Is it alright if I draw my webcomic in pencil?

Keffria · Post by **Keffria** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 9:26 am

I've always been a fan of hand-shading, but in my experience, inking the basic lines in beforehand makes it look a lot cleaner. Oh, and if you're new to the whole inking thing, it might be a good idea to scan your pencils in first, just to make a backup. (This comes from someone who learned the hard way.)

(Wow, Dutch, I can't believe you've never read Megatokyo. I thought it was some kind of standard, required reading for future webcomic artists, kind of like Penny Arcade...!)

Birdie · Post by **Birdie** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 9:48 am

I've never read it either...

ChaosBurnFlame · Post by **ChaosBurnFlame** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 9:50 am

Well, use of pencils can look good if you darken your lines enough. I'd also suggest you try Blue Pencil because I think seeing a comic done in Blue Pencil might be very cool

ChaosBurnFlame · Post by **ChaosBurnFlame** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 9:58 am

Keffria wrote:I've always been a fan of hand-shading, but in my experience, inking the basic lines in beforehand makes it look a lot cleaner. Oh, and if you're new to the whole inking thing, it might be a good idea to scan your pencils in first, just to make a backup. (This comes from someone who learned the hard way.)

(Wow, Dutch, I can't believe you've never read Megatokyo. I thought it was some kind of standard, required reading for future webcomic artists, kind of like Penny Arcade...!)

Megatokyo's penciling subtly changed, but if you compare their first strip with their last strip you can see it. Before, the pencil lines weredarker, the darks were definate darks, the whites were definate whites, the shapes were rounder. Now its more angular, the lines are thinner, softer, lighter. Reference lines are now left in, etc.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 10:53 am

Nightgaunt wrote:I want to see someone do their entire comic with a carpenter's pencil!

Hey, that would be funny. You might've just gave me the idea.

Wow, Dutch, I can't believe you've never read Megatokyo. I thought it was some kind of standard, required reading for future webcomic artists, kind of like Penny Arcade...!)

Well I haven't read neither. Properly, I mean, my visits to PA were limited to seeing last few comics, getting bored and going away. Megatokyo - well, I've once seen first two comics and went away... now I know you shouldn't diss a comic based on forst two strips, but it just seemed a bit stupid of a beginning...

Keffria · Post by **Keffria** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:25 am

The beginning *is* stupid.

In fact, I don't particularly like Megatokyo, nor is Penny Arcade one of my favourites, for that matter. It's just that they're both ridiculously famous.

BloodKnight · Post by **BloodKnight** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 12:21 pm

(Wow, Dutch, I can't believe you've never read Megatokyo. I thought it was some kind of standard, required reading for future webcomic artists, kind of like Penny Arcade...!)

Riiight.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Sun Aug 22, 2004 11:28 pm

Keffria wrote:(Wow, Dutch, I can't believe you've never read Megatokyo. I thought it was some kind of standard, required reading for future webcomic artists, kind of like Penny Arcade...!)

Um...haven't read Penny Arcade either...or this PvP one everyone seems to be crapping on about...and to all those who seem to disbelieve me, that's cool, cos I probably haven't read yours either!

I didn't start reading webcomics until after I started drawing one, but some of you might not believe that either...

YarpsDat · Post by **YarpsDat** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 10:03 am

mcDuffies wrote:
Wow, Dutch, I can't believe you've never read Megatokyo. I thought it was some kind of standard, required reading for future webcomic artists, kind of like Penny Arcade...!)
Well I haven't read neither. Properly, I mean, my visits to PA were limited to seeing last few comics, getting bored and going away. Megatokyo - well, I've once seen first two comics and went away... now I know you shouldn't diss a comic based on forst two strips, but it just seemed a bit stupid of a beginning...

MT the beginning is a gamers comic, but it changes later, kinda like MacHall
Luckily (?) I found them while I was still fond of gaming comics.
I found PA later and hence never read more than a couple of them.

Oh, And the first 8 or so MT pages used to be inked... but he decided they clash with the rest of archive and redrawn them...

Mattgo210 · Post by **Mattgo210** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 10:10 am

The only comics I read on a regular basis are PvP, PA, and the comics on Inktank. Out of those I would prefer PvP just because it is more like the type of comic I like to read (a pseudo-syndication type comic).

As for other, smaller ones I have yet to get into any other webcomics so far....

JPSloan · Post by **JPSloan** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 10:23 am

Jim North wrote:
Nightgaunt wrote:I want to see someone do their entire comic with a carpenter's pencil!
OMG, ARTSY! They should do the whole thing on blocks of wood, too, then scan the wood.

Dude... I am SO there.

But anywho... I use pencils to do my lineart, which I ultimately fill with a graphics program. I darken the pencil lines in the program to the point that I don't see any reason to go to ink. Besides, time is important for my comic to keep updating. There's a sweet spot of time spent making my comic after which my readers will cease getting updates.

Clairebright · Post by **Clairebright** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 3:43 pm

or you can also ruin a lot of artwork by trying to learn how to ink with a paint brush.

it was an infamous day when i had spent 6 hours on a picture and my cat jumped onto my lap thus causing me to spill ink everywhere.

claire

War · Post by **War** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 4:03 pm

Ink.
INK.
INK.
INK.

Yeah, I like ink.

But I have no objections to people doing stuff purely in pencil, I did a strip or two in pencil and some comics just look downright great in pencil.

Neb · Post by **Neb** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 9:16 pm

I use a standard #2 pencil. The same kind you use to fill in those little bubbles on standardized tests.

Alun Clewe · Post by **Alun Clewe** » Mon Aug 23, 2004 11:31 pm

You know, I mentioned earlier in this thread that I had another comic, under a different name, that I tried to do just in pencil and it looked horrible, so when I revive that comic I'll ink the strips this time... but... it just occurred to me that there's yet another comic I did, under yet another name, that was also done entirely in pencil, and for that one it worked out just fine.

I have some ideas as to why doing it all in pencil worked in the one case and not in the other, but I won't go into them right now.

And yeah, I have way too many way-behind-schedule comics...

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Tue Aug 24, 2004 8:27 am

Digital War wrote:Ink.
INK.
INK.
INK.

Yeah, I like ink.