#inking comic art

[redphoenixcomix]

I've always loved the raw emotional pen strokes in @mercurialblonde 's art when I had a chance to see her stuff close up. Especially the background shading of her art as you could tell she sculpted and really put the ink on paper. I felt I could see the emotion. I had that in mind in this part of my WIP short comic and a brothers feels the pressure of annoyance from his little brother. I think I managed to catch it.

[brotherhoodoftheslice]

Inking Pencils

Okay, these are a bit cleaner.  From The Art of Comic Book Inking Vol. 2 by Gary Martin.  Each inker gets a page opposite their art to discuss their methods, materials, or just how much they like the penciler.  The art scans are higher-res.

Here's a complete list of the artists participating:

Brent Anderson (pencils)

Gary Martin, Steve Leialoha, Mike Royer, Brent Anderson (inks)

Terry Dodson

Gary Martin, Alex Garner, Michael Bair, Rachel Dodson

Randy Green

Gary Martin, Karl Kesel, Hilary Barta, Randy Green

Adam Warren

Gary Martin, Al Gordon, Randy Emberlin, Adam Warren

The pencils are all different pages of Ghost, and the author Gary Martin takes a crack at each of them.  You can also see how the original penciler inks their own work.

Most of the comic art books I've come across are aimed at the beginner or intermediate level, such as the Drawing Words and Writing Pictures book I'll also be posting from, so it's unusual to find a guide focused almost entirely on nuance -- perhaps this is because the author is a professional inker himself.  I don't know how useful this would be for everyone, but I enjoy flipping back and forth to see the different choices everyone makes, though they are obviously all strongly informed by the pencils which are very tight in these examples.