Inking for Comics. I wish someone would teach people how…

Inkers.   HAH!  They are to laugh!

I inked this. I'm sometimes a professional inker.

There’s a character in the Kevin Smith film CHASING AMY who inks comics for a living, and his friends call him a professional tracer. He complains that he’s not, but convinces no one, and the movie was a minor box office hit, so it left that defining moment in America’s brain.

Banky Edwards during a moment of self-loathing

When it first started up in the 90s, the inkers at Image Comics, were working with prima donna pencilers who insisted their work be reproduced as faithfully as possible and forced their inkers to actually BE “tracers”. This further convinced a generation of comic fans that inkers were barely trained monkeys with a sweatshop tool in their unskilled paw.

un-inked pencils by Erik Larsen. The inker better not get "creative".

And of course, there’s always just running the pencils through a photoshop filter. Screw the inker, who needs ‘em? They’re only messing up my work.

But the inker is the essential last hand on the drawing. He or she is the one that makes the artwork lively, or bold, or personable, or slick, or capricious. They are the singer of the song. The human hand. The Deus Ex Machina: The creator emerges from the machine.

Consider your favorite comic book or graphic novel: A CONTRACT WITH GOD, MAUS, WATCHMEN, BATMAN YEAR ONE, RED HULK POUNDS HIS ENEMIES TO DEATH, BLANKETS, SIN CITY, V FOR VENDETTA, or Name Your Own Favorite…

pictured above: Knowing what you're doing.

Every one of these magnificent examples of the form has a distinct and memorable kind of line work. It’s built into the character of each story, inseparable to the experience, and to treat this essential skill with little more than a backhand slap is to misunderstand what makes comics the appealing form of media that they are.

Ty Templeton inks Tom Artis on Tailgunner Jo.

I’m teaching a seven week comic book inking bootcamp at the TCW this January, starting on January 17th, on Tuesday Evenings. (spaces are still available in Inking for Comics. –kts)

click here to visit the TCW online and find out more

Come on down and learn to know what you’re doing.

Click here to find out more.

Ty the Guy OUT!

PS:  If you’re in Toronto tonight, drop in for my “Drawing the Figure” drop in class.  25 bucks at the door for three hours with a live burlesque model, and an instructor who knows anatomy!   Who says this isn’t the TCW Age of Learnin’?

587A College Street (at Clinton), Toronto, On, Canada, M6G 1B2 • Phone: 647.328.1656 • info@cartoonistsworkshop.com

(AND Ty is teaching Writing for Comics Level One, Mondays, starting January 16, 7-10pm. There’s still some spots available. And there’s a special deal if you’ve taken Level One before, and you’d like to repeat it before taking Level Two in March; 50% off of Level One. contact Sean Menard  through info@cartoonistsworkshop.com for details.

AND Ty is teaching a full course for Figure Drawing for the Comic Book Artist.  Featuring a different model each Wednesday evening, beginning January 25 7-10pm, with instruction from Ty. Spaces still available, but they are limited for this course.  Keiren)

Here now, your bonus moment.

While the inking is competent, it looks like it was "traced". Sigh...

WORKSHOPS!!!

Ty is up to his neck in deadlines so I’m here to let you know what classes are coming up for him…

Saturday December 3, Ty will be running a “FIGURE DRAWING FOR COMIC BOOK ARTISTS” Sneak Peek Workshop. This will be a one-day three hour class for $25/hst. This will be a Life Drawing class but with instruction/advice/divine intervention from Ty, and with a comic book slant .

(Also check out the SNEAK PEEK WORKSHOPS from some of my fellow instructors…THIS Saturday, November 26, TCW’s newest instructor Dave Ross will give you a taste of DESIGNING ENVIRONMENTS AND PROPS 

and on Saturday December 17, Mr. Leonard Kirk (New Mutants, Marvel Comics) will teaching DYNAMIC PAGE COMPOSITION.

All SNEAK PEEK WORKSHOPS are three hours, $25 + HST (hey, blame McGuinty not us!), at 587A College Street West (at Clinton). Reserve a spot online (you can just drop in, but if we don’t see online that people are interested in a course, there is a chance that it will be cancelled. Leonard has to travel in from St. Catherines to teach which is one heckuva drive. Ty has to come in from Mississauga and is at the mercy of the QEW/Gardiner conditions. The drive can take thirty minutes…or it can take ninety).

On Friday December 9, TCW will host a FACULTY ART SHOW with instructors Dave Ross, Leonard Kirk, Eric Kim and Ty Templeton. Each instructor will have some of his artwork on display, and each will have a table to show and sell art. Not sure what each will be bringing but Ty will have pages, prints and (if all goes well) sketchbooks. As with all TCW Industry Nights, it’s Pay What You Can at the door (with a suggested $4)–the money goes to charity (not completely sure for this event, but generally it goes to help with The Joe Shuster Awards). There will be a cash bar, and instructors/artists will be available to answer questions about their art and their courses.

AND…if you can imagine all the way ahead to January:

WRITING FOR COMICS Level 1:  students who have taken this course have begged (seriously–begged!) for a Part 2. To that end, Ty will teach Part 1 starting Monday January 16, 7-10 pm for seven weeks. Part 2 will be in the session immediately following. (I took this course with Ty just this past summer–the stories are completely true! Ty is an incredible teacher and it motivated me to start writing after a twenty year hiatus.)

INKING FOR COMICS, Tuesdays 7-10pm starting January 17, 2012. People know Ty as a penciller and a writer, and many know that he often inks his own work…but those who have been following him from the beginning know that he started at DC Comics as an inker (Neal Pozner once took me aside and BEGGED ME to convince Ty to return to inking–he was drawing Batman Adventures at the time–because he said, “He’s absolutely one of the best”). Ty loves inking (he often wishes aloud that he could “just spend a year inking comic books”) and wants to pass on his knowledge and skills.

pencilled by Mike Parobeck, inked by Ty Templeton

FIGURE DRAWING FOR THE COMIC BOOK ARTIST This is a completely new course beginning Wednesday January 18, 7-10pm. The course will feature a live model each week and will feature anatomy instruction as part of the session.

Keiren