Clearing Paper Lines Tutorial

The following tutorial shows a recommended method of removing lines from lined paper for a drawing, using Photoshop 6.0 The artwork used used in this tutorial is by my friend Kristen and is used with her permission in answer to her question, So to any of my more Photoshop talented friends, how do you get rid of the blue lines?

Original Image:

Original

Final Image:

Final

First, copy/paste the image as a new file in Photoshop. Then set it to Grayscale (Image --> Mode --> Grayscale).

Before Grayscale

Now it looks like this:

After Grayscale

Zoom in and adjust the brightness and contrast (Image --> Adjust --> Brightness/Contrast) to get a nice black and white image.

Adjust Brightness/Contrast

Create a new layer and call it "white," placing it above the base layer the drawing is on. Then select the Polygon Lasso tool.

New Layer, Lasso Tool

Use the Polygon Lasso tool to select an area you want to fill with white (which, will in essence cover, or "erase," the lines).

Polygon Select

Make sure you are doing all of this on the "white" layer, separate from your base. Once you have the area selected, go to Edit --> Fill. Choose "White." Mode should be Normal and Opacity should be 100%.

Preparing Fill

Afterwards, here's how it looks:

After First Fill

Tiny parts of the paper lines might be missed while trying to avoid the lines from the drawing.

Leftover Lines

These can be handled by zooming in and using a small brush to cover them.

Use Brush

Here's how the image looks after doing some of the upper left:

Status Check

Use both the Polygon Lasso tool and the Brush tool to cover the lines with white. I recommend starting with the larger areas, using the polygon lasso tool first, then using the brush to fine-tune things. Personally, I tried to remove everything on the outside of the figure first, primarily using the lasso, then worked on the chest and arm areas, using a small brush of 3px width. Figuring the head and hair would prove the most challenging, I saved those for last. Here's how it looks after doing everything but the head and hair:

Status Check

For the head and hair, I decided to try going down line by line, working very close up with the brush (and occasionally the polygon lasso). When all was said and done, here was the final result:

Final

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