15 NEW TIPS ON INKING

Illustrator Tess Fowler talks about inking with instinct

Greetings and salutations artist friends! Do you enjoy tabletop RPGS? Do you find yourself doodling mythical beasts and lovely elven warriors, but you want to breathe more life and detail into them? Well, today you’re in luck, because I’m going to tell you about the magical mystery that’s inking the fantastical.

Have no fear, I used to shake in my boots at the thought of inking my

pencil work as well. But you already possess the skills required to venture down this road. If you’re a seasoned inker, perhaps something here might help you in your questing.

While working on the comic Dungeons & Dragons: A Darkened Wish with B Dave Walters I’ve been inking full time and enjoying the heck out of it. You’ll see some shots of my comic work here. I’ve also included some art inspired by the Twitch show Critical Role. Professionally, I have to leave my inks open for a digital colourist. But when I do my own stuff, like Critical Role fan art, I ink differently because I colour it traditionally. But both come from the same place. My heart. Tess has been working in comics and illustration professionally for over 12 years. Look for her newest comic Dungeons & Dragons: A Darkened Wish, on sale now. And to see more of her work, visit www.tessfowler.com.

1 Tools of the trade

I’ve experimented for years to find what inking tools work best for me. Your mileage may vary. I recommend exploring everything you can get your hands on, from fountain pens to Japanese calligraphy brushes. You want to look for a tool that enables you to produce the effect you want, be it feathering, splatter or clean fluid lines. Shown here is a Pentel pocket brush pen which is refillable, a Fabercastell S size pen, a micron size 01 and a Winsor & Newton sable brush size 2.

2 Designing lively, lived-in faces

Fantasy characters can have features that are off-the-wall bizarre, but they still should feel like vital, real beings. Try to think of them less like make-believe and more like your friends. This is Mighty Nein and Vox Machina, two groups of adventurers from Critical Role. I’ve used clean lines in the faces so that the emotion is clear. Varying your line weights brings energy to an inked expression. Beards, scars, tattoos and wrinkles are also fun ways to show where they’ve been in life. Connect with your character and they’ll connect with the viewer.

3 Hair dancing

Hair is what seems to trip people up the most. When inking hair, remember to “clump”. Section it into pieces. Hair doesn’t stick together in one glued-up mass. It’s a free-flowing, living thing. Keep your wrist loose. Your lines playful. Curls have spring! You don’t have to pick out every single hair; that tends to confuse the eye. Have you ever seen someone outside on a breezy day? You see the hair lift and move and dance. That’s what you’re trying to capture. Joyful hair. Action. Energy. A Darkened Wish’s Helene has my favourite hair design ever.

4 Texture adds a sense of storytelling

What is a lonely inn on the side of the adventurer’s road without contrasting textures? Boring, I tell you! Enrich your environments with differing textures: stones, wood, thatch and so forth. Inking these different bumps, nicks and wood grain tells a story to your eyes that then tell your fingers, “Ooh, that would be so neat to touch!” Have you ever felt tree bark? Cold, unyielding stone? Fuel your work with that mental library of sensations. Buildings have lives all their own. Different tools can help. Dip your finger in ink and smoosh it on to the walls of your building. Boom! New texture.

5 The eyes have it

Your eyes are the windows to your soul. Same goes for any goblin, troll or even Critical Role’s resident trash wizard Caleb here. Inking can often make lively pencil work fall flat. Why? Because you’re streamlining your first instincts, overwriting the pencil work you created in a flurry of inspiration. Inking is more than tracing. Nowhere is this more important to remember than when inking eyes. Is the flesh below the eyes puckered from crying? Are the eyebrows furrowed in frustration? Are the eyes glassy and shiny? Add some gel pen highlights in there. Some heavy black eyelashes. Some emotion!

Hair doesn’t stick together in one glued-up mass. it’s a free-flowing, living thing

6 Furry bits are fun

I like inking fur because I can use a brush to make playful shapes. You can clump and section the fur just like hair. Does your clever highwayman wear a cloak lined with fox fur to keep warm? Search for some photos of different animals. How does their hair spring up out of their skin? What direction does it flow? Has the cloak been wet before? Does the fur droop now? Grog and Pike are my favourite Critical Role characters to add fur to.

7 Accessories make noise

My character design always involves heavily laden belts full of stuff that jingle jangles. Coins are a favourite. Bottles of potions with their smooth roundness tied up with heavy twine. Again, contrasting textures are visually interesting! I like tying jewels and pennies into hair. Hanging them off a belt or boot. It’s easy to get bored when inking. Noisy details break up the monotony of a piece as well as giving your character a visual history up-front. Why does he need a spatula tied up in bows and crystals on his belt? I don’t know, but now I’m invested.

8 Junk is your friend

What’s in your house that makes it look lived in? For me it’s piles of books, art supplies, mugs of cold tea and so much more. Inking such details in an environment can communicate more about your character than even their own attire. My image reference files on my phone include a lot of medieval books and bottles. Lanterns, too. The shapes and textures of these items are soothing to ink, but also create intriguing visuals. Young wizard Helene is an avid reader, clearly.

9 Natural inspiration

Look out in the garden under your window. What shapes do the flowers and leaves take? Triangles? Wavy ovals? Diamonds? Just as when you were a little kid first learning to draw shapes, so too now can you allow the natural world to inspire you to make shapes again. I enjoy drawing Critical Role’s Keyleth because her flowery wreaths give me the opportunity to draw piles of flowers and leaves. Just bunches of distorted shapes all clinging to each other. Springing up and dangling down. Shapely sunbursts.

10 Noble steeds

Researching horse tack helped me learn to make up my own fantasy versions of the same. I can put a saddle on anything and work out how to attach the reins and bridles. I can fudge reality with steel rings and textures because I’ve read enough about the subject to do so. Beneath a horse’s shiny hide, its muscles ripple and flex differently depending on how they’re moving. I can apply that information to centaurs and other hybrid fantasy creatures.

11 Weapon design

Is there a difference between a dagger and a dirk? How long is a longsword? This is fun knowledge that I’ve gained through years of library hunting and internet deep diving. I’ve seen so many knife sheaths it makes my head spin.

I can’t recommend it highly enough. Pretty soon your brain develops a mental reference file that you can dip into whenever you want. Then you can break all the rules! It’s fantasy after all. What story does your weaponry tell? Does the hilt fit the warrior’s hand? Maybe it was a gift from his mother on her death bed. That’s why it’s too small for him.

12 step by step: Think about colour when inking your art 1 who’s doing the colouring?

I keep my pencils loose when I’m not making comics because I know I’ll be colouring myself instead of a digital colourist handling it. I leave the heavy lifting for the inking stage. Notice how I’ve shown myself where the hair clumps exist? I haven’t picked them apart yet.

2 don’t overcomplicate

My inks here are simple so as not to overpower the colour that’s to come. Vex and Vax of Critical Role are twins. I want to show the delicacy of their youthful features while also making sure you see who they are in their clothing details and pet friend.

3 framing the colours

I’m careful not to smear or overpower my inks. The ink holds the colour like a frame holds a picture. The delicacy of the children’s features still shines through. I used the leaf silhouettes to pop out the leaves in front to create depth. The bright green helps sell that illusion.

13 Organic matter matters

Nature gives us beautiful reference, but it also gives us room to make up our own organic designs. Much of my armour design is derived from rock and wood surfaces. Huge standing rocks from the beaches of southern California gave me an instinctive flow when drawing armour pieces. You can touch that which is made by the earth and allow that energy to fuel your fantasy work. I often use a brush for this, laying down black ink. Then I switch to a tech pen for the texturing. Vex from Critical Role is a favourite for this.

Much of my armour design comes from rocks and wood

14 No shirt, no shoes, no treasure

Naked adventuring is unwise. As much as I love drawing skin, a hero sometimes needs layers to keep them warm while questing. Where do they come from? If it’s a tropical climate then they might wear less. Or if they’re impervious to the elements they might like to show off their scaly hides. But if they’re puny humans they’ll need things like chain mail, jerkins, cloaks, gowns and robes. These involve textures, and often reference. My inspiration comes largely from history. See how Percy’s clothes differ from Vex and Kiki? What do the textures tell you?

15 The power of silhouette

Don’t discount the usefulness of simplicity. Black ink shaped into recognisable figures and objects can tell a story just as easily as the densely detailed stuff. Grab a brush and a bottle of ink. Tell a story with nothing but shapes, and you’ll see what I mean. It’s also a wonderful way to test whether or not your storytelling is clear in comics. If your figures’ body language holds up in silhouette you’re on the right path. Helene and her grandpa are deep in conversation here.