Need a little help in cleaning...

[Kenn0n]

I'm kenn0n, learning how to clean and redraw.
I started on a bundle of really obscure doujins I found on sad panda, because I like learning on the fly.
Anyways, I would appreciate some tips on redrawing a JPEG image that's riddled with artifacts; like below:




As far as I know, these are the only scans, and I cleaned the fold mark and the upper text, so it's all good except for the bottom text here.
Thanks for watching.

 

[Gradonil_Ral]

This is actually very easy. You just need an empty layer and stamp/clone tool.
Once the top text is properly removed, you'll have plenty of space you can use as source for the bottom text.
Just remember to tick "Aligned" in the top menu for stamp, as well as set "sample" to "current & below".
After you've drawn over the white text with stamp, make another layer on top to draw the missing lines on.
If the cloned patterns are lighter/darker then the surrounding ones, you can use burn/dodge tools with a soft brush (range probably best set to midtones), to match the shades.
Oh, for cloning patterns I suggest using a hard brush. Myself, I like to use a square brush for that. Square brushes are hidden by default, so you'll need to load their preset (it's under the cog icon in the brush tip menu). You might also want to change the spacing to 1%, 'cause the default 20% is noticeable in diagonal strokes with a square brush. Spacing can be found in the brush window (F5).

-Edit-
Oh, one more thing - once you've anchored your source for the bottom text, zoom in a few times. Try to not brush over any of the lineart, it'll make it easier to fill the gaps later.

 

[Kenn0n]

This is actually very easy. You just need an empty layer and stamp/clone tool.
Once the top text is properly removed, you'll have plenty of space you can use as source for the bottom text.
Just remember to tick "Aligned" in the top menu for stamp, as well as set "sample" to "current & below".
After you've drawn over the white text with stamp, make another layer on top to draw the missing lines on.
If the cloned patterns are lighter/darker then the surrounding ones, you can use burn/dodge tools with a soft brush (range probably best set to midtones), to match the shades.
Oh, for cloning patterns I suggest using a hard brush. Myself, I like to use a square brush for that. Square brushes are hidden by default, so you'll need to load their preset (it's under the cog icon in the brush tip menu). You might also want to change the spacing to 1%, 'cause the default 20% is noticeable in diagonal strokes with a square brush. Spacing can be found in the brush window (F5).

-Edit-
Oh, one more thing - once you've anchored your source for the bottom text, zoom in a few times. Try to not brush over any of the lineart, it'll make it easier to fill the gaps later.

Ah, I forgot to mention that I use GIMP. Does GIMP have these settings? Thanks, though.

 

[Gradonil_Ral]

Aligning patterns is a bit more difficult in GIMP (or I'm just not familiar enough with it), but I've mentioned only basic options that are available in it as well.

gimp-cloning.jpg

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Actually, a softer brush might look slightly better on this pattern, but only on areas without drawings - you'll need a hard brush nearing any lines.

 

[Kenn0n]

Aligning patterns is a bit more difficult in GIMP (or I'm just not familiar enough with it), but I've mentioned only basic options that are available in it as well.

Actually, a softer brush might look slightly better on this pattern, but only on areas without drawings - you'll need a hard brush nearing any lines.

Mr. Grad, once I take out the text from the background, and all I have left is the text in the lineart, what do I do then?

 

[Gradonil_Ral]

@Kenn0n - Just Ral is fine.

First off, am I right in assuming you don't own a drawing tablet?

In any case, you should also remove the text from the lineart, just zoom in quite a bit and focus on the text alone - try not brushing over any lines.
Then, you make a 2nd empty layer (on top of the one with the pattern redraw), and you use that layer to draw the missing parts yourself.

Now... there's a few ways you can go about "filling the blanks":

1. Just pick some shade of gray for your Paintbrush, and draw slowly.
[" and "]" can be used to adjust your brush size easily.
Try a brush tip with 80-90% hardness. In places you think you drew lines too wide to match the original art, just use Eraser (with similar brush tip hardness) to delicately cut them down to what you think is right.
You might also try using "apply jitter", since the original lines aren't smooth, but you'll have yo do a bit of testing with that to see if you can achieve a similar effect.

2. Basically the same as above, but instead of Paintbrush, you can use Clone again.
You just need to pick a source with a big area of original ink - in this case, hair below the neko hairpin.
Set alignment back to "none" and let go of the mouse button frequently to start from the source again (the hair source is still quite small).
Alternatively, you can select the hair from the background, duplicate it to a new layer, duplicate that layer a few times, them move them about to make a bigger source area, select all the hair layers and merge them into one. Put that layer above the one with the pattern, but below the one where you'll draw the lines. After you're done with your lines, you can just remove this layer.

3. You can use Path Tool to draw the lines and fill the gaps with stroke.
It makes it much easier to draw curving lines, but it'll be harder to change line thickness. I won't help you there, since I'm rather unfamiliar with GIMP.
Or, you could just choose slightly thicker lines and just use Eraser wherever you need...

Afterwards, if you think the lines are too smooth, you can try applying some filters to the line layer. For example filters>noise>spread>1&1px (or 0&1px or 1&0px)... Or whatever you think looks best.

 

[Kenn0n]

@Kenn0n - Just Ral is fine.

First off, am I right in assuming you don't own a drawing tablet?

In any case, you should also remove the text from the lineart, just zoom in quite a bit and focus on the text alone - try not brushing over any lines.
Then, you make a 2nd empty layer (on top of the one with the pattern redraw), and you use that layer to draw the missing parts yourself.

Now... there's a few ways you can go about "filling the blanks":

1. Just pick some shade of gray for your Paintbrush, and draw slowly.
[" and "]" can be used to adjust your brush size easily.
Try a brush tip with 80-90% hardness. In places you think you drew lines too wide to match the original art, just use Eraser (with similar brush tip hardness) to delicately cut them down to what you think is right.
You might also try using "apply jitter", since the original lines aren't smooth, but you'll have yo do a bit of testing with that to see if you can achieve a similar effect.

2. Basically the same as above, but instead of Paintbrush, you can use Clone again.
You just need to pick a source with a big area of original ink - in this case, hair below the neko hairpin.
Set alignment back to "none" and let go of the mouse button frequently to start from the source again (the hair source is still quite small).
Alternatively, you can select the hair from the background, duplicate it to a new layer, duplicate that layer a few times, them move them about to make a bigger source area, select all the hair layers and merge them into one. Put that layer above the one with the pattern, but below the one where you'll draw the lines. After you're done with your lines, you can just remove this layer.

3. You can use Path Tool to draw the lines and fill the gaps with stroke.
It makes it much easier to draw curving lines, but it'll be harder to change line thickness. I won't help you there, since I'm rather unfamiliar with GIMP.
Or, you could just choose slightly thicker lines and just use Eraser wherever you need...

Afterwards, if you think the lines are too smooth, you can try applying some filters to the line layer. For example filters>noise>spread>1&1px (or 0&1px or 1&0px)... Or whatever you think looks best.

Thank you, Mr. Ral. I've learned a lot. I will reply once I'm done

 

[Gradonil_Ral]

Thank you, Mr. Ral. I've learned a lot. I will reply once I'm done

PM me a link to the finished product (I don't think we can link to Edited Mangas here anymore), so I can see how you did ^^
Or you coiuld send me the in-progress files, if you want me to check them out / give you some pointers~

 

[Kenn0n]

PM me a link to the finished product (I don't think we can link to Edited Mangas here anymore), so I can see how you did ^^
Or you coiuld send me the in-progress files, if you want me to check them out / give you some pointers~

I finished the particular page. Levelled and blurred.

 

[Gradonil_Ral]

I finished the particular page. Levelled and blurred.

Looks pretty good
There's one place on the crutch and one on the skirt that you should slightly thin out - and, yes, I know their widths are basically the same as on the raw, but the difference is that these places weren't filled in the middle - they were actually made of a few thinner lines.
Also, you could slightly change the angle of the redraw on the god leg, because it's currently bent inwards, making it ever more freakishly thin, compared to the stump leg xD
And one last thing you could do is try to draw some simple fist shape (very thin lines), where she's holding the crutch. I know there was no fist visible on the raw, but it's probably 'cause there was too much text in that place - thinly drawn fist would be hard to spot underneath.

Of course, if you're putting text on it, there's no need to change anything - just format the text accordingly so that it covers the places I mentioned.

~~
@Kenn0n I thought I mentioned it before, but apparently I only meant to and forgot:
Having a separate layer for lines is cool for another reason - you can turn off visibility of the patterns layer, zoom in, then switch the visibility of the lines layer on and off a few times too see how your lines are doing compared to the original ones on the raw layer. Just a tidbit for the future.

 

[Kenn0n]

Looks pretty good
There's one place on the crutch and one on the skirt that you should slightly thin out - and, yes, I know their widths are basically the same as on the raw, but the difference is that these places weren't filled in the middle - they were actually made of a few thinner lines.
Also, you could slightly change the angle of the redraw on the god leg, because it's currently bent inwards, making it ever more freakishly thin, compared to the stump leg xD
And one last thing you could do is try to draw some simple fist shape (very thin lines), where she's holding the crutch. I know there was no fist visible on the raw, but it's probably 'cause there was too much text in that place - thinly drawn fist would be hard to spot underneath.

Of course, if you're putting text on it, there's no need to change anything - just format the text accordingly so that it covers the places I mentioned.

~~
@Kenn0n I thought I mentioned it before, but apparently I only meant to and forgot:
Having a separate layer for lines is cool for another reason - you can turn off visibility of the patterns layer, zoom in, then switch the visibility of the lines layer on and off a few times too see how your lines are doing compared to the original ones on the raw layer. Just a tidbit for the future.

Thank you Mr. Ral I appreciate all your help. Ya helped me get through this project