Some general points about digital vs physical workflows and processes. Feel free to add by replying.

Basics of physical-digital workflows for methods and productivity:
Todoist: https://todoist.com/productivity-methods/medium-method
Great article on taking an ‘in-between’ method to physical and digital processes. I had no idea about the sketchbook options mentioned in the middle. BUT, again, there are no magic solutions here - it seems Chad still manually transfers notes to a digital workflow.

Palle Schmidt: https://comicsforbeginners.com/digital-vs-drawing-paper/
A nice piece looking at the pros and cons of physical vs digital - sums up pretty much what we’ve all experienced! There are no nice shortcuts here because they are fundamentally different processes - there will always be a pinch point when it comes to digitising, scanning, taking photos :( But I love the last point here about when you get famous and might want to sell original sketches at conventions!

PS - Comics have a well-established and specialised physical > digital workflow. The Glasgow artist Frank Quietly (Vince Deighan), who is famous for Superman, has some great videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWPig0uEeA4

I think there are two three four basic approaches.

1.1) Using sketches as part of your digital artwork itself
1.2) Using sketches as the basis (background) for digital work
1.3) Using a digital sketching workflow from the start
1.4) (LATE ENTRY) Using sketches independently from a digital process

1.1 Physical sketch use in digital workflow

This is (surprisingly) white rare and it can be hard to find tutorials and material that look at this specifically - most tend to be about how to **convert** from sketch to digital.

Monika Zagrobelna: https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/quick-tip-clean-up-your-traditional-drawings-in-photoshop--cms-23591
This is a really detailed (slightly advance) tutorial on touching up digitised sketches. This is the closest to my process and I even learned a few things I’m going to try out here! I do a lot of pencil sketching and these are **ridiculously** hard to scan in and keep the ‘life’ of the original. So, yes, it’s hard and it takes time and patience but you are trying to preserve a piece of art, not just convert it.

1.2 Physical Sketch **conversion** to Digital workflow:

Zimri Mayfield: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI4w8J6yauk
This is nothing new in terms of process - confirms that he also uses a sketch, photographs it using phone, and uses that as an underlay to redraw in Adobe Illustrator (AI). BUT - I like the tone of this and his humour :) (I am also an AI novice - have never go the hang of it but could see me using this workflow to give it a it. In fact, Zimri suggests that using physical sketches to learn to use the pen tool is the best way to get good at AI and I can see why.
You can check out Zimri’s other videos on his channel and his t-shirt design process here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO4fw-QKbgc

CG Cookie Concept: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UPbGg2GXPQ
A bit old (PS from 2013!), but another physical sketch starting point, this time using Photoshop (PS) and how he prepares the sketch. A bit boring but it does show some of the very basic (still used) techniques for separating layers to work in PS.

Teaching Tech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiOlU0mkLss
Another sketch to digital workflow into PS and then AI. Good for what I would suggest is a slightly more rigorous process (the profile adjustment in PS is better than levels in CG Cookie’s workflow!).

Shutterstock: https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/digitizing-art-guide
This guide is a good overview of the two main approaches to 2D art: raster or vector. (Basically, Photoshop is raster (made of pixels) and AI is vector (made of geometry).

1.3 Using a digital sketching workflow from the start

1.4 (LATE ENTRY) Using sketches independently from a digital process

Apart from the usual boring workflows, I couldn’t find any really interesting ones.

• Traditional photography (i.e. working with the image itself)
• Using photos in some blended way (i.e. as elements in some other process, such as textures or content)
• Using digital media to sketch and be creative (i.e. using photos and media for non-traditional creative processes, such as blogging, online content generation, social media, etc.)

For all of the above, having a good sense of a basic digital image workflow – in fact, having several – is no bad thing at all.

Here’s what I think are the basic ‘forms’ of workflow (feel free to disagree/add!):

2.1 Manual process

2.2 Software / Service process

2.3 Social media process

2.1 Manual process

If you’re old school and totally paranoid about teh internetz – or if you just want complete control over everything, ever – then you might go for this.

The steps listed in this post https://photographylife.com/what-is-photography-workflow here are a useful start for this more traditional approach:

·      Setting up the Camera and Capturing Images

·      Transferring Images to Your Computer

·      Importing Images into a Photo Application

·      Organizing and Sorting Images

·      Post-processing Images

·      Exporting Images

·      Backing up Your Images

·      Printing or Publishing to the Web

For each of these you can have a manual or manually automated process.

For example, I still use a version of this for some of my work:

·      Import images

·      Create folder for images

·      Rename images (batch process)

·      Create mid-res online and lo-res thumbnail versions

·      Tag

·      Run automated uploads/publishing

Which no one would ever want to do given the technology available today…

So, bulk processing, editing or automating certain things, is almost always a very useful thing to include in your process – for whatever you do.

But remember that many of the basic editing features are also available in both PC and Mac operating systems (albeit they’re not quite the same quality, but if they do the job…)

2.2 Software / Service process

Intermediate software packages, like Lightroom, photo album apps, Google Photos, etc. all try to help organise, sort, and edit (basic) your images. These can significantly speed up parts of your process, especially around finding and using images or carrying specific tasks.

Lightroom is becoming slightly ubiquitous in many design workflows – have a look at Photos In Color’s overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN2jqsJgbBs

Don’t rule out some of the software that comes with your PC or Mac – this can do a lot of the basics without paying for anything.

For example, here’s batch resizing on Mac: https://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-batch-process-images-the-easy-way-using-preview-on-macos--cms-28121

And the (slightly less straightforward) version on PC: https://www.online-tech-tips.com/windows-10/how-to-bulk-resize-photos-using-windows-10/ (for PC, I’d recommend finding a good batch image tool – there are quite a few free ones to choose from)

2.3 Social media / services

Don’t forget Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Google, Twitter and all the other image based social media apps and services.

On the plus side, these are fast and can do some really powerful things very quickly indeed.

On the downside, they usually control what you do and there is a bit of a generic quality to many contemporary images.

Suggestions for workflows in here would be really welcomed!

2.4 Mixed methods

Of course, in all likelihood, you’ll use a blend of all of the above

So taking a workflow approach is probably a good idea – what do you want to do? What ideas are already out there to help you get there?

Even a quick Google search brings up loads of process models: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&hl=en&sxsrf=ALeKk036p7-9cS5dUM5p5qz3hMrs25QwYg:1596369356827&q=photography+workflow+chart&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiJn8aju_zqAhVoShUIHUCsAH4Q1QIoAXoECAwQAg&biw=1440&bih=723  

But here’s a few more specific ones:

Chris Eyre-Walker: https://chriseyrewalker.com/my-complete-photography-workflow-in-10-steps/

Tanya Goodall on here photo blogging process mixes quite a few services: http://: https://www.slrlounge.com/5-tools-speeding-photography-blog-workflow/