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enter image description here

I have removed the white background on a child's crayon drawing of a butterfly. I want to layer it over a coloured background on a poster but the edges of the butterfly are very ragged. How do I soften the edges of the butterfly so the line separating the background from the butterfly is clear and sharp? I want to retain the texture in the rest of the drawing so that it still feels like a crayon drawing.

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    Can you post an example scan for us to see?
    – JohnB
    Dec 19, 2013 at 22:05
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    And it may help to know how you "removed the white background."
    – Scott
    Dec 19, 2013 at 22:32
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    I selected the neg space with the magic wand and hit delete. Then saved as image file. Will post it later tonight. Thnx.
    – charlene
    Dec 19, 2013 at 23:05
  • I was just about to ask for an example scan too :)
    – Jenna
    Dec 19, 2013 at 23:23
  • If it's on a white background you can set the blend mode to multiply, and you can see the background layer through the white. Though if you want it to be a transparent png, it's not so easy. You can either feather the selection, or manually select using the lasso tool.
    – Adam Thompson
    Dec 20, 2013 at 18:44

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You would have better results if you started over and did not use the magic wand -> delete method of removing the background. In reality this is often the worst way one can remove a background.

The issue with just deleting the background is you can't refine and adjust afterwards. You can't "tweak" what is background and what is not. You get a hard, chopped-off, edge that is based entirely on the tool settings for the Magic Wand tool.

Using a mask rather than hitting delete allows you to refine the removal of the background without simply chopping it off.

Here is a tutorial regarding masks and background removal (I'm not directly endorsing this tutorial, it's just a result I found via Google). I'm certain there are hundreds of other tutorials out there. Find one that makes sense to you and walk through it. The steps are pretty much the same for most images.

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