I just wrapped up inking the Ghost Short I’ve been working on and as custom dictates a blog post must follow! Since it’s late, I’ll cut to the chase — I’m going to jump right in with a few panels, give a quick overview of tools, and wrap up with links to the complete inked short as well as the full version of the penciled pages just for the heck of it. Let’s go!
 |
| Demon death! |
 |
| Brush detail |
Those are just a couple panels to whet the appetite. As I mentioned in a previous post, for this short I relied heavily on a brush. This was a big departure from Red Wolf Night and it took quite a bit of getting used to - inking with a nib pen is much more forgiving. On top of the brush mandate, I also decided to omit micron pens on this project - so all ink was dipped from a baby food jar full of Speedball Super Black India ink! Here is a shot of the tools of the trade:
 |
| Tools of the trade |
These tools are a follows:
- #1 Winsor & Newton Academy brush - this was my go to for applying Pro White (opaque white water color - essentially white out)
- #2 Winsor & Newton Series 7 brush - all ink brushwork was done with this brush
- Ruling pen - handled panel borders and narration boxes
- Hunt 512 Superfine Nib - speech bubbles
- Maru Nib - background and fine details (skipping a nib I didn’t use and a #4 Spectre Gold brush in the photo above)
Since you put up with that run down of tools, here is your reward -- buttons full of Ghost Short goodness!
Open Ghost Short Inks (Pdf 12 MB)
Open Ghost Short Pencils (Pdf 6 MB)
As it turns out, my outline at the top of this post lied - I’m throwing in some lessons I learned from this project:
- Never attempt to rough in backgrounds with ink - I tried this on page 5 of this book and for the most part the background buildings look like a hot mess.
- Stay on model! I did a poor job of this and in the future I need to create and reference character sheets for consistency.
- Inking with a brush takes practice, practice, and more practice -- yes I still need more practice!
As for what’s next, Red Wolf Night is actually being colored (albeit slowly) and this short may wind up in the coloring queue too. My next book is going to be a Viking comic I found online - more on that to come…