What I did to do it

I've been asked a lot lately about how I do my digital drawings and some are majorly impressed by my mouse skills so I thought I'd do a blog about how I do them

All my drawings are done in Photoshop using a Wacom Bamboo Tablet (about as basic as they come) - I've done a series of screenshots to show the basic processes I use

my first rough drawing of a vulture - at this point it's totally from my head with no reference - I like to work this way so that I'm not overly influenced by the references and then I can make any corrections after if there is anything obviously not right 

As you can see I just had to change the shape of his head slightly as they are all pretty much bald 

When I'm happy with the initial sketch I turn down the opacity of it and then trace it onto another layer

This just irons out any creases 

Once he's all drawn out I'll remove the lower layer and I should have the finished outline 

I add shading using the same colour but with the opacity turned right down so I can build up the shadows

I use the smudge tool to smooth out all the shadows and make them blend a little better 

I then add the background - I like to use a brown paper texture as it's great for adding highlights as well as giving it a warm feel to it

This is my favourite bit of the drawing - adding the highlights - this is what brings it to life 

The finished picture!!