J. J. Jameson said:
I see. but when I have my outlines on top of my color, the outlines seem to hold on to a few white pixels on the side. What's the best way to clean this up?
Thanks for the tips and I'll be trying out the pen tool.
Here's a tip given to me by a friend of mine... It's simple and very practical for newbies like us who's just beginning to scratch the surface of using photoshop. Once you've worked out the principle of digital inking using the pen tool, you'll find it easier to work on with your colours too...
How I ink in PS v7 - Part 2
**You may not be too familiar with the pen tool, most people like to draw with the brush tool. The problem with inking with the brush tool is, no matter what brush you make or select, it will never give you the look that my inkings have. With the pen tool, the selection you make will be exact! If you were to zoom in as far as you can, where you can see every pixel, the pen too can select right through the smallest pixel. If you don't already know the pen tool good, you should practice using and getting a feel for it. I have tuts in my art thread if you want to check em out about this.**
So, now you have your pen tool selected, and you're working in the "inks" layer. Now you'll want to pick an are that you want to start and zoom in pretty close. Put your cursor where you want to start on the outside of your pencil line, and click. Now you have just made your first "point". The object now is to trace around your pencil line. All the way around the line, not through it! Once you completly outline your line, have your cursor join your first point.
Now you have a pen selection. You have options now. Now you can either right click and select "fill selection" and fill it at 100% with your forground color (black), or you can move on to the next line you want to trace and trace it. Your original selection won't go away, so you will just be adding to it. And when you decide to fill your selection, you'll see the prettiest lines you've ever seen!
Once you make a little progress, unhide your "white" layer to see how your inks look without the pencils under it.
Then just go with it untill you're finished! Keep saving and keep checking it with your "white" layer to see progress. Boom, that's it!
If you don't know the pen tool really well as you read this, here are a few tips. Curved lines are the hardest to get used to (not that hard, but there is a learning "curve") BUT, if you are zoomed in close enough, you can put your points really close together to follow the curve that way. Another tip is that the undo feature is your friend with this! If you put your point in the wrong place, or you make your curve wrong, just undo. The undo will go to your last point, it won't wipe your whole selection away! Also check out the menu from right clicking.
A tip that I have that doesn't have to do with the pen tool is, if there is an area in your original pencils that you don't like, either make a new layer on top of the pencils, and use a small hardish brush to re-draw that area. Or just ink it differently. There are always things that I like to change when doing inks.
Hope this helps and goodluck!
