studying/inking Jim Lee's Superman/Flash

[artman]

Mr. Lee is the best, his drawing, design and composition and more is at the top of comics. If I was actually inking Mr. Lee I would be careful to recreate the intent of the work. Below, I am studying Mr. Lee and changing stuff and not just inking. Some things went well and others did not. What's your impressions of the results?

[pencil4life]

First off much better then the last one. Good job.

But without the action lines and the background you cannot really tell what is happening in your version. You need all the elements to tell the reader what is happening.

[artman]

Originally Posted by pencil4life

First off much better then the last one. Good job.

But without the action lines and the background you cannot really tell what is happening in your version. You need all the elements to tell the reader what is happening.

When it gets right down to it, I'm not sure what's going on. It looks like Flash is trying to throw Superman maybe. I left out the background because I wanted to concentrate on the figures and the finishes. I wanted to study Jim figures and do some drawing too. I am only at the point of studying how he does figures but not backgrounds. Next step will probably be an original drawing to see what I've learned from these last 2 studies.

[jeffchris50]

I’d comment, but all I’m seeing is white space...

OK, NOW I can see them. Thanks.

[slyaguilar]

I'm curious to see what your inks look like on an artist that isn't so cross hatch heavy. I would choose a more slick looking artist to ink if you're just starting out ( I don't know how long you've been inking sorry)
Artists like Jim Lee, Greg Capullo or Dave Finch are extremely difficult to ink because they leave a lot of stuff for the inker to embellish.

You've added cross hatching on this where there was only straight lines indicated by the artist, it's making it look more cluttered than it needs to be. Keep to what the penciler intended for the most part.

[artman]

just checking because I can see them.

[jeffchris50]

Originally Posted by slyaguilar

I'm curious to see what your inks look like on an artist that isn't so cross hatch heavy. I would choose a more slick looking artist to ink if you're just starting out ( I don't know how long you've been inking sorry)
Artists like Jim Lee, Greg Capullo or Dave Finch are extremely difficult to ink because they leave a lot of stuff for the inker to embellish.

You've added cross hatching on this where there was only straight lines indicated by the artist, it's making it look more cluttered than it needs to be. Keep to what the penciler intended for the most part.

Pretty much echoing what sly has said here. I realize that you are doing these to exercise and develop your skills as an artist, but you've also got to take into consideration the pencils that the original artist laid down and try to keep some respect for them. Lee, and a lot of his contemporaries, do use a lot of hatching, but also solids and just straight, linework. What you've done to this piece, and previous piece with Supes and WW, is to muddy them up beyond the point of recognizing whom the underlying artist is. If you hadn't said these were Jim Lee's pencils, I doubt I would have been able to figure out who the penciler was.

My advice is to go through a lot of comics, past and present and really study those inkers and how they both complimented AND added to the penciler's original vision. There are a couple of folks here on the boards, Vandal and Jimmy Reyes in particular, whose inking you should take a look at because they're both, IMHO, masters at that they're doing.

You've got a good thing going, you just need to find your OWN groove and use that groove to compliment the artist rather than smother them....

[artman]

Originally Posted by slyaguilar

I'm curious to see what your inks look like on an artist that isn't so cross hatch heavy. I would choose a more slick looking artist to ink if you're just starting out ( I don't know how long you've been inking sorry)
Artists like Jim Lee, Greg Capullo or Dave Finch are extremely difficult to ink because they leave a lot of stuff for the inker to embellish.

You've added cross hatching on this where there was only straight lines indicated by the artist, it's making it look more cluttered than it needs to be. Keep to what the penciler intended for the most part.

My goal for this experiment was to try to use the cross hatching to try to change Lee's art to add more of a grey-scale look.Even if it did not succeed trying my way of rendering on Lee hopefully gained knowledge I can try on my own pencils. I also tried out sketchbook on this piece so I learned the capabilities of a new software. The next rendering will be over my own work. If I was actually inking Lee I would follow his pencils making only minor changes. Reading about inkers, most if they have the chance will contact pencillers because there is some parts that are not obvious how to ink. There were some lines that indicated a grey area that could have been meant to be black especially on the lower left leg. Finch may be an interesting subject, however his pencils are so explicit, they are like inks. His line weights are very specific.