colored pencils, watercolors, copic marker, ballpoint pen, acrylics, oil, airbrush, crayons, potato stamps... it doesnt realy matter.

A good choice for beginners is the colored pencil tho, the handling is pretty much the same as a normal pencil.

but keep in mind no matter what tools you choose it will take time to get used to them, and they are not the key to a good coloring (practice and knowing what you do is).

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Wer nicht vom Meister lernt, lernt nie etwas.

I ink in all my drawings, so i have trouble shading in my drawings with an inking pen. Do you know any good techniques for shading (example: cross-hatching). How do all the good Manga Artists get certain parts of their drawings to look so gray and neat?

Personally, I still recommend taking the digital highway above physical means unless you are using them for the sole purpose of using them... but I degress.

There is a book in the How To Draw Manga series that covers Copic Markers and the spray attachment specifically (HTDM: Special Colored Original Drawing)... so much that the book is practically an advertisement... but, eh... hahaha, if you are really interested in using them, it should help.

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www.xynthica.com

quote:

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Originally posted by Saber:
Does anyone know what art tools are the best for coloring without using Photoshop? And whats tools are best for shading in your drawings in manga comics?

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There's never a "best" way, just a preferred way. Any materials you use should be down to personal preference. But if you like the way digital stuff looks and want to emulate it without a computer, then yeah, markers are a good way to go to get that solid colour you get with CG, ot perhaps paints such as acrylic.

quote:

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Originally posted by Bomu:
I'm thinking about getting some Copics. Maybe just 3 or 4 in different shades of grey or brown so I can quickly add solid rendering to concept art and sketches. I hear they cost over $10 each and come in 100s of different colours.

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Oh yes, I remember those. I got a few of those in the skin tones to speed up toning of the skin. This was obviously pre-PC colouring days when I was still painting pictures with acrylic paint.

I wasn't all that impressed with those markers. The cost was the big one; about a fiver a stab. And I found it much more useful to use the paints at the time. At least then your palette of colours was much more varied.

Well, the Blending Stumps are good, but they are pretty exclusive art supplies, and as such, the price will always get jacked far beyond what they are worth and they are consumable art supplies.

Personally, I recommend only getting the really small blending stumps for very delicate areas, that cost less and are more precise and which you don't do very often, and leave the rest to your loyal box of hankies and a kneaded eraser, but eh, they can last you for a long time if you don't go overkill with them. So it's a matter of choice as always...

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www.xynthica.com