Inking, sometimes called rendering or embellishment, was used to make the pencil sketches the artist drew easier to reproduce using photographic reproduction and presses that were used to make comics back in the 30s and 40s. This was because comics were printed using presses that could only print a limited amount of colors and couldn't print grayscale or full color.

Adding inks to a penciled page is the next step in creating what the reader will see in our comic. This is where we make our drawings vivid with clear lines and pools of shadows. By recreating the pencils with only solid black lines and fills, we end up with a page that is ready for toning or coloring.

One of the most important things that we should keep in mind while inking is if the inks aren't solid, clear, and understandable, we cannot expect to make it better with colors. Without good inks, we won't have a good page. We can fix some penciling errors with good inks; however, once we commit to our inks, we...