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Vector drawing with "loose" lines, what is the best way for me to start colouring this drawing.


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Hi there. I'm wanting to start giving my drawing colour but not sure where to start. I think i need to join up some of the lines, but not sure what the most effective method is. I have pretty much drawn what i have seen using the pen tool, and not sure how to start adding colour. There are a few "open" lines which have not been closed. How would you tackle colouring this?

Annotation 2020-07-14 012847.jpg

 

Edited by T4Z
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I'm struggling here. The colours below are from an image and im wanting to trace the colours but not sure what the best method is considering i have unclosed lines on the top of the the image

Edited by T4Z
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That looks like a Lancia Stratos Italia😏

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2 minutes ago, T4Z said:

Keen eye - If only graphics had sound!

lol

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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This website might be of interest: https://drawingdatabase.com/lancia-stratos/

iMac 27" 2019 Somona 14.3.1, iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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I noticed you were doing half a car, a tip that might prove useful is to use symbols. In the example below I created a rectangle as a container for the decals, I then placed an instance of that symbol on the workspace and flipped it and aligned it. Drawing in one symbol was also reflected in the flipped one. There is an issue with text, so it reflects the text like a reflection in water instead of rotating it.

1559355882_ScreenShot2020-07-14at13_49_41.png.7057103d31bb3094d5f4d0832d3695af.png

LanciaStratos symbol example.afdesign

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Just that it happens on the fly so as you draw in one side or add objects it appears in the other.

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8 hours ago, Cara said:

There's probably a lot of ways to tackle this but I would do the line art and colouring separately:

  1. Copy and paste the open lines.
  2. Close the new lines and remove their stroke
  3. Fill the new closed shapes with colour.

I have tried this but again I've ground to a halt. I have so many singular lines like this one on its own. This section should be white but as you can see its only painting this section, which i fully expected it to. I don't even know if i should have done this drawing this way. Any advice?

 

Edit: Im wanting that arch section to be totally white. Not quite sure the method would work. 

Capture.PNG

Edited by T4Z
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I have decided to start from scratch, this time starting with the overall outline and painting it white. I then plan on drawing the rest of the details on top of this layer. Still not sure what the best practice is for drawing like this. 

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There are some great illustrators on here like @VectorWhiz @StuartRc and @VectorVonDoom to name a few I'm sure if you asked they would give you some advice on best practice or at least some of their methods. They produce some beautiful work.

 

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7 hours ago, T4Z said:

Thanks for the advice, I've never used containers before. What is the difference between that and just grouping the decals and flipping them (which was my original plan).

@firstdefence was talking about using a rectangle as a container for the decals, but the important point is that he created a symbol from that container.

1 hour ago, T4Z said:

Im wanting that arch section to be totally white. Not quite sure the method would work. 

Capture.PNG

The endpoints of that arc are joined by a straight line. You need to add another line segment between the bottom right-hand corner and the apex of the arch, so that the app knows what area to fill.

You currently have
67D79567-22C9-4CC2-A769-A30045F92C13.jpeg.973391101194ce372deb8da55d6cfb1a.jpeg

but you want this:

50F77DA6-FB0F-44B7-AE9D-DF70234F6897.jpeg.39b9e9abfdea30d8efa5ef93a3e905a5.jpeg

Select the existing curve with the Node Tool and click on the top node:

E74E1A0F-0CFD-4FB1-83DC-FB0FB1D992B3.jpeg.c3e43ef27901c028dd8f78ff7291649b.jpeg

The blue square tells you that the top node is selected, so if you switch to the Pen Tool and click where you want the bottom of the arch to be you’ll get a straight line between the two points:

A7781FF4-B0EF-48E8-93AF-A78AEC3CDF15.jpeg.75e72e2276de133f82dde6bc3c3c5918.jpeg
 

As you can see, the shape now fills correctly without any need to close the curve (which means you don’t end up having to deal with a pesky line along the bottom edge of the shape).

Edited by Alfred
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2 hours ago, T4Z said:

I have tried this but again I've ground to a halt. I have so many singular lines like this one on its own. This section should be white but as you can see its only painting this section, which i fully expected it to. I don't even know if i should have done this drawing this way. Any advice?

 

Edit: Im wanting that arch section to be totally white. Not quite sure the method would work. 

Capture.PNG

You could add another node along the straight edge of the white segment, drag it to the bottom-right corner and adjust the node handles to fill the area. The node will probably snap to the corner if you have snapping turned on.

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