HOW TO DRAW COMICS:
INKING WITH A BRUSH pt 11

Continuing the real-life saga of one man’s struggle against his art materials!

Some inkers work from the upper left of a page to the lower right, following the natural order that Westerners read. Other artists work from lower right to upper left, which has the advantage of not smudging any pencils where you haven’t already inked. Still others spot their blacks first, that is, they find the areas with large concentrations of black and fill these in, or at least outline them, so they can get a sense of the overall composition of the page (since almost nothing has a greater impact on this than your largest areas of black — step across the room and squint your eyes at a page and you’ll see what I mean). Finally, some artists simply work on whatever interests them at the moment as their whims dictate.

I usually start at the top, attacking whatever is easiest in the first or second panel – that is, unless …READ MORE »

HOW TO DRAW COMICS:
INKING WITH A BRUSH pt 12

Continuing the real-life saga of one man’s struggle against his art materials!

Let me clarify something I said last week. I mentioned I normally like to work from the upper left to the lower right of the page, finishing all the brushwork in one panel (usually everything but all or most of the background) before moving on to the next panel. However, I also said I try to wait to do the most important figures and close-ups until I’m fully warmed up and confident with the brush, maybe two hours into inking.

So what happens if there’s important stuff to draw in the first couple of panels? …READ MORE »

HOW TO DRAW COMICS:
INKING WITH A BRUSH pt 13

Continuing the real-life saga of one man’s struggle against his art materials!

Now that I’ve set the stage, let me talk about how I attack a typical panel. …READ MORE »

HOW TO DRAW COMICS:
INKING WITH A BRUSH pt 14

Continuing the real-life saga of one man’s struggle against his art materials!

Last week I began discussing how I attack a typical panel, from first dipping the brush in ink until the brush becomes too dry for normal inking. You’ll recognize this when the ink coming off the brush no longer makes a solid line but gives a broken or grey line instead. Usually you’ll simply want to dip the brush back into the ink and start the whole process over that I described last week.

However, this is also the perfect time to employ something called dry brush technique. …READ MORE »