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BurningArtist — BA Lineart to Digital Tutorial
Published: 2011-07-29 16:58:38 +0000 UTC; Views: 7834; Favourites: 247; Downloads: 102
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People have been asking me for years to make a line art tutorial on how I get hand-drawn pics (all done in ballpoint pen) to look like digitally drawn art. Well, here it is finally. The secret to my "success" so to speak. Here I'll show you everything from my inking style to how I clean up the images in photoshop. I hope this is useful to those that, like me, are still a bit nervous to make fully drawn line art on the computer.
Note: Shortcuts also work with Photoshop Elements.
Lines from tutorial used here:
People who have used this technique: With a camera:
Art I've used this technique on:
P.S: If any of you spot any spelling mistakes, please be sure to tell me here so I can correct them.
Thanks and enjoy!
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Comments: 91
After my lines are clean I set the layer to "multiply" and make new layers for my colors. Remember that the order on which the layers are placed determines which ones become "transparent". So place your lines on the very top. This thick line style of mine works well with cel shading coloring but I have multiple examples in my gallery of a more softer approach. All the lines in my gallery are made in the same way as the tutorial.
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Ah that makes sense. Thank you! wonderful tutorial btw
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No problem! ^^
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I try to use it but the lineart is never clean or neat. why is that?
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Did you desaturate before doing any of the clean up steps?
Also, this is (as is stated in the title) for thick lines mainly.
It's worked for everyone else and someone even managed to use it on photographed pictures.
Just try to go again and do all the steps as I've written them down.
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Tell me if you hit a snag again and tell me what you did so I can help you better.
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Awesome!Just what I was looking for
Question!
I don't have a scanner so I have to take a photo of my drawing, how can a I clean that? Or I can use this same method? (when I get to my house I will check this out)
Thanks!
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I've honestly never tried but it's worth a shot I think.
Come back and tell me if it worked. I'm curious.
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It's super effective!!!! ;D When I submit one of the pag here I will leave you a link!
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Oh yay! That's great! When it's up, I'll post a link in the description so people can see that it works with camera shots as well.
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Awesome! I'm glad it works! <3
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Thx you!this is really helpful! It nice to know new techniques!
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you have no idea how much my manual line art suffers because I didn't know how to scan it in a way that didn't look crappy.
thank you!
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no prob. actually, 98% of all my art in my gallery is manual line art.
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you don't say. by the way, my version of Photoshop is Elements 6.0. can I get the same results with Elements that you do with regular Photoshop?
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I was told that Elements is a bit trickier to find the edits but that the short cuts I put in the tutorial still work. I added a little note in the description about that.
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oh, I didn't get to that part yet, oops. thanks for clearing that up for me.
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great, thanks again and keep up the good work.
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Loved it 
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I'm not sure if I'm considered good enough for a digital coloring tutorial though. I might be good enough to do one for traditional coloring with pen/pencil/pastels but with digital I still consider myself an amateur. Plus, I've been looking for my own style still so I'm trying a lot of different things.
I'm sure there's a good one on DA though!
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Great tutorial! I really think this will help my lineart. <3
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Glad to help! If you have any line art that you used this tut with, please feel free to post it here so i can see how it looks and if the tut was easy to follow.
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I will, though I will probably practice with it for a while before I post anything on Dev. I'll be sure to let you know though.
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This makes lineart so much simpler! Thank you for making this tutorial! It's really easy to follow (and the shortcuts work for my Photoshop Elements).
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Yay! That makes me happy and thank you for telling me that it works on Elements too.
I'll have to ad that in the description and if you have any art that you've used this tut for, I'd be happy to see it too.
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Yeah, the only difference is that my Image menu doesn't have adjustments, so I actually have to use the shortcuts.
I'll show you one of the ones I've done using your tutorial, well, once I'm done that is. ^,^
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sucks im like the only one that doesnt have a scanner and the absolute only soft-ware i use is PS CS5...
wish i could post line art like this here o3o
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Sorry. 
I've honestly never tried using this technique with camera taken images so maybe that's something to experiment with?
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Oh hey there~
I used this tutorial on this [link]
(It's not as awesome as your work, though)
Also I was wondering: Would it be the same if I "inked" with a pencil (aka, press really hard on the pencil to make the lines look inked) instead of a pen and then edited on Photoshop? Would it still look the same?
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There would be a difference (mainly) in the variation of the darkness in some spots of the lines. To give you an idea, this is my "sketch folder" where I used the exact same technique on pencil lines: [link]
So it does come out darker but you can tell more that those lines are done by hand.
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But it will come out more or less the same, right? I just really want to know, because line art was always such a monotonous and repetitive process for me before this tutorial. Pens are great, but it'd be even better if I could get the same results with just a pencil.
Perhaps I'll just experiment on my own and show you the results...
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Well, the results I got are what you see in the sketch folder.
Nit that even if some lines are thinner, I still went over them a second time to make sure they don't disappear in the cleaning process.
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awesome so you dont have to know to draw in any programm if you can draw in rl? O.O
yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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This applies mainly to a thick line style though. There are some styles of drawing that only use thin and this tut may erase a light inking/line style. I put samples below to show how it looks. If your lines are thinner than that, then it's best your learn how to ink via computer.
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awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^^
tyvm^^ but can i ask you something?
do you know how to draw in a program? i only can free hand draw and well...
lets admit with mouse that doesnt look very well >.<
--
"I am from the moon. If you miss me you might hit a star..."
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i'm still too nervous to draw my line art straight into the computer but I'm very used to coloring with a mouse/table/laptop touch pad.
actually, all the coloring for this is done via laptop pad: [link] - [link] - [link] - [link]
And this is the first thing I managed to make from scratch via my tablet (the girl): [link]
So yeah, I can color via PC but I'm still nervous about the lines.
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wow your awesome!!! o.o!!! I love the your arts!!!! v.v i dont think i will be ever able to drew anything like that or similar....
I have uploaded that single drawing and i havent even fixed it so im not sure anyone would like it...
I should try to create at least one drawing the way i imagined i should do...
but i still dk how can other draw in a program like photoshop or anything else >.<
it annoy me like hell...
--
"I am from the moon. If you miss me you might hit a star..."
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It's all just practice though. You can do it for sure. ^^
I mean, I still have a long way to go myself but I know we can both get there.
And why not try to work on your art? The only way you'll get better is if you practice.
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maybe your right... but idk...
i dont have the tools i need to make a perfect drawig >.<
I mean i have the program but i only can work just with mouse...
v.v
have you seen my first art work? ^^
--
"I am from the moon. If you miss me you might hit a star..."
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Yeah, why don't you try coloring it? I mean, you can`t get better if you don`t try. ^^
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idk... im afraid it wont be so good... >.<
--
"I am from the moon. If you miss me you might hit a star..."
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this is great
an average pen can do wonders XD
thanks for making this tutorial
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