Is non-photo blue still viable today?

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  • #35498
    Holiday
    Participant

    I don't use non-photo blue pencils often when drawing. The lines still appear after I scan them. So are they of any use even in the professional world?

    #35499
    Fett
    Participant

    I used to use non-blue, but it pissed me off something chronic. I don't use it. A lot of people do I think for post-scanning, I think getting rid of blue lines is easier than getting rid of black ones or something.

    I dunno.

    #35500
    CDR
    Participant

    As far as I know blue lines SHOULD appear in your scanned picture.
    You get rid of them in Photoshop (or similar program). There you can select a specific range of color in the whole pic (blue? :P) and erase it all with a single click of your mouse.

    CDR

    #35501
    1dimensional
    Participant

    The only time they are really not supposed to pop up on a scan is when you scan it in under "Black and white" (not greyscale). It's just for sketching anyway, most artists I know just ink the image after they finish sketching with blue pencil or they just use a really dark pencil to mimic ink then change the contrast.

    #35502
    Holiday
    Participant

    I finally got some non-photo pencils. I'll give them a try as I go back to drawing and using my Corel Painter.  🙂

    #35503
    Fett
    Participant

    Hope you have better luck with 'em than I did. ^__^

    #35504
    Matthew Lim
    Participant

    Blue col-erase pencils from Prismacolor are awesome pencils. What I do is do all the construction and rough drawing with blue pencil, clean up the drawing with an HB or 2B pencil then scan into photoshop. Then in photoshop copy the blue layer in the channel box, then paste into the regular image. It gets rid of a lot of the blue pencil and leaves in the dark HB/2B pencil marks and makes cleaning up images in photoshop a million times easier.

    #35505
    Anonymous
    Guest

      Non Photo Blue pencils from prisma are awesome. All the time baby! I buy like 36 at a time so I don't have to make a venture to the art store often. Perhaps it depends on the scanner, but when I scan in "grayscale" my blue lines DO NOT show up.

      My technique varies depending, sometimes I'd do the whole pic in NPB (non photo blue) then pencil in my veins first in 4H, then finish the whole thing up in H. If I have the intention of inking it then I'd just do the masses or blocking out in NPB then do the whole pic in 5H then ink it. I personally feel the end result is all the same. If you ink it first then you don't have to clean it up. If you stick with pencils then you have to clean it after scaning.

      I am unsure what I prefer, but I digress. Here is something that I started in NPB and inked then scanned and colored. Not sure how many people saw it yet. http://www.k3.dion.ne.jp/~erogro/art%20gallery%20femxman.html
     
    It's the second to last pic.

    #35506
    very_zenn
    Participant

    When I use non-photo blue I don't have any real problem getting rid of it.  Of course this is after playing with it for a long time to figure it out.  Also I actually ink my pics so how well it will work with pencil I don't know.  Also I am doing this using Photoshop so you'll have to translate if you arn't.

    After scanning the picture in full platen at 300dpi pull it up in photoshop.

    Go to the Channels pallet and delete the Green Channel and then the Cyan Channel.  (This will clean it up 90%)

    Go to the Image/Adjustments/Threshold option.  Set the Threshold to about 150.  (There, it's JUST B&W.  Selecting for colors is easier now)

    Go to Image/Mode/Grayscale and then Image/Mode/RGB.

    Done.  I have this set up as an Action in photoshop so for me its one click and done. 

    Hope it helps.
    Matt

    #35507
    Holiday
    Participant

    Thanks for the tips. I'm also trying out grey markers to create softer muscle tones.

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