Inking; a lost art?

[Fairy]

We've all been there at one point or another. Doodling in the cafe or in class when all of the sudden you realize that the drawing is actually... pretty awesome. When you get home you're confronted with an issue, do you work on a digital replicate of the drawing? Or forever mark it in it's permanence in ink?

Today I had confronted that choice between scanning a drawing into my computer and digitally finishing it off, or getting out the good'ol pens and actually inking it. And I was wondering if anyone else has recently found themselves in the same place. Needless to say, either method can result in very differing products, both excellent in their own right and both requiring equal skill to achieve. Inking a drawing has a long history in the illustration field, but has been dismissed as the stopping point for artists for the more versatile and less permanent methods of the tablet. So discussion time--

Do you find yourself contemplating whether to turn to digital mediums regarding drawings in a partially completed stage? Or do you favor inking your pieces? Do you think a combination of both can result in an even more superior product? (eg. inking a draw then using the computer for touch-ups).

What are some of the pros and cons when it comes to completing a drawing through either of those means? Discuss your thoughts and feelings on inking and whether or not it has been usurped by computers.

 

[Elaitenstile]

Inking is turning out to be a lost art indeed. I've never tried it because of the complications and I could work the same with digitals. However inking does seem professional and if you have the right inks you could really do a beautiful scenery better than oil. That's my opinion anyway. Another problem faced is the mistake of precision cannot be corrected, so that means you really need practice to get the shading right. I've done quite some stuff with a HB pencil itself so I can imagine the potential of ink. Personally I feel Alexial is really good with her ink piece of "Diamond Point". I mean come on just look at it:

That's a good example of how creative you could get with a splash of sunset shades. However we would need specific inks to do this stuff, so availability may be a problem as opposed to the easy availability of digital editors. I may be wrong, however, since I haven't really explored inks much and all I say is purely theory.

 

[Treecko]

A good 90% of the drawings I do are inked by pens. Only if I want to put it online , I use a scanner and the only touch up I do usually is only to make the image clearer. I'm not good at digital inking as much and I'm much more used to using colored pencils or other traditional methods to color and image. I prefer using traditional methods cause I'm more used to it and much better at it and going over a drawing on my computer.

While digital inking/coloring is definitely becoming more used over traditional media, there's still some a good amount of artist who still use good old pen , color pencils, paint, etc. Some very popular or well known artist/art pieces. For example, this is on the mot popular in 24 hours page on dA and uses all traditional media.

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And it's really well done. Here's some more examples

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[GFA]

I also do the majority of my inking with pens. It's on the down slide, but plenty of people still do it. It's got a lot more character to it, IMO.

 

[Fairy]

I found my comfort zone with inks, to be honest. Its where I learned precision, dimension, and what taught me how lighting and negative space can me more important to the piece than the blacks. But, I've been forgoing it in favor of digital art because I can just pick it up, doodle whatever, then be done with it. Color, save, upload, post = artist o(≧∇≦o)

That said, I think GFA touches on something very strong here.

I also do the majority of my inking with pens. It's on the down slide, but plenty of people still do it. It's got a lot more character to it, IMO.

Character. It reeks of the artist and their skills, intentions, and emotions. I encountered that while working on the drawing that inspired this thread, and I ended up inking it (well, starting to). I have to say, I love it so much more now. I wasn't even 100% backing the drawing but once I started really bringing out the depth in it, it felt so much more personal to me.

I still think digital mediums can capture an artist as well, but I feel like this comes down to a "personal vs. professional" issue.

 

[Magistrum]

I wouldn't say inking is a lost art when the majority of weekly manga (if not all of them) use this medium. Not to mention that digital linework IMO can only be as good as your traditional inking skills, so if you skimp on traditional, then good luck with digital lol.

However, we can't hide the fact that digital art has its own advantages. I admit that the undo/erase button and layers are godsend. And for someone like me who sucks at traditional painting, those tools are just the ones I needed to get it done.

If there's something that's traditional that is gradually being beaten by digital, it's more likely the coloring, not inking.

Do you find yourself contemplating whether to turn to digital mediums regarding drawings in a partially completed stage? Or do you favor inking your pieces? Do you think a combination of both can result in an even more superior product? (eg. inking a draw then using the computer for touch-ups).

Well this depends on the artist. I know some artists who are amazingly good at traditional lineart but have mediocre traditional coloring skills, so they play their strengths and color it digitally after inking traditionally. I myself have tried this method and I think it's pretty nice, coloring this artwork of mine

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and getting this result

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Well the bottom line is that I wouldn't call traditional inking a "dying breed" just yet. It's a skill that stems from an artist's innate drawing ability so I don't see it getting forgotten anytime soon. :)

 

[derozio]

Magistrum sums up my thoughts on the subject pretty well. I was gonna bring up the 'B-Buut weekly manga use it all the time' but I see he did it already as well, haha. I can't really comment on most of the questions, though, because just like hoenn, I personally do not have any practical knowledge as far as inking goes. I do prefer traditional art over digital in general, though, so inked works generally appeal a lot to me if done right. Good example being the work in the OP.

Also, js but I can't imagine enjoying One Piece weekly as much as I do if Oda did the thing digitally, for some reason lol. I mean, yeah, he can technically make it look so identical that I wouldn't even know when I'm reading it online but I think the difference will be apparent in the tankobons. And, idk, every page of an OP volume has Oda's personal touch (idk what to call it. gOda magic? lmao) oozing out of it. I feel as if that sensation would be dampened if he turned to digitally doing his work. Idk, maybe I'm just weird.

 

[PumpJack]

I ink before I scan. I'm just more comfortable with it.

Digital work stats with clean-up of any smudges/smears, but then it's exclusively colouring. Very rarely will I ever actually draw anything digitally.

 

[Patrick]

^ for the most part. Comics are inked because doing it on a computer would drive me insane. Actually, most artwork I do on paper is inked on paper as well, unless I'm aiming for a lineless painted look.

I bought some really expensive inking pens so I could get really really thin lines for both weight and background. That's how I was able to make this work, for example. I'm always afraid of breaking it, though.