| Posted: 09 May 2006 at 1:17am | IP Logged | 10
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James I like Tigra, and the FF looks neat, very classic yet unique in design.
John, excellent Tarzan
Chris, good anatomy of Kid Devil
John, great Timm Hulk
New BattleWorlds post: inking MEGA
Tonight I wanted to share some thoughts on inking. First I want to pay my respects to some true great inkers like Wally Wood, Al Williamson, Dick Giordano, Klaus Janson, Joe Sinnott, Vinnie Colletta, John Byrne, Terry Austin, Bob Layton, Bill Sienkiewicz, Barry Windsor-Smith, George Perez, Walt Simonson, Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, Art Adams and others that I admired while developing as a professional.
Those are some of the true masters; I try to refer to their craftsmanship when inking the BattleWorlds traditional comic book style. I have been asked about my inking techniques, and what I use to work with. For inking, I utilize a variety of pens, white-outs and markers.
Ink work serves the purpose of embellishing the pencils. At the very least, match the quality of the pencil lines, and at best, enhance it.
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PENCILS
I’ll start off with my pencil drawing of Mega. I used a soft 2/HB. Props to two pencillers, Jose Luis Garcia Lopez and Jim Lee, who are masters of classic poses. I remembered them as I wanted a classic heroic shot of Earth’s Greatest Hero- tall, with heroic proportions, cape billowing in the air.
In the next scans, I will demonstrate inking my drawing using a different pen in each, so I can articulate the pros and cons of every pen used. My rule in this exersise is to use one pen only.
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Pen: Staedtler 3000 brush marker- This marker has a long, flexible brush-like tip. Ideally and historically, inkers use India ink and different brushes like Sable Newton, etc. The way I ink variant line weights is by using the Staedtler 3000. Not a "real" brush in the traditional sense, but it works for me.
PROS: Natural-looking varying line weights, feathering, cross hatching, brush anglular changes & flows; you can go from a .5 to a 20 in just one stroke; good for spotting.
CONS: No precise control over single line weights and if you get a diverse set of real brushes, it will offer you better brush strokes, among other things.
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Pen: Pilot Precise Rolling Ball- Also known as a technical pen, this has a liquid ink rolling ball point.
PROS: Good for precise single line weights. Good for technical drawings such as machinery and architecture. Great for thin cross-hatching.
CONS: Exactly the opposite—no varying line weights, so in order to get varying line with this pen only, you have to go over the line several times. And imagine filling in huge black areas with just this thin pen- takes forever.
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Pen: Thick Sharpie- a favorite for marker artists
PROS: Good for quick marker comps, fast storyboard sketches and such.
CONS: The marker chemical ink stains & spreads on the paper, so there is no control over this when you do lines and fills. Sure enough you'll see it spread in seconds. If you really have to use it for huge black areas, just be advised. I use this only for quick comps.
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COLOR FINAL
I used a combination of the Staedtler brush and Pilot Precise Rolling Ball. This way I can get the naturalistic varying line weight and precise single line weights.
I colored this in Photoshop, merged all the layers and saved as a JPEG.
Here I wanted Mega overlooking the skies during dawn.
Was this helpful to you? I hope so; hope you enjoyed this example. There are many methods and techniques to use; this is merely one. This is just an example of my working method, and the techniques that I am comfortable with. Some pros may do it differently, and that's OK. Every artist has their approach, their own working methods. It all depends on what you want to achieve.
I do encourage you to look up and experiment with many different tools and find the right ones that would work for you. If you already have the right methods for you, congrats. I never stop learning, and I like to pick up useful tips all the time.
So try out different tools and techniques; you guys are great, improving with each post. Have fun at it, and continue developing as an artist!
Best Wishes,
Edited by George Edwards on 11 May 2006 at 4:58am
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