Another Lineart Question

[Cybeat]

I've seen many drawings with very little lineart showing. When I draw my lineart and color it in, I can still see my black lineart. How was I supposed to draw to make lineart barely visible?.....Or am I just seeing things again?

[Hime]

Well, you can do that by either...
a) ...Making only a very little/faint lineart in the first place and colouring that
or
b) ...Colouring a lineart and then erasing some of the lineart/making the opacity of the lineart layer lower/changing the colour of the lineart.

[Cybeat]

Ah, I'll try option a. Thanks.

[sake-bento]

What I usually do is do lineart as thin as possible in a very large size. Then when it gets scaled down, it looks thinner. Sometimes I just lower the opacity of the lineart and it makes the lines look thinner too. This one started larger and got shrunk down. For this one I changed the opacity to about 60%.

[Cybeat]

Hmm. Changing the opacity does a better job. You draw nicely! I can't even get people to comment my drawings.

[sake-bento]

Haha, thanks, but my brother drew those. He has the real talent. XD I just color for him (and adjust the lineart on occastion). I'll let him know you like it.

Edit: And I'm always promoting our stuff on the dA forums. Lots of people will trade comments for comments. That's the only reason there are so many comments. XD

[Cybeat]

He's good. Is that avatar of your's a drawing of his too? You're pretty good at coloring too. It's good you're brother's working for you. Nobody in my family helps, so I rely on myself for everything.

[Mikan]

Draw really big and with big quick strokes.
You may also want to experiment with using an off gray color for your lines.

I usually try to work at least 1.5 times bigger than the finished product. 2 or 3 times bigger if possible.

[Cybeat]

So you lineart it then shrink it?

[Mikan]

So you lineart it then shrink it?

yep.

Not that I recommend this, but time to time I'll draw something big using a very fine pen and then "cheat" using photoshop to create thicker lines.

(original line base)


(modified "thickened" version)

[sake-bento]

He's good. Is that avatar of your's a drawing of his too? You're pretty good at coloring too. It's good you're brother's working for you. Nobody in my family helps, so I rely on myself for everything.

Yup, he drew that for me. He and I work together a lot because his artwork is a good deal further along than mine, although I'm doing my own art for my current VN. We're pretty close because we're twins, so I guess it's natural for us to always work together. It's not terrible to work alone, though. I do some of my own stuff from time to time, and it's always good to practice everything so that you're well rounded.

[DaFool]

Ah, effects...

Usually to thicken a line I just duplicate the layer and merge down.
To thin a line I just change the opacity to 60% or below.

Otherwise, I might as well re-ink using thicker / thinner pen.

I've tried using skin-colored lineart for skin, hair-colored lineart for hair, but the combination doesn't always work out.

Using black to varying shades of gray is easiest for consistency, you can usually find a combination of opacities that doesn't make the drawing look like you plastered bits and pieces together.

[Vatina]

And then there is me with my thick black lineart all over the place Maybe I should try and change that sometime.... ^^;

[Cybeat]

@Mikan: That's some art. For some reason I think the original one is better. I like how you shined the hair.

@sake-bento: Twins? Like Mion and Shion? I'm just messing around. I have a brother that's one year older than me, but we don't always think the same. He's lazy and has no interest in anime art.

@DaFool: I guess changing opacity is my best choice.

@Vatina: I looked at your DA gallery. You draw good. Everybody draws well. I guess mine is not "at that level."

[Mikan]

I think the original one is better.

Well yeah, that was a gross exaggeration of the idea. It has its uses but I don't always work this way