Comic inking

[Pinwig]

Now I've started trying to produce Transformers Universe style art in earnest I've been looking very closely at the line styles and inking in the original books, the IDW one and the new art that I think is it Kingoji? was doing, as well as the other digital art on here. I'm trying to replicate the style, pretty much learning vector art and brushes as I'm going and wondered if anyone could give me any pointers for brush types or settings that give a good finish? I've spent a while learning through tutorials and the like today, but I know there are a lot of very experienced people on here.

For a while I was looking for a way to recreate the broken/irregular style of the digital IDW lines, but then realised comparing those to the originals that they only look like that because of the scanning/cleanup process they've been through. The originals are smoother.

This is a sideways shift for me. I'm not an artist in the traditional sense, but a while back I spent a good few years as a 3D modeller/animator working in computer games. So I'm used to using photoshop to paint bitmap textures for models and environments, but comic style inking needs a different skill set. It's taking me a while to get my eye back in with the tablet it's been so long since I've done this.

[Andy Turnbull]

Not sure about vector brushes for Illustrator as it's been so long since I used it to ink.

But my go to guy when I started out as inspiration was D'sraeli.

homepage.ntlworld.com/lynnfo/levdemo/

Here is how he did Leviathan, I copied his brush settings.

Brian Denham was also someone whose tutorials were of interest.

illcraft.blogspot.co.uk/

Now I am mostly split between Manga Studio and Photoshop with a little Sketchbook Pro. (SBP has it's own brushes and there are lots of free tutorials) as for Manga Studio and Photoshop, for brushes you can't go wrong with Frenden - frenden.myshopify.com/collections/frontpage or Kyle T Webster - www.kyletwebster.com/portfolio/brushes/

For MS tutorials - Doug Hill - about.me/dnhills

Hope these are of some use.

Andy

[Pinwig]

Thanks for these links Andy, very interesting reading. I'm quite amazed that D'Israeli inked Leviathan with just three caligraphic brushes and two splatters. Wow.

[Andy Turnbull]

Jun 15, 2015 20:24:19 GMT Pinwig said:

Thanks for these links Andy, very interesting reading. I'm quite amazed that D'Israeli inked Leviathan with just three caligraphic brushes and two splatters. Wow.

He's fantastic.

One of my favourite artists now, rather late in discovering him. First found his work on XTNCT with Paul Cornell in the Megazine.

[chrisl]

Manga Studio is quite good for inking - lots of different brush types.

[Benn]

I do prefer to ink by hand. It feels more authentic to me.

[Pinwig]

I am still experimenting with this as time permits. I'm trying to get my hand used to drawing on the tablet again. It's hard getting the lines straight. Not the progress I'd hoped for my project, but I'm not giving up. I don't know what's happened really. I spent eight years of my life with a tablet pen in my hand for work, but having been out of that game for the last ten years I cannot get my hand to draw a straight line now.

[Andy Turnbull]

To be honest, I enjoy inking digitally, but in recent years have been a bit more enamoured with traditional inking. With me, it has generally been the project, dictates the approach. For example - The Red Menace in ARK was entirely digital, but 300 Grams started off digital and it just didn't feel right, so I kept the layouts I did digitally and just moved to print.

Sometimes it can be an expedient, The Daily Straxus was traditional/digital/traditional/digital depending on timescales.

Andy