The inking of a page.

One of the parts I like about comic book pages is how they change in approach from each level of completion.

In the penciling phase it's all about capturing shape and proportion, and creating mass.

In the inking phase it's all about contrast and reduction, you're killing off -gasp- all the nuance and gradation of grays that pencils have to offer in favor of hard black and white reality.

So then, where to begin?

First off, I start with a neat little gadget I made that keeps my hand off the paper. The ink can sometimes lay in heavy and wet and take a few minutes to dry. So many times have I made the mistake of dragging my hand over an area that wasn't dry yet.

I use speedball calligraphy nibs and load them with ink with an eyedropper. I made a handy bent paperclip to off-set the edge of the pen so it can ride along the straight edge without leaking ink (capillary-ing).

First part is inking the borders of the panels (gutters).

Then I grab a technical 'pigma' pen and draw all the circles and ellipticals using some drafting templates.
Then I ink in all the straight lines. A lot of the time they have to match the circular lines, like the edge of a beer bottle.
Then I ink in the rest of the lines, going from heavy to fine, switching pens as I go.

Lastly I fill in the bigger black patches with a wide tip pen.

Pretty neat, huh? There's a YouTube video I did that goes a bit deeper into how a page is inked HERE.

 

Final pro tip:

It helps to keep in mind the next step you (or somebody else maybe) will be doing and 'skew' the tendencies of that medium to match it better. In other words, make pencils more contrast-y and downplay nuance, like ink. Make inked lines work in harmony with the other colors that will be laid in. After all, Black and White are just other color choices, they don't have to do the heavy lifting all the time.

Latest news:

Mayfield Eight 2: White Meat is going off to the printer this week! I'm still taking pre-orders on my Shopify store!

(Mayfield Eight 1: Into the Rat Hole is available there too!)

 

Rat Hole Bastards is put on hold for now. I'm re-tooling it to showcase a more erotic/adult underground comic aesthetic. New site will be launching August 15, with a 'safe for work' free level, and a paid 'adults only' level.

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10454 Lomita Ave #B, Felton
United States

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