Does this look as bad as I think it does?

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

So, what with the rewarding prospect of being able to at last get my comic up and running, I finished and colored a few pages to scan and then upload. However, I am very disappointed in the quality of the scanned image.

It is very very blurry, and just looks a whole lot crappier up on the computer screen than it does here in my hand, which frankly breaks my little heart.

Can anyone help me in terms of indicating whether this looks as bad as I'm imagining it to be, and if so, what steps I can take to lessen the horror?

raaaargh.jpg (61.19 KiB) Viewed 3507 times

Things that I know are wrong with it:

1. There's darkening around the edges of the paper because it's not flat against the scanner- it's sort of wrinkly from painting.
2. The border around the top panel is all wiggly waggly, which I'm going to go fix by hand.
3. The colors are kind of obnoxiously bright, a combination of the paint used and the fact that I tried to do the white balance in order to cancel out the graying at the edges- could possibly be fixed by re-scanning.
4. I have to tinker with the first panel a lot- I didn't really envision that peace-sign sorta thing going on there at the beginning, it was sort of a last ditch thing I did before scanning. So I know that has a lot of work to be done on it.
6. In the bottom panel the one chick's had is kinda coming out of the panel border which I'll also try to fix by hand.
5. It looks dreadful.

I really, really like working with traditional media- I'm not savvy enough to make a digital switch yet, so I don't think that's a possibility for me right now.
I don't want to leave the picture huge, since I know a lot of people really hate having to scroll in order to read a comic. However right now that seems the only way to get things to look good, is to leave them a wee bit bigger. They're all this size in terms of panels/taking up the screen, more or less, although some are a little longer. How much does scrolling make you hate a comic, anyway? If you have to scroll to read one, does it make you less likely to come back to it another time?



Total n00bness: I knew this wasn't going to be easy, but I didn't imagine it was going to be this frustrating.

[Caduceus]

You might have already done some of these, but here goes:

Put a white piece of paper behind the page when scanning. That won't help any of the specifics you are wrestling with here but is a good idea.

Try holding the lid down with your hand while scanning to squash out the shadows. Low tech but effective. If you already did that, can't help you with the shadows!

The size you have here is good. I certainly wouldn't make it any smaller! You can probably go up in size if you want but don't make it any wider than 600 pixels. It looks, however, that you have too much compression. Try turning down your jpg compression.

If you didn't do this already, scan it at a high resolution and reduce the size in photoshop instead of scanning at a low resolution.

If you are using watercolors you will get much better color by taking a photograph of the picture instead of scanning it. Watercolors are translucent and the reflection from the paper will show through more on a scan, messing up your colors. Just use a digital camera and a tripod and take a picture somewhere with even, white light. I know it's weird. But try it if you have a tripod.

Despite your technical scanning issues I LOVE the art. It's very charming.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

Thanks so much! I will be sure to try your suggestions. The coloring is actually primarily colored pencil- I just go over it in some areas with paint to make it look less pale and wan, although that only helps a little bit. (On second thought, maybe I ought to lay off the watercoloring for "real" projects until I'm a little more adept at it). Thanks!

[Siabur]

A large book will work to hold it flat as well. Try scanning at a higher dpi, it can help with the fuzziness. And no it doesn't look as bad as you think. Try a heavy paper, posterboard, cardstock, behind it to hold the reflections down. What program do you do the graphics in? Photoshop, Gimp, other?

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

I just started editing some of my other scanned things with GIMP and it is helping a lot. Hopefully when I edit this one there will be significant improvement.

[Lianweijun086]

Your art is amazing. To be honest, I didn't even notice anything until I read it. I mean, I knew it was a scan, but I think my mind was more focused on the actual drawing itself. Maybe that's just me... I use photoshop and picasa to edit pictures on the computer. Maybe you can check it out? Even if you don't use it for comics, Picasa is great for quick fixing photos and is also a GREAT picture viewer and archiving tool. I love it.

Good luck with your comic!

[Samuli]

If you have issues with the paper bending because you have used water on it I would suggest using thicker watercolour paper - something like 300 g/m² (140 lb). And if you like to draw on a smooth surface, try the Hot Pressed variety. It will scan wonderfully. Also, some scanners are really touchy about the paper not being absolutely flat on the scanning surface. Like Siabur suggested, I use a thick book on every scan I do - it saves a lot of time because I don't have to do rescans.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

Thanks everybody! I'll definitely consider getting watercolor paper in the future, next time I have to stock up. I mostly rely on other means of coloring, mainly on colored pencils, so I can just ease up on the use of paint until I can adequately supply myself with the proper media.

[Wendybird]

When I work with colored pencil I find the lighter penciled areas don't scan well. One of the things I do to make the light colors smoother and richer is go over them with a thicker layer of white colored pencil.

[Ripnormality]

I usually put a reasonably heavy book over anything I scan, takes care of the edges pretty nicely

And also, the image size is fine. I speak as one who is paranoid about art theft.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

Took it back to the drawing board, played with it for about 20 minutes, edited in GIMP, voila:

20090326a.jpg (241.73 KiB) Viewed 3335 times

It hurts my heart a lot less. Hooray improval.

[Siabur]

I like it. The colors are brighter, the texture looks good. This is one of the reasons graphic software helps the artist, you can do different things with out screwing up the original and having to redo it.

[Lianweijun086]

Yes. Much better! Cleaner, crisper picture. Well done!