Inking the New Hotness: Part 3
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Doing straight up black-and-white is not one of my strong suits - I have always been reliant on grays. On shading. Shading with black always seems SO DRAMATIC HEY GUYS LOOK THIS IS DRAMA HERE but yet other people seem to do it so effortlessly.
My first foray into solo black-and-white was with my comic Lipstick & Malice (also my first time using a brush pen, so there was a lot of I Don't Know What I'm Doing happening). But here I stayed pretty timid.
I would use it mainly for lighting effects.
Or to block out the pieces of action sequences happening.
I've been trying to branch out more and dip my toe into incorporating more dramatic blacks, but for me it can get a little screwy. Like here, it might be fine - no big, just some shadows.
But then this is as bold as I get
And here ... eehhh I don't know what happened. (you can see by my white-out that this is even my SECOND attempt at this sleeve.)
One thing I've found helpful to get over my fear (besides ogling the work of other creators) is to shade in an area with pencil first - it gives me a mini-preview of what it will look like shaded without much sacrifice. Or I'll just wait to fill in the blacks on the computer, where I have endless undo's available. But then the originals look kind of sad, which is something I've been trying to avoid.
Do you guys have any tips/tricks/mantras for getting over your fear of luscious black fills? Or are you more gung ho, this is easy peasy than I am?
Other posts about inking: Inking the New Hotness Part 2 Inking the New Hotness Part 1