Is anyone good(or just able too) drawing smoke. Either from a source like a fire or a cigarette as well as in a smoky area/atmosphere? I've tried a lot but it never turns out so well. The tools I use are black ink, nib pen and brushes. If anyone has tips, I'd be glad to hear them.

You can indicate smoke from a cigarette just by drawing a curly line, or two intertwining curly lines.

Fire smoke and smoky rooms shouldn't be too hard for a brush user if you're adventurous- You just dilute some black ink right down and gently splodge away with a soft brush. Wetting the paper first it a good way to make it fade, bleed and spread. :)

ozoneocean
You can indicate smoke from a cigarette just by drawing a curly line, or two intertwining curly lines.

Or draw a couple of flattend 'S's like a long snake, in extreme reverse perspective (getting wider as it rises), making sure the smoke is always rising, never dipping lower than a previous line.

To see how to draw it, light an incense stick in a darkened room with some soft light behind the smoke and study how the smoke tendrils slowly rise.

ozoneocean
Fire smoke and smoky rooms shouldn't be too hard for a brush user if you're adventurous- You just dilute some black ink right down and gently splodge away with a soft brush. Wetting the paper first it a good way to make it fade, bleed and spread. :)

Great idea! I will have to try that one day.

Thanks for the replies guys, I'll probably try those tricks today. Especially wetting the paper first, never thought of that with india ink, already tried something similar with watercolors though a long time ago. It will be hard not making everything bleed on the characters, but I guess it wouldn't be so fun if there were no risks.

It's always good to experiment. :)
You can always do the bleeding effects first and then do your finished inking over the top after it all dies. There's so many ways you can do things ^_^

Something else you can do is smudge small amounts of ink on the paper with a textured cloth or your fingers. The effect would be a bit rough though, so depending on your style, it may or may not suit what you do.

The first tests I did:



If my paper was alive it would probably hate me. It's not quite right yet but I think I'm on the right track. What do you think?

Good experimentation! Try thinning the ink more?

Thinning as in diluting?

Hahaha yeah. Sorry for the confusion :)