Turns Out Inking is Super Important

Here's a preview for next week's comic

I watched a video about how lots of comics today in the industry are not really done anymore. The thing to do now is taking a pencil drawing, do magic computer stuff to it, and then it has the effect of inked lineart- which saves time and definitely not something you could get away with in the 80's or 90's (I'm sorry, I'm trying to find this video, but I can't). The video argues that inking plays a vital role in bringing the comic to life, adding much more definition and just adding quality to it. According to him, many comics today have more of a coloring book style- and I'll have to agree- especially on Webtoon. There isn't any dynamic inking there (to save time, I know) and there's a lot of definition that's just lost. 

I've started experimenting with doing more dynamic inking, and I'll have to say I'm definitely going to have to agree with him. I like the look of these recent comics much better than before. I also enjoy inking a lot more than I thought I would. Putting in the large, dark color blocks, then cross-hatching really brings the drawing the life. I love that Clip Studio Paint's digital inks look so much like the real thing. I'm also confident to say that if I'm really pressed for time, I feel like I could get away with putting an extra 15 minutes in inking then using mostly flat colors with light rendering. So, in the image below, I didn't do any shading with the colors. All I did was lower the opacity, painted on the blood, then of course, the glowing SFX. But the inking does most of the work here:

Inking is much more simple- you don't have to put as much thought in it as you do colors, you just need to have an idea of where the lights and shadows are, then it's just black and white from there!

It also get's faster the more you do it. I participated in Inktober, set timers for 15 minutes, then found I actually was able to make a more highly detailed image in that time than I thought! So woo!