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elyss
Jan '20
1

I've seen art recently where the line art is kinda blurred at the edges. It's much softer than anti-aliasing. Any ideas?
Edit: I can't find any pieces that show what I'm talking about (I know very maddening) Here's something I've drawn recently. I want to soften the hard edges, any ideas?

image.png815x616 124 KB

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    Jan '20

  • last reply

    May '20
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antimekii
Jan '20

can you post samples? if it wasn't the brush itself they might've used blur

elyss
Jan '20

I can't seem to find any :sob:
I think I'll edit the topic and add a piece I drew to figure out how to soften the edges.

elyss
Jan '20

That makes sense. Though I'd want something easier :confused: I draw with vector and Clip lets you do a lot with it. I just haven't figured out if softening edges is one of those things...

rajillustration
Jan '20

Are you talking about a layer effect? Some artists put a glow effect on the line layer, and make the glow the same color as the line so it looks like it's a little bit wet and a little atmospheric. Another trick to do the same thing is to multiply the line layer, and hit one of the layers with guassian blur (make sure it's a rasterized layer). Then you can make a mask of the guassian blur layer and get rid of the blur anywhere you want to be more sharp, leaving all the other linework more soft.

It's kind of a subtle effect but so I dunno if this example will describe it right but is this what you mean?

subtle.jpg1000x371 218 KB

3 months later
elyss
May '20

After messing around more, I found that I could get softer appearing lines by changing lines to softer colors

ajcrwl
May '20
1

I know how to do soft edges if you have your lineart on a separate layer.

go into "layer property" panel -> click "border effects" (a black circle with white outline) -> to the right of border effect switch to the other effect "border of watercolor"

these are the settings I use:

here's an example with my sketch without the effect:

with the effect:

this is just a sketch, it looks better with good lineart and gives it a nice soft shadow. you can turn it off if you need.

IVA
May '20
1

I'm familiar with the effect that you mean @elyss and I think what @ajcrwl suggested is one way. But you can automatically do it with your CSP brush in itself (without turning it on the layer property). With that suggestion, try expanding your csp subtool settings, and go to "border of watercolor" section and tick it on. Then adjust settings to get optimal effects.

Edit: word

ajcrwl
May '20

Yep, that's another way!
Personally, I don't like to use border of watercolor on a brush\pencil that I use for lineart, because there will be a bit of shadow around the lines, which makes it really difficult to do fills with the Fill tool. But it's fine if you draw fills with another brush. It's also a cool effect for painting.

IVA
May '20

yeah, true that. i usually use that brush function for my letterings and effects. Just wanted to mention it cuz it's very handy.