Hello, my username is Renga Studio, and I'm a cartoonist with a problem (Man, I'm making this sound like one of those AA meetings!). It's been about a week since I started my webcomic, but I'm not getting anywhere past page 2. I can draw pretty well, I have a story written out, and I'm itching to have it realized! However, a lot of dilemmas have cropped up since I began sketching the story. Seeing that I have a day job, I'm sometimes too tired to draw anything by the end of the day. And sometimes, when I do a superb job of penciling out a page, I end up ruining it with ink that either bleeds on the paper or gets on my hand, smudging my work! Plus, after the time-consuming task of having to pencil everything in with little mistakes, I have to go through all that again when it's time to ink in the details with 0 mistakes! Because of all that, my comic updates appear few and far between and my story is progressing ever so slowly.
And so, after a lot of experimentation, trial and error, and some wasted ink and paper, I got the urge to cop out on my problems and resort to drawing with only--a pencil.

It's simple to use, easy to erase, and not too messy.

Now I know you've seen pencil-only art used in some of the more successful comics on this site, but personally, it would feel like I'm looking for a shortcut if I tried it, which is just as well in this case because I AM! To make a long story longer, I have used pens, markers, and brushes, and in the end, I'm not completely satisfied and I'm still stuck on page 2. Though my art won't look that fancy in pencil, I kinda don't care anymore at this point. I just wanna continue my story and escape this continuum of failure.

Even though I'm still going through with this plan, I want to know what you guys think about it. I also would like to hear about your thoughts on pencil-only art in comics. Personally, I think it's great (even if it's crudely drawn), just so long as it has a story good enough to pull me in. Perhaps some of you have stories you'd like to share about choosing the wrong artistic medium, it causing your work to go awry, and finally finding the one that's (probably) right for you. :)

My suggestions if you're having trouble with bleeding ink, ripping paper or other such problems.

Chances are your problem is not your artistic ability or inability to use ink, it's that you're missing out on one of the same thing most other people forget. When you change mediums you need to change papers. The paper you'd use for pencil or charcoal drawings doesn't work as well for ink. Try switching to bristol board, illustration board or some old chunks of matting board and I'm sure you'll see a difference in how your inks look.

Another suggestion is that if you're having problems with running your hand through the ink is to go out and buy some graphic design pens. You can get them from Faber Castell or Sakura. They come in several different sizes and the ink dries faster than plain india ink from an ink well so your chances of smudging your lines are greatly decreased.

Don't give up on inking just yet. If you need to improve your ability to get the details right the first time, take some old sketches or something that's not important from from your sketchbook and try inking those. The more you practice, the smoother and cleaner your lines will become and the fewer problems you'll have with mistakes. And if you do make a mistake, don't forget the helpful joy that a computer can be. Photoshop, Illustrator and even MS Paint all have eraser tools.

The most important thing though is to work in a medium you're comfortable with. Pencil drawn comics might end up looking less professional, but if you're not comfortable with ink yet then go ahead and do pencil. You can always start inking them at some later point down the line. Just be aware that doing pencil only isn't necessarily any less work, you have to make sure your artwork is that much cleaner so the detail shows through so you'll probably wind up spending close to the same amount of time on them.

I hope that helps you out some. Here's to hoping all goes well for you.

edit: I started out working straight into the computer, I decided later that I prefer being able to give my best work to people now so I switched back to hand drawing and computer inking while I continue practicing drawing straight into the computer on the side.

However, there are a lot of other reasons as to why I'm going to draw my comic story with only a pencil for a while:

1. I draw fast, so I'm in no mood to take my time.
2. I really want to tell my story, so I'm putting aside my more professional inking techniques aside.
3. I'm tired of making mistakes.
4. I'm using copy paper to draw on 'cause I can't afford the more suitable paper.
5. And even if I had the money, I still won't buy it because I'm a cheap bastard.

But don't fret, Iba! Just because I quit inking my comic doesn't mean I'm through with it forever! I'll still color and ink some of my pages, provided that some of them are chapter pages or just pictures drawn just for fun. Keep in mind that I'm an amateur cartoonist, so I don't have to produce high-quality work before a deadline or anything like that.

You could always try cheat-inking. What you do is scan in your penciled panel or page and then digitally clean up your work. There are a variety of ways to do this but one of the simplest is to open up the levels editor and move the slides around until your white areas look really white, and the pencil smudges have vanished.

Now open up the Gaussian Blur command and blur everything by a factor of about three or as much as five.

Now go back to the levels editor and this time move the darkening slide almost all the way to the far right, instantly your pencils will look inked, then move the lightening slide a minute amount to the left to perform a final clean up.

You might now have to touch the images up a bit with a digital ink brush, alternating between, black and white ink, but pretty much you are now done with the cheat-inking process.

Now this IS cheating and the result will NOT look as good as a careful inking job, because the entire process depends on just how careful you were in the penciling stage to begin with, but it is probably worth a bit of experimentation on your part to see if you like the end results.

If not then stay with the pure pencil rendered work. There is no law against that, after all.

Best of good fortune to you,

CharleyHorse

{I, by the way, DID NOT not invent this technique)

CharleyHorse
You could always try cheat-inking. What you do is scan in your penciled panel or page and then digitally clean up your work. There are a variety of ways to do this but one of the simplest is to open up the levels editor and move the slides around until your white areas look really white, and the pencil smudges have vanished.

I'm way ahead of you, Mr. Horse! Here's how I plan do it: After scanning my penciled image (which has highly visible marks thanks to it being drawn on a hard, smooth surface like Plexiglas) I then open the image in Photoshop (I don't do this trick until I've shrunk the really large image first), go near the top of the screen to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast, drag the there bar up to +100, and voila! Instant bitmap image!

Renga Studio
And sometimes, when I do a superb job of penciling out a page, I end up ruining it with ink that either bleeds on the paper or gets on my hand, smudging my work!

What are you inking with?

I see no problem drawing in pencil. It's up to individual choice. I draw one of my comics fully in pencil as well due to my stressful workload. But it does give an impression to the readers that my comic art feels "incomplete".

hmmm, this subject is very close to my heart. I was reviewed professionally by an editor from Radio Comix awhile back and the first thing he told me was that I shouldn't use ink. He felt my pencil work was great but that my inks were weak at best =( ..... ouch, but I came away with a couple things since then and here they are.

1. Pencil does not = unprofessional.Case in point >> http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/preview.php?theid=46-978&p=2
Blade of the Immortal is one of the prettiest comics you will ever see period and MOST of it is just pencil.

2. Ink is it's own art, and as such it requires alot of work. ( One pointer though would be to relax when you ink, don't worry how close you follow the pencil lines. In fact for awhile I was just roughing in pencil and finishing in ink. It didn't always work but I had alot more fun that way, this will also help with your speed problem, I'm pretty fast too and having to slow down to ink always killed my ability to draw the way I wanted to.

3.Photoshop cheating... =) feel free to try this; especially if you use alot of shading and crosshatching in your pencil work. The sumi-e filter is your best friend here ,just turn all of the values way down then fade the effect by multiplying it and turning the opacity down a few notches... it gives a really cool look if used properly....well I think it can anyway.

I could go on about the balance of art/story and all that but I figure you are already going to do what you want anyway, but I figured since I have faced similar delimas I would share =)

p_type

my current pages have been pencil on bristol board

p_type
1. Pencil does not = unprofessional.Case in point >> http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/preview.php?theid=46-978&p=2
Blade of the Immortal is one of the prettiest comics you will ever see period and MOST of it is just pencil.

The thing is BOTI couldn't have been published fifteen or twenty years ago. It's only because of computer scanning and digital printing that it can be done. The original reason comics are inked is for reproduction. When comics where young they had lo-tech stat cameras and lo-tech photo plates for printing. Reproducing pencils would've been either impossible or way too expensive. But black ink on white board was contrast-y and thus easily reproduced. Sure, you'd lose really fine lines in the process, but that's why cartoonists inked with brushes back then: to get really nice wide lines that photo stated clearly.

If you're doing a webcomic and you are not worried about how your work will look in print you probably don't need to ink it. Just learn how to scan your pencils so they look and read well on screen.

subcultured
my current pages have been pencil on bristol board

You could get away with using a cheaper paper. Pros use bristol board because of how it takes ink without bleeding and stands up to erasing pencils and fixing mistakes.

i use it for texturing

subcultured
i use it for texturing

That's true. Kid finish board has a nice rough surface good for pencil and pen.

There are actually some very nice pens out there to use that dry out quickly and you only have to wait a minute or so before you can erase without smudging.
I use Sakura Micron pens. They don't bleed, they dry very fast, and keep their color very well :) also, if you use art markers, they wont bleed into the markers!
If you're using bristol, I'd still be careful about smudging, but it wont be as bad with micron pens :)

This is just my personal opinion, but I really don't like straight pencil comics (with the exception of Adam Warren's Empowered) because it just never looks finished to me. I mean, if it's pencil and it looks like it was inked that's fine, but even the "colors over-top of sketchy pencils" thing that seems to be really popular nowadays really bothers me. There's just something very appealing about that definite black line.

But yeah, I think even if you decide not to ink your comic that you should still practice inking on the side. I don't know what kind of pens you're using but microns and steadlers work pretty good on copy paper. Also sharpies are good for filling in large areas of black.

Hey, everybody! I'm back! Wow! I thought this topic died when I last posted here! Look at all these posts! I must say, you all have very interesting points of view regarding this subject! Keep 'em coming! Oh, yes! I wanted to update you guys on my progress and tell you what drawing implements I'm currently using! So far, I've used pencils as well as Sharpie markers, various pens, and watercolors (and by "watercolors", I mean water-soluble ink from Crayola Classic Markers; hey, didn't I say I was a cheap bastard?) on good ol' 8 1/2" x 11" copy paper.

tohoscope
What are you inking with?

Speedball Super Black India Ink.

Eunice P
I see no problem drawing in pencil. It's up to individual choice. I draw one of my comics fully in pencil as well due to my stressful workload. But it does give an impression to the readers that my comic art feels "incomplete".

I hear ya, but if the readers don't think it feels "incomplete", you dare not tell them!

p_type
Blade of the Immortal is one of the prettiest comics you will ever see period and MOST of it is just pencil.

I did not know that. Cool!

Daiconv
Also sharpies are good for filling in large areas of black.

They are! That is, until they run out of ink...

Let's see, who else do I wanna answer? Hmm...

(Casually moves cursor over the black box on subcultured's banner)

Ugh! That was anticlimactic (unless subculture's a girl; God, I hope so, 'cause the image on sub's avatar certainly isn't helping my imagination!)...Boy! I really went off on a tangent that time, didn't I? Let's move on, shall we?

Now that the novelty of publishing comics online have finally worn off, I feel a lot more comfortable with the tools I use to draw, which vary from time to time (Some of my pages were drawn completely in Paint with a mouse!) seeing as my comic is kinda experimental. And I'm having a lot of fun drawing it too! :) However, you never know when pencil-only art will come in handy...

Have you tried using a lightbox to help inking? If not, you could try penciling out your page as normal, then inking onto a second paper with the aid of a lightbox.

And lightboxes can be bought or home made.
http://omu.kuiki.net/bbs/index.php?topic=8520.0
http://www.kubertsworld.com/mall_depot/dynamic.asp?fmshortcat1=20802

Renga Studio
I'm way ahead of you, Mr. Horse! Here's how I plan do it: After scanning my penciled image (which has highly visible marks thanks to it being drawn on a hard, smooth surface like Plexiglas) I then open the image in Photoshop (I don't do this trick until I've shrunk the really large image first), go near the top of the screen to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast, drag the there bar up to +100, and voila! Instant bitmap image!

Here's another suggestion (and what I happen to do);
- when I scan in the pencil drawings (450 dpi), I have the option of either saving it as a photograph (which looks like a pencil drawing) or as a black and white image. So I save it as a black and white image
- open that image in Photoshop
- select a blank/white area
- inverse select (to grab all the lines everywhere)
- Modify-Selection-Expand by 2 pixels
- Modify-Selection-Smooth by 3 pixels
- create a new layer
- fill selection with black

and viola! For me, this cleans up/smooths some of the pencil lines rather than adjusting only the brightness of original pencils.