Digital Inking Vortex Tutorial - Intuos - Illustrator CS4

[johncarlin99]

thank you and you did a great job

[David256230]

I almost thought you said breast size... @ 1:40 o.o

[johncarlin99]

what tablet do you recamend for a binger artiest.and real nice job on inking and could explane little about inking comicbook. and still  your useing

[jonathonlt1]

@johncarlin99

Ideally, it would be easiest to use a Wacom Cintique. But they're pretty dicey on cost. I've been making due with the Wacom Intuos 4. Works pretty well for both drawing and photo editing.

[brandonrobinson5150]

Thanks, question how do you now bring your inks in to photoshop?

[8caligula1]

thank you/ this tutorial has helped me a lot... god bless

[nukularwessels]

I love those pencils. What work has that artist done?

[jonathonlt1]

@nukularwessels

In addition to Vortex, he (Matt Martin) also created Snowman. I think that was published through Avatar Comics. He's also done work on Pandora and Lady Death.

[Refrigerardo]

Hi! I started using illustrator a few days ago and I'm on the heavier part of the learning curve. this video really pumped me up to start using the ink technique with my personal art but as I was inking a drawing and halfway through I noticed the memory on my Mac really feeling the weight of so many paths and starting to lag, my question would be: Is there any way I can grab all those objects and flatten them up into a single object or something less heavy for the computer to process?

[jonathonlt1]

@Refrigerardo

The one thing I've noticed that seems to help a little with that, is saving file as you're working more frequently. (That happens on Windows too.)  The more you save it, the less it has to "remember" in the history and helps with PC performance. The only other thing that would help is saving it to a lower res format, such as JPG or something like that.

[trenton9]

@Refrigerardo

I know your question is from 6 months ago but just in case you haven't found this out yet:

Select all the paths you'd like to combine.

Select object -> path -> outline stroke.

Select window -> pathfinder.

(make sure that all those outlined paths are still selected)

In the pathfinder window, select the "UNITE" icon, which should be the very first icon of the top row. (Hovering the mouse above each icon will give you it's name.)

[liquidvenom]

Great tutorial, you should do more, perhaps on colour.

[josephrawlins]

Can you do a tut on cross-hatching? Thx

[bizzzarra]

Please keep on doing more of these wonderful tutorials!

It's a real pleasure to follow your explanations. I learnt a lot of things.

Thanks!

chiara

[dougieladd]

Nice tutorial - I was wondering though, your use of the brush tool creates a lot of points... and paths - do you have problems sending to print? Would the blob brush be good to use cause it makes filled shapes rather than lines... just a thought... thanks!

[jonathonlt1]

@dougieladd

As long as your resolution is set at 300 PPI or greater before you print, it looks great. Any lower than that and my prints start to lose line quality. Never tried the blob brush.

[dougieladd]

@jonathonlt1 By 'problems' I meant... hardware... i.e. does it not take a while for the printer to respond because of the amount of points? Whenever I've done medical illustrations that have too many points, the RIP can't handle it... or it can, but takes an ice age to get going.

Blob brush is pretty cool, it creates shape (as opposed to points and open paths) so it's easy to use the pathfinder to knock out other shapes... Cheers for the tut, I enjoyed it very much.

[jonathonlt1]

@dougieladd

Oh...I see what you're saying. The RIP software I use only uses a few formats to print. Most of what I print is all EPS formatted files. I haven't noticed a difference in the amount of points making a difference in the RIP/Print time though. What does take longer is when you want to RIP/Print something that's a higher PPI resolution. For instance, a file that's 72PPI takes a whole lot less time to RIP/Print than a file that's 300PPI. Unless that's what you mean....

[dougieladd]

@jonathonlt1 Yep that'll do :) Just looked at one of your other tuts and if you used the blob brush it would actually be more difficult removing a brush stroke (because it just adds it to the shape) so if you discovered you didn't like a stroke way down the line it would be very difficult to remove it as it would be part of the shape and not a separate stroke... if you see what I mean... So, er, carry on... your way is better... er hum... I'll just watch and be quiet from now on... lol :)

[Teeks9000]

@jonathonlt1 Along the lines of the comment above, i was wondering if you flatten the transparency so that it expands the points to one solid shape? I get the impression from your answers above you may not, but yeah i was just wondering...thanks

[jonathonlt1]

@Teeks9000

I have not had a need to flatten transparency, so I generally don't do that. It just depends on what you want to ultimately do with artwork.

[Teeks9000]

@jonathonlt1 Ok thanks very much. Nice tutorial by the way, i was a little lost at exactly how to do things in illustrator with my tablet

[jayrockvids]

Hey jonathon, just wanted you to know I think you're tutorials are great. You're a good teacher and you're awesome behind a mic.

I'm subscribing..... make more vids??

[KiickrOcksz]

Hey i have CS4 for Mac and I'm trying to do the same settings as you but when I double click the brush no pop up comes out... any tips?

[jonathonlt1]

@KiickrOcksz

Um...good question. I've never used this on a Mac...I'm using Windows. There has to be a way to do it though - maybe under the help menu. Do a search for brush options.

[KiickrOcksz]

@jonathonlt1 Thanks I'll try... also how do you get rid of all the grey pixels when you scan a drawing?

[jonathonlt1]

@KiickrOcksz

The easiest way that I know of, is to do those changes in Photoshop prior to inking in Illustrator. Under IMAGE>ADJUSTMENTS>LEVELS.  You can play with those settings to bring out just the black and white detail of the scan. Or, do a Google search for Steel Dolphin tutorials. There's a nice tutorial in there for setting up your artwork prior to coloring/inking.

[assfax]

Oh man, I remember these old Hall of Heroes dudes. I was surprised looking up how many (future) major dudes they had doin' creator owned stuff in the early 90s. Kaniuga, Martin and Van Scriver were doing books there. I used to love getting those comics 'cause they were coming out of Elkhart and that's only about 2 hours away. They did an artist search and I remember mailing in a bunch of stuff. 'Course I was only about 9 at the time so it wasn't anything good.

[jonathonlt1]

@assfax

Matt, Trent and I actually all went to school together in Elkhart.  We've known eachother since we were like 12.

[silvos590]

can you pleaz do a tutorial about coloring??? > >_<