Craig's Fancy Schmancy Art Blog

[Craig DeBoard]

Here's what I'm currently inking in between projects. I found this on DeviantArt and thought the pencils were amazing and was petrified to ink this. To be fair the pencils stand on their own alone, but I couldn't live with myself if I didn't at least try to ink this.

http://tn3-2.deviantart.com/fs36/300W/f/2008/253/c/f/WIP_9_5_08_Pencils_by_studionfc.jpg

[Craig DeBoard]

Here's my current Work in Progress. I'm inking with a Wacom tablet and Adobe Illustrator.

http://fc06.deviantart.com/fs37/f/2008/253/f/1/WIP_9_5_08_Inks_by_studionfc.jpg

[Craig DeBoard]

Here's the final piece.

Final Crisis Issue #1 Page 6
Penciled by Philip Tan
Inked by Your's Truly

http://fc07.deviantart.com/fs37/i/2008/254/5/e/Final_Crisis_Inks_by_studionfc.jpg

As I said earlier, this piece petrified me to ink. In the end the inks are a tad heavy, but I have a heavy hand. It's something I've struggled with for years now. All in all, considering the amazing pencils here, it would be pretty difficult to not trash the pencils. I'd say I didn't trash them, but I could have done better probably if I went off a hi-rez file instead.

[Mack]

All I can see is small black dots.

[Craig DeBoard]

That's because that's all there is. I plan to edit it later on with some high rez pics of my inks.

[Craig DeBoard]

Updated. I'll have the finished piece (from the first and second post) up tomorrow.

[Craig DeBoard]

Updated once again. Spawn vs. Batman is next.

[Mr.Hades]

Nice work. Inking is not really a specialty of mine, so I can't offer any real crits.

[hydekomiksink]

2 cents= Again always hard to give C&C to those so talented, but here you go. I really do notice the 'heavy hand' you speak of. For me though the heaviness works well with most of the figure but really detracts on their faces. Particularly here with the cloaked figure. The only thing I could suggest is to maybe go with thinner lines on the face. Great piece though man.

[dfbovey]

You posted the pencils as the final piece.

[Craig DeBoard]

You posted the pencils as the final piece.

No, the inks are there. Scroll over to your right. The pencils and inks are side by side as one image.

[Craig DeBoard]

Just started this tonight.

Original Pencils by Red J.

http://fc05.deviantart.com/fs37/f/2008/254/c/d/Spawn_vs__Batman_WIP_9_10_08_by_studionfc.jpg

I've always loved inking Jon's work. He's a really great guy and has always made time for me. His pencils are VERY deceiving. They look simple enough to ink, being so tight and all, but he has a lot of variation in his line weight, where you wouldn't expect it, and none where you would. Also his hatching is tricky too given that he's even put his own style into his hatching (kind of like in Chris Bachelo's work, which by the way is EXTREMELY fun to do).

Jon also likes to do A LOT of halo's, which I hate with a passion. I always freak out over them, and find myself worrying if the width of the halo's is consistent looking enough when I'm done doing them.

Jon's work is some of the best stuff to ink. I can honestly say there isn't a piece of his that I have ever inked (and I've inked quite a few of his pieces now, over the years) where I didn't learn a new technique.

I'll have the finished piece up in a day or two.

[dfbovey]

I can see it now. I'd say that you definitely lost a lot of the finer details that were in the pencils. The burning skeleton being the prime example. If I didn't have the pencils to look at as a frame of reference, I don't know that I would have even known what that's supposed to be by looking at your inks alone. The form of the skull is completely gone.

I think for the finer lines that are in there, you could vary your tools a little and switch to a tech pen or rapidograph to really handle to fine details and tight hatching. You can probably get the effect with a brush but if you struggle with heavy handedness it helps to switch tools for certain things.

The cartoony/graphic style art choice on the new one seems more fitting for your inking style.

[Craig DeBoard]

I can see it now. I'd say that you definitely lost a lot of the finer details that were in the pencils. The burning skeleton being the prime example. If I didn't have the pencils to look at as a frame of reference, I don't know that I would have even known what that's supposed to be by looking at your inks alone. The form of the skull is completely gone.

I think for the finer lines that are in there, you could vary your tools a little and switch to a tech pen or rapidograph to really handle to fine details and tight hatching. You can probably get the effect with a brush but if you struggle with heavy handedness it helps to switch tools for certain things.

The cartoony/graphic style art choice on the new one seems more fitting for your inking style.

Yeah the skull definitly got hard. The resolution was so low, that just blowing it up even a hair made it totally pixelated. But I think even if it was high resolution, I still would have had a tough time, just because of my heavy inks alone, not counting such fine detail (plus I probably rushed the skull a bit without thinking about it since it was the last part I inked, which now that I think about it was probably a mistake since it's one of the main elements of the piece.) Still though, the pencils are amazing and I would have regretted it, if I didn't at least take a crack at them.