Want to try and forward my creation... Help!!

Some of you may know a little about my Tarot deck.

Brief history:
I created it on paper in 2004. All cards described, meanings attributed, key points of symbolism/reference. A book typed as a word doc including a work book section to help bond with the deck.

An artist came in during 2008 / 2009 offering to partner me in the project but sadly all I have are the draft drawings. The artist has long since not been part of the creation, and as it stands? The deck is semi dead in the water so to speak.

I want to now be able to attempt a resurrection. And this is where I may need some pointers in the right direction.

First off - my artistic ability is of that of a gnat with two legs amputated. So please, no suggestions of trying to redraw myself from scratch. Even if it turns out I am the only one to use the end product, I want something that looks good to the sitter. I want to have credibility when doing a reading for another person. Not lay cards which would have them wondering if they were done by a 5 year old. Seriously - I am that bad.

Does anyone know of a program I could use that would allow me to convert these rough sketches into clear and line drawings?

At the moment I only have gimp and I am not too hot on that. I have tried creating a layer and drawing around, but I have no idea how to really manipulate the tools and do it where I don't end up screaming at the PC and deleting my attempts.

The sketches are shown here, to give an idea of how raw the material is I have to work with.

https://plus.google.com/photos/113234165244188363889/albums/5331316867815134145?banner=pwa

Once I have a good, clean line drawing I am happy to then go from there and have a go at colouring each image.

It may be that this is never meant to see the light of day, but I would like to give it one last go. It meant a lot to me. And characters have relationship to each other. The kids you see playing in the Tower are Magician (he is intent on trying to manipulate the tower from falling in), his sister Strength, and their school pal the Hermit. He is happy to stand slightly to himself and learn by just observing. He is the Hierophant in waiting and takes that role when the Hierophant passes on to the spirit world. Nice, natural progression.

Mum & Dad are Empress and Emperor, who we see on the Death card, where Strength has had her pet dragon die. Dad has done the Dad thing of burying it whilst Mum does the Mum (Empress) thing of comforting her. Only brother Magician can see it hasn't died but is happily journeying to its next stage of being.

Heck, just typing about these guys has made me realise I miss 'em.

Thanks in advance for suggestions.

Davina

omg! you did a great job here! it would be shame if you don't finish this!^^ )
you probably know best program is photoshop but beside it's for *pro it's to complicated!:///I hate it!:/// im in digital art you can see some of my art here http://primavistax.deviantart.com/gallery/
and so far my fav is gimp!^^ it have its flaws especialy with lineart but for that you can try using adobe Illustrator or Inkscape?)
also from the start it's important to decide your art /card size and work with templates you can download from printerstudio or gamecrafter!)) min res is 900/1500 and 300dpi!)
always work in layers and save separete working file and finished for print desing in png!
and there is more tech stuff you need to consider borders text bleeding aeria etc
you'll definitly need a person to prepare this for print!)

imo your best option is DEVIANTART?) maybe you can post your project there and with little luck find some who will do that art/tech thing for you?))

p.s im already into to much things! but if you like I could try making one lineart for you?)) just link me with big size img and I'll see what can I do?))

Edit I just checked your finished cards!) it look fantastic you dont need lineart! just continue coloring!^^ )

reall is completely right: Acquaint yourself with Inkscape. It's a fantastic open source (i.e. free) program that does vector art amazingly. From your description, it is exactly what you need as I've found it is better at line art than even Photoshop CC (though that's not an entirely fair comparison as Illustrator is aimed more at vectors than Photoshop).

There's a slight learning curve, but you'll find a ton of great YouTube tutorials on how to make vectors in Inkscape.

Once you make your ink outlines, you can export them to whatever program you are comfortable with to color them.

Photoshop isn't that bad

But one thing that MIGHT work is to go into that or something like it and set it to "greyscale" and then up contrast heaps.

Which for your tiny fool gets this - any help ?

My first question is; Do you REALLY own these sketches? Can the artist come forward and sue you for using their unfinished images? Did you two have a contract before this all started - in case 'it happened' and in case 'it didn't happen?'

Secondly- I keep pointing people to this thread I started - and I wish it was tacked to the top of the Deck Creation Forum: click here.

If you have GIMP - no matter how skilled or unskilled you may be with it - I would import each image and color it in like a coloring book - which is how I converted my Everyman Tarot from B/W to Color (attached images) - and I was using MS PAINT! Like painting with a bowling ball!

Have you considered printing it 'as is' without altering it at all?

In GIMP I did a quick Filters>Enhance>Unsharp Mask at the default settings I use when manipulating some photos (Radius=5.0; Amount=0.50;Threshold=0.0) and got the attached. Original is on the left.

I think the hand-sketched images have a charm all their own and would just modify them rather than attempt to redraw them.

wow, I have some great suggestions here.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to explain and even have a play so I can see what is achievable. I really am chuffed here - beyond what I expected. You have all humbled me.

I think GIMP may be where I need to try again as my first port of call.
I had used the brightness/contrast and had also tidied away lines which were too rough and ready, but it still appeared a bit ... 'draft' looking in my eyes. Yet the consensus seems to be these look okay to work with.

tarotbear, you raise a good point. The artist has been out of contact for some years. We did not have a written contract, and it is not possible to explain here what happened, but I believe I have the right to use the images for myself. I will attempt to contact him again and get the definitive though to cover my back.
I like how you coloured your own deck, but the difference is you started with clear and clean line drawings. When it was obvious he was not going to finish the product, I begged him to provide me with just clean line drawings, whereby I would spend the time colouring. Sadly it never happened. These scans are low quality, but my husband has taught me a trick for making them higher quality when they are uploaded to printer studio.

Gregory, you are a star for looking at my Fool. Yep, greyscale is what I will be doing.

Reall, with regards Inkscape I will definitely look at that and look up lessons on youtube. Hubby is away with work at the moment, so will save that as a project for when he gets back. As it is his PC and something he values I will not download anything without his say so. Not that he would be mad at me, but I have made too many mistakes in the past (genuine ones!) where he had to deal with darned viruses, so we have that agreement now.

So, thank you one and all. Will spend some time today using gimp and seeing how they look with some tidying up, contrasting etc. It may be they look better than I realised and that I have had silly expectations of being able to create just a line drawing from the raw material I have.

Okay, have spent the past hour working with gimp. Have managed to do some basic tidying of the first 6 cards, and contrasted them. Once uploaded to printer studio with a black border, they look passable At least on screen they do. I may see how they look as an entire deck before deciding whether to use as is, or try and convert to line drawings for colouring. For personal use I would be relatively happy.

I still intend trying out the other program recommended when hubby gets back from Canada.

Wish me luck folks. I am wading into territory previously unknown to me.

imo to save time and effort skip lineart and start coloing on separate layer under transparent skech?)

btw you'll need your own pc/laptop!^^ ))

zannamarie said:

In GIMP I did a quick Filters>Enhance>Unsharp Mask at the default settings I use when manipulating some photos (Radius=5.0; Amount=0.50;Threshold=0.0) and got the attached. Original is on the left.

I think the hand-sketched images have a charm all their own and would just modify them rather than attempt to redraw them.

Click to expand...

thank you SO MUCH for this! It has made a significant difference and improvement.



ETA: have used some of the hints recommended for GIMP and I have to say - the improvement is huge. Have finished the Majors and uploaded to printerstudio website, to see how they look poker sized with black border. Better than I thought they would. Tarot size may not look as good due to the fact the larger images will show the rough edges more. I still want to improve further and consider the colouring of the cards, but this in the meantime may give me something I can use and carry in my handbag/purse. For now this is very much personal use, until I can get further clearance from the artist, who I have attempted to contact through AT, facebook & email. Wish me luck.