Traditional Inking
-- Our 2inK Style!
-- Our 2inK Style!
(2inK is a shared gallery in DeviantArt)
When we first started traditional inking we thought any sign pen would do, we learned later that it wasn't so when we used one and the ink started blotting on areas we applied too much pressure with an erasure. And there are those that looked fine afterward and then a day or two later we noticed that it started to stain the white areas around it.
We do use ordinary sign pens nowadays but this time we MAKE SURE that its the kind that doesn't bleed out when already on paper. In other words, we bought random sign pens and used them on simple drawings to see which one would be better.
Brands we use:
Pilot G-Tec
Useful for finer points if somewhat a bit expensive. We used it since college until using them and buying replacements became pricey. Not recommended if you're heavy handed, the hard tips would dig into the paper. Pilot inks has the desirable 'blackness' we really like.
*There are also Pilot drawings pens with felt tips.... they're rather expensive. T_T
Pilot permanent markers (or black poster paint)
Fine tip and Broad tip... we use these to fill black or negative areas.
Uni Felt Tip or UniPin
Recommended and easier to use as it comes with different tip sizes from 0.01 mm to 0.9 mm. Plus, its waterproof and its felt, it doesn't mark the paper. Unfortunately, its disposable.
Zhixin
Cheap, disposable sign pens made in China (1 doz. costs P60.00 to P80.00). There are various kinds under this brand but they have about 2 ink qualities-- glossy black and flat black. Glossy black tends to give off a rainbow color reflected by the scanner light. We found these out by buying one kind each and trying them out. The disadvantage is that the tips are a standard 0.5 mm and aren't so effective on finer points, unless you know how to control your strokes.
*Any disposable sign pens work for us and it depends on you which one you can get used to. Try 3 or 4 different kinds.
Just look for sign pens and markers that are a solid black when applied on paper and won't lighten or fade when erased, and won't stain over age. So far Pilot brands are effective.
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To proceed to inking... (click on images to full view)
Here's a sample of an old drawing, the inking was just for practice so it may not exactly be right. >>
*Any disposable sign pens work for us and it depends on you which one you can get used to. Try 3 or 4 different kinds.
Just look for sign pens and markers that are a solid black when applied on paper and won't lighten or fade when erased, and won't stain over age. So far Pilot brands are effective.
You add weight to the lineart where there's supposed to be a shadow like under the nose, lower lip, below the chin where it connects to the neck, the lapels of her coat, etc. I also added more weight around this one to emphasize that she was 'before' or in front of another character (I cut the guy out since his head came out bigger).
As for the hair, the thinner the line means the character has thin or fair hair. The thicker you do the inking on the hair shows that the character has heavy/thick or dark hair.
And this is just based on our observation, but the thicker or the darker you do the lineart on the eyes gives a character more life. Doesn't have to be a lot of lashes or highlights in the pupils, just darken or thicken them than the hair and it makes them expressive.
Another example: (for the eyes)
Regular or Thin Eyelashes
You can hardly notice the eyes nor the expression.
Darker or Thicker Eyelashes
Give it a try. The expression is "The eyes are the windows to the soul"
We practiced on old drawings so there's no fear if it came out weird... we doodled a lot with faces for the sake of trying it before we got the hang of it.
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Pointers in Inking
-- There aren't really any particular rules to it... as for tips-- we can give many.
Take note, inking traditionally depends on the artist/inker since each and everyone of us have their own style of doing it.
This isn't official, this is based on our experience.
1) Thicker lines, or we refer to them as weight, are applied on the parts where there should be shadows. <-- explained this part on an earlier post.
2) EXPERIMENT.We've done various ways of inking styles. First, observe from existing manga, look closely and you'll see how the mangaka does it. You don't have to copy their way of doing lineart because it can be exhausting since you have to keep in mind on how they're supposed to do it. Come up with your own style and take it from there, its more fun that way PLUS you don't have unnecessary worries of how to go about it.
3) DON'T BE AFRAID OF MESSING UP.
Above drawing is an example of an unfinished comic page. Don't know if you can see the inked lineart but it was deliberately done like that. It's not fine, perfect or crisp. Rather it was intentionally wobbly. One of the inking styles of ours we tried out. If done like this, crooked lines can be easily hidden or covered with other crooked lines to make it appear as if it was part of the drawing.XD And it gave the desired effect.
Other tips:
If you're manga has a lot of detailed background involved, make your character within it stand out by either outlining him/her prominently (thicker outline) or lessen details on background and apply details on the character you want the readers to focus on him/her.
ex.
It's crappy. We had to finish this with bad lighting. It was pretty dim and our eyes were killing us by the time we finished the pages in 14 hours before deadline. XP Just try to make readers pay attention to the characters. Backgrounds also play an important part but keep it at level so as not to bury your characters.
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Helpful tip:
For mistakes that can't be hidden, always have your correction fluid within reach. XD Can also be used as a substitute for white ink. The best kind so far is Magic Touch.
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How do you make the panels a lot thicker than the characters and objects in it? Do you use a different pen?
No, we don't use a different pen, we just keep on applying until the lines thicken to get the desired effect. BE CAREFUL not to smudge it while its still somewhat wet.
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Using pens, however, takes up a lot of time. So we've recently resorted to doing them in pencil using HB leads or polypencil for the rough sketch or draft and then overlapping it with B lead since its darker.
Below are unedited pages of the unfinished duel at SDL in deviatart, uploaded as is without going through any image editors or adjustments. They are entirely in pencil.
<< The panels aren't so thick since we wanted to emphasize the characters than the panels.
On this one, we decided to thicken the panels since there are more crammed into 1 page. And the fact that we were also practicing panelling ^^; >>
We've read in some sites about manga-making how there are rules to paneling... you can count us as #1 rule breakers of that since we do things our way.
We try to make sure that the panels don't overlap the background or characters, and the same for the background and characters not to mess up the panel sequence.
