painting from pencil sketch - GFXartist.com - Served over 20,000,000 artworks

Back to forum overview

Back to topics

painting from pencil sketch
ninedjinn \| 04/30/2006 @421 \| edit post

i would like a tutorial or some basics on getting started on painting from a pencil over my wacom tablet or a scanned copy of the sketch

i just ordered a 9x12 wacom tablet
i plan to either use photoshop/painter or sketchbook pro to start the work

which program would be best suited for the tablet plus the most functionality?

Re: painting from pencil sketch
arenhaus \| 05/01/2006 @349 \| edit post

Painter is best suited for tablet, due to tilt support and advanced brush model.

As for how to tackle it - just like you'd tackle a real painting. Load the sketch, use it to block in color masses, add details.

A good trick that Painter allows that you can't do in real painting is keeping a copy of sketch overlayed as you paint. Load the sketch as mask ("mask from image luminance" ), set the mask color/transparency to your liking, and it'll "float" above the canvas, indestructible. Turn it on and off as needed.

[Message edited on 05/01 @663]

Re: painting from pencil sketch
Jinny \| 05/01/2006 @536 \| edit post

Or don't bother with the mask.

1. Open the sketch in Painter.

2. Select > All.

3. Click inside the selection with the Layer Adjuster tool (F key).

4. Highlight the Layer in the Layers palette and in the top left drop down list (Composite Methods), choose Gel.

5. That makes your sketch Layer's white background transparent.

6. Lock the sketch Layer to prevent moving it or accidentally painting on it.

7. Create other Layers and drag them down the Layers palette list below the sketch Layer and do your coloring there.

NOTE: Using this method, all of your sketch remains as you created it. Using the mask method, you can lose some of the sketch's edge pixels and that can alter the look of your sketch.

Jinny Brown
Corel Painter Instructor, TutorAlley Forums

Corel Painter Focused Sites:
http://www.pixelalley.com
http://www.tutoralley.com
_______________________

Re: painting from pencil sketch
arenhaus \| 05/01/2006 @662 \| edit post

Only a layer will take at least 4 times more memory and resources than a mask. Might make some want to "bother", really. (It's pretty muc hthe same amount of "bother" in both cases. Pick whatever suits you.)

BTW, I didn't understand what "lose some of the sketch's edge pixels" means. Nothing that fits the description ever happened in my ten years of working with Painter. Care to enlighten me?

[Message edited on 05/01 @663]

Re: painting from pencil sketch
wildmind \| 05/01/2006 @767 \| edit post

i don't know, i tried Jinny's trick and its so much better and easier and worked very well with me ;-) it doesn't alter the look of my sketch.

Re: painting from pencil sketch
jfrancis \| 05/04/2006 @232 \| edit post

Holy crap, it's Arenhaus.

Where you been, dude?

Re: painting from pencil sketch
arenhaus \| 05/04/2006 @314 \| edit post

Working. Is there a problem with that?

Re: painting from pencil sketch
jfrancis \| 05/04/2006 @682 \| edit post

Do we get to see?

Re: painting from pencil sketch
Jinny \| 05/06/2006 @213 \| edit post

_quote:
arenhaus wrote on 05/01 @349
Painter is best suited for tablet, due to tilt support and advanced brush model.

As for how to tackle it - just like you'd tackle a real painting. Load the sketch, use it to block in color masses, add details.

A good trick that Painter allows that you can't do in real painting is keeping a copy of sketch overlayed as you paint. Load the sketch as mask ("mask from image luminance" ), set the mask color/transparency to your liking, and it'll "float" above the canvas, indestructible. Turn it on and off as needed.

Hi arenhaus,

Didn't mean to insult when using the words "don't bother with the mask". What I should have said, was "Here's another method that a lot of artists use.....".

I think you're right about not losing edge pixels if your method is to either use Select > Auto Select > Using: Image Luminance, or use Channels palette menu > New From.... > Image Luminance, and Load Channel as Selection. Then create a new Layer and with the selection active, fill it with color and adjust the Layer Opacity as needed.

(Of course maybe I'm not understanding your method due to terminology or sumpthin'??)

I guess what I was thinking of was when we use Select > Auto Select > Using: Image Luminance, then click inside the selection to lift it to a Layer. If you've ever done that, you may have noticed some edge pixel residue is left on the Canvas.

As to four times as much memory being used with the Canvas containing black and white line work lifted to a Layer, I haven't noticed that.

The most obvious (visible) difference between the method I suggested and your mask method is that the white background is carried to the Layer while your method (which is fine with me, by the way) if I understand it correctly, has line work on a Layer with a truly transparent background instead of the white background only appearing to be transparent when the Layer is set to Composite Method Gel.

While I haven't checked it with every file I've worked on this way (Canvas/linework lifted to a Layer, Composite Method Gel), I don't recall seeing that alone change the amount of memory needed. What does change noticably with Layers and especially what's on each Layer is file size.

In a little test tonight using a small black and white inking with fairly complex line work (if that complexity matters):

The original 650 x 544 pixel 300 ppi black and white line art RIFF file was:

239 kb

With the Canvas selected and lifted to a Layer set to Composite Method Gel and the new Canvas now blank, the RIFF file was:

260 kb

With a selection of the line work on a Layer, filled with color, and the Canvas now blank, the RIFF file was:

274 kb

With a selection of the line work on a Layer, filled with color, and the Canvas still containing the black and white line work, the RIFF file was:

493 kb

With a blank white Canvas, the black and white line work on a Layer set to Composite Method Gel, and another Layer added covered with multiple-colored and textured brushstrokes (Artist's Oils, Impasto depth and lighting disabled as the image was cut from a Clone), the RIFF file was:

840 kb

In all of the above cases the selection made using Select > Auto Select, Using: Image Luminance was not saved as an Alpha Channel and the Current Size (RAM) remained:

2 MB

Some very nice advantages of using your method are (though a selection could also be made from the black and white line work Layer set to Composite Method Gel and treated in the same ways):

The selection can be saved as an Alpha Channel and used on other Layers or on the Canvas.

The selection can be active on a Layer and filled with color.

That Layer's Opacity and Composite Method can be changed.

The selection can be inverted.

We can paint, fill, or apply other Effects menu options inside the selection, outside the selection, or both inside and outside the selection.

The selection can be stroked.

The seleciton can be converted to a Shape.

The selection can be saved in the Selection Portfolio to be used again on other images.

The selection can be modified (contracted, widened).

The selection can be feathered.

..... and probably more.

Anyway, it's good to have as many options as possible then find the ones that work best in each situation, so thanks for your method, one I sometimes use as well.

Jinny Brown
Corel Painter Instructor, TutorAlley Forums

Corel Painter Focused Sites:
http://www.pixelalley.com
http://www.tutoralley.com
_______________________

Re: painting from pencil sketch
arenhaus \| 05/06/2006 @689 \| edit post

Maybe I should have said that I use this "floating mask" not as selection, but for reference.

I understood the OP as wanting to paint over a sketch, not to color a cartoon cel (for which a Gel layer is indeed good). Painting over destroys the sketch, pencil lines are not kept in the finished work. An extra mask is an easy way to keep it around for reference, not for reuse, and so Painter's problems with "lifting" a selection aren't applicable.

As for memory usage tests - I am not sure. I'd try a 80megabyte file, not a 2-megabyte one for a conclusive test.

That is, you can afford to waste a few hundred K, but a few dozen megabytes is different. Does Painter optimize layers so highly that it "knows" when the layer is black and white? I don't believe so. The arithmetic is really simple, then: any mask channel is 1 byte per pixel (alpha only), any layer is 4 (R, G, B, alpha). Four times the space for the same result is not a good tradeoff if your work is big enough and when other things like undos and brushes are expensive too.

Re: painting from pencil sketch
ninedjinn \| 05/22/2006 @586 \| edit post

Thanks for all the help guys
You have given a lot of feed back.
I sure you could post all this for other artist to come see

Now i just got to get around to getting more sketches done

Re: painting from pencil sketch
jfrancis \| 05/22/2006 @712 \| edit post

In Photoshop, "Gel" is "multiply"

If you want to do something similar there, put your dark-lined/white paper sketch on a second layer from your painting and set the blend mode to "multiply"

It doesn't matter whether your painting or your sketch is on top - multiplication is commutative.

http://www.digitalartform.com/multiply.htm

Re: painting from pencil sketch
ninedjinn \| 05/22/2006 @788 \| edit post

yea i need to get some drawings done and have them scanned in so i can experiment

Re: painting from pencil sketch
Ophiel \| 05/26/2006 @104 \| edit post

_quote:
jfrancis wrote on 05/22 @712
In Photoshop, "Gel" is "multiply"

If you want to do something similar there, put your dark-lined/white paper sketch on a second layer from your painting and set the blend mode to "multiply"

It doesn't matter whether your painting or your sketch is on top - multiplication is commutative.

http://www.digitalartform.com/multiply.htm

That method is really good, I tend to use it alot. Although, if your sketch isn't clean to begin with (my sketches are always horribly smudgy on paper that was once white) you might wanna fiddle about with the levels or curves first though. (I mean photoshop here, me no usey painter.)

Read the Terms of use and Privacy Statement.
This site is a property of Brothers in art For more information and support, contact .

Web GFXartist.com