Sketchy things 2

Here are a couple of pieces to get myself in the mood for some up coming projects.

This guy lost threst of his sword somewhere...

An assassin?

Samurai Mask 2

When I originally did the first (green) mask back in 2012 I wanted to do a series using a very simple pallet of primary and secondry colours. It's taken me more than 2 years but I've finally got onto the second one. Maybe in 2 more years I'll get onto the 3rd.

Here are the inks for starters.

(The design sketch for this mask can be found in the previous post)

And the first peice.

Sketchy things 1

Some sketch book pages (some edited some not) mucking around with brushes, felt tips, washes and a red pencil.

And of course the compulsory Dredd...

Some more fishing and a distraction

Work progresses on the next Dicks story 'Gone Fishing' with these rough inks. Strange fish, giant spider crabs what could be in store for our undead heroes?

Also, here's a distraction inspired by Bisley.

Some More Doodles

A couple of drawings to stop me going crazy whilst working on other projects.

These were done quickly without any penciling just for fun. I may end up reworking them but they are what they are. I used just one nib for each of these drawings.

This one did the top drawing (bad photos I know). and the nib underneath did the Dredd drawing.

2000AD Doodles

Fine liners and fat liners, and a bit of brush pen for solid blacks.

Brush pen and Hunt 107 nib.

Hellboy OZComic Sequential Challenge

Just finished this page last night for the Oz Comics sequential fortnightly challenge.

This was a real sod of a page - libraries, skeletons, 10 panels. Actually 10 panels isn't a problem with a well written script and this one was (I've of course deleted all my files and can't find the writer's name. Anthony someone?). It ended up taking much more time than I wanted, working 2 hours a night over 5 days or so.

I didn't think I'd do a post about this one so I didn't do any production scans but my method is pretty much the same for every page I do. Check out this post for more on my methods.

Here are my thumbnails though.

Not very clear but I did change the angle on a couple of panels. Not sure why but there's always a bit of difference between the thumbs and the final page. Especially as I never do the thumbs to scale. these were done on a loose bit of A4 printing paper. You can also see some calculations for splitting the page into 3 panels width ways.

Here my most used tools (minus a Staedtler Mars rubber). So from left to right I have a Hunt 107 (I think) - a nice hard stainless steel nib which does fine lines and can, with pressure, do quite fat lines, a fairly common nib this one but too blackened for me to find out what it is now but it does fatter lines, a pentel water colour brush pen filled with Pebeo ink, trusty, trusty white out and a line tool - this one can adjust its width for very fine to very fat lines, just be sure your straight edge is raised off the page otherwise ink will seep under and make a ink go all over the place.

On this page though, I only used the brush for filling in blacks and a few fine lines.

Killeroo Submission Process

Killeroo creator Darren Close recently announced a new 120pp Killeroo comic and has been looking for submissions from artists and writers. I was fortunate enough to have my submission accepted. Here is the process I went through to create the submission page.


Here are the rough page layouts that I came up with. I was happy with the angles and general images in the first attempt but not the placement or frame sizes so I redrew the frames not bothering with the sketches.

Next I framed up my final on a piece of bristol and roughly sketched in the panels before inking the panel borders to make sure everything fitted like I wanted. Notice the seam in the middle - I have an A4 scanner and consequently have to stitch every page I do together. With these pencils the seam is noticeable because I couldn't be bothered fiddling around for an hour when the overall effect comes across just fine.

Happy with that I drew up the final pencils

You may notice a few extra elements added in these preliminary inks. I never know what the final page needs until I get some ink on. I find creating a page a very organic process and never do 'finished' pencils. It involves so much rubbing out, increases the amount of time I spend on a page but mostly because I hate tracing. Tracing makes images stiff and lifeless. Slapping on ink gives me so much more flexibility and movement, sure sometimes a little bit of white out is necessary but the end result is so much better.

Then the final inks. I've blown up the 3rd panel in photoshop as I felt it was too small and cleaned all the smudges my scanner leaves. I also changed the expression on Jock's face in the last panel as he looked like he was smiling. And voila!

PS motorcylces are a bugger to draw!

Alien!

My Oz Comic Challenge entry: an xenomorph.

I wish I'd done more production scans but oh well. Here's the couple I did.

Inking

Inking! How do you do it, how do you choose the right brush or nib, how do you look after said tool, what paper, lead or blue pencil? The list of questions I've posed goes on and on. I've compiled here bits and pieces that I've picked up over the years helping me on my inking journey.

I must say though, I haven't found any one solution. Why? Because art is a very personal thing. You can be shown a million techniques but ultimately you have to come up with your own. Coming up with your own doesn't mean that what was shown you didn't help - it helped a lot - but you take a bit from here a bit from there and that's how you create your own.

Following you will find a list of links and clips which have helped me in my quest for how to ink. Very different approaches to the same problems but all helpful.

First up. Any one who hasn't bookmarked or gone through the archives of the comic tools blog should do right away. Matt Bernier (and others) has systematicly broken down each process to comic creating and gives great tips from different artists on how they tackle the problems they face. Inks, pencils, papers, rubbers and a whole glut of tools are all reviewed and compared. Use this wonderful resourse, it's great!

Secondly. Inkers buy this. Gary Martin's Comic Book Inking book really helped me, especially when it came to using a brush. Martin is very systematic and controlled - not a very exciting inker but he is a clear and comprehensive teacher. Though the best thing about this book is the end, where different artist ink over the same pencils. What's great about this section is that it lets you know there is no right answer and that an inkers style really defines the final image.

When inking other peoples pencils I use a brush but brushes are so hard to look after properly. At $30+ a pop you want your brush to last. I've never gone past 50 pages with one brush and I'm afraid nothing I've found out has helped me so far (appart from Matt Bernier's insanely anal approach - which I can't do). But I do have a solution: brush pens. They definitely don't come close to a good sable brush but they come close enough. I use these Pentel aquawash brush pens (here are some I found on ebay) with Pebeo ink - which was recommended me by Brendan Halyday.

There are a gazillion clips about inking out there but here are a few that have inspired me.

Moebius

Gary Martin




Saen Gordon Murphy



Nat Van Dyke



Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba



Jeff Smith



Francis Vallejo

From these clips you'll find the following parts and other great clips.

I hope this helps anyone out there looking for answers.