Digital Inking

I recently began inking digitally.  I was just showing some improvement with inking with a brush but I was lured into digitally inking with the hope that I could turn out high quality work faster.  And although there are clear positives I am not completely convinced that I should continue inking digitally. 

Last year I completed a 30 page comic. It took over a year to complete I wanted to get started on the next installment to keep the many fans (3 people, including my family) I took up the cintiq thinking It would  look slightly different but In the end I would be able to mimic any traditional style and I would do it in half the time.  

I did work much faster and yet the endless tweaking may have made the process equally as slow as inking traditionally.  

But now that I am close to completing the 2nd book I am unsure of the final result.  In some ways I turned out pages I think I would of had a hell of a time doing traditionally but I don't have the same satisfaction as creating a one of kind line on vellum or Bristol.

1.First I complete the regular old pencil drawing then it is scanned.  I am not a tight penciler.  I wish I was but I like to tighten and draw a little at each stage not be too rigid.  But maybe it is a detriment to the final product.  as you can see I can easily swap out drawings when months later i decide that a drawing was crumby.  

2. Then on a layer i just put down a line like a wire frame of all the shapes.  it usually simplifies the pencil drawing.

Then on another layer I start doing what would resemble regular inking i start placing all the blacks.  adding thin and think lines but I can separate everything on layers.  so the figures, the wood paneling and  background characters are all on their own layers. But due to the forgiving nature of the computer It seems like I put endless hours into tweaking and experimenting.  It is hard to know when you are done.

Page is still in progress.  Slowly coming together.
Thanks for looking.  I would love to be turned on to other folks process digital or traditional.  This kind of process stuff intrigues me to no end.