Let´s talk about Linework, outlines, ink

[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

[abigaillmartin]

It’s fun! You should try it!

[allenT]

I'm fixated with Unipin pigment pens (black ones) for its quick dry pigment ink & pen nibs which I can control some degree of line weights. I use those for inking.

[jwabeasley]

Fascinating! Do you do the grays by hand as well?

[allenT]

No gray inks though, they're digital screentones if you're refering to my comicpages.

[IndigoShirtProd]

When I first started as an artist, which was in childhood, I didn't have access to digital materials so, of course all of my work was traditional. I was about in middle school when I really started caring about line art and, at the time, all I really had access to was ballpoint pens. It wasn't until high school where I got my first "real" sketchbook and purchased a 4 pack of Faber-Castell liner pens. I was so excited by the purchase and it motivated me to be more particular with how I went about lining my sketches. Now, I had always "worked" digitally as I used MS paint with a mouse, but in high I also had an IPad that I downloaded a few drawing programs on. With the Ipad, I didn't have a pen, so I had to use my finger to draw.

I got an actual drawing tablet in college and there I started experimenting with line thickness, shape, etc. And that's when I started my comic. I still kept drawing traditionally in my sketchbooks, but instead of the Faber-Castell pens, I switched to using Sakura Pigma Micron fineliners, of which I still have many. So, I was working in digitally and traditionally for a few years. Kept trying different media traditionally, colored fineliners, dip pens, but digitally I settled on using Firealpaca/Medibang for most of my digital art. As of now, the marker pen is my favorite brush in Firealpaca. As of now, I'm more inclined to draw digitally with thin, clean lines and traditionally however I feel since I don't really make finish work, but sketches with ink.

[Azifri]

The way I do the lines depends on the project.
For Terra Prima I do lines digitally in Clip Studio paint, using a 3px round brush with no pen pressure; this because it's a long comic that I'm trying to produce consistently over time, so I decided not to do line weights to save some time.
For short comics (<10 pages) or standalone e illustrations, if I do them digitally, I use the G pen in CSP or some other brush I feel like trying out, but it's usually only one for the same project/image. If I work traditionally, it's often an ink pen, but I've also played with fountain pens and markers.
And for the few animations I've made I use vector lines because it's easier to adjust details this way.