Trouble with inking, please help.

[Julius Valentine]

Hi everyone,

I was just given a Wacom tablet as a gift and I'm having trouble outlining my pencils in photoshop. I've read some of the tutorials about inking but they don't really address my problem. It seems that I have a really hard time creating smooth lines with my stylus without zooming really close. The problem with zooming in for me is that it doesn't look natural when I go to connect the lines on the bigger picture.

Some people have recommended that I lay a piece of paper in between the tablet and the plastic flap on top and while this does help smooth my lines a little, it's not enough to be satisfactory. Can anyone please help? The tablet is great since I can easily color with it but I'm having a really hard time with digital inking. Thanks in advance.

[Gav Heryng]

Ugh, digital inking is hard, especially if you want to utilise the pressure sensitivity feature of the tablet and get varying line weights. The best tutorial I found advised to turn off the pressure sensitivity, but this made the lines the same weight from end to end, defeating the objective in my opinion.

I've pretty much given up inking in Photoshop for the very reasons you've described. I found I had more success with Illustrator, as this program will actually smooth the lines out for you. It takes a bit of practice getting used to the way Illustrator "sees" the lines, but I've found it does make the whole job quicker and easier.

Dis