Comment 87381
Parent Comment
That does help. ALLOT! 
GIMP has threshold but not Layer Blend Multiply. I never really thought to use threshold before... But yes that does help allot.
I knew the background was rather to busy, but I like the way it looked so much, and wasn't sure I could get it to look that way again, so I left it, until I figure out how I did it :scratchead:
I do have another question for you(though with GIMP the answer may not work...
)
Whenever I scan any of my art, I'm always left with massively thick lines, even when I draw lightly and try to keep them thin on paper.
Do you know of ANY possible way of thinning the lines without having to take all the, long time, it would take to just use the eraser and paint tools manually????????? 
GIMP has threshold but not Layer Blend Multiply. I never really thought to use threshold before... But yes that does help allot.
I knew the background was rather to busy, but I like the way it looked so much, and wasn't sure I could get it to look that way again, so I left it, until I figure out how I did it :scratchead:
I do have another question for you(though with GIMP the answer may not work...
)Whenever I scan any of my art, I'm always left with massively thick lines, even when I draw lightly and try to keep them thin on paper.
Do you know of ANY possible way of thinning the lines without having to take all the, long time, it would take to just use the eraser and paint tools manually????????? Comment ID 87381
![[Art] Dark Faerie](https://storage.googleapis.com/paperdemon-prod-la/submissions/thumbs/art_img_thumb_32469_5d94882c11fc86d83602fa8f79dd2b315ebd76cf8a1b5.jpg)
Awesome 
I had a feeling it would be a big help for you
So your lines are thick after scanning? Or during the lineart process? If it's thick when you draw them then the only way to fix that is by starting off with a larger scaled piece of art or a thinner pen (I use a 0.03mm pen at thinnest. IT's like drawing with a NEEDLE). If it's thick when you scan it in comparison to the original, then scan it at a higher resolution (300 or 600 is good) and use threshold to turn it pure black and white. It'll look like shit, but when it's shrunk it'll be pretty and tidy. If you start low res, then your lines will always be obvious. The shrinking process gives the art the pretty antialias look where the program puts a sharp gradient in to make up for lost information. Also, you'll have a nice big image that you can print for a physical record of your art. If you print a shrunken image then it'll either print small, or if you enlarge it, it'll be blurry.. or blotchy depending on if you saved it as a JPEG format. (PNG is lossless, but larger)
Basically, there's not alot you can do post scan to fix it short of redrawing your lines. Photoshop has some dilation tools that would thin them, but not evenly. you could slap it into illustrator and get it to redraw the lines with live trace, but the lines are never quite the same shape, but really, if the master has the flaw, then the master needs the change. There's no simple 5 click method of fixing a thick line save redrawing it.
Personally, I feel your line thickness isn't too bad of an issue. I feel that you could use some variation in line thickness, and if you scanned and worked at a high res, and made sure that your linearts didn't contrast too heavily that you'd be fine.
this picture was done mostly in a 0.3mm pen, with the details in a 0.03mm pen, and some of the heavier details in a 0.5mm pen. It all balances out though cause I scanned it at a high resolution, and I have line variation. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v734/arkillian/marauderfun.png This picture was drawn on A5 paper with only a 0.3mm pen and scanned at a low resolution (I only had a hand scanner in the days so 100dpi or suffer shake marks) where as http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v734/arkillian/Grace.png this is a few years more newer, and I know that I had a 0.3 and a 0.05mm pen at that point of time and I scanned it at 600dpi cause I had a flat bed scanner finally ( 
). Sure, my linearts had improved in the few years between each picture, but the line variation and resolution still make a HUGE difference in the final output. If I re did the HP fanart picture with line variation and rescanned it, it's quality would boost 10 fold over what it is now. Quick fixes give cheap results I've found, and I doubt that Gimp would have a feature better for something that Photoshop can't already do. No offence, but Gimp is a free program while photoshop isn't 
Tip for threshold-I believe you can adjust the threshold in gimp. If you can, slide the bar along till you get the cleanest result with the least amount of noise, and the least amount of lineart augmentation. The setting it defaults to is 50% being anything less that 50% grey becomes white, and the rest black. If you slide it for an over exposed picture, you can make 40% greys turn black and anything less be white, or visa versa. I think gimp gives you the option. If it doesn't then you'll need to live with getting what you've got.
I had a feeling it would be a big help for you So your lines are thick after scanning? Or during the lineart process? If it's thick when you draw them then the only way to fix that is by starting off with a larger scaled piece of art or a thinner pen (I use a 0.03mm pen at thinnest. IT's like drawing with a NEEDLE). If it's thick when you scan it in comparison to the original, then scan it at a higher resolution (300 or 600 is good) and use threshold to turn it pure black and white. It'll look like shit, but when it's shrunk it'll be pretty and tidy. If you start low res, then your lines will always be obvious. The shrinking process gives the art the pretty antialias look where the program puts a sharp gradient in to make up for lost information. Also, you'll have a nice big image that you can print for a physical record of your art. If you print a shrunken image then it'll either print small, or if you enlarge it, it'll be blurry.. or blotchy depending on if you saved it as a JPEG format. (PNG is lossless, but larger)
Basically, there's not alot you can do post scan to fix it short of redrawing your lines. Photoshop has some dilation tools that would thin them, but not evenly. you could slap it into illustrator and get it to redraw the lines with live trace, but the lines are never quite the same shape, but really, if the master has the flaw, then the master needs the change. There's no simple 5 click method of fixing a thick line save redrawing it.
Personally, I feel your line thickness isn't too bad of an issue. I feel that you could use some variation in line thickness, and if you scanned and worked at a high res, and made sure that your linearts didn't contrast too heavily that you'd be fine.
this picture was done mostly in a 0.3mm pen, with the details in a 0.03mm pen, and some of the heavier details in a 0.5mm pen. It all balances out though cause I scanned it at a high resolution, and I have line variation. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v734/arkillian/marauderfun.png This picture was drawn on A5 paper with only a 0.3mm pen and scanned at a low resolution (I only had a hand scanner in the days so 100dpi or suffer shake marks) where as http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v734/arkillian/Grace.png this is a few years more newer, and I know that I had a 0.3 and a 0.05mm pen at that point of time and I scanned it at 600dpi cause I had a flat bed scanner finally ( ). Sure, my linearts had improved in the few years between each picture, but the line variation and resolution still make a HUGE difference in the final output. If I re did the HP fanart picture with line variation and rescanned it, it's quality would boost 10 fold over what it is now. Quick fixes give cheap results I've found, and I doubt that Gimp would have a feature better for something that Photoshop can't already do. No offence, but Gimp is a free program while photoshop isn't Tip for threshold-I believe you can adjust the threshold in gimp. If you can, slide the bar along till you get the cleanest result with the least amount of noise, and the least amount of lineart augmentation. The setting it defaults to is 50% being anything less that 50% grey becomes white, and the rest black. If you slide it for an over exposed picture, you can make 40% greys turn black and anything less be white, or visa versa. I think gimp gives you the option. If it doesn't then you'll need to live with getting what you've got.
I actually had this HUGE several paragraph long reply, then I accidentally hit the reply button again, instead of the submit button and lost it all. So long story short:
GIMPs Threshold is adjusted pretty much exactly as you described, a sliding bar and such.
So just the other day I went to the nearest art specialty shop(because Walmart, Walgreens, and Shopko don't sell pens any smaller than .5mm)and the smallest I could find was .05mm and since that was also cheaper than the .1(I think it was) one I got that. I'm hoping that'll make a HUGE difference in line thickness so I can focus better on other aspects that need work.
I swear, my fixation on line thickness is just the OCD coming through, but it's always bugged me, so if the smaller pen is all I need, HOORAY!! Lol
I figure I'll post the picture, because it's a fanart, I like it, and since it's practice I gotta post it