How come original "pencils" still exist, after ink

[UnknownReactor]

What media is inking done onto?

Board, I presume?

But if the pencils are to survive (and messy rubbing-out is to be avoided) then it must be a different board ...in which case how is a faithful copy made?

Thanks!

[Attezarf]

Hello "UnknownReactor"!

There was a time.. not so long ago.. when ALL inking was done directly on top of the original pencilling. And, on bristol boards of varying weights.. In some cases, when samples of the pencilling were intended to be saved.. The inker would be required to ink a page, using photocopies of the pencilled pages. Tracing them. using a Light Table..

With the advent of computers, scanners, and printers, and the Internet..
Many pages today, are sent from penciller-to-inker as purely Digital files. The inker can then print these files out on his end, as blue-lined boards upon which to ink traditionally..
Or, he could also choose to ink the files themselves in a purely Digital way.. using Photoshop & a wacom tablet.

In both of these cases, the original pencils would survive the process unscathed. And you end up with more original art, than you would've ordinarily..

Hope that solves the mystery for you!

-- Rich

[Doh]

Another "old school" way to preserve the pencils is to use a light table/box and ink onto a different piece of paper.

Rich's digital method (blue line) is much easier, though.

[UnknownReactor]

Thanks for both replies!

I neither have a light table at home, nor the facility to print "blue lined boards", so I guess I'll be inking onto my pencil pages for the moment!

I was mainly curious about the original pencils by famous artists that you see for sale; now I'm a little wiser!

[Doh]

Because you don't have a lightbox, another trick you can try is to tape your original to a window and then your inking paper on top of that and sketch it again. You can then ink without eliminating the original art.

(2 problems with this method: you'd be inking another "generation" away from the original so you might lose some details. And this doesn't work so well at night.)

[corkbutt]

(2 problems with this method: you'd be inking another "generation" away from the original so you might lose some details. And this doesn't work so well at night.)

That and you'd be sketching on a window.
At that point, I'd do some research and build a lightbox, even a rudimentary one.

? Corbett

[drugmassacre]

i ink all of my pencilled stuff. But you should invest in a scanner if you don't have one so you can at least preserve your pencil art digitally