Finished a page that I started last year to test a gel pen brush in CSP, it’s not bad, just felt like penciling for a bit too.
A fun wee spread from my A5 sketchbook, I flatted it really quickly in CSP with the intention of trying out some colouring techniques sometime.
Couple of days late but why break tradition? Happy Alien daaaay! Party like it’s 2122!
Inspired by Russell Mark Olson’s Patreon I’ve been wanting to get back to drawing with ink again, specifically inking traditionally over blue line or non-photo blue on bristol board.
Alongside other work, Russell produces a page each week for Gateway City starting with pencil layouts before progressing to digital pencils that he prints as non-photo blue for inking.
Despite owning a large A3 printer I’ve never tried printing blue line comic pages. I’ve inked over non-photo blue pencil in the past but I haven’t looked seriously at a specific workflow for removing blue lines digitally from traditional inks.
I’m pretty sure Russell uses Photoshop to remove the blue line in his pages prior to colouring and I figured I’d be able to do something similar in Affinity Photo. There’s probably a macro or an obvious technique but I immediately hit a wall trying to achieve this.
I mostly use Clip Studio Paint these days and looked at it instead. Similarly, it’s not obvious how to remove blue line in CSP but I did find some basic tutorials on Pinterest/tumblr and also this helpful quick tips video from Celsys and Scott Drummond.
It’s prob not as efficient as the workflow in Photoshop but once I record it as an auto action I should hopefully save time on future pages.
I’ve been studying a page from Jeremiah by Hermann and thought it’d be useful to try the scanning prep quick tip on it and outline the steps here on the blog.
Remove blue line from comic pages using Clip Studio Paint
1. Import scan/image to CSP
2. Tone Curve
3. Hue/Saturation/Luminosity
4. Level Correction
5. Remove Dust
Although it’s not mentioned in the video, another great feature in Clip Studio Paint is the remove dust filter. There were a few small artifacts left over from the non photo blue and this removed them outright. Just adjust the dust size to eliminate any dirt, pencils, etc.
Pretty happy with the final result on this but it’ll be interesting to see how these steps affect dry brush, ink washes, etc.
If you’ve any other suggestions for removing blue line or some CSP tips I’d love to hear ’em.
I lucked upon a yellowed copy of Jeremiah this week in a local Oxfam stuck between a bunch of back issues that were probably donated by the FPI across the street. Published by Adventure comics (a division of Malibu Graphics) in the early 90s the book has a peculiar format but the art is unbelievably good.
The Belgian artist Hermann Huppen (better known as Hermann) is new to me but his work has clearly had a big impact and influence.
There’s not much available online about Hermann’s process or tools but I gleaned a few things from this video watching his effortless line and mastery with a brush, just incredible.
A few years back the black ink on my Brother DCP-6690CW stopped printing entirely. I hadn’t been using it regularly and thought at the time that the ink just dried out. This is a fairly common complaint about Brother printers and the black ink specifically. I purchased a head cleaning kit from Printhead Hospital, basically two bottles of cleaning solution supplied with a syringe and tube to be attached directly to the ink nozzles. It’s a good kit and the guys at printhead hospital were really helpful providing advice by email when the first cleaning failed. After a few more unsuccessful attempts I gave up and purchased a wee Epson XP-352 for some general printing and wedding invitations I was producing that week. I kept the Brother for the A3 scanner and the document feeder which still proved really useful.
It’s always irritated me that I wasn’t able to fix the Brother and at the end of last year I contacted a few local tech repair shops to see if anyone would look at it. Unsurprisingly it was a resounding no, most of the guys saying that printers have moved on, they’re much cheaper now or it’s just not worth it, etc.
It’s an old printer, I purchased it in 2009 for about £270 and I’d likely have to spend a similar amount to purchase a new A3 printer/scanner. Essentially, if I poked around inside and messed it up entirely I’d have nothing much to lose, I could always buy a shiny new model or just settle for the wee Epson.
I found this IFIXIT guide with detailed instructions on How to Unclog Brother Inkjet Print head Nozzles.
In practice it was actually pretty straightforward, the trickiest part was finding the time to work on it and after dismantling/reassembling the Brother a few times I started to feel pretty confident about repairing this thing.
I took photos at each stage for wire placements, etc., until I got the hang of stripping it down. The photos in the IFIXIT guide varied slightly and were simply too small.
I was initially quite precious with the printhead removal until I watched some footage of similar printers being stripped for parts and refurbished on Youtube.
Here’s the old printhead and ink damper after the initial cleaning. I had hoped that I could simply clean the head but ultimately realised after a few print quality checks that it was faulty and I’d need a replacement. I made an offer on a seller refurbished printhead and it arrived within a few weeks.
After installing the refurbished printhead the results from the first print quality check were less than encouraging.
It still wasn’t printing black but I figured there could be some air in the lines after disconnecting and then reconnecting the printhead. I used the head cleaning kit to flush the ink damper/printhead and also ran a purge operation in maintenance mode (details below).
Entry into the maintenance mode
| Function Codes | Function |
| 09 | Test Pattern |
| 76 | Purge operation |
| 99 | Exit from Maintenance Mode |
I made myself a cuppa before printing another quality check.
Much better, I breathed a sigh of relief and tried again after wiping excess ink from the print head.
At this stage I was hesitant to run any more purges as things were looking pretty good. Any more head cleaning would in all likelihood make the print quality much worse.
The print comparison from before and after shows a big improvement so overall, not a bad result, not perfect by any means but good enough for me.
The lesson here kids, use your printer regularly or you’re gonna have a bad time.
I don’t usually bother with end of year lists or top tens but I enjoy seeing other peoples books and pull lists so what the hell, why not? Not a comprehensive list of everything I read in 2022, just a few personal faves.
First up, Short and Curious by PJ Holden available on gumroad.
I know, I know… I’ve posted about this before but I bloody love it! I also wanted to show off the lil A5 copy I printed on the big old duplex copier at work… even dusted off my long arm stapler too.
The Essential Guide to Comic Book Lettering by Nate Piekos. While the book primarily focuses on using Adobe Illustrator there’s lot’s of useful guides and info. I’m really gonna have to make time to try out the stuff here and see if I can adapt the workflows in Affinity Designer.
Cyberpunk 2077: Blackout by Bartosz Sztybor and Roberto Ricci was a must-buy for me after seeing Roberto’s process posts on twitter.
The Dragon Path by Ethan Young was an absolute delight from start to finish. Some fanart is well overdue for this fantastic book.
Dream Fossil: The Complete Stories of Satoshi Kon. I’ve had this on my bed side table for the past year and have read it now at least ten times. The stories collected are simply phenomenal, from the eeriness of ‘Guests’ to the sheer joy of ‘Beyond the sun’.
Kroma by Lorenzo De Felici. One of my favourite books on the stands at the moment, Lorenzo is producing something incredible with Kroma.
SKYBOUND X has been on my pull list since it started and issue 25 was excellent. Battle Beast, Kirkman, Ottley, need I say more?
Ok, that’s enough of that, happy new year dweebs!
Started off the month by messing around with this skull from May 2022 in clip studio.
Can’t remember who recommended the [AA] Gel Pen on twitter but I’m loving the line, reminds me of MUJI Gel Ink pens.
Some pencils and a bonus skull that didn’t make it onto last months page.
I’ve been slowly adding to this page in clip studio during breaks at work. Mostly drawn using the default g-pen with some texture/tone here and there.
A quick page for #BatmanDay sketched in Procreate. Someday I’ll draw a grumpy Jim Gordon fan comic and maybe include Bane and the Bat fella.
I left the iPad at home and took a wee sketchbook on holiday to fill a few pages. I’ve been wanting to get back to drawing on paper again and it felt pretty good to ditch the undo gesture for a bit.
Here’s the raw inks:
Picked up a new pen from empik and a copy of RELAX #38 from the airport. Really impressed with the production and large format of RELAX, astounding work from Jakub Rebelka, Philippe Cazaumayou, etc.
