JW Inker Brushes
One of the secrets to my recent images is that I’ve been using a set of Illustrator brushes that I created to make strokes that look a lot like real comic book inks. I’ve been refining them for a few months now, and I think they’re ready to share. These brushes are compatible with Illustrator CS and above.
Click here to download the brushes.
If you’ve never used Illustrator brushes before, you’ve got to try it! It takes some getting used to, but they are really amazing once you get going.
There are three types of brushes available in Illustrator–Scatter, Art, and Pattern. This set consists completely of Art Brushes. They apply a vector shape along a path that you draw. The line’s stroke weight controls how the shape is scaled perpendicular to the path. The horizontal scaling just depends on the length of your line.
The way I like to draw with brushes is to first create my paths. Then I go back and start applying different brushes to the path, adjusting widths, and just experiment until it starts looking good.
To install, copy the “jw ink brushes 2.0.ai” file into the “Brushes” folder inside of “Presets” in your Illustrator directory. Restart Illustrator, and they should show up when you click “Open brush library” from the menu on the Brushes palette.
Enjoy!
~Joe
Great stuff! I love your work! I’ll have to give comic art a try. Thanks!
Comment by Bobette Bryan — November 12, 2007 @ 10:10 am
[...] Preloaded with JW Inker Brushes [...]
Pingback by Ankhammentu :: Blog Archive » Comic Artboard for Adobe Illustrator — January 12, 2008 @ 9:28 am
HI ..I REALY DON’T KNOW HOW TO THANK U FOR THOSE GREAT BRUSHES
I STARTED TO INK MY WORK (COMICS ) USING ILLUSTRATOR RECENTLY
-I USED TO INK USING SABLE BRUSH ,AND I AM MISSING THEM SIENCE I SHIFTED TO DIGITAL INKING
AT LAST I FEEL I AM HOME WITH MY LOVE… (SABLE BRUSH AND INK)
THANK U
Comment by SHERIEF — October 2, 2008 @ 10:23 pm
Thanks very much for the brushes. I am currently experimenting with them and hope to get them to look like your and others’ work. I used to ink with traditional brush, pen and ink and find digital inking very intriguing.
Again, much thanks!
Comment by Rama — December 8, 2008 @ 8:55 pm
I could not get the comic art board brushes to work please help.
Also do you have any tutorials for coloring and inking in Illustrator, either yours or other good ones you know about.
Comment by john atterberry — December 31, 2008 @ 8:16 am
@Bobette, SHERIEF, and Rama-
Thanks for stopping and commenting, and I’m sorry I haven’t posted more vector goodness lately. Once you get the hang of these brushes, it really does speed up the process.
@John
Sorry I don’t have enough information to help with your problem. If you want to post some more info, I’ll do my best. For comic tutorials (assuming you already know how to use Illustrator) I really recommend Brian Denham’s site http://www.briandenham.com. He really knows his stuff.
Comment by jwebster45206 — December 31, 2008 @ 8:37 am