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This one is going to be a short post. In my last post I talked about some of the tools you can use for inking. While not a definitive list of everything available, I gave an overview of some of the basic tools used to ink a drawing. So great, you got a pencil drawing done on a nice piece of bristol board and you already bought the brushes, ink and pens you want to use. Question is, how the hell do I use this stuff?! In my very first post on this site I mentioned some of the best books for drawing comics. In those books they all pretty mush review the tools to use and have some small examples of how to ink. Most of them do not go into much depth. However there are a few books on the market that do go in depth and provide exceptional examples of how to ink. The first book that comes to mind is The Art of Comicbook Inking by Gary Martin with Steve Rude.
The first edition of this book came out in 1997. I remember getting this when if first came out and was ecstatic. Up until then, there really were no books strictly on comic book inking. Yes, How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way talked about inking but not that in depth. This book however covered all the bases. From the tools, to line weights, spotting blacks, textures and advanced techniques like using zipatone. There were examples from several different prominent inkers like Scott Williams, Brian Bolland, Terry Austin and Kevin Nowlan just to name a few.
About 2005 Volume 2 of the book came out that added samples from about 33 different inkers. The material covered is basically the same only with more examples. There were also pre-pencilled boards included in the book you could tear out and practice your inking on.
A quick search of Amazon has revealed that a third edition of this book is coming out on October 15th 2019. It looks like there are some new names added to the roster of inkers as well as some of the names from the first two volumes. This expanded addition also goes over digital inking. Anyone who has searched Youtube for inking tutorials has no doubt come across tons of digital inking videos. This is an important addition because it is where the industry is going. Every publisher wants their artists to be able to work faster and more efficiently while also providing high quality work. Computers with digital tablets allow you to do just that. Again, search Youtube and you will see a lot of artist have changed their workflow to incorporate digital tools.
Another really good reference book for inking is DC’s Guide to Inking Comics By Klaus Jansen.
This book came out in 2003 an is part of a series of subsequent DC books. The others being DC’s Guide to Pencilling Comics, DC’s Guide to Creating Comics: Inside the Art of Visual Storytelling, DC’s Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics and DC’s Guide to Drawing Comics Digitally. Inking aside, All of these books are stellar and deserve a place in your artist library. That said, DC’s Guide to Inking is a pretty thorough book. Klaus Jansen, who is inking royalty, goes over everything you need to know from the tools of the trade to the techniques. There are sections about what an inker does which begs the question, “To trace or not to trace” (Chasing Amy fans will appreciate that discussion). The rest of the book talks about the use of light and dark, textures, feathering and how to actually ink.
You might be thinking, how many more comic inking books are there. Truthfully, that’s about it. There aren’t many that I have found. There may be a random one or two on Amazon by independent publishers, but I have not read those so I will not comment on them. I think that lack of books on this subject, and comics in general is due to the rise of the internet, in particular sites like Youtube, Twitch, Udemy, Gumroad and Skill Share. While some sites like Youtube are free and you can literally swing a cat and find 40 inking tutorials. Other sites like Udemy allow you to pay for professional instructions in a plethora of subjects for very little money. While I will say books are great for reference and inspiration, they just don’t beat watching a video of an artist ink, pencil or color a drawing. I feel that seeing the exact technique is a faster way to learn, or at least enhance what you learned from the books.
If videos are your thing then I will mention a few here that may help. There is a school out in California called The Gnomon School of Visual Effects, they also own The Gnomon Workshop. They used to sell DVD tutorials on everything from comic illustration to ZBrush sculpting to post production for film. Instead of the DVD’s they have moved to an all digital platform where you can but the tutorial you want or subscribe and get all their tutorials. As it pertains to this blogpost, the tutorial Comic Book illustration Vol. 2 Comic Book Inking with Joe Weems is is a great instructional video. Joe goes through the process of inking an illustration pencilled by Dave Finch, which is also an available video tutorial on their site. I like Gnomon’s videos a lot, the only thing is they are sped up so you may have to watch the video a few times to grasp some of the concepts.
Another site I am going to mention has several video tutorials on inking, however they are all for digital inking. Digitalarttutorials.com is a site owned by Brian Haberlin, owner of Haberlin Studios and formerly of Top Cow Productions under the Image banner. Brian is the co-creater of Witchblade and spent time working on Todd McFarlane’s character Spawn, among other titles he’s worked on. Brian is a master of digital production techniques and on his site I found 5 inking tutorials ranging from beginner to advanced. Many of the videos have free previews so you can see the quality of the instruction you will get. If you are moving into a digital workspace, these tutorials are definitely something you should look into.
As for instructional materials, that is all I have for today. I will offer up some inspirational materials for you though. When I was younger my favorite comic was The Savage Sword of Conan. This was a black and white magazine sized book. The artwork in those books is utterly fascinating. I would go so far as to say, any inking technique you can possible learn is in those books. Since they were not colored the inkers had to do a lot of work to create mood and texture and make the figures pop off the page. Work by artist such as Alfredo Alcala, Ernie Chan, Rudy Nebres and Tony DeZuniga is just breathtaking. I always felt like I had watched a movie when I got done reading an issue. If you come across any old SSoC’s at a con, pick them up and study the inking, you can learn a ton from those. If you can’t find them, Dark Horse reprinted all of them into collected editions which you can find online or in most comic shops. In April 2019 a Savage Sword of Conan Omnibus was released which has all 235 issues plus a few issues of Savage Tales.
Another book I would recommend is Secret Teachings of a Comicbook Master: The Art of Alfredo Alcala. This book has a ton of amazing pen and ink work. Looking through the book makes you really appreciate the artistry and patience it takes to ink something with the amount of texture and detail Alfredo put in some of these drawings. While most comics today are not inked with this amount of detail due to being digitally colored, it is still a valid book for learning and inspiration.
That’s all I have for you this week. I am going to work on getting some videos up on this blog using some of the inking tools I talked about in my last post. Then I will have an article talking about “cheating” in comics. I see this discussed a lot and there is no real answer. I am going to try and break that down and make some sense of the argument. Stay tuned!
