Slant correction

[shuckingoysters]

This is the part whre I admit that I don't consider myself an artist or skilled drawer so much as a guy who puts ink on paper sometimes and occasionally it looks okay.

Anyway, I've noticed, particularly lately, that some of my drawing are skewed to the right (I'm right-handed). I haven't been able to find any useful resource online (I'm possibly searching the wrong terms), so I was wondering what sort of advice I could get in correcting it, sort of in the way of practice aides, if you will.

I've attached an image to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

Some tricks you can do.

PREVENTATIVE:
Check as you go. If you're working using pencil and paper, every now and then, pick up the paper, turn it around facing away from you and hold it up to a light source. Alternatively hold it up to a mirror although I prefer just using a lamp because it's more easy to move around and seems to give more accurate idea of what you're doing. If you're working on the computer, do the same thing by occasionally flipping the image horizontally. Either of these will point out areas wher eyou need to straighten your lines.

You can also try laying down a very light grid, although I wouldn't generally recommend it- it might help to make the whole page straighter, but also might lead to stiffness in forms as well as possibly still leaving slanted things within the squares of the grid.


CORRECTIVE:
Use your editing software to fix things if it's too late to go back. I use GIMP, I'm not sure if it's the same for photoshop. If you don't have editing software, download GIMP, it's free and hasn't given me any problems and can really help make your work look better digitally. What I do is I use the "shear" tool, which allows me to highlight part of a page that's slanted and shift the bottom while leaving the top anchored (or vice versa), pulling it along until the slant has been fixed.


PRACTICE:
When you draw, do you get your head down really close to the table? Do you look at your work from the left side, since your hand is working on the right? This is part of what causes your problem. When you look at the pag e from wherever your head is as you're drawing, the proportions all seem fine because you drew it from that perspective. But when you move, you notice everything looks warped. Changing the way you sit while drawing may help this.

It's good that you're aware of the slant, because that means you'll be able to work on eliminating it. Many of us struggle with the same thing. Hopefully some of my tips will be of some use to you.

[McDuffies]

Yes, I have the same problem and I used the same corrective measures that Cuddly named. Technique with holding paper against a light source or in the mirror is great for finding out a variety or errors in your drawing, as well as the technique of leaving penciled drawing overnight before inking it. When we watch some drawing for very long time, we get used to it and we don't notice the little mistakes. It's kind of similar to how, when you watch a child every day, you don't notice that it has grown after a year, but if you haven't seen it for a year you notice how it's grown right away. Similarly with a drawing, when you leave it overnight (or for instant solution, flip it using the mirror or light source), it allows you to see it with someone else's eyes, eyes of someone who haven't watched it being created.

[robotthepirate]

Is this not just an issue of when you scan it? My scanner always puts things at a slight tilt so I just use photoshops rotate tool at somewhere between 0 and 1% with trial and error till I get it right.

I know it's that for me because when I've drawn things upside down I have to rotate them the other way.

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

Is this not just an issue of when you scan it? My scanner always puts things at a slight tilt so I just use photoshops rotate tool at somewhere between 0 and 1% with trial and error till I get it right.

I know it's that for me because when I've drawn things upside down I have to rotate them the other way.

It's not so much of a rotation issue as a slant issue, where everything is on a diagonal. Like instead of lines looking like |||| they look like //// or \\\\, despite looking perfectly straight to the artist while drawing. Sometimes it's not noticeable until scanned in becuase the artist looks at it for so much that it seems okay.

Typically in these cases, the horizontal lines are still parallel to the top and bottom of the page/panel; it's just the vertical lines that are diagonal, making it impossible to fix using the rotate tool alone.

[robotthepirate]

Hmm, no you're right. I just couldn't tell it was slanted till I rotated the X axis flat.

[shuckingoysters]

Thanks for your help and suggestions. Unsurprisingly, it's led to a bit of overcorrection on the drawing end of things with the slant in a few of the latest drawings VERY noticeably to the left.

I'm still learning my way around Gimp, but it's been excellent to helping me make adjustments.

Thanks again!

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

Glad to help- good luck!