Filtering out pencil in Photoshop

[Dan The Lefty]

I'm a messy artist, so I always leave a lot of pencil and eraser marks on my pages. Thus, I always spend a hours cleaning up my comic in photoshop after I scan it.

Here's my drawing process:
1. rough sketch in blue pencil
2. detailed penciling with graphite
3. ink the page with nibs
4. erase as much of my penciling as I can (I'm heavy handed, so a lot doesn't come off)

I know how to filter out the blue pencil (which is why I started using it), but I don't know how to filter out gray-scale marks and smudges. Does anyone know where I can find a tutorial?

[RobertBr]

Do you use a putty rubber? I find that removes the pencil better than a normal eraser (with less mess).

Then what I generally do is just scan B&W at a high DPI and then blur/darken/soften to smooth everything.

Robert

[Lei]

Yeah, I'd get a softer pencil and a nice kneadable eraser. I'm also heavy-handed, but I find that a good kneadable can work magic.

Once I scan, I erase some of the more noticeable marks, then I go to image: levels: adjustments and tweak the levels until the paler pencil marks are gone, leaving the darks dark and the lights light.

[Siabur]

if inking, get a light box and trace the pencils on another sheet of paper. No messy erasing needed. Or get a tablet and do the samething in a graphic program on a separate layer.

[Dan The Lefty]

In regards to the tracing paper: I have actually worn trough a normal sheet of paper while sketching. That's why I use bristol. (Did I mention that I'm REALLY heavy-handed.)

And I can't afford a tablet right now.

I actually have kneadable erasers, but I never noticed much of a difference. I'll give them another try.

Anyway, I guess I'll try tweaking the levels in photoshop some more.

[Warofwinds]

I also recommend a light box. I'm heavy handed too, and after only 5 pages of inking over my sketch, I realized that wasn't the way to go. I draw on printer paper, then ink on a new sheet of printer paper (not tracing paper) using my handy-dandy $20 lightbox. As a poor college student, when I could not even afford that, I made one using 2 dictionaries, a strong flashlight, and a pane of glass. Worked great (even if it gave me a kink in the neck.)

I'm making the switch over to a tablet in the new year too. Can't wait.

[Lance]

I find that right after scanning into photoshop, adjusting the brightness up to around 25 and the contrast up to around 75 I get deep blacks and most of the leftover pencils fade out. Then if I have to I clean up with the eraser tool.

[Pattyannboyd]

I scan at a very high DPI (600) and adjust the levels till most the line disappear then digitally erase any left over lines.

[Montanto]

Just set your scanner to Newspaper Black & White that takes out everything but the darkest B level leads.

[Garneta]

As a poor college student, when I could not even afford that, I made one using 2 dictionaries, a strong flashlight, and a pane of glass. Worked great (even if it gave me a kink in the neck.)

That sounds familiar...my kitchen table has a partly glass top, and I just used that, and held the flashlight between my knees.

[Thekornzombie]

When I do an inked pic, I don't bother with penciling in lines, I just ink them.

[Levi-chan]

Duplicate the scanned layer for pencil, set the top layer at Hard Light. Apply Gaussian Blur afterwards.

Works everytime.

[Harishankar]

There must be a mode in your scanning software for "Line art". did you try that setting before scanning?

[Drsaltine2]

I like to crank the contrast up to 100 first thing. It gets rid of 95% of the pencil marks and the dark ink is undisturbed.

[akornzombie]

or you could try using photoblue or regular blue colored pencils for your pencils, ink, and then go to channels, select the "blue" channel, causing the blue lines to disappear, make &invert a copy, then make a new layer, load selection, and use the copy of the blue layer, and then use the paint bucket tool to give you a clean set of lineart.

[Spaceprincess]

i do the same with heavy pencils. after i scan i adjust the contrat. then go into the channels panel there is a button called load channel as selection. that will select only the dark blacks. erase the rest and you'll have nice clean lines.

[VinnieD]

If you're using blue pencils, just skip the graphite altogether. Otherwise you can learn to lighten up (this will also help you get looser lines if your art is too stiff), and then the pencils will easily come out with a kneaded gum eraser. Really you should use a gum eraser anyway, it doesn't leave dust or damage the paper like rubber ones do.

[Phalanx]

Removing pencil marks is easy. Takes about 30 seconds with Photoshop/GIMP

Scan in image as greyscale.

Adjust Levels> move rightmost slider inwards to the left to remove the light greys > move leftmost slider right to increase the darkness of the black lines. Viola.

[Lianweijun086]

Hey, I'm not sure if you're actually interested, but if you're willing to go digital, you can actually get some pretty decent tablets shipped to you for about $50. For example, I've used this one for about 2 years before someone stole my pen. Now I use a Wacom Graphire3, which was about $60 as well. In my experience Genius brand is very good, I never had a problem with it until I couldn't find a replacement pen. Still a great product though!