Traditional or Digital Inks?

[Kayke]

I color my comics on the computer... but I do my inks traditionally. I've tried a few times to convert to full digital (and save myself some money on ink and bristol board) but I can't seem to get the inks to look the way I want them too. I miss all of the "happy accidents" I get working with ink. I love the textures I can get with a brush on paper that gives my art a kind of fun "crunchy" feel... and I know I could use digital brushes to get something similar but even they it doesn't feel 100% the same to me. It's not much of a difference, but I notice it. Maybe I'm just a creature of habit though.

What method of inking do you prefer? Why?

And if you've tried both, I'd love to see the differences between your digital and traditional inks! I'll post mine too.

Digital Inks:

Traditional Inks:

[UzukiCheverie]

I'm definitely a bigger fan of digital inking, but that's mostly because I suck at traditional inking Plus I don't have the patience for it. I'm fine with traditional lineart but coloring, nope, won't do it lol

I really like your traditional coloring though. Wow >w>

[Kayke]

The coloring on both of those is digital, just the line work on the second one is traditional!

I haven't traditionally colored anything in aaages haha. I used to do acrylic painting but they took forever and were so messy. I used to ruin so much of my clothes with paint splatters : (

[whydocowsfall]

I way prefer how traditional inking looks, but it takes me waaay too long, so I made an effort to make sure I did my comic fully digitally... I didn't realise you inked yours traditionally though, that's awesome!

[ghostnxs]

I prefer traditional inking because I still have a hard time inking without messing up digitally but traditional is completely fine. This makes my traditional inking seem much quicker. My hand control/pressure for digital is so horrendous I can never get the pen to go where I want it on the first try. Inking aside I don't like staring into a monitor trying to ink properly.

[Vikiro_Hop]

For me its like comparing to stuff recorded with "live" instruments with stuff 100 percent computer made. Both are valid works of music, but distinctly different. A computer is never going to be able to get down the dynamic energy of a real guitar perfectly and there are some things you just can't accomplish in a practical way without using a music making program.

Personally I do like it when an artists draws traditional, but there are times where people utilize the program they are using so well I can barely tell the difference, Then there are others that I feel like could only accomplish what they do digitally.

I draw 100 percent digitally now, equally out of convenience and necessity. My lines were really bad when I drew traditionally, and since switching to digital I was sort of forced to improve. Also being able to use the line work layer in Sai meant that I could mess up to my hearts content and still get something good out of it. I've learned a lot since the switch and now I think my style sorta depends on it.

[zelkats]

Digital inking is more practical in my case. I'm a right-handed person who holds a pen like a left-hander. When I ink with nibs, my hand will always smudge the ink on the paper. So if I have to ink traditionally, I'll need Sakura Microns or Copic Multiliners to do a faster and cleaner job. I like both traditional and digital. Digital is just faster and easier for me.

EDIT: Gonna post some samples:

Digital (Clip Studio Paint)

G-pen nib, brush pen

[Kayke]

Yeah, I didn't even think about that when making my post, I was so focused on the final look of stuff. But that's so true! I feel like I'm always redoing stuff a dozen times in digital but I very rarely have to start over or redo something in traditional.

My best friend has one of those Cintiq tablets that you can see what you're drawing on it and he says that's helped him a lot with that issue... but those are SO expensive.

[Kayke]

A computer is never going to be able to get down the dynamic energy of a real guitar perfectly and there are some things you just can't accomplish in a practical way without using a music making program.

Wow! I really like this analogy! It's very spot on.

[ghostnxs]

I'm a right-handed person who holds a pen like a left-hander.

What does this even mean? How does this work? I don't understand?

My best friend has one of those Cintiq tablets

I'm tempted to get a cheap alternative or the 13hd cintiq, just because I think it would help. I'm also too lazy to scan so I work digital mostly.

[zelkats]

@ghostnxs

This is how I hold a pencil/pen:

It didn't occur to me that I was writing like a left-hander until people kept mistaking me for a left-hander from the way I was writing when clearly I've been using my right hand since the dawn of time. And I suffer the same side effects as left-handers which is this:

(picture source: Google)

[SeraphicMayin]

There's a certain grounded-ness that comes from using traditional materials. I started off all my arts traditionally before I got the resources for digital works so I can appreciate the use of Inking with actual pens or nibs. Even I noticed that I can't get my digital lines to look exactly like my traditional pencils and ink.

For the thumbnails that you provided, I can see the difference; it's real subtle but it's there and I can't help but like the traditionally inked one better at a gut level. xD

That said, for both my current comics I"m working completely digital, but for the next one i"m considering doing the pencils and inking on paper before scanning and doing digital screentones or coloring. This decision is mostly for convenience since it saves paper and ink, but it's so satisfying to work analog as well.

[AnnaLandin]

I like both, for different reasons, and I've done comics both ways.

Grassblades is done 100% digitally (unless one counts the storyboards, which are scribbled on paper) because it's faster that way, and I do have a schedule to keep up with. Also, I'm less likely to get all nervous and get neck-pains when I ink digitally - I get all tense when I ink traditionally, afraid of messing up, which can give me serious aches in my back and my neck.

Also, I have a cintiq, which means the digital inking feels closer to traditional for me.

But my very first longer-format comic that actually finished - called Fathoms of the Sky - was inked traditionally. The only bit of it done digitally were the speechbubbles, because oh my me do I ever have crappy handwriting.

It's inked almost entirely with a Pilot Pocket Brush pen, because since I do get so tense about inking traditionally, I tend to get very stiff when inking with stuff like Staedtler pens. The brush pen helps soften up my line and make it less mechanical.

These days, I don't ink comics traditionally, but I do ink illustrations that way - either with a brush pen or with an actual brush - and I do colour illustrations with watercolour (well, let's be honest, it's watercolour+whatever else I had lying around. Acrylics, coloured ink, coloured pencils, tea... whatever).

Both have their advantages.

[AngieVX]

I love traditional inking, but the paper I'm using now is not really good, so I fix stuff digitally.

[Kayke]

@AngieVX I fix stuff digitally too before I color. No matter how neat I try to be there's usually one or two places that need a little touching up.

[townhouse]

I prefer inking traditionally but I end up doing a lot of digital inking out of...laziness, really, I have to walk a few blocks to get to a scanner during the school year and I don't want to spend time doing that when I could instead walk to, say, food. In the end, though, there's not generally a huge difference beyond how annoyed I got while inking it.

Traditional

Digital

[Kayke]

Oh wow, your digital and traditional inks look really similar. The lines on your tradition sample are so tight and uniform! Are you using micron?

[J.MORK]

i used to work in only digital but i swapped. when im doing inks specifically i looooove filling in spot blacks and huge areas of black with pure dark ink. it is the best thing in the world * __ *

doing lineart and filling in colors on digital is just.....the most boring drudgery...
when i'm painting i actually have to be engaged and pay attention to what i'm doing since i cant delete mistakes as easy as ctrl+z

i also really think traditional media overall has so much depth and visual interest that digital just cant compare to

FOR EXAMPLE..

they are really similar drawings and even the line weights on the ink are even approximately the same, but something about the real ink is just.... better : p

[Kayke]

First off, I love your comic. You're one of the first people I followed when I joined the site! Both your digital and traditional styles are really good, though I see what you mean about the traditional having more depth and interest.

Secondly, I agree with you on digital stuff being harder to focus on. When I'm coloring on the computer I have to have a podcast or a movie on in the background or I'll get bored, but when I'm working traditionally sometimes I won't even put music on because I get too sucked in.

[Menbung]

I draw and ink everything traditionally, I use dip pens =] . One day I'll try digital, one day...