paper vs computer?

[indes]

Hi,

Can anybody help me? I am trying to make fast sketches in painter with the same materials as i would use on paper. I want to make them on the computer because it saves time in making presentations and i hope the quality can be improved. Unfortunately the quality is worse. I have two images to illustrate what i mean. the one in grey has been done on paper. THe blue one from painter is a mess. Has anyone got ideas on how to use the feltmarker brush and get good quality. On paper it is easy to draw between lines with a marker and get a homogenous clolour for an area. In Painter the clour simply keeps getting darker.

Damn how do you paste images in this text box....

[indes]

Hi,

Can anybody help me? I am trying to make fast sketches in painter with the same materials as i would use on paper. I want to make them on the computer because it saves time in making presentations and i hope the quality can be improved. Unfortunately the quality is worse. I have two images to illustrate what i mean. the one in grey has been done on paper. THe blue one from painter is a mess. Has anyone got ideas on how to use the feltmarker brush and get good quality. On paper it is easy to draw between lines with a marker and get a homogenous clolour for an area. In Painter the clour simply keeps getting darker.

Damn how do you paste images in this text box....

[gmotto]

Hello Sander,
I have never been able to get satisfactory result from the Felt Tip Pens or Colored Pencils.I must say though,I have not tried that hard either. Perhaps someone else can give you better information.
I would suggest making, saving and naming a selection and then filling it with a color or gradient and or a texture. You can then reselect the area if you want to make changes.
I refer you to Jinny's post on selecting and adding to that selection.

Good Luck,
Greg.

[This message was edited by Monastic Bat on February 06, 2001 at 05:50 AM.]

[Jinny Brown]

Sander,

Working as a tech illustrator, I always found that the quality of my first "sketch".. or what we referred to as a "pencil" made all the difference in the final, inked illustration. I think the same principles apply when doing a pencil sketch on paper, then bringing it into Painter to complete the image.

Here's how I'd handle it:

Since you're accustomed to sketching on paper, and it's a very good way to begin even when the final will be done on the computer, do your sketch and make sure the corners meet, straight lines meet with curved corner lines precisely, ellipses line up with any straight lines that join them (as in a cylinder, for instance), all lines are equally dark and dark enough to scan well, and all the construction lines are erased before you scan the pencil drawing into Painter. (An erasing shield and a Clic Eraser are a big help when cleaning up a pencil drawing.) Now you have a clean pencil drawing that you can pretty quickly turn into a more finished looking Painter image.

Scan the sketch and enhance the pencil lines:

1. In the Select menu, choose Auto Select, using Image Luminance. If your pencil sketch is clean, containing only the lines you want in the final, they should all now be selected. If they're not, hold down the Shift key and draw around any missed parts with the Lasso tool.

2. With the selection still active, in the Effects menu, choose Tonal Control, then choose Brightness/Contrast and move the Brightness slider to the left and the Contrast slider to the right until your lines are crisp and black.

Now add color:

If the area to be colored is enclosed by a black line, use the Paint Bucket to fill or use the Magic Wand tool to select the area then either paint or fill with color, gradient.. whatever. (If you use the Magic Wand tool, in the Controls:Magic Wand palette, move the Tolerance slider to adjust the selection.)

Or with the Canvas highlighted in the Layers list, in the Select menu, choose All (or Ctrl/Command-A) and click inside the selection with the Layer Adjuster tool to lift the drawing to a Layer. In the Controls:Adjuster palette, choose the Composite Method: Gel. This will allow you to see through the Layer to the Canvas. Click the Canvas and paint in your color. Use the Lasso tool to draw around any stray paint that extends beyond the area where you want it then Edit menu, Clear (or Ctrl/Command-X) to remove it.

Providing you've taken the time to make a clean pencil drawing, this should get you a clean final image in a rather short time. If the pencil drawing is not clean (corners don't meet, etc.), you'll have trouble selecting and filling areas quickly.

An alternate method, if you don't like the one suggested above (and this will take a lot longer), is to scan your sketch, at whatever quality, create a Layer, then trace over the sketch using the Pen tool. Then, on a separate Layer, paint in the colored areas.

Hope that helps,

Jinny Brown
http://www.pixelalley.com
________________________

[CAL]

The darkening effect you get when overlapping felt pen strokes is because the felt pens are buildup brushes and as such, repeated strokes build toward black. The setting to change this can be found in the Brush Controls palette under; General / Method / Buildup. Setting the Method to Cover instead of Buildup will give you strokes that can be lighter than your chosen color(by adjusting the opacity slider) but will never get darker. I think this may be more of the look you're after. This also means that your strokes will overprint any other color rather than blending with them as a real felt pen would, but you can always toggle back and forth between Cover and Buildup depending on the look you're trying to achieve. dd

[This message was edited by CAL on February 06, 2001 at 08:24 PM.]

[indes]

Thanks everyone, I was afraid that it simply wouldn't be possible to use painter in the early stages of the design proces. But it sounds like we will be able to go digital all the way. Will take me a while to try all this though. And see if it can compete with early sketch ideas on paper.

bye,

Sander Weernink

[DLFrost]

"Thanks everyone, I was afraid that it simply wouldn't be possible to use painter in the early stages of the design proces. But it sounds like we will be able to go digital all the way. Will take me a while to try all this though. And see if it can compete with early sketch ideas on paper."

Painter is more flexible, provided you have a pressure sensitive graphics tablet to draw with.

I also recommend the Gel composite method for colorizing. Note that you can place new layers below the drawing layer and paint different colors into them, and then switch the visibility (the eye icon) on or off as a way of showing different color combinations to a client. This saves you the bother of doing new versions if a color change is wanted or if you just want to explore.

Don't be too strict in choosing brushes by their category name... Just because you're used to working with art markers doesn't mean you should use only the marker brushes when you try your technique in Painter. Spend some time experimenting with the different sets to get a feel for the different types, then just use whichever ones behave the way you want. For example, almost everyone uses the chalk brushes because they draw quickly & evenly, with any texture amount as desired. (The only exception to this is the Watercolor brushes, which are a special case.) If you find a brush that is just one step short of doing everything you want, go through the brush options in the manual, change the one thing, then save it as a new brush variant.

Doug Frost

[gmotto]

Doug & Cal,
Thanks for the Brush Tips. I knew someone could come up with a better answer than mine to Sander's question. He now has some good stuff to explore.(as do I )
Thanks again,
Greg.