Learn how to ink like a pro

Jake Parker has been inking for most of his drawing career. From comics to concept art, mastering the pen is essential for all artists. From his own studies and experience, insight from peers and mentors, and material from the best books on the subject he boils everything he's learned about the art form into one class.

In this class you will learn:

  • What pens work best for inking

  • How to make beautiful sweeping ink lines

  • How to use a brush pen

  • How to build up lines

  • How to ink both hard and soft surfaces

  • How to feather and produce gradients

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About the Instructor

Illustrator/Cartoonist Jake Parker

For the last 25 years Jake has worked on everything from animated films to comics to picture books. For several years he worked for Reel FX and Blue Sky Studios on such projects as Horton Hears a Who, Rio, and Epic. He is the creator of the popular Inktober drawing challenge. Jake currently works as an illustrator and cartoonist on children's books and comics. He works out of his home studio in Arizona.

Course curriculum

    1. Intro

    2. Tools

    3. Basic Techniques

    4. Line Weight

    5. Line Width

    6. Inking Styles

    7. Hatching and Gradients

    8. Feathering

    9. Rendering Techniques

    10. End

    11. Downloads

About this course

  • 11 lessons
  • 2 hours of video content
  • 10 Videos
  • 1 Download

Ready to start your creative journey? 

Get the guidance you need on the path to becoming a better artist.

Reviews

4 star rating

Great course

Barry van Varik

I started this course because I wanted to learn more about inking. Although I had some experience with pen and ink, I did not completely understand how and w...

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I started this course because I wanted to learn more about inking. Although I had some experience with pen and ink, I did not completely understand how and when to use line weight. Also, I wasn't very confident in using the brush pen. This course has taught me exactly what I wanted to learn and by following the exercises, I discovered I still had a lot training to do to develop line control and a steady arm. I have written down the exercises and use them daily as a sort of inking-workout-routine. So I think this is a great course!

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5 star rating

Very practical tips

Gustavo Ruiz

The explanations are very straight forward and the points are made very clearly in each video. Worth watching and repeating many times, as additional insight...

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The explanations are very straight forward and the points are made very clearly in each video. Worth watching and repeating many times, as additional insights come through practice and repetition.

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5 star rating

Really really helpful! Thank you!

Madeline Ince

I can't thank you enough for this course. I didn't know where to start to improve my inking. Even though I knew it was something I knew needed to improve, it...

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I can't thank you enough for this course. I didn't know where to start to improve my inking. Even though I knew it was something I knew needed to improve, it seemed like an impossible mountain to climb. But the simplicity of the tutorials made it easy to start. Now thanks to the ideas this course has given me, I'm starting out my day practicing the basics. It's only been a few days but I've already seen a lot of improvement in my work. I know after I put in the work and time to master these techniques I will no longer dread inking my work. As a side note, I'm working digitally in Photoshop with a Cintiq 13 and nearly every technique translates into this medium. Just another great thing about this course!

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5 star rating

Great Information!

Sarah Glazer

I really enjoyed this class and I learned to use a brush pen. This, along with the How to Draw Everything class has really gotten me excited about drawing an...

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I really enjoyed this class and I learned to use a brush pen. This, along with the How to Draw Everything class has really gotten me excited about drawing and inking like I've not been before. Thanks!

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5 star rating

Learned from zero

Aleksey Nisenboym

I definitely learned a lot from this class. Although in some of the videos he does mention he'll cover correcting mistakes and how to do spotted blacks but d...

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I definitely learned a lot from this class. Although in some of the videos he does mention he'll cover correcting mistakes and how to do spotted blacks but doesn't seem like that was in these. Regardless there is still a lot of content that helped me develop my inking and now I am way more confident with my brush use.

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5 star rating

Great class!

Sharon Nolfi

Jake is a great teacher. I picked up some new techniques.

Jake is a great teacher. I picked up some new techniques.

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5 star rating

Amazing!

Carrie Copa

Fantastic job with demonstrating control exercises and different kinds of inking techniques. I sometimes struggled before with using different line weights p...

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Fantastic job with demonstrating control exercises and different kinds of inking techniques. I sometimes struggled before with using different line weights properly in a drawing, and Jake explains how to do it in an approachable manner. Draw along with him! I usually like to make the "perfect sketch" before I trace it with ink, but this class inspires me to be more loose with the sketches, and let the inking process be creative too!

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5 star rating

FANTASTIC

Jenny Barnard

This was a really helpful course for a beginner like myself. I enjoyed learning some new techniques I hope to use for Inktober and growing as an artist. The ...

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This was a really helpful course for a beginner like myself. I enjoyed learning some new techniques I hope to use for Inktober and growing as an artist. The instructor was great and I really enjoyed the exercises and printouts!!

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5 star rating

Good basics swiftly told

Cathlyn Driscoll

Liked this class a lot! Picked up small techniques that make a huge difference for me. Simple stuff no teacher has mentioned before. Thanks Jake! So glad I d...

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Liked this class a lot! Picked up small techniques that make a huge difference for me. Simple stuff no teacher has mentioned before. Thanks Jake! So glad I did Inktober, then found SVS, and found yours and so many other great classes. Cheers!

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5 star rating

Thoughtful Analylitical Guide on How to Ink

Suzanne Urban

Although I am an illustrator, I never liked inking much, my inking lacked "guts". Jake is able to breakdown in simple steps inking techniques that he's stud...

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Although I am an illustrator, I never liked inking much, my inking lacked "guts". Jake is able to breakdown in simple steps inking techniques that he's studied and applied to his own work and how these techniques add life, definition and professional finesse to an inked in illustration.

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