Ink in Manga

Inking is a very important factor/technique in manga. It is where a mangaka Ink to their work. Inking is not only a technique where you only outline sketches, it is actually a technique for making contrast shades, coloring dark objects, background etc. If you draw with thick inked shadings it would deliver a dark and contrast feeling towards the readers. 

picture taken from www.jetpens.com

There are several different specific equipment used for inking. You could use manga dip pens(gpen, kaburapen,marupen) to ink manga but it needs training in order to ink your drawings neatly, if your not experienced in inking using dip pens you would likely cause big mistakes especially inking big shadings and objects since it needs a big amount of ink, and when you use a big amount of ink in your pen you would likely splat ink every where or even put too much ink into your drawing making it look ugly. With it using big amount of ink it would likely drain your ink supply rapidly.  Even though hard to use it has the potential to ink small objects, so dip pens could be very useful for inking when you already master its mechanics especially outlining your drawing since dip pens are made for drawing and outlining.

Well for amateurs I don't suggest using a dip pen to ink shadings and objects. A more easier equipment for inking is a copic marker these markers can be used for coloring manga as well since it has a wide variety of colors, but in inking you use the black copic marker. A copic marker has two different nibs in each end. One nib has a brush like nib that is very flexible and you can control the thickness by adding small pressure to the marker. The other nib has a katana like shape (sorry, its hard to describe) similar to a highlighter marker. In inking mangakas use the brush like nib to ink since it is flexible and smooth. Though seem easy to use the copic marker can't be used for outlining sketches it is only useful when it comes to background inking, shade inking and object inking. It can't outline sketches since the marker is too thick for outlining, unless you wan't your drawing to have a really thick outline. The copic marker is easy to use and uses less ink supply than using a dip pen. It doesn't need that much training and I suggest beginners to use the copic markers to ink.


Pictures are taken from www.flickriver.com and www.jetpens.com

Another alternative equipment is by using brushes. Its similar to using a copic marker but a little troublesome to use. Troublesome because brushes needs a seperate ink supply and when you use brushes to ink it sometimes drips some ink to the paper and ruin the drawing. Brushes are more flexible than the copic marker and you can make ink effects that only brushes can make but may need some training in order to make brush effects. Brushes are made in different sizes so you can actually ink small objects.