Some people like to do the same thing over and over again. And others love to try new things.
I’m in the latter group.
I’ve been watching some videos recently on inking comic books and decided to learn how to do this. No, I’m not going to produce a comic book anytime soon, although maybe someday down the road I might consider it.
For now though, just a hobby. It’s fun to do.
Yesterday, I was hanging with an old friend of mine and we ended up at Blick’s art store. This Canson’s Comic Book Art Boards caught my eye and it was an impulse buy.
Last night, I got around to trying it out and let me just say – it’s a dream! 150 lb paper so it’s even slightly thicker than normal watercolor paper. It takes drawing and erasing very well.
It’s also even more smooth than hot press watercolor paper. So yes, definitely great for drawing.
As for inking? Yes, it’s even easier to ink on this than hot press watercolor paper. You could tell that this is what it’s made for – drawing and inking.
The only drawback is it’s not cheap. They come out to almost a dollar a sheet (or board) and there’s 24 total in a book.
I like the size – 11″x17″. It’s seriously tempting me to produce a comic strip.
This is Sophia in a dragon sacrifice pose, a tribute to the 1981 film Dragonslayer. A movie that bombed in the box office but later became a cult classic. I was fortunate to see it in the theater and it’s one of the darkest movies Disney ever produced. It’s actually weird it had the Disney name on it as you saw a dead princess getting eaten by baby dragons.
Now, if I’m going to take creating a comic book seriously, I’ll have to up my game in inking. I know inking enough to work with my watercolors, but not nearly enough to produce a comic book.
I used simple hatch shading and only a Pigma Micron 005 pen. That pen is perfect for watercolors but if I’m not mistaken, the comic book pros use either ink brushes or quills. They’re very old school when it comes to inking but for a good reason – they know what looks best.
They also use inking for better shadowing techniques. You’ll notice I’m only using one size lines whereas they have all these rules about line thickness for depth and for shadows. I haven’t learned how to do that yet. I’m just using simple hatch shading.
But this is just an article on the tool itself, which in this case is the paper. If you’re using it for simply drawing, it’s a bit expensive for that. My practice drawings are on copy paper which is cheap. These run almost a dollar a sheet.
But yes, drawing on it though is a dream. Nice and thick and very flat. Both draws and erases great and takes ink perfectly. It’s really tempting me to actually try my hand at creating some comic book art!
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