More Inktober and back to where Alvin Began

 As I had the idea for the second Inktober drawing I quickly thought it was a perfect topic for an Alvin cartoon, aka Meet the People.

The trouble was, recently I’d changed to first loading my hand drawn sketches into CorelDraw. Where I converted my rough ink work into smooth line work using the Corel autotrace function, and then I coloured the characters with the many great tools in CorelDraw. It took away a lot of drudgery and my work a had very unique look. Unfortunately, when my computer crashed some months ago the only version of CorelDraw also died/ I've not reloaded it onto any new computer yet. So what to do?

So I decided to go back to where it all began. Originally Alvin was devised to created using a number of cut out shapes. I had quickly sketch a few versions of him and his wife Lila. then rearrange them to create something like a cartoon I wished. I could play with the composition and exaggerate their body language. It was fun. I would then normally trace over, scan and/or redraw a final cartoon, it was simple and relatively quick. Here’s a little more detail from an old blog post.

In the interest of keeping it simple I did draw up the basic cartoon on scrap paper using a tombow pen, but then I cut out the shapes. I typed in his comments about a real relic from the past called a cassette printed that in a large font and drew a speech bubble around it. Cut it out as well and I had a decent early version of an Alvin cartoon. If you follow me on Instagram you’ll notice that so far this year I’m including the tools are used to create the drawing along with the drawing taken with my phone, rather than a scan of the drawing itself. I’m testing out my theory that I get more views when I have my hand in a picture, or showing how I created the image. Not just posting the finished image.

Two Ways to Inking: Traditional vs Digital

The term "inking" has been part of cartooning vocabulary for decades, it's simply the process of going over your rough sketch with a final layer of ink. These days, most artists do this digitally, but the name has stuck around.

I wanted to compare traditional and digital inking methods using my Inktober 2025 submission for Day 19: Arctic. My cartoon shows penguins who've clearly lost their way (fun fact: penguins live in the Antarctic, not the Arctic!).

My Traditional Approach

I started with a rough sketch using a Copic brush pen. I'll be honest—I'm not a fan of Copic fine liners. They clog constantly, so I stopped buying them years ago. But their brush pens? Those are superior. They keep their flexible tips and create line work similar to traditional dip pens, which suits my cartooning style perfectly.

Here's where I made a rookie mistake: I started on paper that was too thin to handle water without buckling. So instead of traditional watercolour washes, I switched to Inktense pencils and blocks. These are great because you can apply them dry, then activate them with just a light touch of a water brush. Hopefully, this would prevent the paper from wrinkling too much.

My Digital Method

After scanning my preliminary sketch, I moved to my computer-based process. One I developed years ago after attending a cartoon workshop. This technique became the foundation for my blog "Meet the People" and its character Alvin and his wife.

My workflow goes like this: I scan the line work into Paint.NET for editing, then paste it into CorelDraw (I've been using it since version 3, originally for technical diagrams). The magic happens when I convert the bitmap into vector line work using CorelDraw's autotrace tools. These automatically smooth out the kinks in my original ink work.

The key trick I learned was to enclose any shapes I wanted to colour. Then colouring becomes simple—just click and select. I use Pantone colour patches for consistency across all my illustrations. When shapes are simple, colouring is quick and easy. Complex shapes with lots of fixing? That can get tedious.

The Verdict?

So which approach is better? That's for you to decide! Each has its charm—traditional inking has that organic, hands-on feel, while digital offers flexibility and polish. What's your preference?

Proof reading and summary assisted by Claude Sonnet 4.5 (AI)

There is always time to find your Zoe & your Magic Marker

 

The Artist who Couldn't Draw: an animated film by Danny Gregor

This is a warm little story, I've posted it before we all should listen to and learn. Now its nicely animated, so just watch the video above if you prefer. 

It's never too late, grab the thing you want to do (maybe it's taking better photos, painting, writing, cooking, or climbing mountains) the magic marking is to do it, over and over. Practice and learn to love it.

I think Dan Gregory gives out good advice for free, and Sketchbook Skool is always worth a look.

Marvin returns for INKTOBER inspiration

Marvin : Mate how about cleaning me up and colouring me.
Norm : But I'm not suposed to use a computer for inktober sketechs
Marvin : I fell nude in raw ink
Norm : OK, Just for you.

Alvin Crashes My Instagram

Me: Alvin what are you doing in my instagram posts? Alvin: Lila made me do it!

A post shared by Norm Hanson (@oz_endless_summer) on Jun 4, 2017 at 10:14pm PDT

I'm not sure what bought hin out but yesterday Alvin insinuated himself into my Endless Summer Instagram photostream. Well he has a point I'm doing a daily drawing project for a month and he is hand drawn, after all.

The truth is out there

I not sure how many times I have heard good photography (including my own) dismissed as faked in Photoshop. Further I’m also not really a fan of a lot of the on-click Artistic apps around. However there is definitely a place for intelligent post processing, in the whole process of art  –> graphic art–> photography. By example is you shoot RAW it is almost certain that you must undertake some post processing to get an acceptable image. It is just unfortunate that fakery seems to dominate people perceptions and photoshoped has become such a disparaging adjective for a photo.

The cartoon is a golden oldie by Aaron Johnson, and his work a quite photocentric you can see more of the duck here.

Source : As seen on PetaPixel, via Mosaic Lightroom Newsletter

SPAM in comments

I get waves of SPAM links in my comments, and I delete them.

It seems I am the current the favourite target of some chinese spamers, so here is the warning guys, I will treat you the same.

评论与垃圾邮件的链接将被删除