Heads Up!

I have a confession to make. An area of my own work that I've wanted to improve is the quality of my inking. This stage typically comes after everything has been penciled; particularly if one does comic strips, editorial cartoons, comic books and even certain children's book styles. Frequently, the black lines are retained and digital or traditional color is applied over (or under.) Other times, the black lines are converted into various colors using software such as Photoshop (see the background of the previous post's illustration.) Often, my inked lines have appeared to have a similar width, which tends to flatten the image and doesn't give the characters or objects much personality. By varying the width, style and texture of the inked line, a greater amount of visual impact can be achieved.

I took a couple of days to focus on improving my inking ability. I got out my sketchbook and opted to use a special, felt-tip pen that has a brush tip as opposed to a conventional pointed tip; which will only allow you to draw a line of equal width. The brush tip is very versatile, but also very difficult to control. There's a lot of trial and error involved. This pen is the modern-day equivalent of using an actual brush and dipping it in a jar of India ink. It isn't necessarily any easier to use, but it is definitely less messy and saves time.
For this exercise, I didn't do any penciling or have any preconceived notions of what I was going to draw other than a vague notion that they were all going to be heads. It's kind of scary that these are the heads that popped out of my head. Still, faces with lots of wrinkles and heads with wild hair, tend to be more fun to ink. Even though some may think these faces are unattractive, I'm pleased with the inking. It is much closer to how I envisioned my work appearing. I can't wait to try this new inking style out on an actual, paying "gig."