Digital inking

[PowaPlaya]

I want to know how to ink with photoshop(over pencil),step by step , without that grain effect. I don't have tablet.

I'm sorry for asking again,but i couldn't find it explained simply and step by step.

[Portus]

Without a tablet your only choice is Paint Tool SAI with the ink layer.

[Datameister]

In other words...if you're planning on doing 2D digital art for any length of time, get a tablet. :D There are successful artists who make do with just a mouse, but for the vast majority of folks, a tablet will make the process much more natural and rewarding. Accuracy with a mouse is very, very difficult, and programs like the one Portus mentioned can smooth the inevitable jitters for you, but a tablet is really a must-have for anyone who plans on doing a lot of digital inking.

[DANgerous124]

Try using the pen tool. With a lot of practice, you can make some pretty good lines.

[Datameister]

Not a very...fluid workflow, though, IMO. It's more like constructing the lines than drawing them. Not that it's not useful sometimes, but I personally would rather actually draw the lines the old-fashioned way.

[PowaPlaya]

I do it like the old way with real ink, but there are some things which annoy me ( like that grainy effect, or the difference between the solidity of the black). And about the tablet, I'm not sure that I really need one, because I like more the traditional way of drawing/painting. Anyway, thanks for responses .

[Datameister]

Well, if you're comfortable sticking with traditional inking, there's no point in getting a tablet, but if you decide that the graininess and so forth are enough to make you want to switch to digital, I'd definitely invest in a tablet.

[PsiBug]

I've inked roughly 250 pages of comic art now using a wacom tablet and a cintiq. I'll say that there is a learning curve that will slow you down and affect the style of your work for a while. There is a learning curve just as there is with any artists tool... but the perfect blacks and the undo feature and the use of layers make the digital tablet a real opportunity for improvement.

Any line that you screw up can be undone and the freedom to tweak any stroke is a boon.

If you can afford to buy a tablet then at least read a bunch of opinions and consider getting one. I'm pretty conservative with my spending but I bought a medium sized tablet and eventually got a cintiq too. I really like it alot. (got a good deal on ebay used)

If you are a dedicated artist and willing to take the time to learn how to use it, a tablet will be a big help. I'm gonna repeat that you will struggle at first. You have to develop a new kind of hand-eye coordination.

You can get all kinds of nice smooth lines, varying line weights and clean edges. Here's a recent page I did:

[Screeny]

Not a very...fluid workflow, though, IMO. It's more like constructing the lines than drawing them. Not that it's not useful sometimes, but I personally would rather actually draw the lines the old-fashioned way.

You can use the pencil stage as the 'drawing' phase if you want to look at it in these terms - drawing is, after all, construction so there is nothing wrong with using the pen tool to simulate traditional ink - it's the final product that matters and not the process.

Back to the original topic, I find that the pen tool is very effective at turning pencil lies into crisp solid inked lines as long as you establish your line weights during the pencil phase. Zooming in on the scanned pencil artwork and then drawing around the pencil lines on a new layer with the pen tool and then filling the selection with black is a technique that I use all of the time - you will find this especially effective if you aren't using a tablet.