Sijun Forums :: View topic

Nomadikk · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 6:12 pm

Hi,
Ive been looking a lot of people's line art on here, and its very nice. Is there anything special you do to get such nice lines? I scan my page, and then adjust levels a bit to remove the shades of white a bit. But its still not as clean as Ive seen some of your guys'. Do you retrace them in a vector based program, or is this a photoshop technique?

Regards,
_________________
-Jesse Acosta
http://www.jesseacosta.net/illo

Inspector Lee · Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2003 10:52 pm

Are you talking about for coloring over (or under), or are you talking about just plain clean black line art?
_________________
Smokey, this is not 'Nam this is bowling. There are rules.

Nomadikk · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 1:12 am

For coloring with.
_________________
-Jesse Acosta
http://www.jesseacosta.net/illo

B0b · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 1:51 am

some people use streamline to tidy the lines up i believe..

Inspector Lee · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 12:09 pm

Easiest way is to duplicate the layer (Right click on the background layer in the layer palette and select duplicate). Then select "multiply" for that new layer (pull down menu in upper left of layer palette). Next, drag this new layer onto a blank canvas (because it's sitting on top of the original background). Now you should be able to color on the layer below your lines without any white or gray areas around the lines (in multiply, all the whites become clear and even the grays become percentages of black on clear).
If you do a lot of color pouring, this won't be the answer to all your problems. I would look at some tutorials on digital coloring to see how different artists handle that one, because there's just too many methods to go into here.
Hope this is some help.
_________________
Smokey, this is not 'Nam this is bowling. There are rules.

Nomadikk · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 1:30 pm

Well, I do that much already with multiplying the layers and such.. But my lines are still ugly. Here's what I mean:

If you look on the right, the line quality is horrible. See how towards the center of the line, it seems to fade away a bit.. Its not pleasant to look at if you know what I mean =)

Also, what is streamline?

Regards,
_________________
-Jesse Acosta
http://www.jesseacosta.net/illo

Inspector Lee · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 1:49 pm

I just imported your artwork into Photoshop and did an adjustment on it. I had no trouble getting the lines to go to a nice solid black and the gray fuzz around the lines to drop out. Are you adjusting the line art before you color?
Maybe you're just not pushing the adjustment far enough. You should be pushing the dark and light sliders (upper ones) towards the center. Just keep sliding them towards the center until you get what you want. I'm assuming you are using a full version of Photoshop?
Otherwise I don't know what to tell you. As I said, it was rediculously easy to do it on my system.
_________________
Smokey, this is not 'Nam this is bowling. There are rules.

Nomadikk · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 2:24 pm

I see I didnt bring the sliders far enough. But still, the lines are pretty "hairy" for lack of a better term. Any suggestions for this?
_________________
-Jesse Acosta
http://www.jesseacosta.net/illo

Inspector Lee · Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 3:14 pm

I'd try Bob's suggestion of streamline. Only other thing I can think of is make sure you're using a good smooth paper and a good pen. Cheap paper tends to bleed the ink, which can make the lines appear hairy (close-up). There is no substitute for good materials.
_________________
Smokey, this is not 'Nam this is bowling. There are rules.

Alen · member Member # Joined: 27 Oct 1999 Posts: 80

I just color my pictures and then blur the lines, so there's no need for perfect lines as far as i'm concerned.

YVerloc · Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 2:24 pm

Nomadikk,
here's a few things that popped into my mind. Hope they help:

a) Larger format source artwork. What size was your original? I'm guesswing it's 8 1/2 * 11 or smaller. A pencil line in an 8 1/2 * 11 illo is pretty thick and crunchy. A pencil line on a 11*14 illo can be quite elegant.
b) Ink it. It looks like it's a pencil scan, yes? Depending on what style of linework you want, it might be better to ink the lines before you scan. A pitot hi-techpoint on standard xerox paper produces a nice, clean line.
c) Better scan? It looks almost as if your scanning in at 2 bit color depth. Either that, or curving the image way to hard. Make sure that you don't kill the anti-aliasing at the edge of the lines. For linework to look smooth, the image cannot be strictly black and white - the full range of greys needs to be there. Without greys, the lines will look too aliased (like stairs).
d) Scan and work at higher res. Scan you image at double the resolution you want to work at, then resize the image in photoshop. This has the effect of softening the lines a bit, and smoothing things out. Works a bit better than simply blurring the image.

good luck
YV

B0b · Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2003 2:51 pm

Khatru · Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2003 1:57 pm

Judging from the evidence it appears that the original line quality, as you drew it, is the culprit. I'd invest in a stack of quality marker paper and some precise drawing pens, if you aren't using them already.