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Wash Ink and Omni lighting

Okay hi,
I have a question... See I colour my work with wash inks and try to get the colour as flat as possible, as I focus on cartooning rather than realism. This however is a problem, if I want to get my work to an application level, there had to be shading.

So I'd like to ask if anyone knows how I can shade with washings (without overloading the paper) and/or what I can use to shade over a wash ink base coat...

Now digital's always an option, but thus far, I've built my artistic identity around the traditionalist nature of my work...

thank you!

The only way I can think of working with inks for shading is to fill the entire form in with the light color, wait for it to dry, and then fill in the shadow color. Of course your colors are going to be mixing on the drawing surface, so plan ahead as far as what colors you are going to use before you put them down to get the right final color.

If the paper is overloading then don't use paper. I'm hoping you are at least using a thick paper like vellum bristol or watercolor paper. If that isn't working then try illustration board, or watercolor board if that doesn't work. In fact I'd recommend going straight to illustration board. There are generally two types: cold press has a rougher texture, and hot press which has a smother texture.

Even illustration board can warp a little bit because of the moisture. It's very common when working with acrylics. I'm not sure how much ink will cause the board to warp (or if it will warp at all), but the trick for painting with acrylics is to cover the back side with a thick layer of acrylics and let it dry before painting. That'll warp the board in the opposite direction, but then when you paint on the other side it starts to flatten out. I think the permanent warping is not so much the moisture as it is the acrylic paints shrinking when they dry. Be sure to try it out first and see if it actually will warp with inks. If it doesn't then you are fine, but if it starts to warp while painting and it won't flatten out once dried then you can try that trick.

I like to use acrylics for washes, because they are waterproof when they dry, and you can apply other washes of colour over them. When I did comics in my pre-computer days, I went for a cel shaded style, where the shaded ares were applied as flat areas of a more concentrated wash, and it seemed to look all right. If you apply it while the original layer is still wet, you can get a softer edge. Harvey Kurtzman would apply layers of wash to get a soft, rounded look to his shadows. Alternatively, you can play around with watercolour pencils for shading and highlights.

Another thing that may help is to soak your paper in water first, and then tape it to the table. The idea is to stretch the paper as it dries, so you'll have to tape it all around the edges. Now your paper won't buckle as much.

Wow! thank you all!

Metsys: I understand what you're saying in the first big, I've done abit of that, some areas are harder to use that than others, I know I double layer all of the shading on my whites(because my scanner cant pick up on the subtle shades)but with others, the base colour needs to or three layers to have accurate intensety, and I'd already worked the paper to death with it. I profer ink over watercolour for its saturation, the colours just just so much more intense(I know I need better paper)

But on the paper front, I need a paper thin enough to be used with a lightbox, as my sketches are traced onto a fresh piece. I have recently tried 'bleedproof' paper... which I've come to recognise is designed for markers. It doesnt tear under pressure, but warps to hell and back. The colour I have now is generally good for non-warping, but does wear thin with too much work.

Thank you Metsys :)

Richard: I've experienced the soft shading before, I try to use it mostly on skintones (it doesnt have the efect I'm going for on my furs) that can be abit hard, as the thin layer of skintone dries very fast. I'll try with watercolour pencils, but I moved away from them in the first place because I cant stand that grainyness in my work ^^'

Nocte: Well, that idea, I have never heard of O.O as I said to Metsys, my is proceriously balanced, I'm not sure it could stand up to being soaked and pulled an so on... but I'll be sure to experiment with it :)

Again, thanks everyone <3

There are other ways to transfer you sketch instead of using a light box. One thing I've done is taken a sketch, scan it, clean it up if necessary, print it to scale, and then glue it to my illustration board and then use an acrylic sealer so I can start painting over that. You can even take it a bit farther and do some value or color work in Photoshop, print, glaze, and then start painting with your digital painting as a starter. It's a really nasty trick because I can have the benefits of working digitally and still have a real one-of-a-kind acrylic painting, and no one will ever know unless they do forensics on it >:). And to be honest people really don't care how you made it, just as long as it's an original or in a limited series and the technique doesn't hurt the quality of the painting.

You can also use one of those small projectors to trace your image as well. There are some really cheap ones (that are made for kids) that work just fine. I do have a digital projector that has a short throw distance, but it's only practical for canvas and not 9x12's or anything that's laid down flat on a table.

Yeah, the right paper is important. The washes on the comic pages were on Bristol, and now I use a printmaking paper made by Arches for watercolour and ink drawings. Thrying to do this stuff on thin paper will drive you crazy. For finished art, I do my initial drawing on vellum, then trace it on the back. Then I just rub the drawing onto the paper. It ensures a nice, clean line drawing is transferred onto the paper. For the wash tones for the comic, I would photocopy the finished lineart onto cardstock.

My experience would lead me to proceed like this:

Transfer the sketch to a watercolor block with transfer paper. Then lay down one wash at a time, waiting a while in between to let the paper "rest". When it's done, wait a day, then cut the page out of the block. It takes a little patience, so I like to distract myself by working on something else (or wasting time posting things online, apparently).

Thanks everyone (again)
I've not heard of 'watercolour block'... I have used water colour paper before, which warped even more than my current paper and bled and just drove me crazy (more so than current paper)

I dont have a hole lot of money to experiment with diffrent media (unfortunately) but am always looking through my local art supplie stores for something better... If I can't get it regually, I'll go crazy...

anyway, enough with the sob story. I'll do my best to look into everything people have said :) thanks for your time and support everyone!