Digitally Cleaning up Sketches

Learn how to scan and clean up pencil sketches! Scott Flanders takes you through the process of how to use digital software to make edits to your sketches to make them clean, crisp, and easier to work with. If you enjoyed this video, and want to learn how to design creepy and cool monsters like the ones in this video, check out Scott’s Proko course - proko.com/monsterlab
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ABOUT PROKO:
Instructional How to Draw videos for artists. My drawing lessons are approachable enough for beginners and detailed enough for advanced artists. My philosophy is to teach timeless concepts in an entertaining way. I believe that when you are having fun, you learn better. I take pride in producing high quality videos that you will enjoy watching and re-watching.
CREDITS:
Artist | Instructor - Scott Flanders ( / shapecarver )
Producer - Stan Prokopenko (www.stanprokopenko.com), Charlie Nicholson ( / shloogorgh )
Production Assistance - Alec Brubaker ( / alec_brubaker , Charlie Nicholson, Melanie Nachtmann
Editing - Melanie Nachtmann, Charlie Nicholson
Music Used with Permission
Intro - The Freak Fandango Orchestra
Additional music by Epidemic Sound

[@ProkoTV]

Want more tips on taking your sketches digital? Interested in designing your own monsters? Check out Scott’s full design course at - proko.com/monsterlab

[@johnkon2810]

Stan/Proko ... when are you going to finish the e-books for the Anatomy course? There are more than several lessons incomplete.

[@ArtistJiban]

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[@DonReba]

Scott! Scott, I'm going to blow your mind, now. You know that middle marker in the Levels dialogue? That's gamma adjustment. When you duplicate the layer and set it to multiply - this is exactly the same thing as setting gamma to 2. Doing it twice is the same as setting gamma to 4. So, instead of fussing with levels, then duplicating and multiplying layers, adjusting opacity, then fussing with levels again, you can just set gamma in Levels to the value you like once and get the exact same output!

[@leonardoestrada1936]

Like this kind of videos a little bit more technical about the industry stuff

[@evanlane1690]

"This is a good place for some of that stupid chase music." Proko editing team, "Let's gooooo!"

[@LifeSucks]

This was a great topic. What I find difficult is cleaning up scanned ink drawings that have a pencil drawing underneath. Erasing tends to pull up the ink so I have to go over it again afterwards. Yet even if I erase to death I still find lots of pencil marks in my scans. In the end I just have to painstakingly use a white brush on the edge and get rid of it all. Levels gets rid of a lot but it also makes the ink lines look crustier and not as smooth as I want.

[@dannycruz5446]

Use a non photo blue pencil for the underdrawing and get rid of all the blue digitally after you scanned it in.

[@embran8486]

@@dannycruz5446 When you go for red, when for blue? Because different artists go for one or the other. One even used yellow.

[@dannycruz5446]

@@embran8486 I assume it's just a preference.

[@embran8486]

@@dannycruz5446 So there isn't much difference in between these colors to use that won't (barely) show up after scanning? because i like drawing my sketches using red, but want to use the most ideal one for what you use it for.

[@AbrianCurington]

@@embran8486 You can select and delete any color in most editing software. A strong color is easy to select and delete. For a color like yellow, you’ll probably have to just mess with the saturation and levels.

[@abby4684]

If u don’t have a scanner I usually do it by getting a good clear photo, then I go and crop it, then up the contrast and adjust black point and the white of it. All this is in a normal gallery, not as clean as this but it works for a better picture.

[@oncalldev]

Exactly what I was looking for in cleaning up some scanned drawings. Thanks.

[@nathanaelsalas4840]

What a wonderful video these are thx.

[@hunderc_]

thanks for the lesson, that was very helpful, ill start to work and make more out of my sketches

[@oscillatine]

So useful, thank you so much!

[@greatwhitesufi]

Hey Scott! Great Scott!

[@artywolve]

What I find challenging in scanning images is when there are a lot of light and delicate lines that I want to keep. This approach works great for boldly defined illustrations like this, but for drawings that depend on their soft shading and really subtle variations in value you can lose a lot. And when you're trying to bring those barely there lines back into sight, the paper grain often comes with it, which can be very annoying if you don't want that. But good video, definitely learned a few shortcuts, and I've been using Photoshop for years.

[@micha4431]

Yeah, old pain.

[@keenawireheart7238]

Oooh, this is really helpful!

[@OmniPrintInternational]

Very Nice!

[@alexlakota3598]

Thank you for the video

[@PossumMedic]

Great vid thanks! :D

[@teinili]

Had to do this for like 600 Pictures recently. Took soooo looong

[@TimConceivable]

if you want to remove color information from an image, it's much easier just to press CTRL+U for "desaturate" (also in the menus) instead of using hue/saturation sliders.

[@alkorngrigA41]

Thank you, that was useful

[@al75an]

Sir you are the best thank you 🙏🏻

[@kivuntuntija]

Im gonna be honest, i like messy sketches more than clean ones. Is there a way to make your sketches look both messy and professional ?

[@cherrymarriedindiscord1404]

Hmm depends on what do you mean by "messy" because generally a professional "mess" can follow the same steps... This is just about upping the contrast and uniformity of the grays which is a fundamental and usually doesn't hinder anyone's style

[@clementinelives]

A lot of what makes a sketch or a ‘messy’ style appealing is that is maintains a flow and energy that gets lost in crisp line-work. I would say to work on posing and gesture

[@kivuntuntija]

Flow is a part of the "messy" that Im thinking about. The other stuff may have something to do with not trying too hard and showing your imperfection with other people. Because after all, its just a sketch.

[@kivuntuntija]

I think if you got the fundamental right then the sketch doesnt need cleaning.

[@walterjones9366]

Literally needed this cause my scanner hits my pen drawings with so much light it creates a weird blur effect , so i end up trying to turn up with saturation but that just makes all of the soft pen strokes look hard and kills the pattern i set up . Thanks !

[@trillian7590]

Same exact problem for me! I'm excited to use these techniques

[@samankucher5117]

Very cool:)

[@Troygdesign]

The endless battle of trying not to lose the spontaneity of the sketch ?

[@katgilb]

Thank you so much 😭

[@ymirsmack324]

Awesome, is the course recorded in real time speed?

[@ninjabuddy1]

Gimp also has these options if Photoshop is too pricey or you aren't a student. Lots of fun level and curve settings Also out of curiosity, why eraser for cleanup instead of just deleting the contents within the lasso?

[@space.tel-e-grams]

he's not using the eraser, he's painting in the white with the brush tool.

[@ichnuhalt]

If I got that right, he is using the paint brush to make the paper white evenly Deleting would make spots in another white value, wouldn't it?

[@space.tel-e-grams]

@@ichnuhalt yes, if the document is flattened and you have pure white set as your background color, that would happen. You could get around that by putting a solid layer of the off-white behind the layer you are deleting from. It's really 6 of one, half dozen of the other. Probably best to use the paintbrush at lowered opacity just in case the white value isn't even across the page (IMO).

[@ichnuhalt]

Ahh thanks!

[@HalfWarrior]

Can you set some of the layer tweaks\adjustments to an action in the actions panel?

[@yoyolol22]

no

[@Lishtenbird]

You can record adjustments and global modifications, including adding whole adjustment layers. You can even toggle them modifiable in case you want to tweak them midway for different pictures. You can't automate stuff, like brush strokes, that isn't algorithmic.

[@Lishtenbird]

I feel the presenter is more experienced as an actual artist/designer than as a digital editor, since some things are overcomplicated while others are glossed over or omitted. - Layer duplication/blending instead of just gamma correcting in Levels or Curves, or even Exposure or Brightness/Contrast, is pointless. (It's also weird to have this niche hotkey highlighted, and not the many frequent other ones.) Was honestly expecting some high/low frequency editing trick from skin retouching at this point. - Not using alt-click in Levels to check for clipping on paper texture and pencil. If you actually clip away all the texture into pure white, the rest of your work becomes simpler, but it's a tradeoff. How much you clip depends on sketch material. - Hue/Saturation is not always the best way to turn your pictures grayscale. - Using a soft non-100%-opaque brush to paint in selected regions, and spending extra time on that - if you aren't doing gradients intentionally, hard brush or straight fill (Shift-Backspace) is faster. (Also, questionable to use hard-edge Lasso with a brush instead of a graphic tablet pen that lets you preserve more details, but if we assume that the artist only has a mouse, sure.) Also, this could've been done with an adjustment layer as well to preserve some more texture if that's important. - ...but if not, then D sets your colors to white & black. - There are plenty of uses for layer masks and gradients and soft brushes in adjusting that type of stuff, where you need to level out differently shaded parts of images. - Approach to layerwork is questionable. Again, non-destructible overpaints as well as masks are always superior as they're extremely easy to correct at any point. Overall, I feel this particular guide can teach newer artists bad practices that will hurt them in the long run. So if you happen to be one of those and are just starting with Photoshop - I encourage you to first learn the very basics of image manipulation in it, and once you get used to them, you'll start knowing on your own what tool exactly is required for solving each particular task at hand.

[@panpukinart]

Very important comment! I hope more artists, especially younger ones, stumble across this.

[@laryssagobbi]

so useful, thanks!

[@SC4RArt]

Amazing thanks for sharing! Wonderful art! Stay safe! 🤍😊🤍

[@ArtistJiban]

Wow

[@AdaArts]

I like your videos very inspiring 😍👏👏👏👏👏

[@marshallbinkley9186]

Command "S" will save you butt is exactly right.

[@embran8486]

Odd towards Grey in levels. I always learned use the left handle for black increase and right one for whites with a click and drag. But the Grey one with "Alt/Option" + click & drag the middle handle. I don't remember why because I don't see the difference much, but the "Alt/Option" was vital.

[@lightlawliet3526]

video about scanning. meanwhile me: takes picture with my six yrs old ipad mini with pixelated resolution.

[@szymonmatusiak2063]

Isn't 600dpi a bit of an overkill?

[@jockospillink7318]

I’m taking Ryan Benjamin’s comic course thanks to Proko

[@MastersZone1122]

Nice☺️

[@alextra5077]

You're a genius

[@lineriderrulz]

Great, I always just used curves with luminosity and sort of eyeballed where the values mostly lied for pencil sketches, levels seems great for this but I wonder if even better results can be had by combining both

[@Lishtenbird]

Photoshop always has multiple paths to achieve the exact same result. Curves are superior to Levels and offer more control. Levels are simpler and harder to mess up, and you can add Brightness/Contrast to them separately.

[@yagami6372]

Can u make a video about breaking up the body? Or u already made one? If u did please send me the link

[@bhavyadevganiya1472]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5DSpn-QrLJ2j9k i hope this one is it

[@yagami6372]

@@bhavyadevganiya1472 tysmm

[@powerofberzerker9487]

I do this stuff all the time...

[@isabelghostwood4748]

2:23 first step

[@scandrive5562]

Not everyone has photoshop skills or scanning equipment, but everyone has a smartphone!

[@subirdas3254]

Dear sir l want more learn from you please give guide to me, l hope that helps to me, Namaskar thanks you please you will be given more information and links.

[@mikekazz5353]

Oh thank you for this, just got a drawing tablet and Krita wondering would it be cheating to digitally draw over pencil sketches to do the inking and coloring.

[@artywolve]

Why? You drew it either way right? Would it be cheating if you did a pencil drawing on a canvas before adding paint? Of course not.

[@mikekazz5353]

@@artywolve that's actually a really good point, I was more focused on drawing from scratch that I saw it more as a new medium and not as another method to the process. Glad to know this, thanks for making this more understandable Arty

[@projp9057]

Good

[@wryyy2211]

Bruuhh his sketch was already clean without editing ☠

[@ai_zj]

i scan everything with my phone

[@matinteimoorii1350]

you are best stan ,you are best love you from iran

[@elgerrr1162]

👍

[@pleaselisten3286]

I say then: walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lust against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary to one another. So that you do not do the things that you wish Galatians 5:16-17

[@sofie6408]

i clicked so fast

[@princed9376]

This guy has no reason being this hot

[@yevmann]

dang early, posted 29 seconds ago