ProjectComment Answers Your Questions #10

ProjectComment is a Group of many projects centered around comments, but, more importantly, constructive comments. We offer Members of deviantART a lot of opportunities to get comments, give comments, participate in comment projects, win points, get featured and much, much more!

In this series of articles, our admins aim to answer questions about anything related to comments/commenting, art and more! 
This week's question was provided by WhiteCheddaKoopichu

Question: 

"My question is about straight line in digital art. How can I make lines look straight an less bumpy or wobbly? Do I have to draw really slowly or edit the line after it's drawn? I'm referring to thin and thick lines, and I draw with a mouse."

Answers: 

Felizias "I saw you use SAI as one of your tools.
This is actually a wonderful tools for smooth, clean lines. 
Using a linework layer you can choose to draw lines with your mouse using the pen tool and edit it afterwards.
Or you can chose the curve tool. With the newer SAI you can export the lines as .png and import them into another program for coloring.

Here is a quick tutorial on how to use the pen tool in SAI for clean lines:"
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cloud-the-art-zombie "For smoother lines in general it depends on the program you use.  some programs like Paint Tool SAI and manga studio/CSP have a tool called stabilizer, which you can set to different strengths to make the line smoother or not.  if you want to enhance the smoothness or your program doesn't have a stabilizer function, a quick fluid movement and a lot of ctrl+z will get you the line you desire, however this method is much much easier on a graphics tablet, so i suggest you get one if you want to create lines this way.

a quicker and much easier way of getting a straight line is by using a straight line or pen tool, which are available in almost every program.  if they are not available in your program, i suggest you download GIMP which is good starting program (also free) or Clip Studio Paint if you want a cheaper alternative to Photoshop.  using the pen/paths/line tool makes a line based on a vector (mathematical equation) that is a lot smoother than trying to create one by hand.  then you simply apply a stroke to the path in the desired thickness.  this method is a lot easier for creating straight lines or perfectly curved objects (like glasses) than the first one, so a lot of digital artist use this method for some parts of their drawing whether they have a graphics tablet or not.

here's a little extra for you: line dynamics and making your lines more interesting.  if you want to make something pop and appear more in the foreground, put a thicker line on it.  if you want to draw attention to an object or character, stick a thicker outline on it.  another thing to remember is that you can make your lines look more interesting by making the ares where lines intersect and meet thicker.  you can also emphasize curves and points in this way, the sharper the curve or point the thicker the line.  playing around with different levels of this will give you different effects so experiment and see what you like.

finally remember to keep your line layer on a separate layer to your base colours and shading, and after you have finished colouring your image colour the lines to a darker colour than your base to blend them in a bit (you can do this easily by locking the transparency of the layer). 

 i hope this helps you, and good luck with it! great art can be created by a mouse, and i believe with enough practice you'll be able to create amazing art too!  ( my friend 's gallery will give you an idea of how versatile the mouse is if you put your mind to it)"



DTKinetic "Actually, there are numerous techniques you could use to achieve straighter, cleaner lines, like what you suggested, drawing slowly or editing lines. As mentioned earlier, for geometrically straight lines, the quick fix is the pen tool, but as you are a character artist, I wouldn't use those on my characters/animals/people.

If the smoothness or lack of is stemming from your program, I'd say editing lines is your best bet. First, when you draw lines, be aware of the brush that you're using, you don't want a simple, rock-solid brush like what MS-Paint offers. You want a brush that bleeds and blends with the background, like the paintbrush tool in GIMP. Yet you don't want a brush too soft, or that will make the figure look blurry and artificial. 
After you draw the line, if it still looks rough, try rubbing it with a light blur/smudge tool to see cleaner and less pixellated curves. Make sure the blur is not too strong, again, or it will look artificial.

Now, if the smoothness is an issue that you think comes from your capability of drawing lines, then I don't suggest drawing lines slower, but drawing lines more. One effective strategy in digital art I think is to draw your character/subject on one layer, set the transparency low, open up a new layer, and trace over it, only that instead of making a replica, you're making an effort to improve over the smoothness and form each time. With enough practice on both of those approaches, I think you can see smoother lines  "


QBeagle "Depending on the style and subject of your art straight lines might not be all that great.  Drawing clothes or stone buildings and those wobbly lines could end up giving it character.  This probably isn't at all what you want, but I felt like saying it anyway.

Regardless of whether I'm doing digital or traditional art I try to avoid stencil, templates, or guides.  It's not a rule or anything just that I want to get better at free handing stuff.  To do good lines this way you have to spend some time learning how you draw, and this shouldn't matter if you're using a pencil, stylus, or mouse.  

Try to think about how you move your tool of choice; do you rotate at the wrist, elbow, or shoulder?  Is there a direction of motion that you are most comfortable with?  Whatever the motion you feel best doing, rotate the canvas and adjust the zoom so that you are doing that for the important lines.  Being comfortable with the move let's you do it quicker, and a quicker movement will be more fluid and have less wobble to it.

Working traditionally you can always make use of straight edges and french curves if you need a very steady line.  I think everyone else has covered the straight line and path tools which accomplish the same thing digitally."

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