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Inking Techniques...

Posted by David Campbell on March 28, 2011 at 2:28pm in INTRODUCTIONS

Just wanted to pool you guys on inking techniques. Do you:

1. Ink directly onto your pencils? or

2. Do you ink over your pencils onto another sheet of paper using light table? or

3. Do you ink on the computer using a tablet?

4. Other?

All help/ guidance/suggestions will be helpful.

Thanks!

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Replies

Christopher Haupt April 6, 2011 at 5:15am

I'm going to jump in on this later I'm excited. Gotta go to work. Also there's going to be a chat for all comic artist monday from 7-9pm. Holla,
Martin Murtonen April 5, 2011 at 7:11pm

This sounds very cool. Thank you!

Brian Jeffrey Durham said:

Got something new for you, David Campbell. It's a software called Pencil Check PRO by Toon Boom Studios. The company specializes in selling software for 2D animation production. I'm watching the educational videos and this Pencil Check PRO does some weird stuff I haven't seen done the same way in other software. You can take any number of pictures and scan them in page by page with even your webcam if you want to... the program vectorizes every page directly from the scan. I'm not entirely sure how much you would use it to ink, or if you would... it's something to try... but I know this... it's the most productive artwork scanning I've seen anyone advertise.
Bob Leone April 4, 2011 at 2:02pm

Eddie Medina said:
Hey Bob...love the Human Beans tracts on your website. Being a HUGE Indiana Jones fan (half my pool room is decorated with Indy memorabilia) you can imagine which of the tracts is my favorite! :) Keep up the great work.

Blessings-

Eddie

Thank you. I am not the best cartoonist, but I have fun doing it :)
Eddie Medina April 4, 2011 at 12:01pm

Hey Bob...love the Human Beans tracts on your website. Being a HUGE Indiana Jones fan (half my pool room is decorated with Indy memorabilia) you can imagine which of the tracts is my favorite! :) Keep up the great work.

Blessings-

Eddie
Bob Leone April 4, 2011 at 11:50am

I ink directly onto the pencils, then scan, color and letter using Corel Paint Shop Pro. I have considered buying a Wacom Cintiq tablet, but the $2,000 price tag is prohibited. Besides (my rational for my cheapness)is that I do enjoy the feel of the pencil and pen in my hand. My comics aren't a polished and detailed as some you you more seasoned cartoonist. http://www.humanbeans.org

http://www.humanbeans.org/
Steven A. Wall April 4, 2011 at 7:15am

I use a similar method. I ink directly on my pencils (I use a very hard pencil so my sketches are a light gray), scan them, and in photoshop I darken my ink lines and remove the pencil lines using the replace color tool.

I tried using a light table but I really didn't like it.

Matthew said:

i have a tablet. tried inking on it.

for me, personally, nothing beats printing the pencils, and inking them directly. then scanning, and if i have to adjust levels to get rid of some of the pencil I can.

I love my tablet, for notes, slight sketches of corrections to give to my colorist, but overall, for me inking I need hard copy.
southpawdoesart March 31, 2011 at 5:54am

Got something new for you, David Campbell. It's a software called Pencil Check PRO by Toon Boom Studios. The company specializes in selling software for 2D animation production. I'm watching the educational videos and this Pencil Check PRO does some weird stuff I haven't seen done the same way in other software. You can take any number of pictures and scan them in page by page with even your webcam if you want to... the program vectorizes every page directly from the scan. I'm not entirely sure how much you would use it to ink, or if you would... it's something to try... but I know this... it's the most productive artwork scanning I've seen anyone advertise.
Matthew March 30, 2011 at 11:10am

right, I mean, print so that you ink a copy of the original.
David Campbell March 30, 2011 at 10:37am

Guys, thanks for all of the input, this has been really helpful!

@ Eddie, DC Comics' Guide to Inking sounds like a plan!

@ Matthew, when you say "printing pencils" does that mean you scan and print the pencils and then ink that?

@ Martin, you are right, If I try to ink on the computer when I really want to be doing it at a drawing table I would probably get disgruntled and it would show in the work. I'm going "Au Naturel" for inks!
Martin Murtonen March 30, 2011 at 8:37am

I'm actually trying to get out from in front of the computer, since I'm in front of one all day at work

That's a good enough reason alone to not ink on the computer. There is still something to be said for the "Au naturel". You also save on software and hardware costs...though you may lose time in the "scanning".

Martin