Critique: Was it worth it to do lineart?

Posted 5 years, 3 months ago by doette

My biggest fear when lining is thinking 'Ugh, why'd I do this, the sketch is a billion times better'. Especially with how I HAVE to clean everything as I go, sometimes it doesn't seem like much point. This is my first attempt at lineart in a while.

Is one better than the other? Is it a matter of taste? Should I just get better at lining?

Any other critiques are fine if you feel like :¬)

anime.pnganime2.png

colorful

I can feel you but sometimes, sketches would probably make it seem like the character could barely stand but yeah I get it when the lineart feels more wobbly than the sketch. Though I could say that the lineart doesn't look so wobbly! I think the lines are odd, but just a bit of coloring and a bit of tweaking (e.g. clipping layers), I think it may make linearting fun!

In my opinion, it's a matter of taste, knowing whether lineart is worth it or not depends on the style of coloring you aim for! That's just for me but sometimes, when I left my sketch alone, it blended well with rough coloring as long as I color the sketch as well by clipping the sketch layer. I lineart in most cases though due to my anime art style and my kinda solid shading since I'm not really that much into painting. Sometimes though, I still leave the sketch layer alone, but I just clean it up to make it seem like lineart. Sometimes, I just don't sketch at all and straight up to lineart. Well, it mostly just crosses to my mind on how I'll handle my lineart in my artwork nowadays so I'm really sorry if that sounded really vague ^^;

Basically, lineart would always seem unsatisfactory at first, but handling it by coloring it, in my case, kind of hides the flaw I have with linearting. It started to make me less worried about how will my lineart end up!

Just a few questions though, have you tired changing your min brush size or the stabilizer? It helps me a lot to keep a more stable lineart!

Discordia

Hey there! I agree with pretty much everything above too. I think a bit may be preference (hard to tell though since I’m in the same boat as you- I love my sketches I hate everything in between that I make that’s not a sketch or a finished piece) 

I saw you mentioned you have to clean as you go- just curious is it because you intend on finishing (lining/coloring) it? Or because you’re practicing? Honestly if I’m not going to “finish” something I don’t line it...unless I line it but keep my sketch lines just under it.

Here’s a wip from something I finished awhile ago that maybe will give you an idea of what I mean: https://sta.sh/0uddo51k6sy sometimes if I just want to leave it a sketch I’ll line and overlay it, and then maybe pop a color in to clean up any little- straggling squiggles. 

I’ve also noticed there are some pretty major different ways of doing lineart- either with pen pressure or just by the pixel pen size. I like being able to adjust thickness with pen pressure since the feel of it I find is more like sketching (I’m on mobile so I’m having trouble determining which way you do it). Also I do my library on like...4 different layers- that way if I want to do a sweeping line that goes past where it will eventually own to maintain flow I don’t have to meticulously erase around unrelated stuff (I usually do- body/outline in one layer, hair on another, face and other small details (buttons,fingers, whatever) on another and the clothes separate) 

Well uh, I think I just got off on a tangent but I hope that helps! I actually think your lines look nice (as I said though without being able to see a large non mobile version I wouldn’t be able to determine if there is like...close up inconsistencies) the major difference is you’ve lost the depth by not shading the eye which will come when you color, but if you don’t plan to color it perhaps it would “finish” it a little more

Kirbygal

You have a very clean sketching style xD It looks really nice and i can see why you'd  rather skip the lineart. As some other comments had briefly suggested, pen pressure is important for lineart as well, specifically line weight, where parts of the lineart look thinner or thicker depending on where it is on the drawing. Usually in corners of the hair where two strands seperate or parts where you think there'll be shading has a thicker looking line, and parts where there would be lighting would have thinner lines. I found a couple of tutorials here and here that seem to explain that pretty well. It really enhances how the lineart looks and I suggest you play around with it too and see if you like it or not. It's something I gotta work on too lol but here's some examples I think are alright enough too: this  that, are sketches but could prob work lol

WhiskeyWorks

Your sketchwork, at least in the sample you provided, is so neat and clean that it doesn't seem worth it to go through all the extra work for linework. I suppose it is a matter of preference, but I really think your style is suited to coloured, cleaned-up sketches rather than full-blown inked illustrations... particularly when you don't think inking is fun. I've definitely been there, and when finally I realized inking didn't really 'add' anything to my work, I decided to take a step back and start cleaning up and colouring sketches, only. Not only is it more fun and saves a lot if time, but it still has a very professional and quality feel to it (there's sample of a 'cleaned-up sketch' on my profile, if you're interested). The rough linework can add a lot of texture and dimension to an otherwise flat, inked drawing.

Pay attention to what others are saying about pen pressure and linework, but apply it to your sketches. clean up what you already have... and what you already have is very good! Play around with your sketches... try new things, and eventually you'll settle into a more fun, and less tedious approach to creating 'completed' artwork. It's all about what suits you best... YOUR preference for YOUR art!

doette

Thank you everybody for replying and being so nice!! So I guess the answer to the last two questions is just 'yes', because I had actually already coloured it, and compared it to other pieces from artists I liked. I thought, 'geez, the biggest difference between us seems to be no lineart, even if I get better at colouring', so that's why I went back. So I guess I'm going to have to colour it again to ACTUALLY find out if it was worth it, like you all said _(:3」∠)_.

(I know it looks even messier on a dark background, but I didn't want to clean it up if I was going to reline and recolour it lol)

colorful Kirbygal Yep! I used a size two brush for everything except details like the hearts and the bows, which was a size one. The eyes were a size three. I'm now feeling I should have done the hair as a size one lol. That tip about making it thinner where the lighting is is extremely helpful but wow... I'd have to know EXACTLY what I wanted it to look like from the very beginning.

Beefy Is linearting for most people supposed to change the anatomy/placement? I thought lining would be far easier for me just for the fact that I wouldn't have to change anything major during the process!!

Discordia WhiskeyWorks I definitely want to finish the pieces completely, I'm trying to dedicate myself more to art and not leave things unfinished, which I've always had trouble with because of attention issues / thinking I'm not good enough so I don't keep going / wanting to draw something else DURING drawing something etc etc. I admire lots of different art styles and I think coloured sketches are what I'd do if I ever venture into comic booking, but most of the artists that I admire above all else line things even when everybody thinks their sketch is enough already... like mine! Terry Dodson is my number one example of this (although he gets his wife to line his drawings lmao)

circlejourney

My process is similar to yours, in that my sketches are clean and I barely change anything in the lineart. I actually don't do lineart on a lot of my "clean" commissions: I simply clean the sketch up. I do absolutely think sketches can sometimes be better than the lineart, and you could well do what I do and forget about the canonical "sketch -> lineart -> colour" process.

a cleaned up sketch of mine:

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and lineart:

9S9K3Sg.png

If you zoom in real close you can see the unevenness of the sketch, but at a certain point it only adds to the charm

Triachi

I think that both are good, but in case of the lineart you could work on making your lines more varied? Also, adding shading by hatching and/or crosshatching could work well too!

Well, you don't have to draw the lineart and clean the sketch instead! It all depends on your style and what you like the most doing!
Your sketches are rather clean already, so you could easily color it without drawing the lineart!
For example, my sketches tend to be very messy https://file.toyhou.se/images/10313484_MqOmwHE8tEQ7ftX.jpg
so I have to make linearts https://file.toyhou.se/images/10533892_AuibSh1tJOM6Ero.png https://www.deviantart.com/triachi/art/Glowing-candles-lineart-774504465

Vely

Good lineart is a good skill to have, so it's worth practicing until you are satisfied with it, even if you prefer your sketches. 

The two things I see with your lineart are loss of line weight (already mentioned--put more pressure on areas for more line weight) and loss of motion. With the line weight, I've learned to add it as I go along. I tend to add more weight to areas that would be shaded, either with more pressure or going over that spot again. Going from your sketch to lineart, there are already spots on your sketch that appear weighted that you could mimic in your linework.

For motion, that depends how you're doing your lineart. It looks like you're simply tracing it? That's not how lineart needs to be. For hair especially, if you have a lock of hair that extends out, I would advise not tracing it, but redrawing it in the same area with a quick motion. This will keep the more natural feeling of movement that your sketch has. In general, quicker motions while lining will look smoother than slow lines made with tracing. There's no one right way to line, but this may be worth exploring if you haven't already.

Like every other part of art, lining is a skill that takes a long time to get to where you want it to be. You're doing good so far! Good luck improving!