I tried out a Tombow brush pen this week and it’s pretty great, nice line variation from thick to thin but just a little too chunky for the small stuff. I added some details and hatching with a carbon pen and some uni-pin fine-liners. After scanning and removing the blue line, the carbon pen lines are much clearer than the uni-pins. It’s also much easier to ink with the carbon pen, something akin to a dip pen without all the dipping.
Been squeezing in some true grit texture supply brush tests from their free sampler. I’ve had this seriously generous collection of goodies resting in my inbox for a while, glad I finally imported ’em.
Heres some of my favs so far:
Something just kind of clicked with the rusty nib brush especially, love the line variation and the rough paper feel. Might be my new favourite inker… just don’t tell real g pen.
Sketched the Finnish rapper and singer Käärijä in procreate after he melted the stage at the Eurovision semifinals, not a great likeness but I had fun.
I attempted #draweurovision but it’s pretty relentless, I only managed quick pencil sketches of a handful of artists, I’ve no idea how the brilliant Dan Berry manages to draw everyone and add watercolours every year.
A few more sketches of the awesome Käärijä.
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!
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.
Declan Shalvey recently posted this panel from his creator owned comic Old Dog starting an inking challenge on twitter:
It’s been fascinating to watch the various approaches to this single panel and I couldn’t help but think of 99 ways to tell a story when I saw each new interpretation throughout the past week or so.
Anyway, it’s been getting a wee bit quiet here on the blog so thought I’d post up my attempt in pencils from a few nights ago.
Old Dog is out on Aug 31 Sept 28 and looks great so be sure to check out issue zero and subscribe to Dec’s newsletter.