I was just experimenting with a quick picture on my lunch hour (pencils to finish -- 1 hour) using some brush presets that illustrator (and all round awesome artist) Ray Fenden created. I've always struggled with inking in Photoshop, and while these were probably the best I've seen, I think I've come to a conclusion: I kind of don't like inking digitally anymore.

I have spent a good chunk of time creating pictures using digital ink (mostly using Adobe Illustrator). From what I can tell, the only real way to simulate the freedom of pens/brushes is by using Manga Studio and a Cintiq (or equivalent -- please see Krishna's great write-up on the Yiynova MSP19U Tablet Monitor). To be honest, it's a huge investment for me at this point, and while I had a good time with (and am proud of) the work I produced in Illustrator, I find it actually slowed me down a bit. That seems like a rough trade off when it should really help to streamline the process.

All that being said, I may be just be having an off day, and will be back to digital inks again. We'll see!

Labels: brushes, digital inks, ghosts, process, Samurai