[Cronus]

I recently started doing art again. As I look at most of the wonderful work here, I see such consistent and crisp lines. Getting a good result with line art is what I am asking. What techniques do you use to get consistent width, structure and the like? I have been reading a bunch of things about line art, or preparatory line art used as a basis for a realistic pice.

Any gems of advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Cronus]

Alrighty then

[eyewoo]

Are you asking about digital line art or pencil line art or pen and ink line art...?
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[Cronus]

Mostly digital using cs2

however tips on the others wouldnt hurt either. I am always looking to learn.

Thx

[MCMA]

Confident stroke, overlays, cleanup, in worst case Illustrator
Practice, knowledge on lineweight and composition, economy of line.

Personally I'm allergic to linework but it's a stylistic choice some seem to prefer, and I respect that. However I guess the same principles apply for outline and silhouette.
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[Brew]

Most of the work I do starts out with paper and pencil, gets scanned in; then, depending on my mood, gets inked and colored in either CS2 or Flash MX (I'd use 8, but it does really weird stuff when I try to export images over around 1000px). Unfortunately I can't tell you how to get consistent lines, they methods I use involve many, MANY little sketches to get the lines I'm after. I posed this same question to a fellow artist a few years back, he told me he erases like crazy.

That wasn't the answer I was hoping for. Trip, who illustrates our comics, does (usually) 100% of the artwork in CS2. His lines are usually always consistent and crisp, I think his techniques revolve around being comfortable with what he's working on. Each line he does is pretty much a single 'pen' stroke... so he utilizes CTRL-Z a lot to get what he's looking for.

Not sure if either of those help at all, but they should at least give you two additional methods.

Good luck bro.
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[sweetums]

Do you mean outlines or line art hatching?
Digitally, I do outlines at a very high resolution, with no spacing under brush dynamics, and pattern fill for hatchwork

Real world with a magnifier glass, and small works, I cheat and use a Line-O-Art tool sold in the '70's by Milton Bradley. Short of that, a ruler with ruled side bars on the paper I'm hatching.
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That which does not kill you should make you wiser...

[B0b]

there's a tute on the web somewhere that shows u how to produce comic line art with illustrator and its line tool

i'll see if i can't dig it out

[B0b]

looks like the original site i found years ago has now gone.. but i've found this one instead

http://www.illcraft.blogspot.com/

[B0b]

found a youtube movie http://youtube.com/watch?v=IV-tZe4tEyc

[Cronus]

Thank you all!

[eyewoo]

Good things to keep in mind when drawing digitally in Photoshop. High rez is important and remember that you can draw as easily with the eraser as with the brush...
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[eyewoo]

OK.... there is something weird going on with the forum software that makes it appear that an error is happening when a reply is submitted... so everytime you try to submit again, the reply gets repeated....
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[moritat]

A couple of old artist tricks.

find a pen that you like. Buy a bunch. can't real figure out which ones are good till you are drawing comfortably. I use a japanese Pilot Hi-tec. ($3.00)

Find paper that works with the pen you like. I perfer cheap typing paper.

When you draw make sure your elbow is on the table, lean in, and let the natural pivot of your arm draw the line.

practice and repeat 10,000 times.

Hope it helps.