Hi Guys,
I really wanted to make a few characters in the style of this cover art ...
http://h.imagehost.org/0825/comic_effect.png
now i had visions of this being really easy, I think i've got the whole black outline thing sorted easily, mainly by just using filters such as stamp and then editing them by hand, but somehow my efforts never look quite right- I just cant get that character shading thing that they've got going on to work, mine either looks too hidden, or too dominant!  Theirs looks like its pencil shading which is rubbed in with a finger, so I tried copying that using blur and smudge, but they don't seem to quite do it, blur is too, well blurred and smudge just smeers it everywhere like there's an infinite amount of ink!
To cut a long (and frustrating) story short i just wondered if anyone could give me any tips at all as to how to achieve such a cool looking comic sketch?
Thanks in advance for any help, have a great weekend,
Mark P