Let this be a salutary lesson to anyone out there who thinks the world of the professional cartoonist is filled with glamour, thrills and excitement. Invariably, on the rare occasions any of us manage to get together (our motto is ?It?s a solitary existence being a cartoonist?), our most animated and passionate conversations are about pens and paper.
So- here?s my contribution. Do try to stay awake at the back!
Over the years, I?ve had dalliances with many different artboards and pads, in conjunction with a variety of nibs and pens. Some lasted longer than others, but none managed to satisfy me on a long-term basis, and often the initial excitement at something new proved to wear off very quickly once the flaws became apparent.
I?ve finally ?settled down? and have remained faithful to the same products for about the past ten years. And these products may raise an eyebrow or two among my colleagues?
Pencil ? I use automatic ones, the biggest time-savers in the business. Forget traditional wooden pencils ? the cumulative hours of frustration sharpening the things is a piece of nonsense. I use 0.3mm HB or B leads, for pencilling (forget blue pencils too ? get a decent box of erasers?I use Staples own ?technical eraser?, box set of 20??cos I do make mistakes).
I ink over all my pencils on the same drawing ? don?t own a light box. Indian ink doesn?t work for me ? it takes ages to dry and retains a slight stickiness that smudges when you rub out your pencil lines, even when it is dry. The best ink I have found for the job is Rotring drawing ink, normally sold in small rectangular plastic bottles (though I?ve recently found a website that trades in much larger bottles, effectively cutting the price considerably ? a worthwhile consideration, as this ink isn?t the cheapest, but the quality makes it worth it).
Pens. I?ve tried all sorts, and have always come back to a dip pen, using a Gillots 303 nib. It?s pressure sensitivity gives a nice variety in the thickness of your line. However, it does take a while to master, and some never do, so I wouldn?t necessarily recommend the dip pen to anyone starting out ? there are hundreds of options out there. This one is just my preference.
The drawing surface I use is the most controversial of these products. Again, I have tried so many, and in my pre-cyber era, the finished artwork had to be durable enough to be rolled into a mailing tube and manhandled through a variety of stages at the ?office end? of the process. However, these days the artwork never leaves my home, and I now draw on the thinnest of paper, not even designed for my type of work. I use an A2 sized bleedproof marker pad (Goldline is my favourite), 70 gsm, 50 sheets per pad. It?s wonderfully smooth, takes pencil and ink beautifully without scratching or feathering. It?s thinness allows me to trace various templates I?ve made for the different sizes of pages I draw, cutting out the need for measuring each page, and it allows far more space for storage (imagine a hundred Bristol boards stacked on top of each other ? this paper takes up a fraction of that.
The down side is that it?s hopeless for taking a tone wash or colour, but since that kind of thing is all done on a computer after the inked page is scanned these days, that factor doesn?t come into it in my case. It?s also fragile, and easily crumpled, but then nothing?s perfect.
I now have Internet suppliers for all of the above. I won?t post the links here, since I?m not sure what this site?s policy is on advertising products and services (although we?ve already done a good deal of that in this thread alone), but if anyone wants to give any of the above a try, email me and I?ll send you some links.
There now?wasn?t that exciting?
Originally posted by Steve Bright on the old forum on 5/1/2006
LAYOUT BOARDS
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- Posts: 1656
- Joined: 25 Feb 2006, 22:09
LAYOUT BOARDS
No, Peter, don't paint, never have, also never used a brush, what you see is a now-rare technique using marker pens. Another secret gone!
Originally posted by NP on the old forum on 7/1/2006
Originally posted by NP on the old forum on 7/1/2006
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- Posts: 1656
- Joined: 25 Feb 2006, 22:09
LAYOUT BOARDS
Wowser!! I was soooo wrong!
Originally posted by Peter Gray on the old forum on 8/1/2006
Originally posted by Peter Gray on the old forum on 8/1/2006