Question. In music, compression is used to make everything sound more cohesive, tight, and unified. I feel like something similar exists in digital art.When I draw a clean line (a “raw” digital line) it often looks too sterile, flat, and separate from the background. But when I look at artwork online, especially manga pages or illustrations on Twitter, I notice that their linework seems to blend into the background more naturally. Even in professional digital works, there’s often a kind of transition between the pixels of the lineart and the white or gray background.I know there are tricks to make an image look more organic and unified, like using paper textures in CSP, or adding Perlin noise or grain over the whole image. But there’s something else I’ve noticed: the lines in good digital art often look like they have a kind of soft antialiasing. So I wonder if that effect is sometimes just the result of image resizing. For example, if I take my finished image, scale it down, then add a bit of texture and maybe a soft blur on top, the result often feels more cohesive, as if everything “glues” together.... kind of like compression in audio.Maybe what I’m seeing in manga happens naturally during the scanning or export process: the reduction, compression, or even mild pixelation creates a smoother transition between line and paper, which ends up looking more natural. Even when artists only use black lineart and a few shades of gray, their work feels fuller, more textured, and not as sterile as mine.So my question is: is this effect something artists usually create intentionally, through resizing, texture, and compression? Or is it more of a side effect from image downscaling? And are there any known techniques or workflows in CSP to achieve that cohesive, slightly “compressed” look on purpose?
maybe OP pic is not the best example, but this pic related is 100% digital
>>7751304And this is a dumb drawing I made, notice the difference? (Obviously, the art is worse because I'm still learning, and Yoshikazu Hamada is on another level, but I'm talking about the line specifically)
Likely because our vision is actually very noisy so it feels more natural to us and because the noise makes it feel like we are seeing more than we are and this activates more regions of our brain.I made that up between stuff I kind of know and bullshit from self-problem solving.
>>7751299they do digital art (aka tracing, paint overs, photobash and drag and drop/cut and paste sketchup/clip studio assets) at massive size and shrink it down. stop being retarded and learn basic shit.
>>7751339I've tried this, but it doesn't give me the same effect
>>7751299I see. Youre trying to lose that digial feel.One, is thin lines.Two is a pen brush with some texture.The rest, i dont know. Havent tried what you suggested. Adding a small noise filter. Im going to try that when i get to my desk. It may add some grain that youd get from paper.
>>7751311Sorry didn't answer your question.>>7751299I'm pretty sure he drew this with pen then scanned it in and digitally colored it, maybe some touchup.>>7751304This one looks like a cleaned up scan to me.Put the line on a multiply layer then add tones.
>>7751307Thats pretty damn close I think some of whats missing with your lines is hatch work. Im not saying go overboard, but you have very little to none at all in areas that can provide depth.Also, pic related, on the snake. I see this riddled throughout your piece, but sloppy applocation of shadow like this is a major tell that its digital. Yeah, theyre small mistakes, but they add up, which breaks the illusion of it being traditional.Also, try to avoid using shades of gray.stick with one. Its not a value study. Find another way to convey those shades minimuly. Maybe with other screen tones. Using computer gray is a dead give away.
>>7751304That's a scan of a printed image. Even if the original image is digital, printing it introduces a subtle noise/grain just by nature of being converted into ink on paper.>>7751307This one is just a raw digital file. There's no blur or anything here, you can see all the jaggies in the lines. I guarantee that the Tsugumono also has similar jaggies and digital feeling in the original file... though of course, the actual drawing and linework is quite ahead of yours.Anyway, the way I personally tackle the issue of making digital lines feel more analog is to intentionally make them messier. Build your lines up with multiple smaller lines. As you know, it's relatively trivial to make very clean lines in digital. In analog inking, clean lines is the goal for a lot of artists, but in digital it's very easy to achieve that clean look. Too easy, such that it loses all its appeal. So you have to mix in a bit of roughness. Even with ultra-clean lines in analog, they still have subtle roughness to them. You have intentionally go for that in digital, it doesn't just happen on its own.Also, don't mix tones with grays. Pick one and stick to it. Having some tones done with dot patters and some done with flat color doesn't work.
>>7751515Print version for comparison.
>>7751519cut your nails
>>7751640I did, 10 minutes after taking that photo haha
>>7751519you can get pretty close to this printed look with paper and grain textures btw. things like truegrit and the distressor brushes from kraftone really help making things believably scuffed.
>>7751339Please post the page in Keys to Drawing where it says to draw on a massive canvas and then shrink it down to get better lines. Thank you.
>>7751307>>7751304>>7751299I had the exact same problem, but found what the issue was, you are using hard brushes on the tones, you should use an airbrush (i use the soft one) with the tone and merge it with the shadows and cross hatching, and it makes it look seamless and smooth
>>7751307Looks good , I like the snakes. But the way you used tone for both color and shadow at the same time makes the drawing looks grayscale instead of black and white. For your question, It's easy to make your work looked like scanned manga and artbooks if you just shit all over the image quality. As an experiment you could try print out your image then scan back into CSP and see how it ends up
