More digital fun with scanned drawings
Since everyone seemed to enjoy the last post, let’s play some more with doodles, scribbles, or anything else from your sketchbook. The tulip below was only a small sketch, so it was scanned at 600 ppi to make it bigger (300 ppi is usually enough resolution for images that will be printed.) The sketch was done in red pen for no particular reason (below left). First it was desaturated (Command>Shift>letter u on the Mac) to get rid of the color, then Levels was used to make the paper white and the lines black. For complete info about this process, please read Friday’s post.
After the lines have been liberated from the background, all sorts of things are possible. You can start painting on an underlying layer (below left), fill the lines with another color and/or try different backgrounds (below center), or just go fun and funky (below right.) The rainbow effect was created with the Gradient tool with a preset gradient. The preset colors can always be altered after the gradient is applied. Don’t forget to lock the line layer with the ?/ key first, or the entire layer will get filled up.
The character of the line is different depending on what you draw with. The shell below was drawn with a pencil originally, so the line is rougher. The difference would show up when printing on paper, but I’m not sure about fabric (since I haven’t printed on fabric much.) 
If anybody has used this tip or something similar, feel free to post a link in the Comments.
Since everyone seemed to enjoy the last post, let’s play some more with doodles, scribbles, or anything else from your sketchbook. The tulip below was only a small sketch, so it was scanned at 600 ppi to make it bigger (300 ppi is usually enough resolution for images that will be printed.) The sketch was done in red pen for no particular reason (below left). First it was desaturated (Command>Shift>letter u on the Mac) to get rid of the color, then Levels was used to make the paper white and the lines black. For complete info about this process, please read Friday’s post.
After the lines have been liberated from the background, all sorts of things are possible. You can start painting on an underlying layer (below left), fill the lines with another color and/or try different backgrounds (below center), or just go fun and funky (below right.) The rainbow effect was created with the Gradient tool with a preset gradient. The preset colors can always be altered after the gradient is applied. Don’t forget to lock the line layer with the ?/ key first, or the entire layer will get filled up.
The character of the line is different depending on what you draw with. The shell below was drawn with a pencil originally, so the line is rougher. The difference would show up when printing on paper, but I’m not sure about fabric (since I haven’t printed on fabric much.) 
If anybody has used this tip or something similar, feel free to post a link in the Comments.
2 comments:
Hi Loreen, Thanks for posting a link to your blog on the SAQA list.
I wasn't aware of your work before now, but have enjoyed visiting your website and seeing the variety of things you do, makes me feel a little less spastic, haha!
And I like what you said on your first blog post about deciding to put all your different kinds of work on one blog, which is kind of what I do. Makes for an interesting mix!
this is wonderful- I have a Mac Adobe Photoshop CS3, and I'm not sure but some of the commands are elsewhere but I found them. Thanks for the instruction. I would love to find a class like this!
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