on the bottom until your photo is the desired black and white look. Afterwards merge all the layers by clicking Layer>Merge Visible. Press ctrl+alt+2 (On Mac's command+alt+2), open a new layer, and paste the selected section into the new layer. Afterwards, change the linework layer mode on the old layer to "Multiply"(You'll notice if this step is wrong during the coloring portion).

Step 4: Coloring Your Design

To finish off your artwork, you'll want to color in your design. This also is a chance to get a little crazy with Photoshop and fill in your piece however you like. For this example, I chose to use a simple gradient with some fun colors. Once I was satisfied with the overall color of the design, I merged all my layers. Afterwards, I clicked Select>All and copied the image over to an Adobe Illustrator document that was the size of my printing paper (In this example 8.5x11in). After adjusting the size of my image to fit a certain amount of space on the paper, I was ready to print.