Inking
| Tools | The Idea | Penciling | Inking | Scanning / Touch Up | Lettering | Finishing Up |
I start inking with the ultra-fine point Sharpie marker and basically do all the line work on the page. The thing about the vellum I like is the fact that it holds a crisp line and even a Sharpie marker won’t bleed through. I also like the fact that the Sharpie markers dry FAST. I don’t need to wait for the page to dry or be careful about smudging while I’m working.
I don’t worry about messing up either. I still have my original sketch intact and can just slide it over to a clean piece of the vellum if I need to start over.
Once the basic line work is done I mark an ‘X’ in all the little areas that need to be filled in with black. In the industry this is know as “spotting the blacks”. It lets me know what needs to be filled in without me forgetting. You’ll notice that I’ve indicated the marks with arrows.
After I’ve spotted the blacks, I fill them in with a fat Sharpie marker. About 99% of the time I fill in the blacks with the marker instead of doing it in the computer. I just find it easier that way when it comes time for scanning and touch up. I will however use the computer to fill in large areas, such as night scenes, close-ups, etc.
Now comes the time when I add the finishing touch that pulls the whole drawing together. I take a fat Sharpie and outline the characters. I tend not to outline props or background elements, only the characters.
It is a fairly common technique that I picked up in art school. It is most commonly done in marker comps for industrial design. I just learned it in that class and have kind of carried it over into my style in general.
Here you see the finished panel, complete with outline. I almost exclusively use this style, and it can also be seen used by other artists such as Quentin Hoover (Magic card artist), Scott Kurtz (PVP), and even quite a few comic book artists.
I tend to do a really thick outline though, perhaps to give the illusion of line weight (something I never mastered with the brush).
I can get two strips, side by side, on one sheet of vellum. That is how I can get about 100 strips from one 50 sheet pad of vellum. Once the strips are inked and the registration marks are transferred over, the page is ready for scanning.
