I hate inking. Not because of the tools or the finished look. It’s the commitment. I’m a caveman. I draw on paper. So when you put that ink to that paper, god damn it that’s it! You better be happy with it, because otherwise it’s a real pain to fix and you never really get over the feeling that you lost that battle.
Sketches look great. There’s a world of possibility still. But that ink is final.
I used to do my rough pencil sketches, then really work them out in pencil still, and then my final inks. That’s hard, slow, and nerve-wracking. So I don’t do that anymore. Now I just do a really basic, rough pencil sketch (we’re talking stick figures and tube people!) then work it out with a rough, but very thin ink sketch, and then the final inks.
Technically it’s the same amount of steps, but some how sketching everything out in inks greatly speeds the whole thing up for me. You don’t have to be as careful, and if you screw up, you can usually cover it with your final inks. Therefore the whole process is way less stressful, and I’m more likely to just go for it.
Drawing, man, it’ll mess you up…
-Love Nick
