Let´s talk about Linework, outlines, ink

[Lensing]

So how do you guys do your inks?
Traditionally or digital? Which app and brush do you use?
Does anyone ink with vectors?

I used to draw on paper for the first 40 years of my life
and used a brush pen + Staedtler pigment liners and that´s
what I still use when I ink on paper. I use a light box to ink
over the sketches. Pretty much how I work digitally, just
without the undo button and I use a magnifying glass to
zoom in.

I inked most of my digital comics in Autodesk Sketchbook so far.
I like the app because it feels very close to working traditionally +
it´s simple to use. I´m slowly switching to Clip Studio because
I already color in the app and some of the functions are just
better than in Sketchbook. I use the real G pen, so nothing
fancy.

I´m thinking about doing the next comic with vector lines in
Clip and would like to know if there are any disadvantages.

[faisalhussein394]

My first time drawing was just like everyone else, on paper with pencil. As I get older, I started to use Ink for the outline and it was tedious when mistakes are made, fixing it with White Correctors doesn't make it any better.

It was only when I was in high school did I discover Deviant Art and would later use a printer to scan my papers and use them on photoshop. A lot of work I know, but it's all I know.

So all traditional until I went to college did I finally go digital by using a tablet so, goodbye to papers, pencils, pens, correctors, and printers. As time goes on, I realize I have an obsession with drawing more details than normal, so to spend less time, I decide to download brushes for photoshop such as clouds, speed lines, rain, and lense flares. That help reduce time needed to finish pages.

I sometimes use composite textures, though I rarely used them. One time, I use it for some modern looking soldiers for their camouflage uniforms, but they have to be vectorize so I can change their colors to my liking in illustrator.

So far, I'm in my 30's, working as a graphic designer and animator. Even though I use AI softwares thanks to my company's clients giving us such a short time, I never use them for my passion projects.

The main software I use for my comic is photoshop, with a little hunch from Illustrator. As for the tablet I'm using, it's just a wacom.

For using vectors, though it's considered clean to use, it is very time consuming. I remember I decided to go full vector on one of my pages and it took so long to finish that I decided to just go back to sketching, outlining, and coloring digitally because it's much faster.

[Lensing]

Thank you for the very detailed answer.
I do know a lot of younger artist who never inked on paper
Good advice about thespeedlines, clouds etc. I never did
that. I do use my own swipe files for poses to speed up
my sketching though

[miuthecat]

IMO, nking is all about hip control.

[Humbug]

I haven't drawn with traditional media since college, like 20 odd years ago. When I first started drawing comics I never inked my sketches because I was terrified of messing up, so I always just did cleanup with Staedtler pencils over blue pencils.

Now I use Clip Studio paint to draw my pages digitally, for the longest time, I used a custom brush I made that emulated the Photoshop soft brush, but recently I downloaded an ink style pen brush because I wanted my lines to look more organic.

I also started doing my lineart in vectors because at one point I had to enlarge my canvas for a different platform and I hated how blurry it made my images, so vectors should fix that. Other things like shading and flats are still done on raster layers because vector layers don't like some of the brushes I use.

Pros to vectors: No loss in visual quality when enlarged. If you don't like a line you can just select and delete and it does not effect other intersecting lines. Can't do that with rasters.

Cons to vectors: Can't really do precise cleanup to lines with the eraser tool. It always cuts off more than you want it to. Only way to clean lines precisely is to use invisible vector strokes which could add bloat to file size.

[Lensing]

Thanks for the comment, especially the information about the vector outlines.
I only did the outlines a couple of times with vector and it felt fine for me even
with the ersasing, but that´s probably because of the outline style that I used,
simple, single lines. What I really like in Clip is that you can change the line width
of the vectors or even change the brush after inking.

[CoInkedPath]

Started learning the inking craft with a ball point crystal Bic pen, and as the skills advanced started with Pitt pens and then found alcohol marker ink to be the best fit with hatching. But the transformation with krita, for resize

but blend the three has been the key.

[jwabeasley]

I sketch, ink, and paint exclusively traditionally these days. Most of the time it has been with Faber Castell felt tip pens in varying sizes, but several people noted recently that my art lacked variety in line weight. I tried some with just the brush tip pen but I was unsatisfied with the results.

So I've recently switched back to dip pens (I used them in high school with very poor results). They are quite finicky but I've been generally pleased with the results. I practiced with them for my "Distractions" comic and I'm using them for Etherwood Chapter 7. Moving forward, I'd like to get to a level on par with some of the professional manga artists I know use traditional inking, but that might take some time.

If I was inking digitally, vector inking is the way to go for sure. I don't do much digital work these days, though.

[Lensing]

I started with ballpoint too. My brother and me didn´t know about sketching, so it was always
final outlines with a ballpoint pen (cheap and available) on paper. My brother still draws like
that.

[Lensing]

Not every lineart needs variety imo, a lot of artist either do the shading with the colors
and then there is ligne claire like Hergé does which doesn´t have any line weight and
looks awesome

[Shanny8]

When I did ink traditionally, I used a 102 crowquill, 107, & calligraphy nib, plus a brush to fill in blacks(I cant ink with a brush, my hands arent that stable); I would also use Koh-i-noor technical pens(the ink I used was a mixture of Koh-i-noor drawing ink & Speedball super black india ink)...in later years when I was mainly doing small illustrations from work, I'd use Kuretake Millennium microns and a Faber Castell brush pen to fill in blacks on figures- I'd use a Sharpie to fill large scale black areas.

I went digital in 2015 and got Clip Studio(I actually bought the program that June and didnt start using it until December); I remember getting a commission from a peer and I saw how smooth the inks were...I attempted to use vector in 2020 but it pointed out the flaws in my work- I make like 6 million micro strokes when inking & I could see almost ALL of its inconsistency when I zoomed in on my vector work.

Plus you can't fill in the black areas when in vector mode and that was a dealbreaker for me...I went back to raster, where I had better control AND could fill in the black areas as I worked along.

I used to toggle between CSP for the drawing/inking part and Photoshop for the coloring coz at that time CSP's gradient tool was absolute shit(it has gotten better, but PS still runs circles around it), but as Adobe started to upgrade a lot more, taking away procedures I liked & incorporating AI into their programs/apps I dropped Photoshop and started using Clip Studio to do a lot more of my coloring- especially once CSP incorporated the function to convert Photoshop brushes for Clip Studio use.

I've been using a set of Frenden inking brushes since day one...even though I've gotten other brushes with use for different things I always go back to my main staple of Frenden inking brushes. I used to do my own speedlines, but I had a set of blast/action lines that I would incorporate in to my pages; once I found templates for speedlines I stopped creating my own...one of my rules as a comic artist is to work smarter, not harder. If I can skimp on a background or make it easier for myself, I do...I also have a grainy texture brush that I use in EVERY background of every art I do; I feel like it helps "pop" my art away from the background colors by acting as a subtle noise layer(but I only use it in the coloring stage).

My pencil & inking brushes:

[Lensing]

Great information and yeah the many micro brush strokes thing wouldn´t work in vectors.
I got the Frenden inking brushes too, I´ll have to try some of those out

[wolflu66]

Initially, I used technical pens, G-pen nibs for drawing, and also brushes. I used alcohol-based markers too.

After graduating from university, I rarely engaged in traditional art anymore, and now I create entirely with digital art.
The software I've used has evolved from Painter and Photoshop to later using SAI and Clip Studio Paint. Recently, I've been using Procreate on my iPad more often for drawing.

I like to try various different drawing methods - different styles require different brushes.

For example, in this image, I used Procreate's Syrup brush.

Or in my comic RAW, for linework I frequently use Inka, Blackburn, and Styx. Of course, I also try other different brushes - Procreate recently updated their brush library, and I'm currently trying them out.

As for colored illustrations, I often don't draw linework - mainly using CSP's oil painting brushes for coloring, though sometimes I still use the G-pen to render details.

[Lensing]

Thank you for the information and they look really good.
The one on the bottom with almost no visible lines looks
awesome

[abigaillmartin]

I use vector outlines. I just really like how smooth it all looks. It’s a little clunky sometimes but because my hands are very fidgety it helps with the lines.

It’s smoother and less rough looking than the old map pen I used to use.

I started using a vector pen because of my Elsie Clone High AU and it fit the style of the original tv show

It does look mechanical but it works for me. I’m just very rigid in my use of pens and methods.

My sketches on physical paper though can get really messy and wild. Again with my very fidgety hands.

Alright. Cool.

[Humbug]

Yea, my lineart has a lot of details with hatching and shading. XD

[Lensing]

Do you use the vectors in Clip Studio Paint?

[abigaillmartin]

I use ibisPaint X. It’s a vector felt tip pen.

[kyupol]

Currently just ibis paint. Felt tip pen hard brush 2px for the most part.

---

When I started it was just black ballpoint pen. Then I tried those staedtler pens with varying thickness.

But for the sake of cost effectiveness, stuck with pilot fineliner for a very long time. Until I transitioned to Wacom tablet.

[Lensing]

I never tried that app, but I think it has some nice features from what I could see on videos