[Drawing] A whole load about lines.

Through my time as an animator, this is by far the most frequent question I'm asked:

"How do you get your lines so neat?"

Ladies and gentlemen, tonight, as I write this entry on a train, I'm going to answer this question once and for all.

So let's go to the basics first, I'm assuming most people who ask this question know I use Flash, as I'm usually asked when people watch me work, either via Livestream or the classic "over the shoulder peek". I'm also assuming people know how to change their properties in Flash, the only issue is knowing which of these properties to use.

Here are my drawing setting PREFERENCES for Flash:

Tool - Brush
Smoothness - 50
Brush size - 2 (second to smallest)
Zoom ~140 (fit to stage with CTRL+2, then zoom in one stage with CTRL++)

These are purely preference, I've seen people work with thicker lines at 100%, and a friend of mine even draws with the pencil tool, which is both sick and wrong. My reasoning? You lose the hand drawn feel, to me the lines look TOO neat, which is strange to write in a blog about how I get my lines "neat". Flash has a slight auto correct for the brush tool, but I still feel the lines have more of a personal touch when done with it. Plus there's a technique I use that you can't achieve with lines, where I taper the edges of some lines to a point.

Now that preferences are out of the way, it's time to look at the contributing factors so something as simple as neat lines. First up, here's a fun fact. The brand of tablet isn't a huge factor in this. For years I'd been using cheap tablets that I bet you'd never seen in your life. I've only just now got a Wacom Bamboo after 6 or 7 years. (For those not in the know, these are the tablet that are often recommended, prices vary on model between £50-£100+) With time, you can get used to tablets, so the more expensive one isn't necessarily going to produce better lines from the get go.

So what is this technique? Well it's pretty simple, draw fast. Don't worry too much about accuracy, as the brush tool, being a vector tool, has the amazing feature allowing you to fine tune your line and bend it into shape. The pencil tool has a similar effect, but not with as much customisation. I'm assuming the fast line drawing means the tablet picks up less  of the shaky movement that's a by-product of drawing slowly. It also adds some nice gestures to the lines. Next up, draw it in bits. Every time there's a change in line direction, I draw a new line. I also draw curves in several parts, depending on the size. I know this stuff all sounds pretty basic and probably not informative, but I'm really just trying to go into as much detail as possible, seeing as this question pops up a lot.

However, there's one thing I've not exactly been able to pinpoint, as it varies so much. Yes, I've actually done research into fecking lines. That mystery variable? You.
A classmate of mine asked about my line settings, and after having the ramble above, I sat him on my laptop, using the same pen as me, the same tablet as me, and drawing into the exact program as me. Of course, his lines were still broken up, even when trying to emulate the fast drawing I do. My explanation? Drawing, like writing, has its own fingerprint left by the artist, whether it be pressure, how they hold the pen, or just how they think about what they're putting on paper (or tablet in this case). So in the end, a lot of this is fairly useless, but more intended as a pointer and explanation. At the end of the day, you just have to teach yourself how to naturally make the line art work. Hopefully this entry has been helpful and give some pointers. It's longer than my dissertation proposal, so it damn well better be helpful!

P.S. Bonus points if you read this entry in a Discovery Channel documentary voice.