Inking I Part 3: Details
It’s really tempting to stop right here. After all, you’ve got the basic shapes down so that everyone can see where the character is, right? Wrong. It looks unfinished, and while it’s easy to think of using screen or digital tones to fill in the big empty spaces, it’s usually pretty obvious that you’re using tones to fill space and not to highlight the image or emotional undercurrents in this part of the story. Ironically, leaving big empty spaces will make the reader’s eye go right to the big empty space and they’ll wonder what was supposed to go there. In other panels, that can be effective, but in an establishing panel like this one, whose purpose is to place the character in a physical setting, it would fall flat.
Detail, while boring to draw, will fill in the space and draw the reader’s eye towards the main figure.
Figure 1: I’ve started filling in planks. I am not measuring them out precisely or even eyeballing to be the same width because unless you nail that perfectly, it’s really obvious that it’s off. Also, I think that this particular building is old and the planks are replaced as they are damaged or rot, with little care as to matching the size of the previous one. I’m still using a ruler to make them straight, however, because having the lines all wonky won’t look like a real building.
You can see my major screwup here: I first inked the planks in the roof in horizontal lines, and I’d previously established them as vertical. So I inked the vertical ones on top, producing this odd grid effect, and will fix it in Photoshop.
Figure 1:
Figure 2: I’ve got the window planks inked in now, and am through with the major details. But I’m not done with the background yet!
Figure 2:
Figure 3: Here is the major secret to drawing realistic-feeling backgrounds: lines don’t look good by themselves. They form shapes that look smooth and sterile. This works with some drawing styles, but not all. To activate the lines and shapes so they look like real objects, you want to rough them up a little.
One way to do this is to start putting in little minuscule detail lines, which fill in the space and activate the lines of the picture. If you’ve got a copy of Death Note, take a look at the backgrounds and see how the mangaka achieved the hyper-realistic backgrounds: by drawing very thin, stuttery lines to add roughness and texture to the walls and furniture.
One of my manga pens is in the process of drying out, and leaves lovely stuttery lines, so I used it to fill in the details. I’ve started over on the wall to the right. The ink from this pen is highly reflective and looks silvery in the camera flash, but it’s really black and scans as black. I’ve also filled in the mountain and wall that you can see through the open section of the window.
Figure 3:
Figure 4: And here it is, with all the detail filled in, except for the part of the roof where I screwed up earlier. I’ll add the detail in Photoshop there. Note that I kept the detail lines floowing the lines of the shape they’re in: vertical for the vertical planks, horizontal for the horizontal pieces. You want to end up with a sort of visual static, that fills in space but which doesn’t jump out at the reader.
Not all surfaces will take this sort of detail, but these are all wood, rough and splintery, so I laid it on thick. If I were doing plaster or metal, I’d do less detail, but I’d still put some on there.
Figure 4:
Figure 5: Now to ink in the figure. I put down the Tachikawa refillable manga pens and pick up a dip pen with the T-600 Chrome nib to ink the figure. I’ve got some variation in line width here, and a bit of darkness under his knees to make him pop out from the bed, and I’ve outlined the hair.
Figure 5:
Figure 6: Here I’ve gone through and subtly reinforced the darker areas on the figure’s lines, to pop him out from the background. I’ve also used the Tombow pen to ink in his hair and fill in the space underneath the bed.
To make a figure look like it’s interacting with its environment, sometimes it helps to reinforce the lines in the areas where the figure is touching other objects. I’ve done this with the lines where the figure and the bedding meet.
Figure 6:
Next: scanning!
Inking I: Introduction
Part 1: Tools
Part 2: Starting Out
Part 3: Details
Part 4: Scanning
