The Power of the pencil!

Look what a simple redraw can do. I was having a particularly bad drawing day and produced a panel that wasn't fit for print. A quick redraw later (I actually used the same reference for the figure in the centre/foreground for both versions, the background figures were drawn from my head) and the panel looks a lot better.

The second version (please don't judge me on the first) was inked using the new brush pens I reviewed last week. I've updated that review with these width comparisons (the update has the name of each brush used:

In other news:

• Insomnia Publications (publishers of Cancertown) have big plans for the BICS this October (less than three weeks away!). They're launching Burke and hare, Milk, and Buskers original graphic novels. They also have unbeatable special prices at the Insomnia table for all their current and books. I urge you to check out their blog here for more information and a lot more insight and previews of the upcoming graphic novels.
• Nic Wilkinson, Insomnia's creative director and letterer for Cancertown and Slaughterman's Creed has been interviewed by the girls at the comic racks podcast. Lots of insight not only the creative but the editorial side of comics publishing. I'm mentioned a few times as well :)
• Go and support your Irish Artists by voting for Will Sliney and Dave Hendricks The Symptoms over Zuda comics. It's well worth your vote (some lovely art and great characters) and they need votes if we want to see more.
• Speaking of Podcasts, I had the pleasure of meeting Stacey Whittle of Small Press Big Mouth podcast, of which I'm a regular reader, and Lee Robson, who has just signed his GN Babble with Insomnia, when I was over at newcastle (England, not the place with the bumper cars) this past week with Aimee. Great comic chat with lovely people.

The trip to newcastle was incidently why there was no Wednesday blog this week (no internet connection at all), but back to a regular schedule now...

New Tools

Last week I showed a concept image of a character from the Bob Heske's 2012 anothology and here's a preview of how she will appear in the actual comic.

Somewhere near the end of the first chapter of Cancertown I switched from pen to using almost exclusively brush for inking, but for the 2012 anthology I wanted to try pens again to see if I could get a tighter finish. The above picture was created with the following tools:

On the far left is the Pentel mechanical pencil I use drawing the foundations. Its got a nice rubber grip which in addition to being nice to hold, doesn't roll off the slanted board I draw on. You won't see any pencil in the above picture as it's all erased after the ink is put down.

In the middle is a Faber-Castell Pitt indian ink Brush pen. It's. This used to be regulated to drawing panel borders, but it's become my new favourite tool. It's actually a sort of pen/brush hybrid, combining advantages of both. The tip is flexible and now that I have a bit more control over it enables you to vary the line width a good bit, but the tip is a good bit firmer than the normal brushes I use thus being easier to control and it also doesn't need to be dipped in ink constantly so its quicker to use.

On the right is a Rotring pigmented ink pen. I just picked this up a couple of weeks ago in Bradbury Graphics in Belfast. They had just found an old batch out the back and were selling them for £1.99 so thought I'd try one. Its got a nice flow to it, but with all pens it's only really got one width to the line.

I'll probably end up going back to the brush as the pen line can often come out a little monotonous (if that word can apply here) when I'm not careful. I'll do a post and show the brushes/ink I normally use another time.

What I'd really like is a brush pen that comes in a variation of sizes so that I could get in to the small areas without having to worry about applying to much pressure and ruining the piece. If anyone knows if these exist let me know :D