Traditional or Digital Inks?

[wendoabuto]

I'm glad you brought this up because I've found it an emotional/mental struggle rather than a physical one from my own experience developing my web comic. I did all my initial work traditionally before I switched to digital and then I took forever to publish my work because I kept switching back and forth not really satisfied with the final artwork. I later settled on inking my work digitally but that was after I got a vote of confidence from looking at other artists' digital works e.g. Skottie Young who sometimes uses Sketchbook Pro to do his inking. I now find it a lot more efficient. I think I had an emotional attachment to the traditional method and that is what made it hard for me to change even when it makes more sense cost-wise and time-wise to work digitally. I still believe that the best quality work out there is traditional but I don't let that hold me back anymore from producing my work. Instead, I try to focus on the storytelling aspect of my work because in the end that is what readers will relate to and I believe that is the foundation of good comic. I now use Sketchbook Pro for all my inks and switch between Pro and Photoshop for colouring but I am open to go back to inking using brush or pen when I can afford it.

[carodoodles]

I truly do love traditional works and admire traditional artists. But oh man I stink at traditional. I makes mistakes all the time which is annoying because I'd have to scan then fix it in photoshop, while with digital art I can just press ctrl + z and done! That's why I love using Kyle Webster brushes- they do have an amazing look for digital.

Interestingly, in my class at CCS, majority is traditional artists. But several does do coloring using ps. Only one classmate and I both are hardcore digital artists (meaning we do everything a-z digitally).

[Kayke]

That is interesting! When I went to Uarts, I would say most people used a mix of traditional and digital techniques (myself included) with only a few people being 100% digital or 100% traditional. I always think it's really cool how different artists' techniques can be even when they're in the same program.

[wendoabuto]

Checked out the Kyle link you provided! The brushes look really good! Thanks!

[SpavVy]

I'm a traditional inker, I just love working with microns and dip pens. I prefer coloring digitally though, I think it's a lot more fun and I don't have to worry about screwing up on color and I can experiment more.
I have a lot of drawings that are full digital as well but I find my traditional line art to be far more superior.

This isn't the full picture but it was inked traditionally and colored in both MS5 and Paintool Sai

[guitarmaster330]

I used to draw and ink traditionally. But because I erase so much my drawings would often come out looking messy. And with traditional inking my lines would sometimes come out wobbly and unclean. And If I messed up it usually meant I'd have to start all over. I do everything digitally now. When I mess up inking I can erase instead of starting over. Saves alot of time for me.

[garretgalligher]

I would say I've been going mostly digital. But halfway through my series I got pretty frustrated with Inking in Photoshop, so I started working more recently with the Sketchbook app on my Samsung Note 8. Definitely not a professional setup, but I at least feel a little bit more in control of the lines.

Can't say which one I solidly prefer, but I'm starting to dip back into traditional....so hopefully I can find a happy balance between the two mediums!

*Also, when you were working digitally, do you ink in Photoshop, or is that an Illustrator thing? Clean, crisp lines seem to be harder for me to replicate with Photoshop... perhaps I just need to work on a steadier hand!

[matsuikenshin]

I'm actually quite weird in a way since a lot of people are one way or the other. So to answer your question, I prefer to ink digitally. Funny thing is I can't sketch at all on the computer and I am also very bad at traditional inking... I end up drawing traditionally and then bringing it into the computer to ink. I'll always practice traditional inking but digital inking is what I lean towards

[Kayke]

When I ink digitally I draw in photoshop! I've never been good at doing anything other than design stuff in illustrator, it always ends up feeling really stiff to me?

[matsuikenshin]

I find that the pen tool in illustrator is really good for tracing lines but if you wanted to change something it is harder than changing it in manga studio

[garretgalligher]

Huh... well, then it's probably my hand. Goes to show I have a long way to go in improvement!
Thanks for getting back to me about that!

[phillip000515]

I honestly ink digitally than traditionally. While my traditional ink is better pretty much the reason I'm inking digitally is because I just wanna get better at it on the digital side of art. I'm getting used to it but I find it fun.

[GFalconDX]

I've always preferred digital inking because it's easier to correct if I made a mistake. But I am also good at traditional inking just in case if I need to ink a pencil drawing at a convention or if I am doing a traditional drawing.

Here's some examples of both digital and traditional inking that I've done. The 1st image is digital, while the 2nd one is traditional.

[mangapingvinen]

I like to use digital ink better! It's easier to redo if you drawed a wrong line
Coloring gets faster too with a digital lineart! ^v^

[ghostnxs]

Kyle Webster's brushes are amazing, those are the brushes that I use. I used his brushes for these and tried to make them look as traditional as possible.

[sophiekaldinski]

I really like both, but I started doing nearly all my inks digitally a year ago or so. I prefer rougher brushes that look more like actual ink on paper though, because for me personally inking on paper has a more natural flow to it. So I was pretty fast getting new brushes, when I first started with Clip Studio Pro.
One of the main reasons I switched to digital inking is, that it´s faster and you have more room to correct things.
The downside is that I find it kinda hard to put accents on my linework, when working digitally.

Inked digitally in Clip Studio:

Inked traditionally with G-pen and Maru-pen (for a watercolor illustration):

[ghostnxs]

I like your traditional inking

[simonjfletcher]

I also draw like this, and I thought I was the only one! It does bring some troubles when inking - I have tried to change the habit to no avail but perhaps it is what makes... us.... different....

I ink traditionally with a hunt nib or with various brush pens (kuretake fine black brush pen is my fav), some random Japanes brush pens and occasionally a brush.

But if I can recommend few great photoshop inking brushes which I have used successfully - from Kyle T Webster's Megapack. They are called Bad Ass Inking Brush #1 & #2, the Belgian inking brush, Mr Natural Brush and Amazing Cartoon nib #1 & #2 are my favourites, you should check them out, you can buy them here: https://gumroad.com/kyletwebster

[MylCreates]

I'd try digital inking if I could, but I don't have a tablet, so I hand ink everything with sharpies and drafting pens. I then scan them in and color all the shadows, textures, etc by good ol' mouse

I draw in pencil, then start outlining

Then I add line weights

I usually ink with grey markers or go straight to scanning and coloring

And usually end up with something like this:

I wish I had a tablet sometimes so I could try painting realistic paintings, which are so difficult when you don't have tablet!!!! ene

[M.Idea]

In fact, I find work on Digital Inking somewhat difficult, because it requires that you sit behind the screen for hours and you have to use a digital graphic device such as Wacom Intus Comic in order to be able to give an acceptable fee to viewers.

I like the traditional painting because I can control better, but when it comes to drawing Comic or Webtoon you have to deal with digital drawing because you have to work on the backgrounds as well.

Both have pros and cons, I think we need to practice using digital inks a bit more.