Best way (efficient and nice output) and best software to ink comics digitally

Question

I am a hobbyist and I like comics - to read them, and eventually to write them but it didn't happen yet.

Maybe my question is not specific enough, but I am almost obsessed with inking comics, partly because I haven't found the right way to do it.

A while ago my wife has asked me to do a drawing of Korra (of Legend of Korra) doing physics bending for a Christmas card that she's going to give it to the students (she teaches science). I started off by trying to do it digitally. I struggled quite a lot (days) trying to digitally ink it in a way that I like it. I ended up doing it by hand in two hours, pencils and pigma micron pens. Since then I started to question the efficiency of inking via the computer. I know Illustrator contains some features that that can trace your drawing in one swoop but I haven't tried it yet.

I tried the following software: Manga Studio 5 Ex (MS5), PointTool Sai (SAI), Illustrator CC (AI), Autodesk SketchBook Designer 2013 (SBD 2013, this is not the same as Sketchbook - it is a version that is not developed anymore, unfortunately, and which has great vector support) and, of course photoshop CC (PHS).

I used the mouse, Intuous 5 touch table and a cintiq 12 tablet.

My personal problem is that my hand is not steady enough and sometimes the lines are a bit wobbly, they might have these knuckles, or whatever you may want to call them. Hence, I usually like to use vector lines (of different widths of course) which are very smooth.

I've done a lot of research, watched a lot of videos on youtube. Here two that I liked and found useful:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTZr7fDcFu4 - uses AI and a custom made brush
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Btr_o_vgFJw - also uses AI and custom brush made by someone else. The first video shows you how to do a brush

From what I've seen there are several methods:

• tracing using the Pen tool (AI or PHS) and defining closed shapes that represent the ink edges of the figure. They look very nice, but in my mind it's a lot of work.

• tracing using a vector tool such as the AI paint brush tool, the pencil or the pen (SBD 2013 has the ability to add vector based curves, SAI- vector layer). In this case, when using a tablet, the software can detect the pressure and you can have a nice looking line). The line widths can also be corrected. Each of these software packages support changing the line with later. This takes less time, however, you need to go in detail and make sure all the lines are properly arranged to give an harmonious look.

• trace manually using a pencil tool in a rasterized layer. MS5 supports that, you can probably do it in PHS using the right brushes. As I said, this is less appealing to me because my hand is not steady enough. MS5 has the stabilizing feature, but if you increase the stabilizing number it kind of becomes a bit weird, the tools seems to resist the stroke.

• I've seen a video here: http://www.digitaltutors.com/tutorial/692-Painting-Skateboard-Graphics-in-Illustrator#play-14880 where the author inked using the blob brush tool. It looks interesting but it is quite a lot of work. I like, however, the end result quite a lot. There are two more courses about inking in Illustrator: http://www.digitaltutors.com/tutorial/885-Inking-Comic-Art-in-Illustrator and this: http://www.digitaltutors.com/tutorial/1269-Creating-Film-Noir-Styled-Artwork-in-Illustrator#play-32216.

• using the automatic tracing from AI - haven't tried it yet.

• Found this tutorial useful as well: http://designinstruct.com/drawing-illustration/an-illustrators-project-from-start-to-finish/. But, holy smokes, it's a lot of work.

Overall, the easiest was to ink the figure using SAI (it's not finished, it has no shading...). I didn't finish the inking in MS5, AI, SBD 2013 and PHS but I played extensively with them.

So, I am not really looking for one definitive answer. I am interested to see what works for you when it comes to inking digitally.

An update (2014-Dec-29):

Based on your suggestions I checked out the astutegraphics plugins, they definitely save a lot of time. I am going to check out the lazy nezumi pro plugin as well. I also watched a lot of videos on digital tutors and lynda.com (I updated the list above).

I can't help to think that, if I decide to use vector based inking / coloring in Illustrator, it's a lot of work. Maybe I can become better and efficient at it, but I don't think I will ever beat my own hand drawing freely. Perhaps using the tools to draw buildings in perspective might be where I can save time... I guess it's really hard to say without experimenting. I have the feeling that using KoldBane's approach might be the most efficient when you have a tight deadline and there are lots of panels to draw. In the end it's highly subjective. It really depends on how proficient I am at using the different software packages and right now I am a newbie (more often than not I end up fighting the tool). I invested more time into learning Illustrator following Deke McClelland's Illustrator courses on lynda.com. I also have to increase my photoshop knowledge a few notches up.

I want to do an experiment and draw a comic book panel in each the programs and see where that leads me. I will post again here.

Answer 1

I believe the answer to this question is based in opinion, that being said, here's my own:

Tools: Wacom Tablet
Reasoning: In order to properly ink your drawings, you need to have the same movement and feel as your hand. It seems your frustration lay in the amount of time to execute the curves you needed. A tablet greatly reduces the manual point-by-point stresses of laying down the outline with a mouse.

Software: Photoshop
Reasoning: I know that your original question sat in the Illustrator camp, but let me try and dissuade you. Photoshop has an incredible brush toolset for drawing/inking that works even better when paired with a Wacom tablet. Not only that, because photoshop is raster-based, it is much faster to lay down lines, colour, etc. without worrying about anchor points. If you're worried about not being able to scale your drawings upwards (a lot of people seem to like the ability of vector to scale infinitely), then just make sure you're using photoshop canvases of a high resolution (preferrably 2-3x larger than the application space)

Final Word: A lot of this stuff is personal preference, and it comes with time spent tinkering with these tools. I think you'll find a dramatic increase in pace and quality if you switch to a Wacom system, I also believe you may find Photoshop more conductive to your drawing style.

All the best!

Answer 2

The best inking methods that I've found so far are:

• In Photoshop, using a Wacom Tablet, an inking brush (try a google search for some good bruskes) and using the software Lazy Nezumi Pro, which helps with drawing smooth lines. It's paid software but I've found it really helps me with digital drawing

• In Illustrator with the pen tool but yes, it does take some time

Answer 3

This is how I would do it:

1. Put the picture in Illustrator and use the Image Trace tool to generate the path for you. (this will only work well if there is a large enough contrast between the lines and the background)
2. Once you are done with that, save it and place it into Photoshop where you can use the Paintbucket tool to fill in each of the sections.
3. If you switch the tool options (at the top) to "sample all layers" and use the bucket tool on a new layer for each region, this will also give you some nice layers for each shape that you can use later to create selections (ctrl/cmd clicking on the layer's image)

Hope this helps !

Answer 4

My two main workflows for inking comics are:

1.

• On top layer I draw the artwork with Blop Brush
• On bottom layer I fill the colours also with Blop Brush

A video of this step: https://youtu.be/7xEZjymCopo

2.

• I ink with Blop Brush
• Fill colours with Live Paint Tool.

A video of this step: https://youtu.be/-jxn3nnnbBc

I love Astute plugins but they don’t help for comic artwork. Maybe vector isn’t the obvious choice for comics, however as an infographic artist working with AI at least 5-6 hours everyday for more than 10 years, that’s where I’m more productive.

Answer 5

For comics I use Corel Painter. I used Manga Studio before because Corel Painter was a bit pricey for me, but I found this http://www.painterartist.com/en/pages/coupons/ page with discounts and coupons and I bought Painter for a much lower price, and thank God I did, I find Painter to be much better and easier for comics :)