I am going to show you how I inked this.  The way I ink, is different than the way a lot of other folks do.  My techniques are inspired by Paul Pope, Mark Schultz, Greg Ruth, and Bill Sienkiewicz.  I love all of these artists and I have happily adapted some of their techniques for my use.

Brushes:
Winsor Newton Series 7 Size 3 or 2
Winsor Newton Professional Water Colour Sable Rigger - Size 5 or 6
Dick Blick Sumi Brush Size 6
Raphael Pointed Filbert Series 8622 Size 10
Rosemary and Co. Almond Filbert Series 11 size 6 (or up)
Rosemary and Co Kolinsky Sable Series 332 (extremely fine point)
Cheap grainer brushes with thick synthetic bristles.. get multiple sizes

Other:
Sumi Ink (in a bottle, not from the stone) - For use with Sumi brush and Rigger

Koh I Noor Pen Ink or some equivalent (BE SURE IT IS WATERPROOF) - For use with every other bush

Bleed-Proof White - For use with Rosemary and Co Kolinsky Sable Series 332 (extremely fine point) and grainer brushes

Plate Surface Bristol, a minimum or 2-ply.  I strongly suggest beginners use 3-ply.  I use Strathmore.


You can also use Crescents 215.6 Hot Press Illustration board.

My pencilling looks like that of any comic book artist.  I do not render in full value, and I have not solidly chosen a light source.  Unless the face is lit from below, I do not need to consider much of a light source at this point.  I can just assume (as is the case in most situations) that the light is coming from above.  I manipulate the weight of the lines accordingly.

I do value studies to determine a light source, and to manipulate shadows and placement of values to be the most aesthetically pleasing.  I implement a design principe called Notan.  If you are interested in developing good value structures, I would suggest reading "Notan" by Dorr Bothwell and Marlys Mayfield.  To do my value studies, I scan my pencil drawing, pull it into Photoshop, and draw over it.  I always make more than one.  

RBG on the right looks scary, so I am going to use the first one.

This is the most unique part of my process.  See that picture in 1?  We are going to make it ugly because it will make inking it easier.  It's for a good reason.

So what I have done here looks like a badly designed pencil drawing.

 It looks like I ruined the original pencils.   I have referred to the value study, and using my knowledge of mark making, I plan out the DIRECTIONS of the marks that I make. 

 I am NOT worrying about value in the least here.  I am simply planning the directions of the marks and strokes that I will make with my brushes.

I need to keep my value study out, I refer to the value study when I ink.  I ALWAYS keep it visible.

I start out using this brush.  It's a sable brush.  Specifically, it's a Raphael Series 8622 size 10 brush.  It's marketed and sized as an oil painting brush.  As an inking brush, it is extraordinarily versatile.  This is my secret weapon.  Lots of other folks don't know about this brush. 

 It's amazing.  I use this a lot.

Here, I put in some of the rendering on the smaller shapes... and the smaller shifts in planes as well as some shadows for the undersides on her face.  

To prepare the brush to make the marks in the image below, I dip it into ink.  I splay out the hairs a little.  I also make a lot of test marks on a spare piece of paper to desaturate the brush.  If I REALLY need to desaturate it, I make a line as I  rotate the brush on toilet paper.

You have probably noticed that inking exclusively with a dry, split haired technique makes the image look blurry or out of focus.  I use a Winsor and Newton Series 7 Size 3 brush.  If you are not used to inking with sable haired brushes, I would suggest a size 2.  Size 3 is more difficult to control (it also is more versatile, which is why I use it).  

6.  Larger, Lighter Marks


This is one of the most challenging parts of my process.  It's important to use this exact brush because it is one of the only reliable ones for this dry brush technique.  This brush is a Rosemary and Co. Almond Filbert (Series 11 Size 6).  It is essentially a much larger version of the first brush that we use (Raphael Series 8622).  

I dipped the brush in a solution of ink and water.  It gives me about a 20% grey as a fully saturated wash.  I dip it in and splay the hairs like I did with the series 8622,  and dry brush some of the larger marks.  

7.  Darker Marks


I still used the Rosemary and CO. Series 11 Almond Filbert  size 6.  I touched up the illustration with some darker marks by using an ink/water solution that will give me about a 40% gray as a full wash (but I really got 20%-30% by dry brushing).

I alternated between the 40% ink solution and just solid black ink.

Also, notice that I have NOT done anything with the glasses.  I save those until close to the end.  My technique involves long swooping strokes.  If I abruptly end these strokes where the glasses are, the image will look weird.

 8.  Background Value


Now that base marks have been made to suggest volume, and a tiny bit of value, its time to do the background.  I never fully render something without doing the background first.  

Using ink and ink washes on bristol is unforgiving.  I cannot readjust the marks and values to work with a background because the more the surface is marked on, the harder it is to work with.  This is true for all surfaces, but ESPECIALLY smooth bristol.

So here I have filled in the large blacks and painted a background.  I use gouache to paint the background.  Translucent media of all kinds gets splotchy and unmanageable to deal with on smooth bristol.  Gouache is opaque and it reactivates for readjustment.

I use blue (Payne's Gray) gouache because gouache reactivates with water.. ink does not.  I mix it with white gouache to get the values consistent with my value study.  
If I used black gouache I would be unable to tell the difference between the gouache and the ink, and if I accidentally reactivate the gouache I can ruin the surface and the image.  

I also filled in the large black shape that makes up her torso.  I need to see the value of all these larger background shapes so I can render RBG accordingly.

There are two brushes I use for this step.  A Dick Blick Sumi Brush Size 6 and Winsor and Newton Rigger Professional Watercolour Sable Size 6


We will not be using the sumi brush in a traditional way.  I've discovered that Dick Blick's sumi brushes have the unique ability to get very small, even split hairs that other brushes cannot.  It's total coincidence that this brush can do this, even really high quality sumi brushes can't.  It's a complete fluke.  You'll also need a ceramic sumi brush well/shaper.  I don't know what they are called but you can usually find them next to sumi brushes.

I saturate the brush with a 20% grey SUMI ink solution.  Here, it's the rigger, you would also do this with the sumi brush) and splay the hairs in the ceramic bowl.

After shaping it, I make long strokes on a spare piece of paper to maintain its shape and desaturate the brush

Now the tip of the brush should look exactly like this.  Take a look at the very tip,  Its mostly evenly spaced, and the tiny groups of sable hair seems to have clumped with nearly even thickness.

I then made some strokes on paper to test out the marks.  I kept reshaping it, removing saturation on spare paper, and dipping it in ink until I got the desired kind of mark.  Then I would put it on the final image where I saw fit.

Now there are larger areas that have value and the image looks a big more complete.  I also decided to draw in the black portion of the glasses.


Kinda frightening looking here, isn't she?

10.  Lightening
Sometimes, there are some blemishes, splotchy values and other undesirables.  You can actually go in with ANY pink eraser and lighten some of these areas.  BE VERY CAREFUL.  If you go nuts with the eraser, you ruin the surface, and if you go back over it, things will look even screwier.  This surface is unforgiving.

I use Dr. PH Martin's Bleed-Proof white.  A lot of people dislike this stuff because it reactivates.  I like it because it doesn't clump and it goes onto the surface very very smoothly.  It doesn't add tooth to the paper like other white inks do.

Bleed-proof white is thick because it has clay in it.  This means one MUST dip the brushes in water, and then only dab a little bit of white onto the brushes.  Water helps keep the lines thin and easy to control.

Here, I use a synthetic grainer brush (I have several sizes)  These are not high quality but they are effective.  It can probably be any brand, just make sure the bristles are sturdy and thick

For tiny marks, I use a Rosemary and Co.  Kolinsky Sable Series 332.

If you look carefully here, you can see a temperature change where I have used some of the white on the top eyelid.  If the image is scanned in black and white, the areas you have the bleed-proof white will look just like the paper.  I had to get used to this by pretending the temperature changes aren't there.  It took some time but I got better at it.  

You can also see some tiny marks I made within the glasses.  

You can see here that I added some highlights to the glasses using the Rosemary and Co Series 332.  I also made a mark on the left part of her brow using the Grainer Brush.

I use denril as a mask by cutting around the face with an exacto blade, and securing the denril in place using little bits of kneaded eraser as adhesive.

Denril will not pull up the surface, which frisket will do unpredictably and ruin the image.  Denril also doesn't warp when it's wet the way tracing paper does.  Because of these two attributes, Denril makes amazing masks.

I use a toothbrush for the splatters.  Make sure it's not too saturated by splatter much of the ink onto spare paper.

13. Finishing Touches
Using bleed-proof white, I put some reflections in the glasses and with a tooth brush I added some white splatters on her glasses.  I also decided to use the Raphael 8622 to dry brush some darker values into her pupils.  Below you will find a color photograph, a black and white scan, the image with level adjustments done in photoshop, and then the digitally colored image.

This is the final piece.  If I get enough requests, I can walk people through my digital coloring process.  I hope you enjoyed this thorough tutorial.