DIGITAL INK PART 2
The Bat.

I decided to do a little step-by-step/tutorial of how to ink with illustrator.
Note that working with vectors is not the Bob Ross method of doing it, and compared to great inkers it will look quite shallow. But if you want to do some key illustrations for merchandise material it's a good and clean way to go.

First of all let's start drawing.
I did this quite quick sketch of Batman with my beloved sketchpad.
Scan it an place it in Illustrator. Set the opacity down to about 50% and lock that layer.




Create a new layer below the scan so you can always cross reference between the drawing and your inks.




Just do the lineart. Don't mind spotting blacks or shading.




When you are finished (this complex drawing took me about an hour for the linework) you can start cleaning up.

Cleaning up means that you connect some of the loose ends and reconfigure the layers.

Next step is spotting blacks (and whites) . When you have done your job well in the cleanup process you will have no worries.




Some people stop at this point and think the picture is finished. But that's not the case. See how stiff some lines look. They are not fluid enough to convince you.
the key to a good drawing (even if it's a simple one) is line weight.

With line weight you can suggest where the light is coming from and really make the character pop off the page.
Select a Path and go to "Object">"Path">"Contourline" (maybe it's called different in English. I just translated my German menu)




Now you can make the line thicker and thinner to suggest a brush stroke.




After that I rendered the character a little more. Changed a few things like the belt and...

Here he is.



Took me about 3 hours in total.
So in the words of the Great Director Lloyd Kaufman:
MAKE YOUR OWN DAMN VECTOR DRAWING