hey guys....i am just wondering how to get smoother lines in art...mine seem to be so stiff and hard lines, and not smooth at all...

as you see here:

new:

As you all see, the lineart is all like, boldish and hard? What am i doing wrong?:(

How to fix it, lol? I am quite a beginner...so please be gentle with me! XD XD

I'm not too sure about lineart myself, but a couple of things you could try is varying the thickness of your lines and also varying the colour slightly. For example, thinner, slightly lighter lines in areas where the light hits and objects and thicker darker lines where there is shadow. Have a look at some famous comics to get a feel for line thickness and experiment a bit.

What program do you use? And do you use a tablet at all? If we know this we might be able to help you out a bit more. If you use a tablet and a program that allows it, try playing with pen pressure. There's a free program called paint tool sai which has an option for smoothing your lines automatically I think - it's free too.

Edit: Just adding as well, it's also a good idea to study photos of your subjects, both for anatomy and to get a feel for where the lines should be 'heavier' in a sense. You aren't doing badly for a beginner though, and it's good to see you're asking for advice rather than stumbling around blindly :)

I use photoshop CS5 and using a tablet :)

Also i am using mac and on mac pen pressure does not work on SAI...i REALLY love sai on windows....best art program EVER XD

Have you tried the pen tool? I don't have much experience with photoshop myself, but it seems useful if you want very clean lines.

And in SAI you also have the line tool or curve tool if you make a linework layer.

Besides that, I would suggest just practicing a lot until your hand gets more confident and steady. Try drawing in as few strokes as possible.

yes i have , but i don't really like pen tool, really hard and slow work...its faster with brush :)

Ah well, practice drawing loosely then. :D

lol thanks

Also i tend to draw my lines all in one go and fast...is that good or bad? And i find it so difficult to vary in thickness, because i have never drawn like that before, like thicker and thinner somewhere...since like when i make up and image of like...a human of my HA...i don't know where i should put thicker or thinner lines, as it might look really bad :(

I've never used SAI myself personally, but I've heard good things about it. As far as CS5 goes, varying your brush size diameter by pen pressure a bit can really bring your lines to life once you find your sweet spot. Another thing I suggest is, say if you draw people a lot, find photos of them and study anatomy/tutorials a lot. Sketch people often and you'll find that your poses get looser and not so stiff over time. Things such as pose line of action and centre of gravity are really useful to know about. Even though your style is not realism as such, knowing realistic anatomy and poses will help your stylised people greatly too.

The pen tool is CS5 also has automatic smoothing too. I'm not too sure which option it is, but if you're aware of the 'freehand pen tool' where you just draw your own lines, once you stroke the path it'll smooth out for you. and then you just go back over with the eraser tool to vary the line thickness manually. I'm not sure how experienced you are with the program, so I apologise if this is all foreign sounding. It's the option to the left of the square drawing tool once the pen is selected, you draw your line then right click>stroke path>brush (making sure that your brush tool is set to 1-3 pixels depending on the size of your canvas)

Answering your other question, I think it depends. Getting the idea of how the whole image looks first is a good idea, but maybe go back afterwards on a new layer doing lines of varying thickness. As for where to put the varied lines, I'm not sure how to explain it sorry, but google DC Comics and marvel comics as well as browse DA for lineart tutorials and such and you'll start to see how it works. Areas with a lot of material for example will have thick lines etc. I wish I could explain it better but this post is already really huge and other people are far more equipped for this sort of thing ^_^;. You never know until you try, and you learn from your mistakes (and everybody makes mistakes).

Thank you very much! And i've had photoshop for years, i am fairly good with doing graphics, but well not so good at just drawing yet XD Been drawing for about 3 years now XD getting there somehow lol....but i don't draw every day that's the problem :(

Thanks tho!!!! <3

You're welcome, I don't draw every day either and I always feel so guilty about it. It's getting over that initial hurdle of 'nothing I do ever looks right' that's the hardest I think, but we'll get there eventually :D

exactly! That's what i think as well...that everything i do looks wrong so i can't be bothered really....

About lineweight, I tend to just experiment with what looks good. If you google line weight tutorials you might find some good advice though. One advice I have heard is to make the lines thicker where it's in shadow, but idk if that's always good or not.

Where lines meet I often color in a little black. Tried doing a quick example to show what I mean. x.x

Another thing to pay attention to when you are doing digital art is the size of your canvas vs the size of your line . What I mean is this: If you make your canvas bigger, you can get more detailed with your lines. When you shrink your end-image down at the end it will create a flowing, precise line instead of a shakey and "bold" one. You ought to also consider using SAI (PM me I can get it for you free if you don't have it) It's really nice if you have a tablet.

Also, if you work a little slower on your lineart, don't rush it: pay attention to detail. Take your time with the line art because its worth it. (:

Hope that helps o-o

As i said i have mac and on mac, Sai doesn't have pen pressure on mac...wich sucks big BIG big time because it is my favourite program for drawing!!!

But i have photoshop wich is great... :)

thanks for responding...looking forward for more people giving me some advice!

EDIT: i also added 3 new drawings...do you think i am getting any better? XD