Hey guys! I gotta question... What's the best logical progression to get from a drawing to a texture? For instance, if I hand-draw an image on paper and then simply scan it into my PC, it LOOKS like it was hand-drawn (not always a good thing - I can see 'dirty', irregular color and shadow transitions, I can sometimes see the texture of the paper in the computer image, etc). If you would let me know how to get from a drawing to a texture, then that would be Awesome! Thanks in advance for the help!

If you have photoshop, there should be some filters and stuff to "de-speckle" the picture. You can also turn the contrast down, blur the image, and touch it up manually. I've only used photoshop, but I'm sure other image utilities support these standard features.

Good luck!

You could create a line drawing from your hand-drawn image then scan that in,
clean the lines up and then colour it.
Alternatively, scan the entire coloured image and then use it as a template to
create the new image in a different layer.
If you have a graphics tablet you can trace your handdrawn image without the need to scan.

Oops, that AP post is me... forgot to login (posting from a school computer rather than my own; D'OH!)

Use vector art to trace it. Then you get nice smooth lines.

I'm not sure if the GIMP is more featurefilled than PSP 5 but I would check it out. It might help (it's free!).

Also, as for vector art - something like Inkscape would be of help as well. Simply import your hand-drawn image into Inkscape then use the bezier tools to trace over it.

HTH!

I second fyhuang's suggestion of Inkscape; I'm experimenting with it as I teach myself how to draw. I'm rubbish at any form of realistic artwork, but for cartoonish or line drawing then vector art is great. Plus if you have trouble drawing smooth curves or straight lines (like I do) then with vector s and bezier curves you can readjust the points to your hearts content. Furthermore, unlike most open source software, Inkscape actually seems to have a decent GUI.