Penciling and Inking
Then I start in on some serious inking. I usually will do a whole panel at a time, though frequently I’ll just ink the figures in several panels then go back and do all the backgrounds at once. In this case, The environment in the first two panels was pretty well-integrated with the figures, so I inked that all at once. But there is some more background in panel 2 that isn’t done yet. You’ll note I haven’t even started pencilling the background in panel five.
More inking. I ink the fun stuff first, of course. No delayed gratification for me!
I wish I’d taken a picture of this page before I inked that background in panel five. You can see that the remaining backgrounds in panels two and three are finished now, too. I’ve also gone in with a ruler and reference and pencilled in the cabinet in panel six.
A closeup on the pencilled background of panel six. I inked in the balloon before drawing the background so I’d know exactly where it was.
Presenting the extremely accurate reference for the pistol in this sequence. Jon found it at a dollar store and thought I might be able to use it. I promptly broke the spring inside and it doesn’t work anymore. But it’s still decent reference! Once I got the gun out, I was also able to start work on panel seven, which I hadn’t started at this point. You can see that I’ve started roughing in the background in panel twelve, too.
Your cranium must be proteicntg some very valuable brains.
Stunning work!
What kind of ink and brush do you use?
I learned that pencilers who do their own inks use blue lead for the roughs–something I’ve tried myself–so that after inking, they just scan in greyscale and they save time on erasing/erasers. Is that something you’d recommend?
For this project I’ve just been using Pigma Micron pens (in the .03, .05, and .08 sizes) and a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen with Rapidograph Ultradraw ink.
I wrote this about four years ago or so; since then I’ve switched to a blue pencil and it is absolutely something I’d recommend. I use the Prismacolor Colerase pencil in light blue (which, oddly enough, disappears better than non-photo blue when I scan.)
Les. This looks great. What are the measurements of your actual panel borders? My best guess is an inch on the sides, an inch on the bottom and a half-inch on the top? Am I close? How wide are your gutters?
Also, when you scan with blue pencils these days, do you just scan as an RBG and remove the blue, or do you still scan in grayscale?
Wow, replying kind of late, but here are the answers to your questions:
I draw this comic very large. The pages are 18×24 inches, with two-inch margins on the sides and bottom, and an inch and a half at the top. The final live area is 14×21.5 inches. The horizontal gutters are either a quarter inch, or, for the center one, a half inch. I just eyeball the vertical gutters, so they’re all over the map.
When I work with blue pencil the scans are even easier. I scan in grayscale, and the scanner doesn’t pick up the blue at all. I find the Colerase light blue works slightly better than the non-photo blue.