This is a compilation of different ways to get nice pointy speedlines without going crazy.

First use the Line Tool to draw your speed lines.

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Then go to the Filter Menu > Blur > Motion Blur

Make sure the Angle matches the direction your line is going in, and tweak the distance to determine just how pointy the line is.

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Make your first anchor at the tip of the speed line. Make your second and third anchors at the base of the speed line. Close the path by clicking on the first anchor. Fill the path.

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You can also use the Polygonal Lasso and fill, but make sure the tips aren’t too thin. You might have to extend your selection past the actual point. (Thanks Irec ^^)

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First, set your Brush Tool to the appropriate width and then set the Minimum Diameter around 35%. You can set that higher or lower as you see fit.

Again, make the first Pen anchor on the tip of the speed line. Make a second anchor at the base of the line, and then close the path by clicking on the first anchor again. Basically, it folds the line back on itself.

Now right click, choose Stroke, and make sure the Simulate Pressure box IS checked.

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1. Download the .pat file from this website (or any other site).

2. Go to the folder that your Photoshop application is located in.

3. Open the Presets folder.

4. Open the Patterns folder. (Or for brushes, go to the Brushes folder. Brushes are .abr files).

5. You should see other .pat files here. Put your new .pat files in here, too.

6. If Photoshop is open, quit out and then reopen it.

7. Your new patterns (or brushes) can be loaded from the usual menu now ^_^

By ‘motion lines,’ I mean the lines on an object indicating speed and movement.

I imagine you could do this with a mouse if you were really, really talented, but I highly suggest only using this method if you have a graphic tablet. Sorry ^^;

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1) Make a new layer. You should be used to this by now ^^

2) Cover the motion lines with white. Usually, I’ll use the Pen Tool to draw a path around the area, fill with white, and then stroke with black on a higher layer. That way it’ll be sure to have a nice border.

Since her arm kind of had two distinct section, I made a layer for each part.

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3) Lock the transparency on the layer so that you can only make changes to the areas that have already been inked (the white area).

4) Set the Brush Tool to 1 px for every 1000 px that your raw is high. So for the 3000 px high raws, I set the pencil to 3 px. On a 1200 px raw, I’d use a 1 px Brush.

Now comes the fun part. Lower the opacity of the white layer so you can see the direction of the motion lines underneath. Set the brush to black and scribble lightly across that area. Since the layer is locked, you will only color on the pixels that have already been colored white.

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5) Set the opacity back to 100% after a few scribbles and continue coloring it in until you get to the darkness you want. If you make it too dark, you can switch to white, add a few white streaks, and then scribble over those in black again.

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Since the raw had a lot of white near the bottom of her arm, I added a few white lines with the Pen Tool after I was done scribbling the motion lines. I tapered the strokes so that they faded nicely into the motion lines (see this tutorial for an explanation).

Then I prepared the second part of her arm by making a new layer and covering that part in white.

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I did the second section exactly like the first and added extra white streaks near the bottom. This is the final product.

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Here are some other examples:

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This is good for when a nice even line looks too artificial. Here is an example:

I find I use this most often when redrawing white lines on black areas.

1. Select the Brush Tool.
2. Click on the tab at the top that says Brushes.
3. Click on Shape Dynamics to bring up the options.
4. Change Minimum Diameter to something around 30-35%
   • This controls how tapered the line will be. As you move the Minimum Diameter slider around, you’ll see the wavy line at the bottom change to reflect your selection.
5. Close the tab.
6. Choose the Pen Tool and make your path like normal.
7. When you go to Stroke the path, make sure Simulate Pressure is checked.
8. The stroke should now taper at the beginning and the end of the path.

We’ll start with this panel:

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First, if you’re doing HQ cleaning that requires redoing the gray areas, you’ll have to create a layer of gray that covers the gray area.

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Next, reduce the opacity of the gray layer so you can see the original line art.

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We’re going to start with the jaw line. Just like in the Intro to the Pen Tool, click the pen on one side of the line you want to trace. Then click on the other side, and a path will appear connecting the two anchors.

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Click on the path in between the two anchor points to create a new point. Now hold down CTRL (CMD for Macs) and drag the new anchor point. Place the new anchor point so that the path overlays the line you want to trace.

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Now right click and stroke the path (don’t forget to set the Brush Tool to whichever width you want to make the line).

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And now we have a smoothly curving line! While the Pen Tool is great for curves, sometimes you’ll want to use the Line Tool (shadow lines on the neck) or Brush Tool (eyes).

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But what if the line first curves up and then down? You’ll need more than one anchor point, and you may need to tweak the handles. Here is a series of screenshots of where I placed my anchors for this curve. I circled the anchors added in each step. (Sorry for the big pic, but I wanted to zoom in enough that you could see the path).

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Alternately, instead of starting with anchors at the beginning and the end of the line you’re redrawing, you can place anchors as you go along.

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Remember, the Pen Tool isn’t just for redrawing line art in gray panels. It can also be used to trace over broken lines or to create an artificially clean image to be colored.

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Once you feel comfortable making paths and using the Pen Tool, check out the next section!