Cleaning up bad / crooked lines

[SteelDog72]

Any tips on cleaning up crooked lines? I did a lower back piece on a friend which consisted of a few banners intertwining. Well, one of the curves on the banner came out a little on the "not so curvy" side. It's a little shaky and I'd like to clean it up without making it worse.

Any advice would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

Matt

[Inkster]

Make it thicker, double line it and fill or shading always works good.

[urmindsi]

Hey Matt, what size liner grouping u using?1,3,5,7,etc.etc., u can build your line out, or use a bigger grouping, however, by doing that and increasing the gauge of the line, u may have to reline your work so it has a consistant and even flow to the whole piece depending on how big it is.
Ive also heard of artist using flats to achieve a calligraphy effect to their lines, u know from thin, graduating to fat and back to thin. Ive never done it, Im sure there is alot of technique that goes into it, hope this helped. Bill

[Papa Gee]

This is an old post but I may have some information to freshen it up a bit.

Recently I've been using a technique to outline that has really smoothed my lines. In the past I would run a line then try to stack another one next to it by starting back at the originating point. This resulted in varying line widths and really didnt clean up the shakys.

When laying down an outline you can "work" the line by running the needle back and forth over the line you want to thicken. I'm not saying to dig a ditch here but as you "work" the line graduate the tip away from the original line to make a thicker, bolder line. I've found that by keeping a constant motion I can gauge the width as I go. Much like drawing an arc with a pencil on paper. You start with a light pass then work it in with a constant hand motion. You can also use this to fatten a line on one end while keeping it thinner on the other to give the perspective of distance.

Recently I've done some fairly large tattoos using a 5rl and this technique. A bigger tattoo requires a much fatter line. You can also smooth out arched or curved lines. This is a helpful technique for getting the bold lines you need when doing nu-skool pieces.