Tools of the trade!

[Steve Henderson]

As some of you may or may not know I am studying the appeal of traditional british comics for my masters at university, as part of this I have created a comic of my own (watch this space, will post some soon for a crit!)

I used a calligraphy pen and ink which gave me greater freedom with the lines (changing directions) But when I went up to the Beano offices I noticed the HUGE variation of mediums used, even the paper was different!

Could any of you guys divulge what you use and the benefits of it? I would find it interesting and I'm sure a few others would! I recently saw my mates original Tom Paterson strip from buster and we could not figure out what he used to do his ink work, the detail was superb but there was no evidence of pen strokes, a brush perhaps? but what type?

Bit sad I know but hopefully you guys can enlighten me!

Steve

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

most pros still use an old-fashioned metal 'dip-pen' with indian ink, Steve: once you get the hang of this, there's no going back to fibre-tips! [also much more permanent!]

'white-out', or 'process white' in a dinky lil' bottle also is handy for covering ink-blots [they WILL occur from time to time]: but, wait 'til the ink dries first!]

I use a large, flexible nib for drawing frame-lines against something solid like a small notebook: it's much more fun than boring old felt-tips!

Very handy [for accuracy] is an INK COMPASS for precisely doing circles: I've had mine since '85: STILL working well today.....

You can also use white ink [applied over dried black ink] for outling seperated lines for detailing copper's uniforms, etc......

BRISTOL BOARD is the best for drawing on, very hard-wearing.

I agree, a trip to D C THOMSON is quite a revelation, very memorable and informative: the only job interview I hoped would never end!

Agood idea for a topic, Steve, but trial and error will more than likely reveal your own personal preferences........

[Steve Henderson]

Cheers for that, I do use a dippy pen and ink, the pen I use is used for calligraphy, which give me greater freedom with the line as the standard pen and ink pens, I found troublesome for curves or change in direction!

I was surprised to see that a few Beano artists use fibre tip pens as I thought the deep richness of indian ink would be the best thing for the scanners to pick up.

Interested about what you used to do the box lines, I do use fibre tip pens for this as I'm a bit scared of smudging my box lines!

Cheers again for the reply, very interesting, creating comics is almost as fun as reading others! ALMOST!

[SH]

Gilliot 303's are are good nibs.( you can order them from Scribblers) im sure Tom P told me he used them or something similar, I dont think hes a brush man. I might be wrong the conversation was 18 years ago . Steve Bright uses the 303's. Markers and brush pens are pretty great these days I love micron markers you can get nice thick and thin and they are very fast to use. Also brush pens from fabre castel are nice too. So many choices

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

RE drawing cartoons by brush: if I remember, the correct size was either 00 or 01, I bought one once, but found it very tricky, and never persevered as much as I should have, as you can often notice the ultra-smooth linework that so characterizes brush linework........though it is recommended you use a more expensive SABLE brush; cheaper synthetic brushes represent a false economy.

But, if anyone on here has mastered handling a brush, I'd love to hear their thoughts on here, as it's something I may well return to.


PENCILS: I used to love the penciling process best of all: it's where the real creativity lies [and I'm not a brilliant inker, anyroad] I used to pencil in HB coz it looked so brilliant [much was lost in the inking process] but I was spending too long rubbing it out, so for years now, I've used the ultra-light 4H, and a pencil can last for months [it's a bit less fun though].


SHARPENERS: I discovered, years ago, that even metal sharpeners have a fairly limited lifespan, and greater results and performance are produced via BLADE and SCALPEL: it took me a long time to learn to sharpen a pencil the 'proper' way [with a blade] but this method is more effective, and infinitely cheaper: packs of blades are inexpensive, and last for years: watch them fingers, though! [also handy for cutting paper; Editors don't like seeing paper cut via scissors}.


PENCILLING PROCESS: I started off directly penciling with no preperation: granted, it was infinitely more creative and enjoyable, but after a while, I discovered better results were attainable if I did rough half-sized sketches on cheapo paper first, [this is very good for testing out perspective/composition ideas beforehand, and judging whether the work will 'read' properly or not:] this saves much erasing on the finished artwork later.......to be honest, it takes a bit of the fun out of it, [many original roughs will contain vital sketches that you will never be able to recapture] but this is probably a more professional approach.

I even heard of one artist who actually PROJECTED his sketches and upscaled them directly to finished paper! Agood idea, actually, but I doubt if I'd go to this extreme, personally.

[LauraH]

I thumbnail on the printouts of my scripts, then do full-size pencils on bog-standard photocopier paper. I always use propelling pencils so I don't need to stop and sharpen them all the time. Then it's over to the trusty lightbox to ink onto Bristol Board (or sometimes extra-smooth cartridge paper, but that's only good for things that don't require a lot of little details).

For inking, I normally use a size 0 or size 1 brush (always Winsor & Newton Series 7s - they're expensive, but last ages if you look after them). For a few things, such as my Gilbert & Sullivan comics, and often Johnny Bean, I'll use pens. Pigma Microns for preference, backed up with Zig scroll and brush pen, Papermates... anything that'll give me the line I want, really. I tend to hoard the things whenever I find a new art shop! I know someone who can get the most marvellous results with those Pentel pocket brush pens, which are lovely tools but not quite right for me.

I experimented with dip pens for a while and, whilst they gave fantastic lines, I found them way too messy. I'll probably give them another go at some point, though. If you're thinking of going the dip pen route, the Deleter brand Manga trial pen set is a good thing to try - one holder and three nibs for you to play with. Usually retails about a fiver. Hmm, this is making me want to go and draw something now!

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

thanks for that information, Laura: I really must persevere with the 'inking-by-brush' method with it's nice, flowing lines. I agree that nibs are fairly messy: they have to be handled with care! I'm so used to them now, though, I pick them up and use them automatically...

A lightbox is another handy item I have never got around to purchasing [along with an A3 scanner]: I miss it when there are [say] 3 sequential frames from the same viewpoint [with identical backgrounds, only the characters have shifted]: I'm still struggling vertically, tracing at the window! A suppose a sturdy glass table with lightbulb underneath would do the job; [ah, these 'shoestring-budget' cop-outs].............

[Steve Henderson]

You can get some cheap lightboxes at Argos for around £40-£50 I think, thats if they are still there. I use them for my animations.

This is fascinating, its great hearing all the different methods from you guys thank you very much, its a bit late for me to take your ideas on board for my current project as its in the colouring stages now but I will have a play around for my next project for sure! Im colouring now using Photoshop keeping it 600dpi (recommended by a viz mate and touched on by Lew in Peters blog update part of the forum) He gave me quite a list of things to do in order for the work to be perfect for printing its taking me ages!

Anyone else want to share their comic secrets tips or hints?

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

different artists will more than likely give you very different responses, Steve: some artist's inkings are quite plastered with white-out, others are the complete opposite: KEN HARRISON'S original inkings betray not a single solitary pencil-line or blemish of any kind that is naked to the eye!

[SH]

Funny you should say that about Ken H I met ken with A Dan in hand and it had the biggest white out on it covering a third of the page and I remember saying wow what a patch but you are right most of the pages I saw of Kens had no whiteout, I like making mistakes just so I can splash it on

[Steve Henderson]

Its double funny you should mention his artwork as its one of the reasons for me writing this! On the stuff I saw he used a shiney kind of paper, slightly laminated almost and your right his artwork is flawless, Im unaware of the kind of paper it was though. Most people tend to use bristol board but I'm not quite sure of the difference between that and the standard smooth cartridge paper I used, the stuff used for watercolours. Never actually bought Bristol Board myself but have been given some, are they the same?

[SH]

ask for Plate bristol board, its more expensive but thats the one Ken uses , it has the shiny
surface you mentioned. can be hard to find sometimes but strathmore do it in pads.

[SH]

Plate board is also pretty good for oil painting too I find

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

Maybe KEN HARRISON uses a lightbox [as described by LAURA above]; stuff like the 'BROONS' was so detailed, he obviously needed some 'guidance' somwhere; well, it's a possibility...

In 20 years, I've had 2 'major disasters' in inking [where I've spilt a massive load of ink on the bristol board] but still went ahead and finished the work regardless; maybe the 'massive white-out patch' was an uncharacteristic KEN event, SH!