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christopherc92001052
Known Participant
April 29, 2017
Question

Fixing Pixilated Lines From Pencil Tool

  • April 29, 2017
  • 4 replies
  • 7875 views

Hey there!

I'm a somewhat new photoshop user and I've been messing around with some "digit painting".

I drew my shapes with the pencil tool and the line edges are really pixilated though! I figured out that the brush tool makes smooth (non pixilated) lines, but don't know if it's to late to fix my already drawn lines.

Is there an easy way that I could fix these pixilated lines. Maybe re-stroke them with the brush tool somehow? It would be nice not to have to redraw everything!!

Any helps is appreciated. Thanks!

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    4 replies

    christopherc92001052
    Known Participant
    May 1, 2017

    Anymore help would be appreciated. I'm trying to finish up this peoject!

    Trevor.Dennis
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 2, 2017

    OK I can see what the problem is now, and I am afraid I missed a step.  Because you have the levels layer clipped to the white details layer, you are only working on white pixels regardless of how bright they are.  You need to select the blue layer, and white details layer, and right click and chose Make a Smart Object  Then clip the levels layer to that, and it will work OK.

    christopherc92001052
    Known Participant
    April 30, 2017

    Still trying to figure this out if anyone has any input!

    Trevor.Dennis
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    April 30, 2017

    Where are you stuck?  What are you trying to do?

    christopherc92001052
    Known Participant
    April 30, 2017

    I'm trying to clean up the pixelated edges of the lines I drew with the pencil. They are mostly all in different layers. Am I just going to have to redraw them all with the brush tool?

    Stephen Marsh
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    April 29, 2017

    Did you work in layers? Are the pencil tool lines isolated or combined with other art? Can you provide a sample image of what you are faced with?

    christopherc92001052
    Known Participant
    April 29, 2017

    Hey! Thank you both for the response. I did work in layers so most of the lines are separated from eachother.

    Here is an example of what I am working on right now...

    Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

    Im mostly concerend with the white details in each shape. They are pixalted. But separated into different layers as a group.

    Trevor.Dennis
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    April 29, 2017

    I'll start right off by saying that I pretty much never ever use the pencil tool.  A fully hard brush a few pixels wide, makes much nicer line work.  As to whether you can save you existing lines, that depends if they are on a separate layer.

    This is a pencil line zoomed to 200% so we can see the pixelation.

    Gaussian Blur (value 2.0)

    And Levels to harden up the line again.

    It's common practice for line work to be roughed out, often with pencil and paper.  Then scanned into Photoshop to Ink the line work.  If you do the whole process in Photoshop then you need to use multiple layers.

    If you are using Windows and have a tablet, or are considering getting one, then there's a wonderful plugin called :Lazy Nezumi Pro that turns you into an amazing artist.  This video also demonstrates inking with LNP.

    I'm pleased you are using Photoshop for drawing and illustration.  That is so much more enjoyable than tarting up a few photographs.  If you like books, get hold of Steve Caplin's 100% Photoshop.  You'll be amazed at what you can create entirely from scratch just using Photoshop.

    Semaphoric
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    April 30, 2017

    I use this method all the time. I sure wish there were a way to keep sharp corners.

    Trevor.Dennis
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    April 30, 2017

    Semaphoric  wrote

    I use this method all the time. I sure wish there were a way to keep sharp corners.

    This is something I kind of stumbled upon a few years ago, but I think I shared it here.

    OK, the same layer copied a couple of times so we can try different methods.  I have saved the selection so I can repeat it.

    Gaussian Blur value 10  (the black background is 600 pixels square)

    Lens blur with the same selection in place

    And after OKing it

    It works on things like skies where you want to blur a banded gradient without making the edges go thin.  In fact it blurs the inside of a selection, but not its edges.

    I don't know if that covers what you are talking about.