Introduction: Making Line Art

About: I like lunch.

Line Art looks really cool, you can just about draw anything to use for line art and it'll look cool. It's also really easy to do. Here's what you need:

A drawing of some sort on paper ( not too detailed though)
A scanner or even digital camera
A photo editing program ( I used macromedia flash mx )
A bit of spare time

I apologize for any spelling mistakes or things you don't understand, I'm only 13 and this is my first instructable.

Step 1: Getting Started

Ok, get your picture you drew. I just used lead pencil for mine. Don't shade anything, it'll just make things more complicated. Next scan it onto your computer if possible. My scanner is broken so i had to use a digital camera which didn't work very well. As you can see it is very hard to see. I drew a crusader knight person, very quickly. Onward to the next step!

Step 2: Tracing

Now, open up some kind of good drawing program. I used flash mx for mine, but I"m sure there's heaps of others you can use. Make sure you have 2 image layers for your line art. On the bottom layer, put in the picture you drew and lock that layer. On the top layer use a drawing tool to trace over all the lines from your sketch. Once you have finished your tracing, get rid of the bottom layer, you no longer need it. It should now look something like this:

Step 3: Painting

Now you have your black and white trace, it's time to add some colour. Get out the paint bucket tool and fill in all those blank spaces with colours of your choice. Highlights always look good. Once you've finished painting you're almost done. Here's mine:

Step 4: Erasing

This bit is easy to do with flash mx, I'm not sure if which other programs have this tool, It's called the faucet and it's a type of eraser that erases lines and fills in one hit. It's very handy and crucial for line art. What you have to do now is just go around with the faucet and get rid of all those pencil lines you spent so long putting in. Don't worry. It's worth it in the end. Once that's all done, your master piece is finished. The last thing i did was put in a few little details for the crusaders chain mail. The end.

If you have any questions or want to call me an idiot, fire away.