Creating a new stencil...problem!

[Nachol]

Hello!
I am trying to make a very simple drawing. I found that one of the existing, pre-installed stencils helped me a lot. This particular stencil has parts of the shape in partial transparency, and that was no problem at the beginning. Then, I tried stroking the outline of my shape with a darker color, by inverting the stencil. Of course, the areas with a partial transparency caused trouble, because the "stroke" color (in this case, it was supposed to act as a background color), showed through. Then, I thought I could use another layer to just draw over "behind" my shape... but the problem of the transparency persisted. Somehow this transparency property carries on not only while using the stencil, but on the actual layer. When I tried painting on a "background" layer, the darker color still showed through the original semi-transparent areas. Then I thought about creating a new stencil using the contents of the foreground layer. Same problem, the transparency information was transported to the new stencil.
Is there a workaround to create this darker-than-foreground "stroking" around my main shape, so that I don't have to meticulously paint on the edges?
Thank you!

[Someonesane]

Um... Okay, I'm lost

So... You removed the stencil from the canvas, but you're still getting a transparency effect from the tool, even on a new layer? Is that right?

I'd go through the following:

• Do you have any tracing images loaded? Is so, remove/hide it.

• Just to be sure you cleared all of your stencils from the canvas, go to Tool > Stencil Options > Show All Stencils (yes, it's important to show them first. I'll explain in a bit). Now go back and select Tool > Stencil Options > Hide All Stencils.

○ I'm having you show them again, first, because it's possible you've run into a bug, where a stencil isn't appearing when it should. By showing them all, and hiding them again, it may fix it.

• Did you make any selections, with the selection tool? To be sure there aren't any present, select Edit > Deselect all.

• You didn't mention which tool you were using to paint with. Some tools have opacity/thinners settings on them. Be sure you've set them correctly, otherwise the colors may be transparent.

• Along the same lines, some tools have a special "Blend Mode" setting. If the Blend mode isn't set to Normal, a tool can appear to be transparent.

See if any of that helps. If not, perhaps you could provide the .ptg you're working, or at least a screen shot of the program with the stencil you're using, and the area you're trying to color in.

[Nachol]

Hello!
Yes, I am getting the transparency on a new layer.
I tried uploading my .ptg file, but the server says it's an "invalid" file (?)
So, I'm sending a screenshot.
I hope this clears what I'm saying.
I checked all the points you listed, but the problem persisted.

I used the arty flower stencil

I've been thinking that maybe it would be a better idea using a canvas on the color I wish to use as a background, but then again I find this behavior in ArtRage interesting.

Thanks!


*Update* I just remembered why it's not a good idea to use a canvas with a certain color. The idea I have is creating a star (the flower stencil seems like a star to me ), stroke the outline with black, print this and then cut around the edges to paste on a black piece of paper. If I draw the star on a black canvas, I'm going to waste a lot of black ink!

[Someonesane]

I see now... That's because that particular stencil isn't designed to block all of the color from the smaller tips. Stencils can be created from pretty much any sort of image (.jpg, .png, etc), which can be thought of a sort of screen (like in screen printing). The darker parts of the image will be seen as more porous, while the lighter areas of the image will be less porous. This means a totally black area of an image will allow for the full color to go through, when it's imported as a stencil (so it's a essentially a hole). A totally white area of the image will act as full mask, keeping out any color drawn over it. This means, that any areas of the image being used as a stencil, which aren't a pure black or white color, will allow only a certain degree of color through it, when drawn over. You can read more about this, here: Here and Here.

So when trying to color around it, you'll have to find a way to mask the area completely, so the smaller tips would need to be fully Opaque. You could try duplicating the star layer a few times, and merging them, which would eventually fill the transparent areas. You could then make a stencil from that merged layer, invert it, and use it to paint around the original star layer.

[Nachol]

Isn't it true that whatever I paint on a layer behind another (being the first one on full opacity or no transparency) should appear only on the areas not painted on the layer in front? On this particular example, the small tips are only a lighter color than the other parts, and should be considered opaque in regards to the layers behind. To me, only the stencil is partially transparent or porous, not the layer, because the layer is set to full opacity.

I'll try to do what you suggest.

Thank you.

[Someonesane]

The placement of the paint on the layer stack won't really make a difference. The paint only has the appearance of being lighter, because it's less opaque. Because of it's transparency, the background canvas color shows through, making it lighter than the more opaque, larger points on the star.

[Nachol]

I see. Thanks for your explanation!