Paint Shop Line Art

Paint Shop Line Art for the artistically challenged

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To my great dismay and frustration - I am a terrible artist! Barely passable stick men is about all I can do - but sometimes I want a line drawing.

This is where Paint Shop Pro comes to the rescue ... did you know you can simulate pencil drawings with PSP Photo X2?

Now before we get too far into to creating these really cool pencil drawings you need to know that there are Scripts built into Photo X2 that will do something very similar. (Scripts are a pre-recorded set of techniques that you run on an image and there are lots of them - File > Script).

Now that you know about the scripts let's look at a different way to ceate line art. I checked out the scripts and compared them to this method and frankly - I prefer the results this method produces.

No ... I'm not being a homer ... the end result of this procedure just looks better to me - and - isn't it better to create you own line art rather than have an automated procedure (that everyone uses) do the work for you?.

This is a nice and short 3 step procedure producing fabulous Paint Shop Line Are results that will amaze your family and friends ...

Step 1 - Convert to Black and White

Let's do this one ...

Open your image and duplicate the Background layer (Layer > Duplicate).

Turn the duplicated layer into black and white with either the Channel Mixer or Paint Shop Pros balck and white conversion (Effects > Photo Effects > Black & White). Don't use the Greyscale adjustment because it turns both the duplicated layer and the background into black and white and we want the original color for use later (a mystery is unfolding).

Black and White Conversion Ddialogue

Step 2 - Create A Negative Image

The second step to creating your Paint Shop line art is to make a negative image of the black and white conversion.

Duplicate the black & white layer (Layer > Duplicate).
Turn the duplicated black & white layer into a negative image (Image > Negative Image).


Duplicate of Black and White Layer	Convert Layer to Negative Image

Change the Blend Mode of the negative image to Dodge. When you do this your picture will seemingly disappear competely - don't panic though. We will get it all back.

paintshop lineart dodge

Step 3 - Gaussian Blur

This is where we get our Paint Shop line art. We are going to blur the top layer using Gaussian Blur (Adjust > Blur > Gaussian Blur). Mess about with the adjustment until you get the effect you want.

paintshop lineart end

Now we have the original background and two layers above it and we are going to merge the top two layers (Layers > Merge > Merge Down). Looks great, doesn't it?

Optional Aditions

This step is optional and will introduce a bit of color back into your line drawing. All you need to do is change the Blend Mode to Luminance and some of the original color pops back in - neat, huh?

You can also mess about with some of the Effects to see what you come up with.

That's all there is to creating your very own Paint Shop line art. It's fun, it's effective and sure to amaze and draw rave reviews!

Video

Creating Line Art With Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

Page Links

Convert To Black And White

Create Negative Image

Gaussian Blur

Optional Additions

Video

Line Art

Amaze your friends and family by turning an ordinary photograph into a compelling line art image using the tools and techniques in Paint Shop Pro X2.

The resulting line art image can have some of the color returned or let your kids color it with Paint Shop or Painter Essentials 4 that is included with the Bamboo Fun tablet.

Have fun with this great technique!