Clearing canvas texture from photo of artwork

[dmaarie]

Hello!

So I need some help..... I am an artist and I am trying to start selling prints. I generally paint acrylic on canvas. When I plug my images of my artwork into GIMP for editing, the texture of the canvas shows a lot (of course). I am trying to find a way to smooth this out that doesn't involve blurring. The painting doesn't just involve solid colours so its hard to just blur it...

Does anyone have any insight that could help me in this current predicament?


Thank you!

[Ofnuts]

No magic wand... The real problem likely lies in the way you go from canvas to digital image...

For a photo, if you light the canvas from the side there will be shadows and the texture will be very visible. If you light the canvas from the camera (built-in flash or cobra flash on the camera...) or with two opposing light sources (that cancel each other's shadows) there won't be much shadowing and the texture won't be too visible.

For a scan, the scanner's light is a bit on the side from the sensor so you get some shadows. You cannot change this but it usually easy to scan after rotating the scanned paint 180° in the scanner. In the second scan the shadows will be on the opposite side of the texture. You load both pictures in Gimp, align them, and put the top layer in Lighten only mode to remove the shadows.

Put you can always post an extract of what you have so far so we can give a more focused advice.

[dmaarie]

(03-04-2019, 12:35 AM)Ofnuts Wrote: No magic wand...  The real problem likely lies in the way you go from canvas to digital image...

For a photo, if you light the canvas from the side there will be shadows and the texture will be very visible. If you light the canvas from the camera (built-in flash or cobra flash on the camera...) or with two opposing light sources (that cancel each other's shadows) there won't be much shadowing and the texture won't be too visible.

For a scan, the scanner's light is a bit on the side from the sensor so you get some shadows. You cannot change this but it usually easy to scan after rotating the scanned paint 180° in the scanner. In the second scan the shadows will be on the opposite side of the texture. You load both pictures in Gimp, align them, and put the top layer in Lighten only mode to remove the shadows.

Put you can always post an extract of what you have so far so we can give a more focused advice.

Thank you for the help and insight. Unfortunately this artwork belongs to someone else now, so it might be hard to get other photos. But ill attach a downsized and partially edited version of it. Not sure if you can really see the texture considering the max size for the attachment can only be 500kb.

[Ofnuts]

Not enough detail to see, better attach a crop... (which would be better because you pic is slightly NSFW....).

OTOH, legally, if the picture belongs to someone else, you cannot really sell prints without their authorization (or they are entitled to a refund/rebate, since they no longer have a unique piece).

[dmaarie]

(03-04-2019, 12:27 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: Not enough detail to see, better attach a crop... (which would be better because you pic is slightly NSFW....).

OTOH, legally, if the picture belongs to someone else, you cannot really sell prints without their authorization (or they are entitled to a refund/rebate, since they no longer have a unique piece).

Legally, I can sell prints. Firstly, it is my artwork. Secondly, I have confirmation that I am able to sell prints of my own artwork.

Sorry about the nsfw nature, I guess we all have different opinions of what is nsfw. Heres a cropped image.

[Ofnuts]

I'm French, so my definition of NSFW is fairly lax. But we have majority of US-based users

You can remove most of the texture by just blowing out the lighter parts. In Levels, in the "Input" area, drag the rightmost handle to the left past the "bump" in the histogram (which corresponds to your background). You can restore some of the holes in the lines by taking the middle handle to the right.    

   

[dmaarie]

(03-04-2019, 01:32 PM)Ofnuts Wrote: I'm French, so my definition of NSFW is fairly lax. But we have majority of US-based users

You can remove most of the texture by just blowing out the lighter parts. In Levels, in the "Input" area, drag the rightmost handle to the left past the "bump" in the histogram (which corresponds to your background). You can restore some of the holes in the lines by taking the middle handle to the right.    

Muahaha, fair enough

Hmm, not quite what I am looking for as I would like to keep the grey background in tact. Should have taken photos with different light sources. But thank you anyways for your help. Maybe Ill have to try to repaint it in GIMP.

[rich2005]

(03-04-2019, 01:49 PM)dmaarie Wrote: .... I would like to keep the grey background in tact.

Once you have it adjusted.

Layer -> Transparency -> Add Alpha Channel then Colours -> Color to Alpha

New layer, move under the sketch, fill with grey. something like this. https://i.imgur.com/2M8FXSm.jpg
or,
Fill with a canvas type pattern, depends what is required. 

Edit: This with just a hint of a texture

[Ofnuts]

+1 with Rich. But I would set the top layer to Multiply mode, to have a hint of the texture even in the dark lines.

[dmaarie]

Thank you to you both, though I was looking to keep the uneven layer of grey paint. Not a solid grey for the background. Basically, the exact kind of grey background i painted but no texture haha seeming to be unachievable.

Maybe Ill just create prints of the figures with different coloured solid backgrounds instead. Not the end of the world.

Thanks for the help.