/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

[Anonymous No.4474757]

How detailed do you sketch before inking?

I've noticed pros often do only very loose sketches before they ink, especially when drawing digital. Most of the details are not even visible in the sketch.
Whenever I draw detailed sketches, I don't even feel like inking it anymore, because the whole process already took so long, and I'm always getting the feel that my inking will ruin the drawing anyway.

I think the problem with inking is, that in order for it to look good, it must be somewhat spontaneous, but at the same time, you also can't improvise too much. It's difficult to find a balance there for me. That's why I mostly don't even try to ink, and just do detailed sketches, and maybe darken the lines afterwards.

[Anonymous No.4474760]

I plot out every major element

[Anonymous No.4474778]

>>4474757
I don't go sketching -> inking -> ok it's locked in place now. I let the drawing evolve over time, gradually refining the lines to see what looks good and what doesn't, I could make significant changes to the structure even after starting to color. At the very end I'll do cleanup, I guess that could be considered my "inking".
I'm a shitty /beg/ though who doesn't know what he's doing so don't take my advice.

[Anonymous No.4474799]

>>4474757
You can do everything twice but that's like more of a formal illustrator thing.
I like to attempt everything on scratch paper, then do the final image on a fancier paper.

[Anonymous No.4474847]

there is no hard and fast rule, you just need enough information for yourself to use as reference with the final inked drawing. Some people just need a sketch for layout, some people need a sketch for where individual lines will go.

For me personally when I work in lines.

I have 3 stages. first stage is a very rough sketch with primitive shapes and perspective, and some rough markers for stuff like clothing, facial features, etc.

Then the next stage, I go over that rough sketch with a real sketch that will represent the actual lines I will make in my inked sketch. I won't go into as much detail or use things like line weight, but apart from line quality, this sketch will be pretty close to the final inked drawing.


Then the third stage is to trace over this sketch with an actual inking brush that I designed specifically for inking, the lines will be more or less the same, but I will introduce line weight, more fine details in the lines, and add last minute details to anything that I missed in the second sketch.

[Anonymous No.4474849]

>>4474847
Also I used to just have the same feeling as you, and used to do all three of these steps in the same layer, just erasing and building up to a final neat sketch. This is totally viable too.

[Anonymous No.4474863]

At least get the "hard to figure out" parts drawn solidly. It's not fun inking away until you get to the hand in perspective and having to wrestle with that for two hours.