Favorite Inking Pens

[JM]

Alrighty, I've used every pen type listed above (among several others) but I still have to find one that doesn't bleed when I color with my Prismacolor markers.

I give the piece a good waiting time between inking, erasing pencil lines, and coloring but this still happens. (so sad)

I'm not very good with the traditional pen & nib inking sets, so no suggestions for that please. I'd prefer to find a good technical pen set.

Thanks~ 

[Xepher]

I always used micron pens, since that's what came with the "engineering supplies package" freshman year, and as I changed majors after only one semester... well, needless to say the entire set is practically unused still. I wasn't a huge fan of them artistically. They work great tracing lines against straight edges and such, but the ones I have seem to have a tiny ball-point, and when freehanding anything, I tend to hold my tools at a pretty flat/sideways angle and suddenly I'm scratching the paper instead of drawing on it. I may not be the best to ask though... I suck at art, and the only tool I actually enjoy using is a pencil. :-)

[JM]

Yeah, I absolutely despise inking. I have slightly shaky hands and I spook easy, so someone could just say hello and my hand will just jerk all over the paper. 

Micron pens are the easiest to get... weird thing is, I actually like to write with the .05 one. But drawing/inking with one? Absolute hell for me. Hahaha

[Xepher]

If I were to be doing art... I'd do everything past the pencil digitially. (If I had a good tablet, I'd even do that digital.) Inking by hand just seems a waste of time to me, as you're trying to clean up and solidify something already there. That is, you're pretty much just tracing.

Here's an example... This is a sketch by Ashley (a xepher.net member who's not around much these days.)



We were thinking about collaborating on a comic project a few years ago, and I wanted to test out my digital inking/coloring skills, figuring if she could do the sketching, I could do that part, and it'd go faster.



The cool thing about that inking... it's entirely in vector. That is, it can be resized to any scale and still look just as clean, lines can be bent/moved and redone all you want. Likewise, it's perfectly "digital" in that the transparent areas are really transparent (not white/grey) like a paper scan is. That makes it really easy to color, as it can be done behind-the-lines. The really cool part though, was that it was almost entirely automated. The only thing I actually "traced" were the shaded/dark-color areas on Bast (the one in color.) All the actual "ink" lines were traced automatically in Inkscape. All I had to do was adjust a few settings until it looked right, then I could just use the bucket tool to fill in colors, and then, as I said, hand (mouse) paint the darker patches of color. I really like how the style turned out... it keeps the "sketchy" look, while still giving very clean and dark lines. There's quite a lot of variety you can get though, using only the automated stuff. For more control/finesse though, you can always adjust the lines manually as well. The above picture could obviously use some tweaking... several lines extend out too far, or come up short, but you'll notice all those "mistakes" are in the original sketch as well. I just wanted to test/demo the fast/automated process to see how much work it would be to produce a regular comic using such methods.

Anyway, not sure any of that helps you in your search for pens, but inking seemed at least semi-on-topic. :-)

[JM]

Oh my I just realized that you replied. Sorry!

Vector inking is really fun, fast, and great for making prints. I used to ink in Flash MX before I switched to painting digitally instead. (Now I just ignore having nice lines and paint right over the sketch, haha)

Say, what's Inkscape? I love giving new programs a chance.

[Miluette]

Inking by hand produces a much more organic line. I like it, especially in comic work. But I don't love it, which is why my work is almost exclusively digital right now. (The other reason being my sketches and lines are just 300% more dynamic on the computer) I'd like to get back into my ink-and-acrylic or watercolor styles, though... (especially since I have a mass of real art media lying around my room left over from my second year of college)

Anyway, I loved inking with Zig Millennium pens, because Microns were as expensive and bled and smelled icky.

I've yet to figure out how to actually ink with nib pens, as they're all scrapy and uh...don't actually do right.

[JM]

Inking by hand produces a much more organic line. I like it, especially in comic work. But I don't love it, which is why my work is almost exclusively digital right now. (The other reason being my sketches and lines are just 300% more dynamic on the computer) I'd like to get back into my ink-and-acrylic or watercolor styles, though... (especially since I have a mass of real art media lying around my room left over from my second year of college)

Anyway, I loved inking with Zig Millennium pens, because Microns were as expensive and bled and smelled icky.

I've yet to figure out how to actually ink with nib pens, as they're all scrapy and uh...don't actually do right.

I took a quick comic-making course a year ago, and my teacher was explaining that the best way to use those nib pens is to rotate the paper so that you keep using down strokes with the pen.

But I never really got it. I think I ended up stabbing the paper instead of inking anything really. Poor, poor paper. 

I can't find a good set of Zig Millenium pens anywhere. Do you know a good site for them?

[Miluette]

Hmmm...

http://www.craftsetc.com/store/search.aspx?searchTerm=Millennium+Pen Just a quick search. I think I used to buy them at the Hobby Lobby near my college. The Hobby Lobby site led me to that, hehe.

My big issue with these pens is that the 0.5s are so niiice, but I always end up breaking them. This is making me want to do some hand-inking again. I'd like to try fine detail for once...<3

[sagebrush]

I love Pitt Faber Castell artist brush tip pens.  They sell them at Hobby Lobby, but if you buy bulk they are cheapest here: http://www.artstuff.net/pitt_art_pens.htm

[JM]

Yeah, brush pens are by far my favorite inking pens.  I like the swooshy lines and the texture it gives the piece. Big fan of those Faber Castell pens too

[fesworks]

I'm going to read all of this later, but I wanted to chime in quick and say I used the ZIG Millenium pens.... however, I use them on Trace paper. I found that they really suck on paper... or at least on Xerox paper... they cheap stuff you buy in 200 page reams?

I draw on paper and use trace paper.

http://fesandernst.com/sketch_incentive.jpg

http://fesandernst.com/ink_incentive.jpg

These links change with each comic update, but basically you can see the pencils and then the resulting Inkings (trace paper). I almost always have to clean up a whole lot in Photoshop (connecting or thickening some lines because the scan was too bright or such..... also, fixing little "oops" where I messed up a pen stroke).

I tried a tablet, but I just could not get the hang of it... seemed to take forever to trace a sketch scan, and free-hand? forget it maybe I need more practice.... but I kinda would like a pen that works well on paper.

Again, I'll read the rest of this thread soon.

[sagebrush]

Okay, I have had a tablet of some sort for years now, and I'm still not 100% with it...  I draw and ink way better on paper.  HOWEVER, I have been getting much, much better, especially since I decided to do Lawn Darts totally on the computer.  I think you just have to do that - do a side comic or a series of illustrations and force yourself to do all of it on the computer.  Otherwise you just never learn, because you don't have to.

[3eoclock]

I use Staedtler, which I always manage to misspell, no matter what.

They pretty cheap, and pretty good at what they do.  Although I've been wanting to get some NeoPiko Inkers as well, give those a whirl.

Also I've used Sakura Microns once, expensive little things and I've gotta say, they work the same as the Staedtler ones I use. ;w;

[Azraelle]

Microns when I have to ink on paper.  A 4-pixel solid brush in Photoshop any other time.

Going on a tangent, for anyone who feels that drawing on a tablet doesn't "feel" right, I found a suggestion on another forum to actually tape a regular piece of paper over the surface of the tablet (unless you're using a Cintiq).  That way it emulates the feel of drawing on paper, while still getting that digital perfection.

[Miluette]

I actually hate the feel of drawing on real paper at this point lol...
I need to find the right kind of pencil, but that is for another thread maybe!