What's a Scratch?
A scratch is another name for a scratch sprite. Which is a sprite made from scratch. Many people find scratch-spriting (scratching) hard. Let me tell you that I am one of those people. I know this tutorial isn't terribly good. So please don't send me emails complaining about how your scratch didn't end up good. If you think you can do a better job, well congrats, you don't have to read this. I'm just letting all of you reading this know, I AM NOT AN EXPERT SCRATCHER. SO STOP COMPLAINING IF YOU CAN DO BETTER. I stink at scratching, this is just a tutorial made to help beginners get started.
Scratch Sprite Tutorial
(To save space on my computer and on my Freewebs account, I only made one image with all the steps shown on it. It can be found at the bottom of this page.)
1) Decide what you want to scratch. In this tutorial, we will be scratching an Ekans. So I would suggest visiting PE2K.com and borrowing one of their Ekans sprites as a reference. Once you have the original sprite, create a rough outline of the scratch sprite you are creating elsewhere on the page. It can be in the same pose, or not, it doesn't matter. You don't have to go into major detail, or get too complicated. But since the ring on Ekans neck isn't and/or shouldn't be in the way of anything, you can draw that in. But the stripe on Ekans underbelly will probably get in the way, so don't draw that in yet.
2) Then, get rid of the excess lines and edit it so it looks more smooth. A major rule for scratching is
no right angles! The only exception for this is when drawing flames or tails; anything that must end with a tip or point. After you finish this step, it should start to look somewhat like the thing you're trying to scratch; in this case, Ekans.
3) After you fix the lines, you should start adding the colors. I usually start with the middle color, not the shadow or highlight, but the middle color, (You can start with any color you wish, though. All of these colors can be taken from the original sprite by using the eye-dropper tool on them.) On this step, you can draw in the yellow stripe on Ekans's underbelly, color the body, eyes, mouth (maybe,) and rattles. After this, you can add in the shading. Only put shadows where they actually would be in real life. But then again, Pokemon is Anime, so it doesn't have to be photorealistic. Shadows should connect and flow through the shape. So keep in mind about making it realistic, yet keep it Anime, too. Don't add in the highlights before the shadows, this could seriously mess up the sprite. (Remember that there will most likely be a light source in the picture, that is creating the shadows, so make sure the shadows seem correct. If you were standing directly under a light, you wouldn't have a big shadow on the top of your head, would you?)
4) Now it's time to add in the highlights. This means in the eyes, (and since Ekans has smooth scales) the body, and the rattles. But don't over do the highlights... or else it will look like your creature (Ekans) is standing in a big football stadium with tons of lights shining down on it. But if this really is the case, either draw a background or give a description about why it is like that. Also on step number four, you may give the Ekans's underbelly stripe an outline. It's not needed, but if you give the ring around its neck an outline, why not give the stripe one?
5) Now to perfect the outline.Like in the recoloring tutorial, it said to take the outline color from the sprite, this is what you will do. But as some of you may have noticed, the whole outline isn't a dark purple, yellow, or both. Well, it is both, but every-other pixel or so is black. So around the yellow part, alternate every-other pixel with the dark yellow outline color that comes from the original sprite.
Then do the same for the purple outline. And volia! You have succesfully created an Ekans scratch!
