Okay, so, a couple of people recently have asked for advice on digital lineart, so I just filmed me lining this recent phanart of Phil (sped up 4X). The drawing software is Fire Alpaca, and the tablet is a Wacom Intuos Draw.
Here are some basic tips:
*** Make really big swooping strokes, and overlap the strokes/objects/lines - and then AFTER, erase the lines you don’t want to see. This is instead of just trying to meet lines up with the ends of other ends to close boundaries, and will ensure that overall, your lines look a lot smoother.
*** Try drawing the lines multiple times - play around with different curves and arcs - not only will this give you more practice, which is never a bad thing, but it will make everything flow better. As you can see in the video, with some lines I drew them several times before settling on the final one.
*** Use the transform tools in the software! The program comes with a lot of really useful tools that you can use to easily manipulate your lineart - resize, flip horizontally or vertically, move around, etc. It’s usually better to just re-draw it, to get more practice, but simply transforming the lines can be really efficient and save you a lot of time :)
*** Flip the canvas to make errors more obvious - this is good to do at ANY stage in your art. You can do this traditionally by holding your art up to a mirror, or flipping it over and shining a light through it. Trust me, it works!! It basically tricks your brain into seeing everything for the first time. Flip back and forth a few times, making small adjustments along the way, until you’re happy with it.
*** PRACTICE A LOT. Seriously. I’ve been drawing with a tablet for over 10 years, and I still have a LONG WAY TO GO. Getting good at ANY skill takes a lot of patience, practice, revisions, and more practice. The rewards are sooo worth it though!! Keep going :D
