Markers VS Indian Ink Pens???

[GaNda]

Hello All,

Sorry I've been missing for a while I am still working on my website (kinda upgrade) after dragon flared some fire on it in one of the reviews I had :)....

Whilst I work on my website I hope in... 2 weeks before its out, I need to verify som'in
I am old school and use ink pens for drawing..however speed is the name of the game and I read that artists use maskers with almost the same effects.

1. Is this true?
2. does it really make things go faster?

Just need to know if the pens section can be skipped...

Thanks!

[Dragon Powered]

Fire?  I hope I didn't overly cook it.

I don't think there is any set process of creating comics, it's really a matter of artist's choice and what works for each individual.  A marker is a pen, just wider.  I don't think by using a marker you're actually cutting out any steps, unless you use a fine ink pen and then go widen your strokes somewhere.  Some artists use a digital tablet for the inking process, and it really saves them time.  But you have to get used to working that way, because it's very different than inking on paper.  Some use markers from the very start, without the need for pencil sketching at all, producing a finished product in one step. See caricature artist street vendors.

I would suggest using artist's markers of varying widths over india ink pens, however.  Still, I'd bet others here would be able to offer tuning advise if you detailed your creative process.  Can't really offer much without knowing how you work.

[Gibson]

It depends on a couple things, the first being how good you are with pens. If you're not that good with a pen, it doesn't much matter if you do crappy marker work. If your pen work is alright, then chances are you can't get the same effect with a marker. Markers can absolutely achieve the same effect as technical pens, but only if you REALLY know how to use a marker, and if you're asking the question, then you don't.

The only way to find out for yourself, though, is to try it. Do a bunch of doodles and ink them with a marker. It's a pretty simple way to find out, really.

[mcfadyn]

REAL men use brush and ink.  It's the only way to go for me.  Alot of people I've talked to find it difficult to use, but I found the transition from Pigma pens to brush quite easy.  I suggest trying it out just to see what you think.  There's no control quite like a nice brush.  As for pens, I used to use Pigma pens which are okay, but they tend to run out of ink quite quickly

[GaNda]

Thanks all for the feedback.
I guess I got to try it out like you say Gibson and I will probably will...

mcfadyn: I see your website man... and the brush stuff is cool..alas not for me, I am not that talented and getting me with a brush
makes my drawings turn into blots of ink for use in psychological testing...  :) I leave that stuff to the pros.
but thanks for the suggestion!

I think my path remains Pens or Markers..the illusion needs to seem real to the reader as much as possible.
I am looking for good fast ways to produce good/readable art....

Dragon: I meant that in a good way! :) about the fire N stuff. please be be cross (if you were)

[jeffa]

I'd just experiment a bit if I were you.

I like brush for drawing and nib pen for lettering. I just finished making a lightbox that gives me a better angle for ink to flow than my light table. I've been doing my lettering with brush and that is just too danged hard.

I find that if I use pens or markers I'm not happy with the scans. Since my comic is black and white you'd think it would be simple to just make everything that isn't white be black, but that came out looking awful.

India Ink really does look good when scanned.

If I win the lottery, I plan to try out one of those fancy, schmancy Cintiq pads and try doing things digitally, but honestly I think I'd miss the ink and brush... Luckily I won't be winning the lottery.

[jeffa]

mcfadyn: I see your website man... and the brush stuff is cool..alas not for me, I am not that talented and getting me with a brush
makes my drawings turn into blots of ink for use in psychological testing...  :) I leave that stuff to the pros.
but thanks for the suggestion!

Don't sell yourself short. I just looked through your comic, and I'd bet you could rock a brush if you gave it some practice.

[GaNda]

Hey thanks Jeffa!

Thats kind of you to say.....
I already read some of your stuff ...I liked the I,Robot one... funny :)

I once tried inks that but the lines never went where I wanted them to go in addition I had several problems with pressure in the size of the lines I would mess up the whole drawing and become the hulk instantly!

I still think brush is for serious folk that have redundancy of patients. but maybe I will try it out again sometime...thanks for the encouragement.

By the way getting any pens or inks scanned and turned into a crispy lines in Photoshop is very easy to do...
I dont know how you do it but I can send you some steps that I do that completely eliminates grays lines 90% of the time
you can also decide the density of your inked line as well...I could send you some sort of tutorial if you would like..but I only know how to do with with Photoshop (if you use it).

[Rob]

Post the tutorial in the art section. I'm sure we'd all like to read it.  ;D

[jeffa]

Here is a shocking statement: I don't use Photoshop.  :o

I haven't been able to justify the cost to myself, so I use a combination of Paint.Net and GIMP.

So far I have managed to make about $70 with my anthology which includes the comics. All but $2 of that has come from the Palm WebOS app I wrote. $2 is from Amazon Kindle. Not as easy to get the word out on that one. Palm is a small community, so I just hang out in the precentral.net forums and have a link in my signature. I'm averaging about 1 sale per day.

Since I have spent nothing thus far, I figure that is a profit of $70. If I bought the cheapest version of Photoshop I'd be in the hole several hundred bucks. I am nothing if not a capitalist pig... Oink, oink.

Honestly, the fact that my process is heavily traditional means that I don't have as much need for Photoshop. I also just enjoy the brush and ink.

Thanks for the comment on the iRobot comics. Tomorrow's comic starts a series of Star Wars themed ones. I'm releasing one per week right now on Mondays. I have a bunch of other projects going as well as my day job (which kept me working unexpectedly until 4:30 this morning...). I'm also working with my daughter to make some simple games that work in the browser and on WebOS phones. Hopefully we can get good enough with that to sell some games at $.99.

[GaNda]

Great Jeffa.. good luck on your game creation it sounds like fun especially when you do with family members.

I simply know Photoshop because thats what I was taught on and got a discount for it by the school I learnt at..there are many dirt road ways to Rome :)

I'll take up Robs idea and try to create some tutorial about getting line crispy and clean though only for Photoshop but maybe it will make you buy a copy... <no I dont work for Adobe>...anyways see you around Jeffa pleased to make your acquaintance!   :)

[Dragon Powered]

There's nothing wrong with using Gimp and Paint.net.  I don't personally use them, but by what I've heard they are fine programs and quite suitable.  If you are interested at all in Photoshop there is a version called Photoshop Elements, which does most of what the full, expensive version does but for less than a C note.

[Gar]

GIMP is actually a really good program. Bit of a steep learning curve, but the price is right!

[Gibson]

I got stuck using GiMP while I was on the road, away from my computer and my precious precious programs. I have my programs again, but I'm still using GiMP. It has limitations, but they are relatively few and there's been nothing yet that I haven't been able to work around. It was indeed really difficult to get used to it, took a couple weeks, but once I did I've been really happy with it.

Granted, I illustrate with paper and ink so I don't know how it is for drawing, but for colouring and lettering, it works pretty well.