Clean lines with Apple Pencil on 1st Gen 12.9"?

[atlas_0]

So I just got a first gen 12.9" Pro again. I never used it seriously for drawing when I had one previously, but this time around, it's a fairly important need of mine.

Last night I got down to business in Procreate, working on a tracing of some line art that needed cleaned up and digitized for print work.

While I was able to get plenty of perfectly centered lines with straightness and also proper curves when needed, the edges of every line were jagged and messy. One note, the image was fairly low resolution, at about 720x1100.

Doing a quick read of various posts and topics on forums, some say this is an inherent flaw with *all* linework on the iPad Pro. Others blame lack of comfort level to the glass screen/pencil combo. I'm not sure which it would be, or if it's the image I'm working with for tracing.

Are either of these accurate? Would I have better results with a higher resolution image? Are there any tricks to getting smooth, clear linework?

 

[Newtons Apple]

Drawing straight lines on a digitizer is an issue.

 

[ImBuz]

Suggest you watch any one of the considerable nimber of
YouTube videos for Procreate--tons of good stuff

 

[atlas_0]

Drawing straight lines on a digitizer is an issue.

It's actually not the straight lines that are an issue, but the roughness of the lines. They look ok from a distance, but are heavily pixelated at normal resolution.

Suggest you watch any one of the considerable nimber of
YouTube videos for Procreate--tons of good stuff

Will do - I've checked some, but I've yet to be able to solve the issue with line smoothness. Drawing techniques are always good to pick up, but I really just need smoother lines.

 

[kazmac]

@atlas_0 I know exactly what you mean. This happens to me all the time when I use the various pencils in Procreate on the 2nd gen 12.9" (I'm not a professional artist.)

However, I recently discovered if I keep the brush tip very small in Procreate using the Technical Pencil brush (about 1.0 px. Please see green circle in image below. The top controller I circled is brush size, the bottom one is opacity) I can achieve some clean lines.



The larger the Pencil brush tip in Procreate the more pixelated the lines become. I have not really used many paint brush tools so I have only seen the results using the three pencil tools in that existing set of brushes.

Hope this will work for you on the 1st gen.

 

[atlas_0]

@atlas_0 I know exactly what you mean. This happens to me all the time when I use the various pencils in Procreate on the 2nd gen 12.9" (I'm not a professional artist.)

However, I recently discovered if I keep the brush tip very small in Procreate using the Technical Pencil brush (about 1.0 px. Please see green circle in image below. The top controller I circled is brush size, the bottom one is opacity) I can achieve some clean lines.

View attachment 709603

The larger the Pencil brush tip in Procreate the more pixelated the lines become. I have not really used many paint brush tools so I have only seen the results using the three pencil tools in that existing set of brushes.

Hope this will work for you on the 1st gen.

I appreciate the tip - I'll give it a shot tonight and report back with results!