"Wobbly" line work in inks.

[Dburkhead]

I find it next to impossible to do smooth lines and curves when inking my comics. The lines end up wobbly and uneven even when reduced from 300 dpi to 72 dpi.

The question is, can I expect to get better at that with practice, or is this something I'll just have to live with (maybe cultivating a looser "sketchy" style where the wobbling won't be so objectionable)? The other option I can see is to use straightedges and curves for everything and that would really slow down a planned update schedule that's already on the slow side.

Thoughts?

[Phalanx]

Well it would help to know what methods you're using for inking.

Are you a pen/marker inker or a brush inker? Thick lines or thin? Have you considered digital inking? (vectorisaing or tablets)

[Dburkhead]

The first page ("sneak preview" here) I used Faber Castel Pitt artists pens, mostly "S" and "B" (the brush pen). Since then, I used these pens mostly for panel borders and have used a Hunt 108 and Hunt 102 crowquill pen for most of the inking. I've experimented with a brush (red sable, size 0) but don't really have a light enough touch for line work and mostly use it now for filling in larger areas.

[Faub]

It appears that whatever method you're using to shrink the pages is leaving them pixelated, hence the unevenness. What program are you using to do the shrinking?

[[geoduck]]

It appears that whatever method you're using to shrink the pages is leaving them pixelated, hence the unevenness. What program are you using to do the shrinking?

And most programs offer a variety of shrinking "algorithms", some of which work better than others. You should check that as well.

[Dburkhead]

I use Paint Shop Pro 8.0. Note that the "sneak preview" I have up is at half the resolution of the actual web page.

However, the wobbling I'm talking about isn't an artifact of the shrinking, but is in the original line art. When I get home, I'll scan some examples and put them up to show what I mean.

[Derenge]

Sometimes I get something similar to happen when I hesitate with a line. I have to do the entire thing in one fluid motion or my hand and its shaking become evident in the line. For me it is just a matter of thinking before I mark and then following through as best I can. I don't use a brush for my comic but in my art studio class I've noticed this more than anything else. Nibs don't want to be wavy nearly as much as they sorta find their own path sometimes.

[Smight]

There are quite a few reasons you get wobbly lines from quills I 've found.

You may simply be holding the pen too close to the nib and dragging your fingers on the paper. Try holding the quill more vertically with your fingers off of the paper.

You may be just moving your hand and fingers. For any long line you are going to want to hold your hand and wrist ridged moving your entire arm instead. Idaelly you should draw all the lines with your arm.

Breathing is important. Slow stead breaths will make your lines more steady. What I like to do take a moderate sized breath and breathe out slowly through my nose when I line has to be really steady.

Finally speed is a factor. The faster you go the more smooth your line will be. Of course don't go faster than the ink is flowing or faster than you can control or you'll end up with it sputtering all over your paper.

Another thing can be how thick your ink is. If it's too thick then it won't flow steadily and you'll have to keep on dipping your pen in the middle of lines. If it's too thin then it won't stick to your pen and you'll end up only putting a tiny amount of ink on the page. You should be able to get out at least 12 inches worth of line in a single dip.


hope that helps.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

You could possibly be scanning them too small. Make sure you scan at least 300 dpi. 600 is better, then shrink it to 72.

In my comic, I purposely don't use a ruler when I ink. I kind of like the wobblness for now, but I may hate that in the future. I use a ruler when I do the penciling though.

[Jen_Babcock]

Make sure you're working on nice thick paper. If you're using a crowquill on cheap paper, it will bleed and make the wobbly line problem worse.

Also when you scan your work, make sure you scan it as a black and white, and then later convert to grayscale.

Sorry if you're already doing these things- those are the only suggestions that popped in my head so far.

[MoonlightRequiem]

The only advice I can offer is try not to pause or go too slow when inking a line. It can cause you to be unsure of what you're doing. That may sound weird, but that's why my lines used to be all wobbly.

[Phalanx]

Also when you scan your work, make sure you scan it as a black and white, and then later convert to grayscale.

Why? You lose more detail if you scan it in black and white...

Good strokes need a lot of confidence. I find a lot of wobbly lines comes from hesistation in drawing.

Practise speed (5-10 mins) throwaway drawings with a pen (no pencils no erasers) for a while... it helps you learn the importance of placing stokes without fear of making a mistake and helps with confidence.

[Jen_Babcock]

Also when you scan your work, make sure you scan it as a black and white, and then later convert to grayscale.

Why? You lose more detail if you scan it in black and white...

Good strokes need a lot of confidence. I find a lot of wobbly lines comes from hesistation in drawing.

Practise speed (5-10 mins) throwaway drawings with a pen (no pencils no erasers) for a while... it helps you learn the importance of placing stokes without fear of making a mistake and helps with confidence.

B/C if you scan it as a grayscale you won't get crisp line work and it will be harder to color it digitally. For instance, if you paint bucket a grayscale, it will leave "halos" w/i your line work.

Edit: Also once you convert to grayscale, the lines will look much smoother than if you left it as a black and white. It won't look as nice as something that is initially scanned in as an RGB or as a grayscale, but this way it can look decent AND you can color it digitally.

[Jen_Babcock]

I also wasn't sure if his wobbly lines were due to him scanning it as a black and white and not converting it to grayscale or RGB.

[KathleenJ]

Also when you scan your work, make sure you scan it as a black and white, and then later convert to grayscale.

Why? You lose more detail if you scan it in black and white...

B/C if you scan it as a grayscale you won't get crisp line work and it will be harder to color it digitally. For instance, if you paint bucket a grayscale, it will leave "halos" w/i your line work.

Edit: Also once you convert to grayscale, the lines will look much smoother than if you left it as a black and white. It won't look as nice as something that is initially scanned in as an RGB or as a grayscale, but this way it can look decent AND you can color it digitally.

I've never been able to get good results with the paint bucket, and I just can't stomach the loss of detail scanning in pure b/w. Me, I scan in grayscale and color using feathered selections, the brush, and layers set to 'multiply'.

As for nice quality of line, I'm not sure I have anything to add besides the good points that have already been made - quality paper, confidence, scanning at a high resolution, etc.

[Phalanx]

Also when you scan your work, make sure you scan it as a black and white, and then later convert to grayscale.

Why? You lose more detail if you scan it in black and white...

B/C if you scan it as a grayscale you won't get crisp line work and it will be harder to color it digitally. For instance, if you paint bucket a grayscale, it will leave "halos" w/i your line work.

Edit: Also once you convert to grayscale, the lines will look much smoother than if you left it as a black and white. It won't look as nice as something that is initially scanned in as an RGB or as a grayscale, but this way it can look decent AND you can color it digitally.

Aha! Behold the wonder of levels!

Also, there's a function called threshold in photoshop (Image>Adjustment>Theshold) that allows you to convert your graysccale image into black and white (nice and crisp) and lets you set the threshold level so you can control the level of detail you lose/keep. It does a much better job than scanning in B/W

I get to have my cake and eat it too

I dont like colouring on the lines though. I usually set them on a diff. layer and colour in a different layer underneath them,

[KathleenJ]

^ Levels are indeed where it's at. I couldn't do clean-up without them.

[War]

I scan purely in black and white. You lose very little scanning inks at high resolution.

[Faub]

If it's a purely ink drawing then B&W is good. You just need to scan at around 1200 dpi and shrink. It's kinda fun to scan something as big as a barn and have it take around 3 megs. 8)

Wobbly lines could mean that you're trying to hard to be perfect with the ink. Imperfections are interesting visually. Compare something like Penny Arcade, Spells & Whistles (which is now gone), White Hydra or any of the other pixel perfect comics out there to Digger, Zebra Girl or any of the more gestural comics out there (Bloom County). I'm not saying that either style is easy by any stretch. These artists have spent years (well, usually) perfecting their skills and their comics show it.

My point is, sketchy lines look sketchy. Quick, sharp lines look straight and clean. If you screw up the quick, sharp line it's not the end of the world. Don't make many small lines when you want one smooth one. (Warning: I don't practice what I'm preaching!)

[Jen_Babcock]

Just to compare: This comic was done by hand, was scanned as a black and white, converted to grayscale and then colored digitally:

http://www.clv-comic.com/view.php?pic=538

This one was done completely digitally:

http://www.clv-comic.com/view.php?pic=527

The reason why the inking looks bad on the first one is b/c I was using cheap paper, but overall I think it looks ok.