A frequent question that many artists have is how to remove the background from a drawing or line art in Adobe Photoshop. As my usual creation process is to draw my illustration on paper and then scan the work to colour digitally, I’ve tried several different techniques over the years and have found one which is quick and gives great results.
Does it take long to remove the white background from line art in Photoshop?
The best technique that I’ve found, once set up, takes literally 5 seconds to complete for every new scanned drawing, which has made a huge difference to my workflow.
I can maintain all the detail and texture from my original drawing in Photoshop, and lift the artwork away from the background, which allows me to add layers of colour underneath to bring the image to life.
The instructions below assume a basic knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, and an understanding of how to scan your artwork onto a computer.
Once you’ve run through the steps a couple of times, the next step is to record them as a Photoshop action. This will allow you to remove the background from a line drawing or line art within seconds, which will speed up your workflow when you want to take your physical art or sketch onto your computer to colour or develop digitally.
Getting started - scanning in your art
I’ve tried many different ways of getting my illustration from the paper onto the screen. I’ve tried different scanners with different resolutions, and have even tried taking photos of my work to bring it into Photoshop once when my old scanner failed. The minimum scanner resolution that will work for you will depend on a number of factors, including the amount of detail in your work, and the budget you have available for your scanner.
I’m currently working with an A4 Epson Perfection V39 scanner which gives great results, although I find it frustrating when working with A3 sheets as I have to stitch the scans back to together in Photoshop, and always seem to get a little blur at the edges. The scanner has a 4,800 DPI x 4,800 DPI resolution, which I find works really well to capture the detail in my graphite drawings. I’ve tried a few different combinations of scanner settings in the Epson Scan 2 app, but generally find that scanning my illustrations in colour mode at 600 dpi and saving to a TIFF format to import into Photoshop gives me the best results.
Preparing the scanned image before removing the background
To get started, open the scanned TIFF image into Photoshop. The first step is to clean up and balance the image using Levels:
Image > Adjustments > Levels
I move the level sliders (left - Shadows, middle - Midtones, right - Highlights) to slightly increase the highlights so most of the paper texture, marks and smudges are reduced on the paper, then move the middle and left sliders to tonal balance the graphite drawing.
Once I’m happy with the result, I save the image as a PSD so I can retain the original TIFF for later use.
Now the image is prepped, the next step is to lift the artwork from the background using Channels.
Lifting the drawing from the background
Follow the instructions below carefully to lift the artwork. I’ve included the shortcuts for both PC and Mac users:
With the image open in Photoshop that you prepared using Levels change the image mode by selecting Image > Mode > Grayscale.
Next, select the whole image. You can do this by going to Select > All on the menu, or by using the Ctrl / Command A to select the entire artwork.
Now make a copy. Go to Edit > Copy, or use the shortcut Ctrl / Command C.
We’re now going to use the Channels panel. If it’s not already open, go to Window > Channels which will open up the panel. Often it will open as a tab in the layer panel, depending on which workspace you’re using in Photoshop.
On the hamburger menu on the top right of the Channels panel chose New Channel. A pop up will appear for a new layer called ‘Alpha 1’. Click OK.
Next we’re going to paste in the copy we made of the artwork. Make sure that ‘Alpha 1’ is still selected in the Channel panel, and go to Edit > Paste or use the shortcut Ctrl / Command V. Your artwork will now be pasted onto the Alpha channel layer.
Deselect the artwork by going to Select > Deselect, or use the shortcut Ctrl / Command D
In the Channels panel, click on the first layer which will be called ‘Gray’, then on the circular dotted line button at the bottom of the panel to Load channel as selection. This will select all the white areas of your artwork.
Next, invert the selection, so all the black parts are selected. You can this by going to Select > Inverse or on Mac using the shortcut Command SHIFT I.
Now select the Gray channel in the Channel panel.
Swap over to the Layers panel, and create a new layer using the Create a new layer button at the bottom of the panel (looks like a cross in a square).
Set your foreground colour to black, and select the Paint bucket tool from the toolbar, or use the shortcut G. Click on the selected area to fill with black.
Deselect the selection by going to Select > Deselect, or use the shortcut Ctrl / Command D
In the Layers panel, create a new layer above your original artwork layer (which will likely be the locked background layer) using the Create a new layer button at the bottom of the panel (looks like a cross in a square)
Set your foreground colour to white, and select the Paint bucket tool from the toolbar, or use the shortcut G. Click on the new layer to fill with white.
You can now unlock your original background layer, and delete if required.
Finally, if you want to use colour in the image, change the image mode. To do this, go to Image > Mode > and select a colour mode such as RGB or CMYK. When you do this you will get a warning dialogue box, chose ‘Don’t flatten’.
Speed up your workflow with a Photoshop action
Once you’ve followed the steps above, the real magic comes from recording the steps as a Photoshop action. Doing this will mean that after you have prepared your scanned image in the future, you can just click the play button and your artwork is instantly lifted off the background, and ready for further development.
The only quirk I’ve found so far is making sure that you’ve already set your foreground colour to black, and your background colour to white before running the recorded action. I originally had set this in the action, but at some point Photoshop stopped handling it correctly, which could just have been an issue with the action on my Mac.
Creating the lift artwork from background Photoshop action
Open up the PSD of the scanned image that you’ve already cleaned up using Levels.
Open the Actions panel if not already open by going to Window > Actions.
Create a new action by clicking the new action button at the bottom of the panel (looks like a cross in a square).
Name your action (I call mine Lift artwork) and click record. You can choose where to save the action, assign a shortcut Function key and assign a colour if required.
You will see a named new action has appeared in the Actions panel, and a red recording button is highlighted. Whatever actions you now take in Photoshop will be recorded.
Next, go back to step 1 of the instructions above, and follow them carefully.
When you complete step 17, click the square stop button next to the red record button.
That’s it! You now have your lift artwork action recorded and ready to go. Next time you bring scanned artwork to lift off the background into Photoshop, you can just hit play on your recorded action, and you have artwork ready to be coloured and developer further.