What ink is good to draw pictures that will be scanned into computer?

Question

Hey people,

I tried using a normal ink pen to draw. I scanned the image into the computer and tried to color it. I used the magic wand in photostudio to catch the part I want to color but it couldn't catch the part because there are still gaps in between the inks I guess it is not thick enough. Would appreciate any advice given by any experts. Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

Your problem isn't the ink, I think it is the tool, the technique and a bit of cheating in the computer.

For the tool, the marker could be your solution but in my opinion you must make it bigger so it could finner. But in this you could have some troubles with the scanning. You could use also a fine (watercolor, oriental callygraphy) brush and try to ink with them and some india ink. I take some waterink medium pointed markers and feel it with india ink, then paint with them. They make a clean, straight and complete lines, and saving the ink spreading of the marker and the brush.

The technique: you must make the lines full, touching each one, so there couldn't been gaps. Try making the draw a little bigger so you could perceive the gaps.

The computer retouch: try to scann the image and then look closer to the lines so you could detect the gaps. Some times the gaps are so small you could close them with a simple pc tool in your favourtie drawing program, but if you need it to be consistent with the lines, try elongating them with a clone tool or cuting pasting.

Answer 2

Any solid, black ink will do. My particular favorite tool is an ordinary Sharpie marker.

The real trick is to make sure the gaps are closed before you scan. If you think that fine lines are the cause of the problem, you may have to play with the scanner's controls involving "threshold," to make sure the scan captures EVERY bit of ink.

If this is not possible, then, in the scanned image, you may have to magnify each part of the drawing, and "paint" black areas to fill in the gaps before filling in colored areas.

Answer 3

I Streamline quite a lot of my drawings and colour them in Illustrator, so this has always been a problem for me.

The best solution I've found is a fine permanent fibretip like Staedtler Lumocolor - http://www.artstuff.net/staedtler_permanent_lumocolor_fine_markers.htm - on really good quality cartridge paper or illustration board.

If you're going to be doing a lot of this kind of work though, you might want to think about using a vector-based program like Illustrator or Freehand (in conjunction with Streamline) rather than the pixel-based PhotoStudio, as it makes colouring line drawings far easier and makes them a million times easier to manipulate!

Answer 4

I would try some kind of waterproof Indian ink that you use with a dip pen. If you use watercolors this would be good with that medium.