fine lines

Assumedfailure · Post by **Assumedfailure** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 9:52 pm

I'm looking for some way to make the lines I draw thinner. Are there particular pens that people use to make really fine lines? Or maybe some way to trim down the lines on the computer? I've been trying to just draw bigger, but I'm having trouble drawing a little larger, and if I draw much larger I can't make frames (and it take a lot more time). I have the feeling that just figuring out how to draw a little larger is the answer, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to have more information on the subject.

Thanks,
Michael

Edit: I found out that in the gimp I can shrink the lines by selecting them all then using the shrink feature. Though I am still wondering about pens/drawing devices/impliments of distruction if anyone has any thoughts.

Phact0rri · Post by **Phact0rri** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 12:00 am

I have a set of micron pens that has a 0.02. I never have to use anything smaller really as anything smaller would be smaller than the width of my original pencil lines.

Assumedfailure · Post by **Assumedfailure** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 8:25 am

ah, thats what I'm using too. I started out with some that I found in a box in the garage which were pretty close to dead so they made finer lines then new ones. I think I just need to draw everything about 50% bigger.

Anyways, Thanks for the tip.

Faub · Post by **Faub** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 10:43 am

You should take the time to learn to draw your characters large or small as the situation requires. Drawing large characters gives you the opportunity to zoom in for extreme closeups without resorting to scaling a normal sized drawing in GIMP and getting funky huge lines.

Get a piece of letter sized paper and draw your character's head using the entire page.

You should also consider using a larger pen anyway to force yourself to draw larger. When you scale the final image down the line will look thinner.

Godai · Post by **Godai** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 10:51 am

I don't use traditional techniques anymore, but the same thing appies to pen and to tablet: draw larger. MUCH larger. If I need something to be say 10x15 cm, I usually draw it like A4 (21 x 29 cm) and then scale done the outcome after flatting the layers in PS.

It's much easier to draw using 5 piksel line, than using 1 pixel line. Especially that the latter won't produce varied lines.

And I believe, as said before, ame thing applies. Professionals do it: eg. manga is scaled to 80-something percent for print purpose.

Assumedfailure · Post by **Assumedfailure** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 7:50 am

faub: I tried doing that, and they didn't turn out that bad. However they were really just bigger versions of how I usually draw them. The only extra detail that I put in was a little bit of shading with the gimp, and i used real cross hatching instead of the single line shading I usually do. Would know of a tutorial or something that I could look at to see where I should be focusing for putting lines when I'm doing an ink drawing (The last time I really drew a face was about 5 years ago, and it was all in charcoal and graphite. which doesn't transulate well for me into pen).

godai: Thats a good point, I hadn't really thought of varied lines. I guess the trick is to just keep sketching until they start to look like what I want them too.

Thanks for your help.

TheSuburbanLetdown · Post by **TheSuburbanLetdown** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 8:13 am

Dip pens and brushes give fine lines. Radiograph techinal pens get pretty fine too.

Assumedfailure · Post by **Assumedfailure** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 8:43 am

Dip pens led me to confusion (I get pretty easly confused about thing) so I avoided them. I hadn't heard of radiograph techinal pens though, I'll have to look into those.

EvilChihuahua · Post by **EvilChihuahua** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:51 am

Do you have a tablet? I had the same problem you did with thick lines, until I started doing all of my art with a tablet in flash. If you do'nt have them already, though, It's a pretty expensive way to go just to get thinner lines. (But I love it!)

Assumedfailure · Post by **Assumedfailure** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 12:30 pm

I was thinking of trying to work with a tablet, but I get the feeling that I would be pretty awkward with it. I have trouble when I don't have somewhere to put my elbows, I like to hover over whatever I'm drawing, that way the paper knows who is in control (usually the paper).

EvilChihuahua · Post by **EvilChihuahua** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 3:04 pm

assumedfailure wrote:I was thinking of trying to work with a tablet, but I get the feeling that I would be pretty awkward with it. I have trouble when I don't have somewhere to put my elbows, I like to hover over whatever I'm drawing, that way the paper knows who is in control (usually the paper).

Yeah, tablets can take some getting used to.