
For this work, I scanned in the ancient photocopies of some of my college work, printed them in a very light grey on the Canson paper, and now I have a pristine surface that is ready to be inked and have additional pencilling done on it if need be. If this was a comic page, I would be doing the same process with my rough layouts being enlarged and printed instead.
Following this part of the process, I use Faber-Castell PITT artist pens. I tend to use the range of grey brush-tips that they make, starting with WarmGrey III 272 and then Cold Grey 232, and a dark grey (235). I use the black brush-tip as well as the black size XS pen tip (the smallest size). The panel borders are done with a black size S pen tip.
What make these pens so extraordinary is the fact that the PITT artist pen's ink is waterproof and does not bleed or smear when I lay washes of opaque watercolors over my ink lines. The pens also allow for the paint to absorb into the paper under the ink, which waterproof India Ink resists. If I want to add additional lines (and I always do) over the washes once they've dried, the pens do this with ease. I always use a blowdryer between washes for technical work to speed up the drying process.
This brings me to the paint I use on all my illustration work: Pelikan Opaque Watercolors (24 set). On images like this, I use only the black and mix it with a tube of "Zinc White" Windsor Newton Designers Gouache when I want an opaque grey. For images like this, where I'm not doing large washes, I use a round-tip Cotman watercolor brush size 2 or 3.
I also use that same tube of white to hatch into darker areas and line with white using a small round-tip watercolor brush size 0.
The image above is on a 9 inch by 12 inch sheet of the Canson paper.
It's great seeing you ink yourself after all these years. Just seeing your two works side by side; it's mindblowing to see where you were and where you are now! Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Vin. I feel the same way when I see your work. It's great to hear that from someone who was there when I drew the original version!
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