Problem coloring a pencil sketches in Photoshop how do I get rid of the pencil marks and tidy up my sketches?

Question

I am having trouble cleaning up my scanned pencil sketches in photoshop. When coloring my scanned sketches the pencil lines are still visible. Is there any way I can draw over the pencil lines and then seperate the pencil scan into a new picture? Or is there a way of erasing the pencil marks?

Answer 1

If you have Adobe Illustrator you can use a function inside of it called live trace that does just that. But your question was on how to do it with Photoshop, so here it is:

You can draw over the pencil lines by drawing it into a new layer, to get a new layer click on Layer > New > Layer. Layers work as acetate sheets on top of another (you can read more about layers here - http://www.pdxphotoshop.com/?p=9). When you are done tracing over it you can just discard the layer with the original scan (drag the layer from the layers panel into the trash can) or not make it visible (meaning it will retain its information but not show on your image) by clicking on the little "eye" next to it.

Lets day you drew a ball and you wanted to color it yellow, red and blue. scan the drawing, then you select the outline using the magic wand tool and create a new layer, with the new layer selected (and the "marching ants" still going around the lines you had selected) you can use the bucket tool and fill in the selection with black. Deselect (Click on Select > Deselect) and then use the eraser to fine tune anything it picked up extra.

Now for the colors, click on the original scanned layer, use your favorite selection tool, and select the area to be filled with yellow, click on the new layer (or better yet you can create another layer on top of it and apply different effects and techniques to it) and the use the paint bucket to fill the selection with yellow or use the brush tool or an airbrushed look, etc there are many possibilities. and then just do the same with the red portion and the blue portion.

Another solution is to use one of the filters, a good one for solid lines is Filter > Stylize > Find Edges, you can also try Filter > Artistic > Poster Edges and adjust the setting for your drawing. to get the "filtered" result on its own layer, just duplicate the layer (the original scan) by clicking on layer > duplicate layer before you apply the filter and be sure to apply the filter to the top most layer.

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

you can create a new layer and trace over your pencil lines with the pen tool or the brush tool if you have a tablet.

or you can make your sketch lighter so that the marks are not that obvious.  

Answer 3

like the guy before me said, if you have a tablet you can just go over the lines. if not, really jack up the levels and contrast to eliminate a lot of the sketch lines and make the ones you want darker, then just go in with an eraser and remove any stray lines.

Answer 4

highlight the pencil lines using the lasso tool and then smooth it, you can set the amount of pixels to smooth, can't remember where abouts the option is, but i think its in the selction tab.