Vector experiment- Illustrator brushes and pen tool

[Kathy]

Many cartoonists comment on the expressive lines you can get by using a dip pen or brush with ink. I like the convenience of vector - it's so much easier to fix things or even use bits of a cartoon elsewhere.

So I did an experiment in Illustrator. I drew (basically) the same cartoon using the standard pen tool, then I drew it again using a calligraphy brush with a pressure sensitive tablet. I've never really done this with a tablet, so my lines are a bit shaky, but you get the general idea. Using a brush gives you lots of open paths, but for people who color in Photoshop it wouldn't matter anyway. And if you wish to color in Illustrator, you can create closed paths with no stroke, behind your digitally inked lines.

So, what are your thoughts on the experiment?

First, the pen drawing


Then, the drawing with the calligraphy brush.


Edited - here's one done with the pen tool, with different brush strokes applied here and there for interest. It has closed paths that can still be colored in Illustrator, or taken into Photoshop to color (actually, all of these examples can be).

[Leah-Admin]

I prefer the first version. Meanwhile how lucky you are to draw so well with digital pen! It's very fluid.

[Kathy]

Thank you, Leah. No luck, just lots of practice. Anyone can do it!

[Petoons]

I have a hard time drawing smoothly with the tablet, I prefer to draw or ink on paper and scan it in, or take a photo. I like to color with the computer though! You can run the bitmap through a raster to vector converter and edit the lines if you don't want to use paint tools. If illustrator doesn't have one there are some open source programs that might do the job.

Coming from the sign business it's normally what I did using SignLab.

edited: oh nooooo...I'm a maggot!

[Simon Lake]

This thread goes way over my head sorry. Me no speaka da English.

[Steve B]

I prefer the second version Kathy. Having said that I am still scared and baffled by vector programs in relation to cartooning (p/shop man me) used to dabble with a very early version of illustrator and had freehand 9 for a time but never took the plunge to really familiariize myself with them .... I also keep putting off buying a tablet though I think I would get used to it I suppose. In my mind vector programs = logos. I know im probably wrong too...

[Kathy]

Hmm... Interesting responses :-) I think with more practice, I can get the ink-and-pen look down better while still using vector. Another option is to apply a brush stroke to a pen line, which I often do. I get the clean, smooth line of vector, with a more expressive or interesting look. I'll have to post an example of that when I get home.

Edited: I added one more example with custom brush strokes applied to some of the paths, but it doesn't look terribly different than the straight pen tool.

I think, for me, the third example is my personal preference. Over the weekend I drew a comic strip (my first!) with a dip pen and India ink. It was fun, but now that I look at it, there are things I want to change. If it was vector, I could. Since it's ink on paper, I'll have to redraw the whole panel that I want to fix.

I'll still be experimenting with the dip pen and learning how to use it, but I have ideas I want to follow up on now. I think I will use the process I am capable of doing at the moment, and try to improve its expressiveness of line with custom brushes.

Steve, don't be scared of vector! It's just a computer, after all, it's not a lion that will bite your face off! Nobody's life depends on you getting it right. Download Inkscape for free, if you'd like to learn, and hop in the internet for tutorials. I'd also recommend a tablet regardless. Mousing everything is hard on the wrist and a tablet gives you different ways to do things so your clicking finger gets a break!

Vector can be logos, certainly, but there's a ton more that can be done with it. Lots of illustrators use it, designers, and yes, cartoonists. I think it's just tradition to use ink and pen/brush. I'm not enough of a conformist, so I'll push ahead with Illustrator.

[Simon Lake]

The calligraphy brush one is the best. (Whatever that means)

[Kathy]

Thanks for the input, Simon, I'm going to try for that look in Illustrator foe some more of my cartoons.

[Leah-Admin]

If you want to change your ink images to vector Kathy it's very easy using vectormagic. You just upload you image and the program does the rest.

[Kathy]

Hmmm...I'll have to check that out! I wonder how it compares to Live Trace in Illustrator. Thanks, Leah!

[cartunes-r-us]

I also enjoy the second brush-job, Kathy.

[Leah-Admin]

Hmmm...I'll have to check that out! I wonder how it compares to Live Trace in Illustrator. Thanks, Leah!

I find it much better than anything else I have tried in that dept.