The Process: I think I'm gonna ink it for real.

I've been trying to figure out how I'm gonna draw this comic. I first thought to do all of it with my tablet (on the computer (photoshop)) Which is fine when it comes to drafting: 

...But pretty shit when it comes to inking...

I think its due to a number of reasons. Its incredibly slow. And considering all I'm trying to do is immitate a real ink pen - it seems pretty wierd to put up with it. Also, because I can zoom in and out whenever I like while working on the line art, I don't get a true focal point. When your drawing on a real piece of paper, you can tell what distance the paper is suppose to be viewed at. Its usually about a foot and a half away. This means I know, when I'm drawing people or things in the distance, that they are not going to be that recognisable. So simplifying those things down into more obvious shapes helps with clarity and brings out the REAL focal point. Which is usually in the foreground.

The problem with inking on paper. Is when you f**k it up. You f**k it up. I have yet to find a good twink that doesn't effect the texture and bleed of the pen when you draw overtop.

When it comes to doing the colour, nothing beats digital. Hands down. Turn around. On the ground. Charlie Brown. So what I've been doing is drafting in photoshop on my wacom tablet:

Then printing it out (dulled down), Drawing over top with a 'Stabilo Permanent pen. (size 's' I think) and a Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen ('s' as well) then scanning it back in.

For colouring, I bump up the whites as much as I can to get rid of the black (something that has not been that successful so far). Setting the layer to 'multiply' then colour underneath (using a number of layers).

With photoshop, you have unlimited range of colours to use. But I think it is better to limit your pallet. I used to re-use a lot of colours but just change them subtly. But I don't think this is the best. I like colour, but if your gonna have something nearing the same colour as something else, they may as well share that exact colour. I think it just looks...cleaner.

Also, this process didn't take that long. I did the Inking and colouring for these 3 in about 7 hours.

I also did this page today. FYI I wont be keeping those nuggety adverts...(in fact I probably wont be using any of these pages for the final comic)