brighten up a drawing

[Merijn]

Hello,

I am making some painting schemes for a truck. (The drawings are not finished yet but i would like to post the question in advance so i don't have to wait later on and i can experiment before going to the real deal)

I would like to brighten them up so the customer gets the best possible (within my power and knowledge of gimp )

Has anybody any ideas?

Thanks!!!

.jpg
.xcf

[ofnuts]

I don't quite understand what you mean by "brighten them up". The colors are too dark?

[Merijn]

I thought it might be misunderstood but i don't know how to explain it in english.
But something like the picture with your nick in it. It gives it a little shine... bring the colours a bit to life if you will...

[Merijn]

Maybe even give it more of a 3D look

[ofnuts]

Aw, yes, pseudo-reflections. Will try to come up with a reproducible procedure.

[Merijn]

Ok thanks. Try to remember I'm a newbee so could you add simple instructions

thnx again!

[ofnuts]

Well, if you have done the drawing with Gimp you're getting the hang of it (except for these pesky white pixels along line borders )

[Merijn]

That's because I scanned the basic picture from a (original scania-vabis) pink/orange coloured paper from the sixties. Then i selected the cooloured pieces and just deleted them. It might not be the best way but surely the fasted
I drew over a couple of lines to make al boxes seperate.

[ofnuts]

(Nov 10, 2011 10:51)Merijn Wrote:  That's because I scanned the basic picture from a (original scania-vabis) pink/orange coloured paper from the sixties. Then i selected the cooloured pieces and just deleted them. It might not be the best way but surely the fasted
I drew over a couple of lines to make al boxes seperate.

Yes, looked like a scan. If you still have the original, use Colors/color-to alpha to remove the background, and then use curves/levels on the alpha channel to make the almost transparent completely transparent (ie, almost black becomes full black). To paint an area, select with magic wand, add a layer below the lines, grow the selection one or 2 pixels, and fill. The outer pixels of your fill will be hidden by the line art in the layer above and there won't be uncolored pixels left.

[Merijn]

Thanks!!!! I'll give it a go

[ofnuts]

- Download the attached file
- Open your original file in Gimp
- File/Open as layers the attached file
- Toggle the visibility of the new layer to see the subtle changes

The idea is that if what you are showing is a paint scheme, you can't alter the colors too much with reflections, so I am just adding a bit of shadowing on the "corners".

If that's OK, I'll do the writeup.

[Merijn]

I like the shadows, very nice! So you can gladly post the writeup

Is there a possibility to give it a little spark or shine or something?

The thing with the scan didn't really work in this case (I guess) because the background wasn't a smooth colour/surface as you can see here.
But i do get the message (Y) Thank you!!

[Merijn]

I guess you did the 3d look with a square selection, quickmask en then gaussian blur then quickmask off, ctrl+i (invert selection) then paint the selection (black)

THNX!!

[ofnuts]

Not at all A gray to white to gray gradient like this:

   

applied in multiply mode (.GGR gradient file attached).

Complete procedure:

- duplicate layer
- use usual procedure to remove background: want select the background, grow selection 2px, and color-to-alpha.
- alpha to selection
- using the freehand selector in intersect mode (ctrl+shift), round up the side view: only the non transparent stuff in the side view is selected.
- start new layer and draw gradient across side view
- repeat three steps above for front view, the final result should look like this:

   

- apply in multiply mode

[Merijn]

I guess I did it but it got me wandering... how can you make sure that you get the same startin and ending point for the gradient but the other way around offcourse...??
I got this problem also when i was working on some roundings in de paint schemes, it was very difficult to get the left and right side the same. I was drwaing with a path but couldn't get it to "mirror"

maybe this should be a new question... if so, let me know