I mean I'm not completely clueless as to how inking is done but I just need some help from you guys out there who really ink. How do you do it? I like to draw everything on paper, ink over it and then scan it. But this is where the problem starts... when I scan it in it comes out grainy. For example: http://i314.photobucket.com/albums/ll416/alexcat321/aangnspidey2.png
I know that is sloppily inked but I just don't get why it scans in so grainy. Can someone help or atleast give an example by showing me their process and providing examples. Thanks.

John Jr.

Sometimes it just takes a while to update. How is it now?

I'm guessing Oz's reply was to something you edited out of your post?


Usually if things look grainy after being scanned, it's because they were scanned on the wrong setting or imporperly resized. Try scanning your image in greyscale or color mode instead of 'black and white', and resize it as a jpg (in RGB or CMYK color mode, not with a limited palette). Usually having too extreme of 'levels' (an image editor function) will make things look grany too, because midtones are lost.

Hahaha! mine was a reply to the wrong thread by him :)
I meant to reply to his post here:
http://www.drunkduck.com/community/view_topic.php?tid=49179&cid=229
I wonder how that happened?

thanks for the advice

I've moved this to the right place now. Please don't post artwork questions in the help forum. It says that on the form descriptions.

It might have to do with the resolution you're scannin' at. I don't do anything less than 300 dpi.

Depending on how bold your inking style is, scanning B&W can look really good.

This one's scanned B&W without issues. (NSFW)

But sometimes it eliminates very fine lines (I have this problem). I scan mine at 16-bit greyscale, then bump up the contrast. But if ya do that, or if you scan on a color setting, make sure your paper is really clean. Elsewise it turns out kinda scummy-lookin'.

As for general inking tips-
Depending on how confent you are in your drawing skills, you can do sketches and define them and add detail when you get to the inking stage. I'm pretty sure this is the way most professional inkers work. I prefer to draw everything out, though.

Here's an example of my pencils vs. my fully inked page:



Make sure you're penciling very lightly- if you're using felt pens, sometimes they fade when you're erasing heavy lines. Pen and ink tends to do this less; you get bolder, more crisp lines. But some people are intimidated by it- you've really got to get the hang of it to event splattering and stuff, and develop a rhythm since you've got to dip your pen. High-quality nibs do better, but I use the cheap Speedball ones without too much problem.