#Line art drawing inkscape tutorial how to#

Now have can separate out your linework with just a few extra steps! I know 13 steps seems like a lot, but I did this with every page in my book, and after just a few times, I could do the entire method in 1 minute. Optional: Go to Image > Mode > RGB Color (or CMYK, whichever you want to work in).Select your Paint Bucket Tool (G) and fill the selection with black.Click Create a New Layer (On the Layers panel).Select the Gray channel (On the Channels panel).Shift+Command+I to invert your selection (You’ll see all the black parts of your artwork are selected).Click Load Channel as Selection (You’ll see the white parts of your artwork are all selected).Command+V to paste your selection onto this layer, then Command+D to deselect.Click Create New Channel (A new layer will appear named Alpha 1 ).Open your Channels panel (under Window > Channels, if you don’t see it).Command+A to select the entire artwork, then Command+C to copy.Go to Image > Mode > Grayscale (then Don’t merge, Discard).To see this method in action, check out the video below!Īnd if you’d like the steps listed out for reference later, here ya go: And it will save you loads of time and headaches down the road, trust me. This method may look more complicated, but I promise it’s not at all once you do it a couple times. So now, let me show you the oh-so-better but still-pretty-quick way to remove your backgrounds. But I didn’t want to waste my time erasing the background or fooling around with tons of adjustments. I needed to actually remove the background. And for a book, with tons of layers, tons of pages, and a need for consistency… that sloppiness just won’t do. It was causing all kinds of issues with background colors, transparency, and contrast.īecause, as you can see above, setting the linework to Multiply doesn’t really get rid of the background. Maybe this is how you’ve been doing it, or maybe you’re already light years ahead of me on digital techniques.īut while working on my book, We Are Fungi, that quick-fix method just wasn’t cutting it. For too long, I had been removing my backgrounds the lazy way: by setting my linework layer Blend Mode to Multiply. In this quick tutorial I’m going to show you my new and improved method for removing a background from your line art, using some of the artwork from my upcoming book, We Are Fungi!įirst, let me make a confession. But if you work initially on paper, like I often do, then you can run into some problems. Obviously, if you work completely digitally, you can just draw your linework on a separate layer and you’re good to go.

#Line art drawing inkscape tutorial how to#

One of the requests I hear most from other artists is how to separate linework from a background when you scan a drawing into Photoshop.