what you use for inking your art work? ....

..well, ive got awsome advice out how to paint and draw in the forum.. im gonna go for broke and see if anyone has info on how to ink.. .. im missing that vital link between pencila and bamboo board

I use plain old ballpoint pens. Well, Pilot pens, and on occasion fine tip Sharpies.

It really depends on your pencil style. Some pencils can go straight into color - MOST cannot.

If you've got a really loose, open pencil style you'll want to find a nibbed pen or a brush to ink, but those are both *extremely* hard to learn to use. If you've already got experience with either of them (caligraphy, painting) they might be easier but I've never had any success with them myself.

On the other hand if you've got a tight, clean pencil style you might want to just use ballpoints or rapidographs, technical pens. They're not cheap, but if you have fine details and a very, very careful hand, they are exactly like darkening a pencil line.

My own work, I pencil and ink on paper but when I scan and color it's pretty much only for internet web adoptables and animals, tattoos in real life, etc. So my work is way different than most "comic" styles. Try some pens, some nibs, a brush. Everyone does it differently

I don't ink with a tablet but some folks really know what they're doing. I simply prefer "real" inks to digital ones myself.

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what you use for inking your art work?

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Hopefully someone other than myself

Last time I used ink it was with the old school dip method from a vial (need to find another color set like that one day). Pen persay I generally went with ball points with varing pen tips thick ones for heavy black or shaded areas (if just doing black'n white), to small fine points for cross hatching and lining over pencil. I found that to be easiest way for me. Best thing to do when you go buy pens (if they don't come in a pack or have interchangable tips) is to uncap and make a few lines to see how each one does then you can judge which ones work best for ya. That'd be my shopping tip for ya.

If I'm doing digital, I ink digitally. I get my floating line layer easier if I do it that way. I also lose a ton of detail and crispness once the inks go through the scanner.

If the piece is staying in traditional media, I like Pigma Micron pens.

The pen tool on Photoshop and my mouse, set to a 3 pixel/47% hardness setting. (I have a tablet, but I just can't stand it. Go figure.)

For traditional work, I use Micron V pens in various widths (Fine and Very Fine are the most used), although I have been known to grab any old black ballpoint in a pinch.

Traditional method: Windsor Newton series 7 brush, I think a number 1 or 00, or both! Lettering brushes are also good. .005 black Micron pen is irreplaceable, I buy them like Mel Gibson buys Catcher on the Rye books.

Digital Method: I use a calligraphy brush, and some custom made brushes in Adobe Illustrator. I also use Photoshop, but mostly to erase areas where my ink lines have crossed over each other.

There are some good books on inking, namely the Art of Comic Book Inking. An easier method is to place tracing paper over an image you like, and to use a brush marker to "ink", the trick is to apply more pressure for thicker lines, and to barely touch the surface with the tip for a thin line.

Good luck.

the reason I don't do many is because it takes for ever the way I do it ... I do have a tablet at home but I tend to draw at work. Add to that the fact that I like things to be just the way I want it and you have me working in a vectorial software (Corel Draw) drawing the outer and inner line of each stroke and filling in the shape after.

Long process ...

[ QUOTE ]
the reason I don't do many is because it takes for ever the way I do it ... I do have a tablet at home but I tend to draw at work. Add to that the fact that I like things to be just the way I want it and you have me working in a vectorial software (Corel Draw) drawing the outer and inner line of each stroke and filling in the shape after.

Long process ...

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I've never used Corel, but now I am curious... are you actually using the pen tool to ink? I tried that once, it was exhausting, doesn't Corel have a brush tool? I may to go check this out...

Downloading the trial, will post review asap...

Okay, I HATED that... very much like when I first used Illustrator's brush tool WITHOUT unchecking the "keep selected" box... having every new line constantly open for adjustment is not intuitive to normal drawing. But yet uncheck that box, and it's all kosher! I give Corel Draw on a scale of 1 - 10, the finger!

I am now downloading the trial for Freehand MX by Adobe. Brb.

Okay Freehand was A LOT better, though it too keeps the last stroke as a selection. Annoying, but if you click somewhere off to the side, you can see your drawing without the odd blue lines around your last line. Nowhere near the subtlety of Illustrator...

You see I have a analytical mind ... I calculate everything ... so for me ... setting a start point, an end point ... ajusting the curve, smoothing nodes so the curve isn't choppy ... etc ... is how my brain works ... this isn't drawing ... in the pure sense of the term.

My wife has the same mind, she meshes photorealistically... I would rather shoot myself then attempt to color and draw this way... I did it for 3 months before she told me to uncheck that box, something she thought I knew! Grrrrrr, can you imagine having to draw this way for 3 months on purpose!!!

Anyway I'm glad you enjoy it, it is not for me.

So I just tried out Illustrator for my inking for the first time (I'm taking a digital illustration course this semester that uses Illustrator)....

.... *dies and goes to heaven*

My GOD this is going to save me a hell of a lot of time. After messing until I got some brushes that I liked, I couldn't believe how much better it made the transition from the tablet to the screen.

up until now ive used a series of copic multi liners at different sizes 0.05 to BS, but I too, have just discovered illustrator and I think it will be my weapon of choice for the future. (once I get the hang of it. well, that and my wacom bamboo I just got *rocks back and forward* ''so much to do so little time'')

I use a round Photoshop brush. It works okay for me.

*Is weird*

[ QUOTE ]
So I just tried out Illustrator for my inking for the first time (I'm taking a digital illustration course this semester that uses Illustrator)....

.... *dies and goes to heaven*

My GOD this is going to save me a hell of a lot of time. After messing until I got some brushes that I liked, I couldn't believe how much better it made the transition from the tablet to the screen.

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EXACTLY!!! Don't forget the wonders of laying white on top of black, I sometimes do it on it's own layer to save me worry that I will touch the black lines I put down.

Can't wait to see what you come up with, can we see a before and after?

Have to let The Masked Shrike approve them first. But yeah, I have files of both what I did up in Illustrator and then after I cleaned it some in Photoshop. I didn't do it as a big stylistic change, but it chopped literal hours off my usual work time.

And you know, I WOULD do this after I spent hours and hours and hours and hours on another piece. But I already had that going for quite some time before Illustrator became available so.... ah well.

Here's a side-by-side of the inking I did first in Illustrator and then touched up in Photoshop. Left is Illustrator, right is Photoshop.

Lines

Like I mentioned, I didn't do this as a stylistic change, but I want to emphasize the CRAZY AMOUNT OF TIME Illustrator saved me by doing the basics in there first.

Yer only skimming the surface of the water Wassy... DIVE IN!!!

Check out these brushes, they are pressure sensitive if your Wacom has 1,024 levels of sensitivity. They may work on a Bamboo/Fun or Graphire, but it's been a while so not sure...

In the future I would check the settings on these and make my own, he says in his description that the white versions come out pink... not sure how he managed that? Also you know you can vary your stroke line from .25 to waaaay huge like 40 pt. and more.

I think that set is made from the calligraphy setting, so you can get a thick to thin in one stroke with pen pressure. I use to ink with "tapered" point brushes, but they have their place and aren't always smooth and clean.

Anyway regardless, the piece came out great!

Cool, I'll check them out. I only fiddled with a couple brushes since I'm unfamiliar. They should work with my tablet. Its old, but it is an Intuous 2.

The course I'm taking is focusing more on the design stuff you can do with Illustrator, but with flipping through the syllabus and seeing the projects, visions of lettering and simple but slick backgrounds danced through my head.

Ah so they are teaching you vectors, got it. Yeah I don't use Illustrator for how it's meant to be used, but then Photoshop was never meant for comic coloring, it was "innovated" to do so. It was created for photo correction and manipulation, but the talent I see daily on DA tells me a whole new generation is growing up learning it the comic way, which I think is excellent.

Do a search for " Illustrator " brushes on DA, some are just shapes, but some are fun lines. I would send you my own, but they're set to my specifics and would probably throw you off as I work unnaturally large on the artboard.

I look forward to more of your growth.

Yep, the course is how to do the vector work and the general ins and outs of the program. Hopefully it ends up being a useful addition to my arts skilz.

Lord knows that the time I saved is already totally worth it!