Oct 18 2006

Inking Part II

Well, this is it: not just part two of my inking lesson, but the final installment of this column.

“What?” you ask, “No final lesson on computer coloring?” No, I’m afraid not—and I’ve got a number of reasons. The most important is that there are already tons of online resources on this topic (and I’ll list a few at the end of this lessons), but also I’ve found that artists’ computer coloring techniques are very idiosyncratic and highly gear-dependent, which doesn’t make for a lesson that’s broadly applicable. And, honestly, I feel among comics work that’s in color, in the vast majority of it the coloring really adds nothing to the story other than a bit of eye candy—an in some cases is even detrimental to the clarity of the storytelling. Unless your life’s aspiration is to be a colorist, learn the basics thoroughly, then dig in to computer coloring on your own terms.

So, inking… In the last lesson I began a tools-oriented discussion of inking and covered page preparation, panel borders, lettering and dialog balloons, so let’s pick up from there. Now that you’ve got all of this done, you’re ready to start in on the panel artwork proper. As mentioned in the last lesson, the “best” tool with which to ink is whatever tool gets you the look you’re after and as a result most artists use many different tools. (There are of course exceptions; I’ve heard that Mark Schultz inked “Xenozoic Tales” entirely with a #3 watercolor brush… and nothing else.) The two biggies in the line-making department are the brush and the crowquill (or nib). I’ll start with the brush.

inking.jpg

I’ll bet those early 90s Image Comics guys would debate me on the subject, but as far as I’m concerned, if you want to ink comics you have to learn to use a brush. Period. The quill alone won’t allow you the range of line thickness that the brush can bring to a page. A good #2 or #3 brush can produce a line that varies from a hair’s width to close to a quarter of an inch… and all in a single motion if you’re good. Make no mistake, though, learning to use a brush to ink is difficult and takes time. I recommend an odd approach: start by using a brush for everything except inking for a while. Use the brush to write down phone numbers, put together the grocery list. Why? Because I’ve seen many folks new to the brush give it a try once on a piece of artwork they liked, have it turn out terribly, then abandon the brush forever. To use a brush well you need to teach your body how to use it and that just takes time and effort.

Anyway, brushes used for inking are generally #2 or #3 round watercolor brushes. The most important feature to look for in a brush is a nice, tight point. If you’re looking for a high-end brush (these are usually made of sable hair) you should be allowed by the store to dip it in water, run it across some scrap paper to make sure that it doesn’t “split” when used, then “flick” the brush when done to make sure it re-points properly. If there’s an “industry standard” brush, it’s the Windsor & Newton Series 7 sable brush, but in my experience these brushes often have split points right out of the box, and are thus useless. Not good considering what they cost. The best brushes I’ve ever used are made by Rosemary & Company in the U.K. and, although they’re hand-made and shipped from overseas, they’re actually cheaper than an equivalent Windsor & Newton brush—and a much better brush to boot. When just starting out, though, there’s no need for a fancy brush. Decent nylon/natural bristle blend brushes can be had a Michaels and A.C. Moore for a few dollars and work just fine. (My first graphic novel, “Farewell, Georgia,” was inked entirely with these cheap brushes from craft stores!)

A #2 is probably your best bet (although I use a #3 and #4 since I work a bit bigger than most folks.) You can see some brushes in the photo. The upper #16 (oops!) in the image points to two of the brushes I use for inking. #1 is a bin of some old and/or cheap brushes that have lost their points. I use these for filling in large areas of black or for working with watercolors and washes. It’s very important to take good care of your brushes or else they will lose their points very quickly. This means rinsing them out in clean water as you use them—and you can see a vessel for precisely that at #20 in the picture. This particular rinse vessel has a coiled piece of aluminum in its bottom which allows for easier rinsing of the brush and also prevents the point of the brush from smushing flat if you leave have to leave the brush in the water for a minute. When you’re done inking you should wash the brush thoroughly in cold running water with brush soap or a mild hand soap and be sure to get any and all ink out of it, paying special attention to the area where the bristles join the handle. I good sable brush should be conditioned a couple of times a year with some regular old hair conditioner. They should always be stored and transported such that the bristle area is suspended and not mashed up against anything. In the picture you can see an inexpensive metal brush box at #18 that has two slinky-like things running horizontally across its interior. The brush handles can be wedged into these springs, which keeps the bristle areas of the brush off the floor of the box.

I usually begin by doing all the brushwork in the panel. For me, this means all the thick lines that are on organic objects—people, plants, animals, etc. The lively line of a brush, with it’s ability to got from thick to thin and back again, lends character and warmth to these sorts of objects. I then go in and get any needed smaller lines on these subjects with a crowquill. A crowquill is just a metal nib that fits on a handle (or “staff”). It creates a line with variable width, much like a brush, but its thick-to-thin range is much smaller. It’s easier, though, to learn and control than the brush and it’s really good for detailing organic forms in areas that would be difficult with a brush. The “lower #16” in the picture shows a staff with a nib in it. There are a bajillion different types of these little nibs, but the “industry standard” seems to be the Hunts 102 nib. I personally find that nib a bit stiff and use a 107, but you should buy a few and experiment to find out what you like best. Thankfully they’re pretty cheap—usually around $1.00 each.

A few hints for brush and quill: First, be careful when using the quill; it lays down quite a “bead” of ink and this takes a while to dry. It’s really easy to do some work with the quill, move to another area of the page, and put your hand right down in the middle of some still-drying ink. You can’t see it in the picture, but I have a hair dryer near my drafting table that I use to dry areas of quill ink before I move on to other areas of the page. Also, the quill has a particular orientation in which it needs to be held. It should always be pretty much like the picture below—you should always be seeing that little hole in the top of the “barrel.” And, very important, both the quill and the brush work by being pulled toward down/backwards toward you and should never be “pushed” up the page. Not heeding this will result in broken nibs, ink everywhere, etc.


(pic via Cartoonist Dave Cooper)

Both the brush and the quill require ink to work of course and what kind of ink you use is up to you, as long as it’s black and waterfast when dry. I have a giant jug of good ink (#6 in the picture) and also keep a bottle of Higgins Black Magic (#4 to the left) on hand as well. Black Magic supposedly used to be a good, solid black ink, but if true once, it sure isn’t anymore and this stuff is only now good for thinning out other ink that’s gotten thick via evaporation.

I recommend not dipping your brush or quill directly into your ink bottles. First off, this is a bad idea since you can’t see where the ink level is and so you’re likely to get either way too much or not enough ink on the implement in question. Secondly, the mouth /opening of ink bottles is pretty narrow and the interior is always coated in semi-dried ink, which you will most certainly get initially all over your inking implements, then inevitably all over your artwork. To get around this, pour your ink into a small shot glass or—what I use—a glass eye washing thingy, which you can get at your local drug store (#19 in the picture). It’s got a wide mouth and you can always see where the ink line is. As the ink gets thicker from being left out as you ink away for hours and hours, you can just add little dashes of the Black Magic to keep it nice and fluid.

Once the foreground objects are done, move to the background. For this step, I usually switch to a smaller brush (usually moving one size down) and wind up using a bit more quill to get details. I’ll use the rapidographs for inorganic objects like buildings and machinery, but they should be used very sparingly; their “dead” non-varying line can make a panel look lifeless and flat in no time (unless you’re Hergé, that is). I recommend avoiding microns for any of the in-panel artwork. They don’t penetrate non-photo blue pencil lines very well and, as a result, will often rub off when you go to erase your pencil lines post-inking.

And what of mistakes? They’re gonna happen for sure, so be prepared. I keep a rag (#21) nearby for anything that spills in my work area and for anything that needs to be touched up on your artwork, use some white ink (#7) applied with a brush. So as to not mess up my good brushes, I keep an old brush specifically for applying white corrections. You can see it at #15 in the picture, marked with a piece of tape around the handle to identify it. This white ink usually takes two applications to really cover up a mistake, but once dry it can be inked over with a brush or quill or pen. For bigger areas I use white gouache (#10) applied with the same brush. It can’t be worked over as well though.

So what’s next? After the ink’s fully dry, just erase! I use a “magic rub” eraser for this and brush the eraser dust off with a drafting brush so that I don’t smear my gross greasy hands across my finished artwork. Hint: if you have a cat don’t get a natural hair drafting brush because your cat will find it and start carrying it around. Then again, this is pretty funny to see, so maybe do get one if you have a cat.

And that’s that. You’re done. Give your artwork a final look over to make sure that you haven’t missed any areas that need to be inked, then go relax!

Oh, yeah… Those promised links to some computer coloring lessons. Here are two of my favorites:

Cooper, Step by Step

Digital Comic Coloring by John Rauch

Happy comics making!

Oct 17 2006

Adam Casey’s SPX Pics up at The Three Cent Pup

More images from the show, along with Adam’s writeup, at The Camel City Cartoonists Guild & Social Club site: www.cartoonists.ws.

Oct 16 2006

SPX Report #4

This is more of an addendum I guess, but… after the Ignatzes (which I missed due to dining-related delays) I was downstairs at the party hanging out with comics scholars Craig Fischer and Bart Beaty and we wandered in to the strange U.N.-like presentation room. Each seat in the room had a little “Marriot” tablet at it and a matching pen, and a cursory examination of the ones nearest us indicated that the Adhouse gang had clearly been present earlier:

From Josh Cotter:

Ass Stool
(Click for larger image)

A rare hand-drawn ‘bot from J. Chris Campbell:

Campbell
(Click for larger image)

And commentary on the above by an unknown artist:

Unknown
(Click for larger image)

Oct 16 2006

SPX Report #3

Saturday at SPX cranked up at 10:00 in the morning and throughout the morning and afternoon the crowd seemed to just grow and grow.  By late afternoon there were areas of the floor that were difficult to move through–something I’ve never witnessed before at an SPX.  Again, though, given that this is a new venue, it’s hard to do a side-by side comparison between this show and shows previous.  The biggest crowds seemed to be toward the rear of the hall where the bigger arthouse publishers were located—Fantagraphics and their ilk.  I should revise my assessment of the layout from Friday’s post to say that, although the show was all in a single room, there were in fact a couple of “dunce areas” created in two corner spaces which were separated from the rest of the hall by doorways.  Folks assigned tables here were very sad and lonely (and likely broke).

All in all, I did about three times the sales on Saturday that I did on Friday and was pleasantly surprized to return home with substantially less stuff (well, less of my stuff anyway) than I had arrived with.

Post-show thoughts/observations:

  • Pretty much everyone I talked to sold a lot of stuff and was pretty happy with the turnout at the show.
  • I overheard an “unnamed source” SPX official saying that the hotel was very pleased with the show’s ability to sell out its block of rooms.  So, I’m guessing—like it or lump it—the “North Bethesda” Marriot is gonna be the location for next year.
  • Most folks woud prefer to lump it.  The general concensus seemed to be that, although the hotel itself was much nicer than the somewhat run down Holiday Inn Select (or whatever it was that the show used to be held in), the location was extremely problematic for a number of reasons and the increased expenses associated with the hotel cut into exhibitor’s potential profits from the show.
  • Increased expenses – The room rate was about the same as the old location, but the Marriot milked guests for every nickel they could.  Parking cost extra, in-room internet cost extra, wi-fi cost extra.  And, unlike with the old location, the Marriot is the only game in town; The American Inn, right next door to the old location, would frequently undercut the official show hotel, offering rooms for under or about $100.00 a night if you booked in advance.
  • Increased expenses – There was very little in the way of food available within a walk or even a short drive.  The few nearby restaurants were on the expensive side and packed both nights, with 1-2 hour waits at some.  This situation drove many folks to…
  • Increased expenses – The hotel restaurant, which served mediocre, vastly-overpriced ($20-$30 an entree) food served at a snail’s pace and featured a surly, pissy wait staff.
  • The production value of the books people were selling was very high and stuff that didn’t look professional wasn’t moving.  The poor guy two tables over from me who was selling a single issue of a mini with a xeroxed black and white cover didn’t sell a single copy as far as I could tell.  My perception is that this whole “foldover cover, hand silkscreened, stitched binding, chipboard slipcase” thing is getting a little out of hand in a form-over-content way which reminds me (oddly) of the whole “foil embosseed, limited edition, variant cover” mainstream thing from the 90s.  Maybe that guy two tables over from me had a great book… but we’ll likely never know because no one bought it.
  • There was at least one editor from the Marvel/DC contingent waking the floor.
  • The hipster beard—AKA, the “Riker“—was in full effect on the floor. I blame indy rock beardos, The Kings of Leon.
  • Buzz books: Brian Chippendale’s Ninja, a gigantic $35.00 book with a print run of 50, sold out.  Fanta had so many new books (their table looked like a helicopter had dropped a load of those “Outstanding Debut Nominee” Ignatz  badges on it napalm-style) that none seemed to be a clear buzz book.  Adhouse’s Project Romantic looked to be selling briskly, but was not generating the same talk that the two previous “Project” antholgies did. But, hey, go figure: the first two were about robots and superheroes; this one’s crawling with cooties.  Wide Awake Press #666 was in a lot of hands as well.

Here’re a few of my purchases that are standouts so far:

  • The Mourning Star by Kazimir Strzepek
  • The Flying Bear by Daniel Strange & Evan Larson (although this is old, dated 2004)
  • The Beast Mother by Eleanor Davis
  • Bugbear #1 by Eleanor Davis & Drew Weing
  • Trackrabbit #2 by Geoff Vasile
  • Don’t Leave Me Here Alone by J. Chris Campbell
  • The Mother’s Mouth by Dash Shaw
  • La Primavera by Alexis Frederick-Frost

Oct 14 2006

SPX Report #2

The Small Press Expo (SPX) officially cranked up today at 2:00pm at its new location in scenic Rockville, MD.  Despite my earlier grousing about the new hotel’s location, the large conference hall area in which the Expo took place is admittedly much nicer than the labyrinthine multi-room layout of the old Comfort Inn location.  Gone are those weird “dunce rooms” where a handfull of tables of then-perpetually ignored exhibitors always used to wind up, and in its place is a big, well lit, caverous exhibit hall

The general feel I got from most exhibitors was that there was a better than expected crowd, and the room appeared to be pretty steady crowd-wise from opening to close at 8:00pm—except of course for the area I’m in, which was apparently built on a MicMac burial ground a la Steven King.  It’s hard to say, though, whether this impression of Friday attendence is maybe skewed a bit high, since—unlike at previous SPXs—one can see every guest in one view, rather than seeing just the few folks that happen to be in one particular room at a time.  I wish I kept better records of dollar amounts from past events to compare it to, but I think I did better today dollar-wise than last SPX (although I have a new book this year, which I didn’t last year).

Speaking of which, there doesn’t seem to be a real “buzz book” that’s emerged yet.  I’ve seen a good number of folks with D&Q’s Moomin volume, which I belive debuted at the show, as well as apparently taking advantage of some “two-fer” pricing on that publisher’s pair of recent Dupuy & Berberian books.

I haven’t done any shopping yet myself, but I’ve done a bit of trading about with other cartoonists that I know and the books I’m looking most forward to reading from this initial stack are Dash Shaw’s The Mother’s Mouth, CCS student/Xeric recipient Alexis Frederick-Frost’s La Primavera, and several new J. Chris Campbell minis.

And I of course am hawking some items of my own as well.  I had the book at Heroes Con, but am still selling copies of Midnight Sun #1, which wasn’t out at the time of the last SPX.  Also, Wide Awake Press has released my new mini, Gravity, which can be purchased from either them or me—and the same goes for the new Wide Awake Press #666 anthology, in which I have a story. The WAP anthology, but the way, has turned out really really nicely and I would  wholeheartedly recommend it even if I hadn’t a story in it.  “Who’s in it?” you ask.  Well, J Chris Campbell, Justin Gammon, Patrick Dean, Eleanor Davis, Rob Ullman, Andy Runton, and many many more.  And also, the cover has a zombie ice cream man selling cones full of BRAINS!!  Brains, I tell’s ya!

Last minute expo guest Jules Fiefer (borrowed from ICAF one assumes) gave some sort of presenation today, as did apparently Tony Millionaire, although I was at my booth for both of these events.  I spotted neither of them on the convention floor, but Scott McCloud was wandering about .

After hours folks had to depart for points distant in search of decent food.  The expo’s new location is particularly unsuited to convenient dining, a proposition which I had plenty of time to consider as I hiked through the surprizingly cold night air toward a supposed nearby Italian restaurant along with about a dozen other hungry folks including most of the Hellcar/Dada Detective/Likely Stories gang.  On the way back we stopped by the beer store, as did apparently pretty much everyone else associated with the show; the tiny store was packed to the gills with indy cartoonist types browsing for booze, much to the astonishment of the single register worker.  There was a peculiar ant trail-like line of people walking to and from this store, snaking around behind the nearby McDonalds to the convention center/hotel.  A guy in a sweet Chevelle SS tried to run us over.  Why does God give cool cars to jerks?

Back at the Hotel, the bar was busy but not slammed—which seemed odd, until Jackie Estrada came in and told us that there was an “official” SPX party going on in a heretofor unknown (to me anyway) subterranian area of the convention center.  Down in this area there was a cash bar and some hor d’ ouvres available, but again this was not really slammed with people either.  I told a few exhibitors I passed on a trip back up to my room about the SPX party and they hadn’t heard of it… I guess because (as far as I can tell) it was not listed on any of the info anywhere.  I decided to kick it back to my room relatively early, but noticed on my way back up to my room at about midnight that the bar was starting to fill up a bit.  There may be fun stuff going on right now, but alas, sleep calls.

A side note: there are affectations and then there are Affectations; today I saw a guy at the show wearing some of those big, clunky thick-rimmed “nerd glasses” that are so popular these days , but they didn’t even have any lenses in them.