Adding your Signature to your Digital Paintings

 Here's a quick and easy guide to adding signatures to your paintings - digital or otherwise. 

Step 1: Scan your Signature
Sign on a plain white sheet of paper with your favorite pen/marker. The color doesn't matter. You'll learn how to change the colors to match your painting. Scan the signature or take a clear photo of it. 

Step 2: Remove the background from the scanned signature
Now, we need to remove the white background so your signature can blend with the painting. If you have Photoshop or any photo editing tool, you can use the Magic Wand tool to remove the background. 

But there are easier, less time consuming ways to do it. Adobe Spark is a free tool that lets you remove background. 

Go to https://spark.adobe.com/tools/remove-background and drop in your image in the gray dotted rectangle. 

It'll take a few seconds to process your file.

Once the file is processed, click on the image with your right mouse button and select "Save Image as" to save it to your local drive. The file should be saved in .png format (and not .jpg) to preserve the transparent background (Adobe Spark automatically saves this as png. This is mainly if you use another software to remove the background). 

NOTE: I'm using ArtRage for the following steps but this will work in any photo editor/digital painting software

Step 3: Add the signature to your painting

Import the signature file to your painting on a separate layer. You can change the size of the signature or align it digitally using the transform tool and dragging the handles around the signature. 

Once you are happy with the size and alignment of the signature, lock the transparency of the layer. This will ensure that you won't be able to paint over the transparent parts of the signature. 

Step 4: Change the color of the Signature 

Use the color picker to select the color around the signature. In the Hue selector, choose a color that's either lighter or darker than the currently chosen color. 

Now, use the brush tool, click on the signature layer and paint over your signature. Since the signature is on a separate layer, you will be able to change the color later if you don't like it. 

 

That's it! Save your file and export it as an image file. If you plan to use it on Print On Demand sites like Redbubble, make sure the exported image is at least 4500 pixels x 4500 pixels and has the resolution set to 300px.