Here's the thread where we talk about one of the most misunderstood yet crucial skills in the world of funnybooks -- inking! Here's a great tip sheet from Fleischer Studios --
And here's a nice set of videos with a demo on how the pros do it...
A long while back, Marcus recommended this book and recently I stumbled across it in an LCS -- upon flipping through it, I knew I had to get it immediately. This is easily the best book on comic book inking by far, blowing away Klaus Janson's respectable efforts for DC.
If you're struggling with inking, I can't recommend this enough. The section on lighting faces with ink alone is worth the price of admission.
The real crown jewel of this book though is the sections where they show you pencils and then have anywhere from 4 to 7 different inkers ink the piece and discuss their process. You can really see the various options you have as an inker when you look at how two inkers interpret the exact same pencils... their approaches to textures, line-weight, interpreting and translating grey areas and shading... it's just an amazing resource.
The 2nd edition is great because apparently this book was broken down into two different volumes and both are complied into one book with the 2nd edition.
Amazon doesn't seem to indicate that it's in-print but my shop had it up in the "new" section one Wednesday when I found it. Perhaps only available through Diamond? Or maybe Amazon isn't stocking it anymore?
You might want to check with your LCS before blowing a wad of cash to see if they can order it. At $30, it's a little steep, but you'll be glad you spent the dough when you dig into it.
This review on Amazon is a video of a guy flipping through it, if you want to get the gist...
I rarely do this but I felt this was such a strong book that I wrote a 5-Star AmazWAN review --
Jimmy Hanzo wrote:
Two words -- holy cow.
You're not going to find a better book on inking comic books out there. This books goes through the basic stuff you see in any other book on making comics regarding tools and basic theory but where it shines is when the author, a highly talented inker in his own right (the guy inks Steve Rude on Nexus, so you can't ask for better than that!), lays out numerous examples of inking from one set of pencils and shows you the difference in various approaches.
One of the most memorable xamples is when he takes a Steve Rude pencil drawing of a generic male flying Superman-style and inks it with a few different approaches -- his own style (which is pretty classic and feels "Wally Wood" inspired), the "Neal Adams" approach, the "Rudy Nebres" approach, the "Adam Hughes" approach and the "Scott Williams" approach. You really see what kind of options pen and ink offer when it comes to lighting and defining a pencils drawing.
The section on lighting the face is worth the price of admission alone -- light on copy, you just see a few dozen faces inked with different light sources. This is an invaluable look at one of the hardest aspects of inking -- making a face look genuinely shaded rather than a face with black crap all over it. Gorgeous.
It's also highly valuable to see the texture guides Martin provides -- from trees, to metal, to rocks, you really do see it all. It's in these types of sections that Gary Martin's book succeeds where Klaus Janson's fails. Klaus simply picked actual examples of inks from real comic book pages and while it's certainly worth looking at, it doesn't give you the immediate "oh, I see" comprehension that seeing the same exact art inked several different ways gives you.
And the best is still yet to come, as the book ends with the pencils art of greats like John Buscema, Steve Rude, Jack Kirby, Adam Warren, Gil Kane and a few others being inked by some of the most legendary names in funnybook history for inks -- Tom Palmer, Terry Austin, Scott Williams, etc.
You really, really see the difference inking technique makes when you see a Steve Rude Nexus page being inked by Gary Martin, Tom Palmer and Scott Williams. The whole feel and style of the page changes drastically. Not only that but it gives you each of these pencil samples done in blue line at actual size so you can ink the same pages the pros did for practice!
The bottom line is that this book is a welcome addition to any comic book artist's library and an invaluable guide to anyone struggling with learning to draw and render objects in ink.
I've read and looked through tons of comic "How To" books and easily give this my HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION. Anyone who wants to ink needs this -- just remember, get the 2nd Edition, printed in 2005 (the one I have has an ISBN of 978-1-59307-405-0)! Apparently, this was originally published as 2 different books and then compiled into one massive volume with the 2005 2nd edition.
The art of inking is the process of making a million little decisions and it appears to be a completely maddening task.
I thought this as I read "Batman: Hush Unwrapped," the hardcover reprinting of the Jeph Loeb/Jim Lee "Batman" story from almost a decade ago. The twist is, this is reprinted straight from Lee's original pencils, adding only the lettering on for readability's sake. But the real star of the book is the person whose work is unseen, inker Scott Williams. Sure, he provides an introduction, but seeing what he has to work with in comparison to what the final product was, you have to appreciate his artistry and his patience.
Yes, Jim Lee draws a lot of lines -- textures, speedlines, feathered lines, shaded lines, gentle curves, harsh edges, wispy lines, etc. They show up on every page. It's Scott Williams' job to make sense of them all. Somehow, he manages to not just redraw every line in India ink, but also add a few in, spot some solid black areas and clean everything up.
One of the highlights is the Awesome Inking Panel in which various comic professionals at the show are provided with penciled art copied on blue line paper, and asked to ink the penciled image in their style, which will then be used during the inking panel.
Penciled pieces range from the past legends, late Dave Stevens and John Buscema, to DC co-publisher Jim Lee.
At the panel, the various inked pieces are shown and each piece is analyzed by the artist who inked the image. The discussion generated at the panel cover all range of topics from tool usage to the thoughts behind a certain technique. This panel is designed to show the fans the real life working process of a comic book professional.
At the end of the convention, the finished inked pieces are auctioned to help defray expenses of the show.
So, what do you fancy? Batman pencilled by Jim Lee, then inked by… Travis Charest, Buzz, Mike Mayhew, Stuart Saygar, Tim Vigil and Frank Cho?
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