I’m asked a lot about inking even though I’m very digital about it all mostly for reasons of stabilization.

Lets get these out of the way. Paint Tool Sai. I make my own inkers. Right Click on brushes to make your own. Smoothing at 6-10 when sketching between S-2 and S-4 when inking.

Onta’s #1 Rule to Line Art

Make sure every line you draw serves more then one purpose.

If you draw random lines in hair are you simply trying to say “hair is hairy” or are those lines describing the shape of the hair, the fall of the hair, its texture, the shape of the skull underneath, how wet or dry the hair is and etc.

When you draw lines in a shirt are you simply drawing lins to say “This shirt has fold” or are you trying to explain the texture of the shirt, how thick it is, how tight it is on the body, the shape of the body underneath and etc…

When you draw an arm and you draw lines for the muscles are you simply stating “Arm has muscles” instead of stating the silhouettes, the cast shadow, if he has tight athletic muscles or big fat strong man muscles, the body fat ratio.

If you lines serve only one or two roles and none other, chances are it doesn’t need to be there. When people ask me for feedback on line art I usually just erase a butt load of lines and thicken foundation lines.

Everyone knows muscles are muscley, hair is hairy and shirts are foldy, you can explain that with silhouettes alone, the lines you draw inside or choose not to draw is where art becomes truly unique.