Ok, so I'm still getting used to using a tablet, as it's pretty new to me. I love it though. I even gave it a name. :3

But I'm having some troubles with it. You see, here's an example of a drawing before my tablet. (Used scanner)



And after my tablet.



Ignore my coloring, look at the line widths. What I'm getting at is that I can't make nice thin lines with my tablet. I've tried sharpening the lines, blowing up and shrinking pictures, but they still seem too thick. :(

Does anybody else use a tablet and know a way around this? Btw, I'm using Photoshop CS2 to draw.

wait, so you WANT the scratchy look back? I kinda dig the second one better.

also, get off that Photoshop shit. thats a program designed for PHOTOGRAPHS. Its obviously not going to work the way you want it to unless you are amazing. get illustrator or freehand or something designed for drawing.

but to answer your question, have you tried changing the brush point width? you can change how many pixels wide a line will be.

I'm not an artist, but before joining this site to share tips I did a lot of research into the world of digital art and a lot of that was comparisons between programs.

From what I saw was that Photoshop isn't good.

It's not made for creating images, instead it's for altering photos.

Now, I saw what illustrator and painter can do. And, wow. I was amazed. They've just got a lot more for you to play around with to get what you want from it. They were made to create images.

But, saying that. I'm sure that Photoshop allows you to alter the brush or pen thickness, don't they? Can;t you just make it smaller?

No, I use the tablet to escape the scratchy look. xD I was just using that pic to show how thin my lines were.

And yeah I've tried changing the pen tip size, but it still comes out thicker than I want it. The second picture was drawn with a 3pt pix size, and it was minimized, but it was still too thick. Anything smaller than that will just be too ridiculous. O.O

But I'll try out illustrator and see if it's right for me. :O

I primarily use Photoshop for sketching, lettering, shading, and transparency effects. All lineart and base colors go through Illustrator.

First: do you have the tablet settings turned on in photoshop? as in pen pressure?
second: are you using a brush with pen pressure enabled(i doubt it), go into 'reset brushes' and click the first few.
Third: photoshop is designed for clean lines. If you wish for a natural look you will like Painter X(go into 'pen' brushes) or google somwthing called paint tool SAI,

Actually, Skullbie, I had both of those on. (Although the second tip is useful to me greatly, cuz I always wondered why sometimes it wasn't enabled.)

I sharpen the pictures after I'm done to make the lines really dark, seeing as when I draw onto photoshop with my tablet, the lines are sometimes pretty gray. But thanks for the suggestions though. Any more advice is greatly appreciated. :)

Are you using the brush tool or the pencil tool? The brush tool will give you some gray due to anti-aliasing, but the pencil tool will give you a nice crisp (though possibly pixelated if it goes too thin) line.

if the mentioned above doesn't work,
have you tried adjusting your pen's pressure sensitivity?

and also, photoshop is advertised as a photo manipulating software, but it's capable to do the same things as painter. you just have to figure out the settings.

and illustrator is a vector program, unlike the other two which are bitmap. two very separate things there. flash is also vector.

I was using the brush tool, only because I thought the pencil tool's size couldn't be adjusted. Silly me. I shouldn't assume things. ._.;

But I did decide to go look for something new, something that was made for drawing rather than photo editing, and I came across Manga Studio. So far, I'm liking what I'm seeing. I think this may be the line width I've been looking for.

example



I'm gonna test it out some more, and hopefully it'll replace photoshop in terms of use. I wouldn't have thought of looking for another program, as I thought everyone used photoshop, so thanks for mentioning it. Truly, I appreciate it. :D

One obvious thing no one has mentiond: image size.

You lines in Photoshop can only be as small as the pixel size of the image you're working on.If you want smaller lines, start with a larger canvas size, or image size if you're scanning. (Scan at a higher res or whatever.)

It's as simple as that. :)
-A 3 pixel thickness line will look thinner and finer the bigger the page.

I draw in Ps, I dont understand why people would say that it doesnt work?

I guess it all depends on how you want your final product to look.

From what I see, Using a vector program would probably work best for you. Illustrator is the best IMO for getting a clean cell shaded look. It's a pretty simple program to learn and once you get proficient with it you can dabble with graphic design.

also doing lettering in illustrator is preferable because you can get a really clean look and its easy to manipulate the text.

ozoneocean
One obvious thing no one has mentiond: image size.

You lines in Photoshop can only be as small as the pixel size of the image you're working on.If you want smaller lines, start with a larger canvas size, or image size if you're scanning. (Scan at a higher res or whatever.)

It's as simple as that. :)
-A 3 pixel thickness line will look thinner and finer the bigger the page.

Ah Ozone, you beat me to it.
Hopefully Kinuchio revisits this post and sees your advice.

Personally I am very satisfied with using Photoshop to draw with. It's all I use now.

Thanks for the tips. I will also try out the using a bigger canvas method to see if it also brings out the result I'm looking for. :)

ink in larger size too. about 400 dpi and then when done you srink it to 300 dpi

Sorry for necro-writing in an old topic, but I just can't look at that:

Downpour_guy
I'm not an artist, but before joining this site to share tips I did a lot of research into the world of digital art and a lot of that was comparisons between programs.

From what I saw was that Photoshop isn't good.

I am sorry my dear, but you are talking bullshit. Photoshop is one of the most powerful and best raster programs. And I know what I'm talking about, I've been learning to digital paint for a few years.

For the problem stated here:

I agree that inking may be done in other programs, but it's easy in PS too. First step: go to Window>brushes. You will see brush settings. Choose round hard brush. Choose the size. Have only the shape dynamics box checked. Choose the minimum size there. Leave your brush at 100% opacity and flow. Now check how it works. It may be too hard or too sensitive. I find settings I use for painting too hard for inking. Go to your tablet settings and adjust pressure sensitivity.
Hint: If your hand is not stable work with a large zoom. In many programs you can have two windows for one image open, make one zoomed out and another, the one you're working on, zoomed in, even up to 300% (depending on the size you're working on).

Apart from that my program of choice for inking is Mangastuduo :D It's got one of the best engines for that. Also Opencanvas and Comicworks (I guess it's the same base). Painters pens are nice too, but Painter itself is quite a hassle to do.
/necro

I now this is an old thread and the issue is long since passed, but I noticed the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT PIECE OF ADVICE for tablet users wasn't mentioned. namely

You don't have to set it quit that firm, but within a couple of notches of the max is the key.

What this means is you'll have to press harder to draw the thickest lines, giving you more control over drawing thin ones.
With this you should have no trouble drawing pixel-thin lines with a 50 pixel brush.

And Photoshop is an excellent program for a lot of things and I used it for lineart for a long time. Mangastudio has the benefit of being designed from the ground up for lineart though so of course it's going to do it better.