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Feb 2021

I used to obsess over keeping my lines ultra clean, with almost no line variation at all, but it was SO SLOW. Each line had to be perfect, each mistake would stick out like a sore thumb. I had to painfully define every detail, there was zero form to it, it wrung all the energy from the original sketch out of the artwork. It was pretty boring to look at honestly. Since then I've adopted a much much looser style, with more line variation, hatching, and adding form and shadows to the inks. It's so much faster, and looks way better. These were done ten years apart, and you can really see the difference!

2008

2018

I fall into the "medium chunk" category I think :smiley: I like using relatively thick lines, but I don't know if I'm willing to take on the burden of full CHONK.

Sometimes (especially when working on smaller images) I do like to go pretty thick like this:

but I feel like sometimes when I do a larger piece I kinda tone it down by accident

Either way I can't do thin-thin. I tried that for many years, and it stunted my artistic growth xD I've also never trying partial opacity but that may be something I try once or twice just to see how it goes :slight_smile:

I'm... definitely not good at lineart lmao. I feel like it's one of the weak points of my art overall.
For years I had scratchy pencil lines in my art because I did not have a tablet and it was all I could do - I tried traditional inking but it just never felt or looked right. Only after getting a tablet I started experimenting with different types of lineart, and tbh I'm still/again in this stage now.

I had a complex about not being able to do clean lineart, and challenged myself to try it more. I guess... I got a bit better at it? But I aim to take it further in the thick direction.

At the end of the day, chonky lines totally top thin lines for me. I'll never have that perfect thin detailed anime lineart look in my art, and I've accepted it. And I also tend to prefer sketchy lines over clean lines in art - I love artists whose messy sketchy line looks so energetic and purposeful (unlike my chicken scratching :pensive:) , and it's a look I want to someday have in my art... Welp, examples upcoming, because I ain't showing my poor art for this

Hayashida Q
1

Hajime Ueda

...but on the other hand, I also love a clean, but bold look that is also full of energy, has dynamic shapes and makes the whole picture. can never achieve it lmao

Dowman Sayman
3

I like the look of thin, clean lines, but they're a pain to do :cry_01: Even though I use pen pressure, my lines look pretty stiff, especially when compared to the lines in my traditional artwork. To fix that, I use the pen tool to make some lines thicker in areas that are supposed to be darker, and the eraser to make some lines thinner in areas that are supposed to be lighter or taper off. It's super tedious but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I do something that I call "spewing".

I just scribble out lines and then clean them up a bit.

For me, it's a very freeing, therapeutically expressing process which is true sketching, coupled with a process that's like sculpturing-. freeing the image from the lines which encompasses it, to paraphrase Michelangelo.

This simple GIF is an example.

I am really attracted to the first image, Macarenaoftime.

The style reminds me of catalog illustrations of long times past.

I have noted many of your images in my short time on this forum, nathanKmcwilliams. You may have noticed that I responded to many, exhausting my Like quotient for a day.

I am very attracted to your works, especially the black & white images. Partially for their own aesthetics, partially because I find them similar to one of my styles.

Yeah I did notice the other day. Thank you! Working in start black and white is probably my favorite way to draw. I like coloring to an extent, but I feel my best expression comes out in monochrome.

Most of the time my lineart varies- I work traditionally and a lot of the time I just work with whatever pen I can find.

I prefer the Pigma Micron PN though- it's chunky enough to gimme the c h o n k but not to chunky to give me the 'okay now where did i put the eyes at' struggle.

I want to see the comic that art belongs too.
I am already reading Blue Star Rebellion. Is she from there?

Aww, thank you! :heart_03: Her name is Lyrique Fey, and she's the protagonist of Dragonfeathers. Blue Star Rebellion is a side-story from Dragonfeathers, and while she doesn't appear in Blue Star, her story is my true life's work. I intend to start on it within five years, once Blue Star Rebellion reaches a good place to conclude.

She does have links to several Blue Star Rebellion characters, and the two stories are intended to knit together years down the line. :hype_01:

Wow that is fantastic. I will wait for you to get there. I am here for the ride.

I voted "with a reasonable amount of chunk" because I like having some variation of volume (specially because I do cell shading and I feel it gives everything a more volume-y look?) so sometimes I line over and over until I get what I'm looking for lol.

But to be fair, my lineart for sketches is super thin and messy with no volume

While for illustrations and comics, I try to do some more variation and have a more chunky outline and some different volumes :_)