Smoothness

[Orbital]

Hey all,

I've recently got back into exploring Painter and I like to dredge the net for inspiration. I ran across a Penny Arcade inking video <language warning> and the first thing that hit me was how smooth his lines were. Now, I know he's using Photoshop, but I assume Painter would be able to do the same thing. I hate to admit it, but when I try it in Painter, I'm appalled by the shakiness of my lines - every little imperfection/wobble is shown and it is nowhere near as smooth as in the video.

Are his lines that good because of practice, or is it the software he uses? Can Painter be set to edit out the imperfections and smooth out the line? I've fiddled with the "Smoothness" slider and some of my Wacom setting but haven't come across anything that would help this. Any suggestions?

Or maybe I'm just getting old...

[Fredbt]

Thanks for explaining my problem better than I've been able to. I haven't been able to draw or paint with any accuracy since Painter 7. I have no idea why. Is it Painter's later versions; 8, IX, IX.5 and X? My new Mac Pro computer? What? I can do all I've ever done in Photoshop with complete accuracy, but I've lost any hope of accuracy and smooth lines in Painter.

Please understand, this is not a slam on Painter or Corel. I want to be able to work in Painter as I always have. I'm not giving up. I'm still trying all I know to do, but dang this is so frustrating! Wish I could find an answer...

http://fredtaylorart.com

[Jason Ross]

unfortunately he inks smooth in photoshop because of practice. its not some setting or software. in PS you could use the pen tool and stroke it with the brush and check the pressure sensitivity settting...but dont worry about it because since you use painter you dont need to be that good to get totally smooth thick to thin lines totally FREEHAND. in the pens category go to "smooth round pen" (or any pen you like really). and put "damping" up to 93-95% and be amazed at your own great line work. the line is created based on the "average" of your wacom pen's path. go as slow as u want and still get a SUPER SMOOTH line. if you want a more photoshop like feel then drop the damping to like 40% or so. It's in the spacing palette. you can also create a path and check "align to path" option in tool menu and actually get a "french curve" type feeling. Hope this helps.

[Orbital]

Thanks for the technical advice Jason. I'll give this a whirl tonight. And thanks for chiming in Fredbt - nice to know I'm not the only one wondering about this sort of thing.