adventures in.... inking!?

Dont know if this is something I am going to make a huge habbit out of doing but I really wanted to color this picture, and there were no descent lines around to download.



original pencils here http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs14/f/20...RandyGreen.jpg

I've never been very good at inking but By all means give me critique if you would like, who knows? maybe I might get the hang of it.

color to come at some point.

I ink like I draw with a pencil (click the button in my sig and look at the first few images to see what I mean) so I am not
the person to critique this but to my untrained eye it looks like you are off to a great start buddy.

Anyone else more of a traditional comic book style inker?
Perhaps Shia, Suichiro, Foo or Deebs? BW probably knows about inking too.

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I suck at inking. But it is something I return to a lot because there are a lot of people who have really cool linework as the basis of their visual style. So I play with it from time to time...and fail, and go back to shading.

But I did buy this download on inking recently, and even from watching this youtube demo I think you can get some insight into things you might want to try:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4xMbhxbSe0

Nate, the guy drawing is a phenomenal inker and the inking is really primary to his process. He draws a really basic layout in pencil to serve as a guide and then details and adds feeling as he inks. One thing you'll notice right away is how in addition to varying line weight he uses texturing to suggest tonal range and volume. Through the video he breaks up his contour lines along the edge to have them suggest the volume of the forms better (it's easier to get by watching him do it than trying to put it into words).

The other guy is El Coro (Justin Kaufmann) from Conceptart.org. He's also an amazing artist and I've learned a lot from his instructional vids. But he's a nut, really funny guy.

Swansy: I'll do a Photoshop side by side and circle in red some points of discussion. I partially agree with what Pyro said, a lot is lost in the coloring. Btw that's a great demo to watch, I love Concept Art.org and Massive Black's downloads are so affordable considering all you learn... I've actually watched that WHOLE thing. The only thing is, that guy inks like an old style brush artist, and not so much like a traditional comic artist. So I'm not sure which style you prefer, or if you want to merge them...

By the way did you ink your piece by hand or digitally?

NOTE to Eddy: I'm not even on coffee yet, and I taped the Parade so I could relive the times I use to freeze watching it from the streets. So it may be a while before you get my full crit.

Ooo! Cloak & Dagger! I didn't think anyone drew them any more!

I like the inking you did!

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Wow you photographed this THEN cleaned it up? What kind of setup do you use? When I photographed JRs work I could never get it that clean.

Hey Ben:

Okay HERE's what I got...

1) The top is very basic, some of the black shapes were lost in the shadows. And even though the penciler drew it that way, as a colorist, those little white separations help define his original concept better in my opinion. Why draw the figure at all if you're just gonna throw parts in such heavy shadow. An example would be her back foot, and his front foot being on the edge of the roof top but the roof itself melding into their feet. It's sloppy I think, and just a slight white paint correction fixes that.

I did these digitally, a lot easier on me, and less cursing at you...

2) Here's where we get to the meat of the matter. If you study the original drawing, he sets an inking pattern that follows his concept of light. Dagger has a thicker outer line to define her form, separate her from the details inside the form, so your eye sees her right away, and doesn't get lost in all the shadows being the same weight.

That's the only thing wrong with this as I see, and it's an aesthetic, some people like heavy heavy blacks, some like less, and some a happy medium. The guy from the Massive Black video, likes greys. Which is why he uses that feathered brush pen to make his hairs. Not just to give the right texture, but to build up his greys into just the right tone. It gives three dimensionality to the skull and cheeks when hair is draw that way. Instead of a huge flat black shadow, for say mood. Again it's to each his own.

SO with that in mind, here's what I did.

I took a snippet of Dagger from your finished Ink, I "grey" it out to allow me to re-ink her, and I started with a heavy outline with my heaviest lines on the left to indicate the light source on the right. That is the top row.

On the bottom row to the middle, I filled in with thinner lines to show detail, your heavy hand chopped off the right ear, gave her a giant right eye ball, and lost her right earring. I put them back in. I studied the original drawing again to see which parts he still wanted black to stand out. And again he indicated light, and subtle differences, like the crescent over her eye is heavier than her eye brows.

I would have used the same effect for her hands, but all of those separations could be done in color holds, so there you are fine. You could have drawn her hands and fingers with your thinnest point, to indicate intense light.

In the final frame on the lower right, I add my own aesthetic "flourishes", things the original penciler didn't indicate, but as an artist, I wanted to put in, to differentiate that I inked this over someone else. I would NEVER do that on professional work, but on my own, I would at the last moment, instead of drawing all those flourishes out.

Hope that helps. Again, nothing wrong with your piece, just some things to look out for, and I would use as many subtle varieties in line as you can get away with, if you really want to spend the time. At the last moment, I thought the inside of her hair was still too thick, so I lowered the line weight again... Thank God for Adobe Illustrator. I would hate to ink traditionally, even though I use to, and loved it... It's just so much easier to do it digitally... for me.

Keep up the great work!

LJ

Nice vid BW thanks for posting that and great job on the re-ink/critique.
That's what I love about these forums, people sharing what
their strengths are for the improvement of all.

One --> Artz Giveaway <-- To Rule Them ALL!

I will settle this. ORANGE FTW! - Ex Libris

thanks for the critique bobby! going to save that all into an office document so I can referance that from time to time, And I will go through and add some tweaking's to the inks in photoshop thanks man! should help me on the next set of lines I plan to ink

Inking itself is an artform. Black ink on white paper is a pure pure experience for an artist. It's finite. It's creating a bold statement. And if you take the time to make "thick to thin" your friend, it can be a zen like trance. Don't butcher the subtlety of the pencil line, enhance it with some power! Be bold, be delicate, be skillful, be confident. There are inkers who blotch the page like they're being electrocuted. But all that frenetic energy is subject appropriate, it can't define things perfectly like a balance of variations will allow.

I would study some line work you really enjoy, and break it down before you start. How much of the surface are curves, straight lines, repetitive, or erratic? A pattern will emerge, because this is how most artists draw. As an inker, you are not tracing their marks, you are finishing their thought, the question they had when they drew it to start with, that question is what all artists think as they create, "I wonder how this is gonna look when it's done?"

So is your finish ink a rush job? Do the shapes pop? Are the points, curves, bumps, convincing? Does metal feel smooth? Does hair feel in motion? Are the eyes focused?

A heavy hand doesn't care about any of this, they just want the whole thing to be dark... so they can color it already. Some colorists can't even be bothered with the ink stage, they just darken their pencils. Because to them the tedious, laborious task of defining that line, even the ones they may have created themselves, is too much work. So to be an inker, requires both passion and patience.The work will show if you loved it, or ignored it.

Cross hatching is the slow build up of markings to form grey tones. Film Noire inking is littered with patterns of light, and deep purposefully designed areas of shadow. Contour lines define nothing, but together they show grace, still the moment. And let's not forget the intentional splatter, that grunge texture to create mood.

These are the Inkers bag of tricks, much in the way the penciler has his definitive look, the way he draw muscles, women, machinery, tells a story. The Colorist also has their own; am I conveying realism or intensity? Mood and depth or detail and movement. They do this with saturations and color theories and combinations that they have either borrowed from a shared perspective (yellow bananas, blue water, green leaves) OR they are pushing your eyes to see light, shadow and form (red bananas, yellow water, black leaves)

A good inker should not make the penciler's work disappear, neither should a good colorist make all that time you took to ink something right, be made to seem pointless. Let's take an example of some talented teams of comic history...

John Byrne pencils, Terry Austin inks, sadly color back then was neither here nor there. Not like today, where you notice Lynn Varley's work on her husband Frank Miller's work. My point being, while Byrne could ink his own work, he never took the time Austin did to give all those extra details. Byrne's inks to me look rushed, and unfinished. Now Jim Lee's work is so distinctive, but Scott Williams or Sandra Hope his colorist, makes his work become three dimensional.

I happen to be a big Conan fan, and John Buscema was a definite master... but when John's work was inked by Alfredo Alcala (70-80s work for you younguns) there was no question that all that traditional LUSH brushwork made John's work better.

Pencilers are hot because of their style and storytelling. Inkers are hot because of their details and subtleties. Colorists are hot, when curves pop, muscles bulge, fire burns, and metal shines. I LOVE this medium, no other traditional medium (painting, sculpture, graphite) requires a team to get it right. Those are soloist concerns...

Our thing, this thing of ours, il comic cosa nostra... knows that it has a beginning, a middle and an end. Inking is the middle, the filling, the line that holds...

Okay off my poetic soapbox, keep up the good work! I have faith in you. Sorry for the wall of text everyone.

Bobby

dont apologise for wall text! tis my thread and it dosnt bother me its good to hear your passion on the subject, it's somewhat infectious

while I dont think it will ever come to me quite as naturally as color does I certainly see it's appeal, it along with drawing are both mediums that I wish I was better at, I've no doubt that with time and effort and more formal training in anatomy and lighting I could get to be better at them both, but defining volume in line is something that has always been a weakness of mine, but I have a strong urge to improve on it. I may never be a strong inker but If I could get myself competant on my own work that would please me. so I will probably do more of these over the near future, the cloak and dagger picture was somewhat rushed, I only spent 4-5 hours on and off working on that piece. but it turned out okay, if I had taken more time on it perhaps It could have turned out stronger, infact I did rush it to a point, So I will work harder and take more time! thanks again for the tips and sugguestion's and for the free speach on your love of inking, it really is cool to hear other peoples perspectives on stuff.

I have no comments on the inking or that discussion - it should be obvios to all I have no arts skillz and that the secrets of making the pretty pictures are beyond me wee simple brainage...

As for Cloak and Dagger - I always thought they were great concepts that were never pulled off very well. Leastways while I was still reading comics. Hopefully they've gotten some kickbutt treatment since then....

A quick nit to pick, the farther an item is in the distance ... the lighter the line you use on it should be. The cross over Cloaks head seems to loom out and threatens to fall on him. Otherwise, I think Lady Judgement did a bang up critique.

Cool piece Eddy - I colored it up a year or so ago - his lines are so cool.

thanks Ed! yeah I saw it in your gallery a while ago, I like the color balance



another of randy greens pencil's I love this picture of pheonix but again I couldnt find a descent set of lines to color, so I tried my hand at inking again. there was a lot of tonality in this one and my hatching skills are quite bellow par so I ended up chucking some marker shading down, its all just indicative for the coloring though.

I think its an improvement on the last one, much more line variation, but what do you think?

You win. Pheonix is my #1 All Time Favorite Character. >.>

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