ARGH!! is there a better way to ink drawings?

I draw the image.. trace the image with tracing paper THEN use more tracing paper to ink over the traced image...

( and I need to trace over my drawn image, the MASSIVE amount of guidelines I use make it impossible for anyone to see the image other then me. )

sigh...


is there a faster way???

short answer: Digital route.

Scan image in to computer.
open Photoshop (or other image manipulation program that allows for layers)
open image and create layer over, set layer style to "multiply"
draw clean lines on new layer over image.

Analog (pen/paper) version:

Get a hold of a "non photo blue" pencil.
Prismacolor brand has one called just that... find it at a well stocked craft/art supply store.
Make sketch with that pencil.
Once happy with sketch, clean line with regular art pencil.
Photocopy image... blue will not be reproduced (hence the name "non photo blue")
adjust/clean photocopied version with ink pen or pencil.

That was a way a friend of mine used to do his stuff... kinda a pain.

Pro tip: work on your sketching. If you are ending up with a complex scribble that is hard to figure out (even for you) then you need to tighten and form your sketch more. Thumbnail a batch of ideas before jumping straight into a workable sketch. Once you start, smooth lines to lay the form... never stagger, or scribble the line. Get in the habit of committing to the line from start to finish... build a rhythm. Practice practice practice.

best of luck

*********EDIT:**********
just got a gander at your deviantart page. browsed your sketch gallery. I see what you might be talking about. Yeah, it looks like you are "over" sketching. Heavily drawing over the lines again and again. Your sketching also shows the "stagger/scribble" line I mention. Your end result is good as far as form, I think thumbnailing would help a lot. Get a feel for the motion of the image, the first sketch line should represent the flow of the character or subject. A smooth soft "S" for the arch of a back and thigh for example will get the start point of a figure. Always think of movement and build your confidence with your pencil. Hope that helps.

Concur with what Blast_Chamber said. Me I barely use a normal pencil anymore. Non-photo blue straight to black ink with white for fixes if I even bother. Sometimes just fix boo-boos in the clean up of the line art in computer.

Scan to GIMP (free art program)... make sure to personaly adjust brush 'spacing'. Be shure to reduce this spacing to suit you and act, more like a proper brush/pen/pencil stroke. I took that damn slider last month and shot it all the way to zippo. It's default setting is redonculously spaced out and looks like your tapping a brush accross a page. ;p I have no clue why that's the default setting as it just make the program look crappy... As I was told by friends and knew it wasn't crappy... I thought it was me and my system sucking. On first use... and sadly about two years going I thought my graphics card/monitor/mouse/ was simlpy unable to process it right and adapted to it but was never happy with it... and so didn't use it for much other then the clean up of black and white works and the odd very difficult color job. Brush spacing you see was too wide. Had to use the smudge tool way too often to effect fixes. Never would have needed to do that if the brush spacing set to lowest automaticaly rather then Farthest appart automaticaly but live and learn eh. Probably have art programs you prefere but if you don't have one then GIMP is good once you've fiddled with it. It was my own damn fault for not noticing for 2 years rhe slider that says "brush spacing" and thinking that would mak a big difference. "Hello Mcfly!" I say as I bang my own fist against my stoopid head. Yes... yes it does.

Actually so fine now in testing if I wasn't hopelessly adicted to getting incarnate stuff on 5 50's you guys would see some actual color art from me. ;p hehe

Damn the Grindfest! It doesn't pay to be an alt-aholic now eh....

Anyway good luck with your art.

Also pitch the tracing paper. Terrible medium.... *edit Unless you need to do a quick soft rubbing of something you see out in the field and don't have a camera/phone cam aviable to make a fast reference impression of a surface texture or some olde timey brass or some such. Then that stuffs not bad at all. Even so theres better stuff fer rubbings.

Before Photoshop, there was this thing called a Xerox machine, you could make copies at varying darknesses... Try that and some white out. Sorry just trying to save you $700 and or pirating.

I'm not exactly an artist but if you can get a copy of Illustrator, you can make nice clean lines, I use it for cel shade art but if you play with line thicknesses and all it should work nicely. I'm back on CS2 and will cling to it until some future OS no longer runs it

If you ARE using Photoshop, you will want to decrease the flow percentage of a hard brush tool...

Pick up a lightbox at your local art store, don't bother with tracing paper.

If you don't feel comfortable inking directly onto the new piece of paper over the original while using the lightbox, just do some light pencil lines on the new paper, turn off the lightbox, then ink and erase the pencil. Alternatively, use non-photo blue colored pencil (Ticonderoga makes good ones) to do your initial sketch, then directly ink over them. Scan into computer and remove blue lines (blue channel). Carmine red also works.

As mentioned, thumbnailing first can be of great aid. It's especially easy when done digitally; tiny thumbnail gesture sketch, then blow that badboy up to use as direct reference. Otherwise.. cheap copiers with a resize function are your friend.

I... feel a bit pwned by this thread. Over many years I've seen lots of references to blue pencil, never knew it was so magical (just thought it was blue). Thank you everyone, for the explanation and the tips on integrating with photocopy and digital workflows! I hope to find one very soon.

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I used to do the red or blue sketch under clean inks or graphite pencil thing all the time. In Photoshop then you just remove the channel for that color and the blue or red disappears. Greyscale the image, adjust the levels or whatnot to clean it up, and convert back to RGB.

I've never used Gimp, but imagine it has a similar set of abilities.

These are the pencils I liked best:
https://www.dixonticonderoga.com/wri...-eraser-tipped

I tended to prefer the red; it was a softer pencil and it was easier for me to get stronger lines when I needed them. If that link doesn't work, search for Dixon Ticonderoga and use the Erasable Checking link.

edit: As a side note, the Green color also works (RGB and all), but I never got as good results with it (bought the 12 color box one time), and they don't offer the green by itself anyway.