HOW TO CLEAN UP AND OUTLINE ARTWORK

 to re-use Old pictures

(A joint communal effort, by members of the Port City Car Co)

© Paul DeVerter

A Port City Car Company Project

  Before you start you must remember to continually save your work, no further comment will be given and it is assumed you have a working knowledge of PSP

You should scan a picture of the car at a high resolution, or choose a ready-made depiction.

Opened up PSP and import the picture, then using the "Perspective tool"  reshape the image.

 Using the “deform tool” stretched the image until it looks about right.

Take the picture you wish to improve, place it in the PSP using a size of 2000 pixels. (Using a large canvas and enlarging the lettering to suit helps to control the finer detail). Select the area needed for the project and copy.

Use the resize and make it fill the 2000 pixel size and change to a b/w picture with the Greyscale utility (Colours…Greyscale).  This helps simplify colour switching with only the need for two colours, and also helps with the keying to the magic wand. (Using a large canvas and enlarging the lettering to suit helps to control the finer detail.

This can be scaled down at a later time.)

  Using the magic wand click inside each of the letters in turn, to create a marquee. You may have to juggle the tools to find the setting you require to work for you.

 Keep doing this and filling with a dark grey filler, remembering that any move you do not like, you can undo and try again

 This not a fast process, but as you get more used to doing this, it does get easier, and don’t forget you are creating a work of art.

 Keep adding bit-by-bit, and filling with grey.

At this point you have to start the clean up process. Using the brush set on round & 2-3 pixels. Sketch in and fill the deformed parts, grey to add - and white to clean up the lettering until it looks right

(If you have a pen pad / tablet tool instead of using a mouse this is very helpful)

 At this stage put in a couple of lines as a guide in keeping the lettering level. (removed later) Look at the first “T” and “O” you can see the start of the clean up

Clean up using any method you know, in the case of the letter “M” I am using the “select tool” and filling it with grey to square up the sides and bottom of the first upright. Then copy/paste to the other legs, to give a clean look.

I will do the same on the other uprights

As you progress it looks better, I have now squared off the “T”. Because the “O” is the same as the first one, a simple copy/paste is all that is needed.

Then clean off the squiggle and it will be fine. Keep looking and improving

 Well that’s the top line done, and the guide line removed. So carry on to the completion of the lettering, things are going to get better

Using the wand highlight the lettering to show the marquee, and Invert

Then apply a flood of White to be the final background

And this is the final result.

All that has to be done now is to make it colourful and ready to use.

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At this point you can save the work done and create a file for future use.

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Using a copy of the newly made file, it is time to introduce the colour.

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Using Layers to Stroke the Lettering

There are several methods that may be used to draw an outline or stroke about the artwork.  Perhaps the simplest is to expand the selection and then fill in the selection with a colour,

 then reduce the selection and fill in with a different colour, and so on. 

This method requires you to guess at the size of the stroke or outline you are adding.

The following described method uses layers.

The advantage is you can change the visibility of the fill colours, and compare them to the original artwork, and thus get a better idea of the size of the outline you are creating. 

If you don’t wish to use layers, then you can use the method described above without layers, to come up with comparable results.

 Before we start, flood the background with colour. This will enable you to see the moves better

Toggle on the Layer Palette, then open “Selections” then click on “promote to layer”.

You will see two entries in the Layer Palette box.

This results in a new layer appearing in the Layer Palette, which is called, amazingly enough: Promoted Selection.

Now you can hover the cursor over the name of either of the layers in the Palette to get a thumbnail of whatever is inside the layer.  Also you can change the visibility of the selected layer by sliding the little triangles at the end of the box labelled 100 to something lower.  This does not seem to work for the Background layer, however – notice the 100 is greyed out.  You can also make the layer invisible by clicking on the spectacles in the name of each layer, which will toggle the visibility of the layer on and off.  Try it.

After you are ready, it is time to enlarge or grow the selection.  Make certain that the Promoted Selection Layer is highlighted.  We are going to work only in this Layer.  To enlarge the selection, go to Selections | Modify | Expand and add say 12 pixels.

The result will be that the selection is now larger than the letters,

and 12 pixels larger than it was to start.

Expand it more, if you like.  If this suits you, then now is the time to fill in the selection with a colour, say white.  So, use the Flood Fill tool or even the Airbrush Tool and the Letters are now filled with white – not on the original underlying layer, but only on the Promoted Selection Layer.  You can see that this is true by turning off the visibility of the background layer by toggling the spectacles.  When you do, all you will see is a white letters on a transparent background.

Sometimes it is difficulty in getting the Flood Fill to do anything, and you may have to revert to the Airbrush.

The next step is to reduce or contract the selection.  This is where the layer and its visibility is helpful.  You can reduce the opacity of the white layer to 30 - 50%, and thus see through the white to the underlying original lettering.  Then you can fiddle with the modification of the Selection to contract it to the size you prefer.

Remember  Selections…..Modify…… Contract…. say 6 pixels

So, here the visibility of the Promoted Selection has been reduced to 50%, and the Selection reduced by perhaps 6 pixels.  You cannot really see the white, because its visibility has been reduced in opacity, as has everything on the Promoted Selection Layer.  But you can see that the Selection is still a little too big, because it is outside the original boundary of the letters.  So, you can reduce the selection even more.

When you have it where you want it, make certain the Promoted Selection Layer is active, and fill in the Selection with black.  Once again, the black may appear grey, rather than black because you have the visibility of the Promoted Selection at less than 100%.  Here it is at 57%, with the Background toggled off.

And the white is barely visible, being lost in the transparent background.  But slide the triangles over to 100%, and the black layer will be fully visible.

Well, now reduce or contract the Selection even further for the final fill.  By reducing the visibility of opacity to 50%, you will be able to see where the Selection line or marquee actually is in relation to the letters, which are hidden beneath the black fill.

Pick another colour for the next smaller fill, I chose Red, and here is what you have.

The lettering outlined in white, black and Red.  But you still can’t see the white very well, and the Background is cluttering up your final product.  What to do?

Switch the layer palette back to the original Blue background, and toggle the view of the Background back on, with everything at 100%:

Now, if you are happy with the stroked or outlined lettering in the Promoted Selection Layer, then make certain that this Layer is active, and then get rid of the marquee by using CONTROL + D.  Next, simply Copy and Paste the Promoted Selection Layer to a new bmp or wherever you wish.  Doing it this way, you will leave the Background Layer behind.  If you like the background colour, then you may, instead, merge the two Layers into one by going to Layers | Merge | All Visible.

Now adding an outline around artwork is not an exact science, just something to help get you on track so to speak.

You can now experiment and do your own thing.

The product can be used for whatever purpose you please.

A car side, or just on artwork on the side of a building.

You choose.

CREDITS

We would like to thank Tim Muir, Larry Mullett, Ed Hawkins, and Ted Ahner for Beta testing this tutorial.

This tutorial is the copyrighted work of

John Fleming, Frank Thomas, and Paul DeVerter, all of Port City Car Co. 2006.

If you have questions, you may contact us through paul@paradesquare.ca