But here's the twist: all the potential posts I presented in that particular poll (#alliteration) are the types of content I planned on presenting on my blog anyway. So while BTS takes top priority, don't be surprised if you stumble upon some movie and manga critique (not together, mind you) and the occasional bit of purple prose the next time you stop by my humble website.
And now, the moment you've all be waiting for! (Or at least 36% of you.) The first in a series of Behind the Scenes posts cheekily entitled Process Pool, in which I give you a look at the method to my particular brand of madness.
For the inaugural edition of Process Pool, I thought I'd show you the tools of the trade. In an age in which the touch screen tablet has all but replaced the Bristol board--and the stylus has no doubt put the pencil industry on suicide watch--I decided early on to keep it old school and go the traditional art route. Not for any loyalty to the Old Way, necessarily, but mainly because, while I can justify dropping the occasional $20 at Michaels or Hobby Lobby to restock art supplies, spending a grand on an iPad Pro or whatever newfangled technology the kids are using these days just isn't feasible at the moment--at least according to my wife's spot-on accounting. (And believe me, if I were left in charge of the finances, the cost of pursuing a fancy pants art career would be the least of our worries!)
So until the day I can afford to Get With the Times, I'll be creating my humble scribbles with the following items:
I mean it says it right there on the front: "Recommended by sequential art professionals and award winning artists." And while I don't think I'll be winning any Eisners any time soon for my amateur doodles, this 11X17 paper certainly gets the job done.
Ah, the non-photo-blue pencil pencil. The perfect tool if you don't want to waste time erasing all those pesky pencil lines. But here's a lesson I learned the hard way--you still have to erase them! As no doubt evidenced by my crude cartoons, I'm still very much in the process of learning all this "art" stuff, so imagine my shock when I scanned a completed page of inked artwork, only to discover that all those allegedly "non-photo" pencil marks still showed up in the scan! To be fair, they were faded to some degree, but I've since learned that the classic eraser is a loyal friend, and not to be afraid to scrub away those baby blue scribbles before digitizing. (Now this might be less of an issue if I was a bit more tech savvy and/or had the tried-and-true Photoshop to do some post scan tweaking, but until then I'm on the Blue Team.)
I've used the these three pen sets somewhat interchangeably for the various comics projects associated with this blog, and overall I'd recommend any one of them. Here are some observations about each:Pigma Micron - the cheapest and easiest to find of the bunch, these tried-and-true art pens are used by amateur and professional artists alike. In my experience they tend to run out of ink quicker than the rest, and provide a cleaner, less inky line.
Faber-Castell - while they're a bit more expensive than the Pigmas, I tend to prefer these Pitt pens as their thicker line weight benefits my simple art style. They last a long time, and I haven't had any issues with the point breaking, unlike the other two
Blackliner - I'm currently using these bad boys on my MILLENNIALS web comic, and they definitely get the job done. Compared to the dry, precise line of the Pigmas, these practically gush ink, and I have to be careful to let the lines dry lest I end up smearing black all over the page. They're by far the most expensive of the bunch, so when they run out I might have to switch back to the Pitt pens for budgetary reasons, but I'm definitely a fan
And there you have it! While I have other tools at my disposal (rulers, circle templates, lead sharpeners) these are the core of what I need to make my comics. Now I'm no professional, so take my observations with a grain of salt, but if you're looking for some guidance from an industry veteran, check out this video from Ethan Van Sciver (artist of Green Lantern and the upcoming CyberFrog: Blood Honey):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrRnRXtox90
If you have any questions or suggestions for upcoming editions of Process Pool, hit me up in the comments below, or on Twitter @cauldroncomics.
Thanks for reading!
--Michael Derrick
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