Xous's Guide to Turning Hand Drawn Art into Digital Art
Welcome to my very first guide! In this guide, I will display one of the techniques you can use to bring your hand drawn art to life on the computer. I’ll be providing links to images in some of the sentences so you’ll see what I mean easier, as well as provide images in the guide in certain sections.Part 1: How to Obtain Clean Outlines and Basic Coloration
Programs Used:
-Lexmark 2200 Series All-In-One Center (Scanner)
-Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9
Materials Used:
-Standard 8 ½ x 11 Printer Paper
-Pencil
-Ultra Fine Point Sharpie Permanent Marker
-Lexmark Scanner
-Computer
-Wacom Coloring Tablet
Section 1: The Drawing
In order to begin, you simply have to draw something on a piece of paper – preferably the size paper listed in the Materials section. I would highly suggest drawing in pencil first – this allows you to go back and fix your mistakes. (For this guide, I will be using a drawing of Mantine.) Before you scan in the drawing, it is recommended that you go back over the drawing in Ultra Fine Point Sharpie, as it will make the drawing stand out more when you scan it in, and will help tremendously when it comes to establishing a clean, workable outline. Once you have gone over the entire drawing in the Sharpie, it’s time to scan it in. If you’re unsure about how to use your scanner, be sure to read the instruction manual it comes with.
Section 2: Scanning
[If you know how to properly operate your scanner, you may skip this section.]
These are the steps I take when scanning in a drawing. If you have a different scanner than I do, the steps may be different. However, this should help you get a good feel on how to scan them in properly. First, make sure the drawing is put into the scanner flat, and make sure it isn’t crooked or bent. Next, open the scanner’s program on your computer and select the “Preview Now” option. This will allow you to view your drawing and make sure there are no flaws in the lighting or angle of your image, as well as select the part of the drawing you wish to have scanned. I would suggest making the selection box a bit bigger than the image you want scanned. If you’re pleased with the preview, you’re ready to scan. I scan my drawings at 150 DPI – this can be adjusted in the “Scan Settings” section of the program. This size is great for creating large, but not overly large images that are easy to work with. Now, click “Scan Now”.
Once it has scanned, you’ll be given a few options such as Rotation Options, Red Eye Removal, Brightness/Contrast, and Crop. I would strongly urge you to only use the Rotation tools at this point, as the other tools simply get in the way. If you had to scan in your drawing sideways, this is the time to flip it to the right position. Now, choose the save option. I’m saving my Mantine as “Mantine Xous 1.png” so it’s easy to find if I need to search for it. Saving as a clean file type is important for the quality of the image you want. .Jpeg creates artifacts around the image, which makes it look terrible. .Png is a very reliable file type to use, especially with Jasc Paint Shop Pro. I’d strongly urge you to use it.
Section 3: Getting a Clean, Workable Outline
One of the most important steps to making your now-digital art look good is getting a clean outline. Even though you’ve just scanned in what looks like a pure black image (in real life), the scan normally comes out gray or almost brown, and the edges of the outline are blurred, making coloring difficult. Jasc Paint Shop Pro makes this process extremely simple – it only takes one step to get a perfect black outline! Open Jasc Paint Shop Pro, then open your scanned-in drawing’s file (in this case, “Mantine Xous 1.png”). [If you want, take note of the size of the image use the scrolling wheel on your mouse (if you have one – it’s extremely handy in Jasc) to zoom in and out, observing the Zoom Percentage on the upper blue bar of the image. This will help you get a feel of what size brush to use when coloring in the image.] Along the top of the window, you’ll see options like File, Edit, View, Image, Adjust, and Selections. These are the sections in which you find various artistic effects and tools to help you work on your image. Right now, we need to make that one-step outline!
Click on Adjust, then Brightness and Contrast, then Threshold.
Once in the threshold tool section, you’ll see a section with a number, two images, small arrows that point up and down, and a big arrow pointing down. The small arrows allow you to click repeatedly and increase or decrease the number by 1. The big arrow, if clicked and held, creates a bar that allows you to move your mouse to a number. You may also click the number and enter one by typing it in. As you increase and decrease the Threshold number, note the changes between the image on the left (the original image) and the image on the right (the image with the effect being applied to it). Once you’re comfortable with the outline, simply select “OK”. That’s it! You’ve just created a clean outline!
What has happened is the program has taken the darks and the lights and either made them pure white, or pure black, and does not blur the pixels. The result is a clean image of pure black and white. Now, you may have noticed there are black pixels (like specks) around parts of the image. These are simply specks that were either on your scanner or on the image, and they were converted to black pixels when you used the Threshold tool. There’s no need to panic, as these are easily rid of.
Go to the Paint Brush tool, and along the top you should see options for things like Shape, Size, Hardness, and Opacity (with several others listed, as well). What you’re going to want to have is this setup, as it’ll help you with not only coloring later on, but also with getting rid of these specks. With Hardness and Opacity both set to 100, you’ll be able to go over and get rid of the black specks, without having to worry about making anything sloppy. Simply select pure white on the color section and use the brush to color over any specs you see. At this time, you may also tidy up the outline if you see flaws in it by selecting pure black on the color section and going over the outline’s troubled spots. You’ll want to have the black / white colors as your two colors (left click and right click) to make this process easier and faster.
Section 4: Coloring in the Image: Basic Style
Now you’ve got a clean outline! Save now. You may simply save over your file’s original name (like “Mantine Xous 1.png”) just because you won’t need the messy scan anymore, now that you have a clean outlined version. Once you’ve saved, it’s time to color it in. In this part of the guide, I’ll be teaching you how to achieve basic shading and highlights in what I call “Sugimori Style” (from the name Ken Sugimori, lead Pokémon artist of Game Freak). There are actually many ways to shade and highlight, but you’ll have to find those out for yourself! (However, I’ll be writing a guide to advanced coloration in the future.)
Now, there’s a very important step to coloring in the drawings with Jasc Paint Shop Pro. Using this step allows you to not only stay in the lines, but it leaves your outline clean and looking nice. Go to the Selection Tool on the menu on the left (two above the brush tool) and click the down arrow next to it. On the bottom of the list, you’ll see an option called Magic Wand. Click it. The name of this tool is fitting – depending on the Tolerance, it’ll select sections close in color. With a pure black and pure white image to work with, this will allow you to select sections of the image and color it in, and it won’t affect the other sections (so long as you didn’t select them).
Notes about Magic Wand:
-Left click to select.
-Right click to deselect all selections.
-You can hold down the Shift key while using it to make a “+” appear next to the tool. Clicking while holding down the Shift key adds those sections to your overall selection, and allows for coloring in multiple sections at a time.
-Holding down the Control (ctrl) key while using the Wand makes a “-“ sign appear next to the wand. Clicking while holding down the ctrl key removes sections from your current selections.
This is the setup I use with the Magic Wand. I recommend you use this setup for this guide. Note the Tolerance is set to 20. This is a great number to use, as it allows selections of only very close colors. With black and white being total opposites, this will allow you to select white sections without selecting the outline.
Now, I’m going to select a section on Mantine to color in. I’ll start with the stomach. When I left click with the Wand on its stomach (be sure not to select the outline! This will make the Wand select the entire outline, and we don’t want to work on that) you’ll notice a moving dash line (or “marching ants”, as some call it) has been made in the white section of its stomach, and it moves AROUND the outline, without overlapping it, as seen in the image below.
Next, I want a base color, or the most prevalent color in the area. For the sake of accuracy in the guide, I’ll use the colors from its official artwork. Normally, it is suggested (and preferred) that you use your own colors, especially when making unique artwork. I’ll use the Dropper tool (located above the brush tool on the left) and select the color I want.
Once I have the color I want, I’ll choose my brush tool again. I use the circle brush, as it’s the best way to get the desired effect. This time, I’m going to decrease the Hardness to around 50 – this will allow for a smoother coloration and it makes the shading, when I get to it, look realistic. I change the Size to something big enough to color in my whole selection quickly – remember, this is a base color, and is being applied to the whole selection. It is possible to just use the Flood Fill tool for this, but I find this process much better for getting a feel for the shape of the section I’m coloring in.
Now that I have the base color down, I’ll need to decide where I want my light source to be. This is up to you to decide – you’ll also have to shade and highlight accordingly after this point. I’ll make my light source the upper right corner of the image. Now I’ll shade this section accordingly. When shading with the Sugimori Style, it’s important to notice how he colors. It would take too long to describe, so I’ll show you a few examples:
Do you notice the way he does it? His outlines look a lot like what this guide has taught you to do, and his coloration is simply unique. So, I’ll save the lengthy talk of how I mimic his style and just say what you need to do. With your brush still set to 50-ish Hardness, lower the Opacity to about 30. I select the darkest / lightest color in the official art of the section I’m working on and repeatedly stroke the brush over the areas I want, until I get the desired effect.
This is the way my brush was set up when I did the part below.
Now, once I’m done with that section, I simply go back to the Magic Wand and right-click to deselect the section. All that needs to be done now is repeat the process for the other sections, keeping the light source and coloration in mind. The finished result is a completed piece that has a clean outline.
When you’ve finished the coloration, simply save the file! Be sure to save it as something different (like “Mantine Xous 2”) if you want to keep the outline for future usage, like recolors or shiny version coloration.Now, what are you to do with this? It’s massive! Well, I can tell you one more thing you can do to make your image look better, and make it usable at a good size.
Section 5: Resizing the Image and Setting it to a Transparent Background
All of the final versions of my artwork are placed on transparent backgrounds and resized to a reasonable size. This allows for easy usage for things such as banners and avatars.
First, I take out the Magic Wand tool. Next, I select the white background of the Mantine drawing – this is why I told you to select a little more than the drawing when in the “Preview Scan” process. Without doing that step, you would have to select sections of backgrounds instead of one big background. Now, it is important that I check the drawing. There are no spots on the drawing where I missed a part of the background, so I can continue. (For example, if I had drawn the antennae of Mantine as if they were crossing in an “X” shape, there would be a section of the background I would have missed when I did the selection. Be careful to not miss any sections of the background.)
Now I go to Selections, then Invert. This will make the selection… Well, invert. Whatever was not selected (in this case, the Mantine) is now selected, and whatever was selected now isn’t. Now I right click the top of the image (the blue bar where it says its name) and select copy. Then I go to the gray part of the window (the part without any images or anything) and right click again, this time selecting “Paste As New Image”. When I do so, it’ll paste the image on a transparent background!
Finally, simply go to Image, then Resize along the top of the window. It is important that if you want the image to come out nicely when it’s resized that you have it set up like this:
Then simply adjust the Width and Height in the resize section based on either Percent or Pixels, and viola! It’ll resize to whatever you had it set to.
Conclusion:
This concludes Part 1 of this guide! I hope it was informative, and I hope you’re able to use the tips I’ve given you well. If there are any questions or if there’s anything I messed up on or need to explain more, be sure to post and tell me!
Edit: I was told (and reviewed) the rules about using an apostrophe with a noun ending in s, and the title has been changed to "Xous's", which according to all of the sources I've visited is most correct. ~Xous
