Added 1 new A* page:End of episode 20!
Trying out a new inking method, too--well not entirely new, because I used pens for parts of the ink work way back around episode 16--line detail on the back of the rocket there, for instance. But this time around I'm using different pens--these are Rotring Tikky Graphic pens, which have a much "juicier" line than most "fineliner"-type markers, which means that I can make big drawing motions and the ink flow keeps up with my hand, rather than skipping--and I'm going to try to use them in a more stylistic, expressive way, sort of like some of what I did when I was working solely in pencil last episode. With a bit of practice I think they'll give me a nicer line quality than what I've been able to get with brushes--and I'll still be using brushes for certain effects, and big black areas; I didn't use any brush in today's page because it's sort of a dissolve to white, so I kept it light.
Speaking of which, I wasn't quite sure what line width pen I wanted to start with in today's image--I have these pens in 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, and 0.8 mm tip sizes--so I did a test sketch with the 0.5, sighting from the pencils, approximating the same scale:
I decided that was a bit too thick, and went with the 0.3 for the main outline instead. In retrospect, though, I think I'll mostly use the larger sizes for main figures like that, get a bit of a bolder look. And I like the expressive lines of the sketch; my final pages almost never seem to come out with that same freedom, I suppose because I cramp up or I get too locked into following the pencils closely. Maybe I should actually do the final inking not directly over the pencils, but on a separate piece of paper, just sight sketching from them. Hm. I suppose I could give that a shot, after all it just costs a sheet of paper.
Speaking of paper, it was sketching in my sketchbook, a little 5"x7" Robert Bateman thing with thick and soft 110 lb recycled paper--I got a bundle of these back in high school, and this is one of them, which makes it like 20 years old! still looks like new, though; I never used them much aside from a sketch of a tower in Scotland (or was it Ireland?) and people at the airport on my trip over there...no idea what I did with those sketches. Anyway what I meant to say was that it was sketching in that sketchbook with the pens over the weekend especially that convinced me I should give it a try for A*, they just had a great feel and nice solid line on that paper. So I wasn't too surprised when I tried them on my regular A* paper--Canson Bristol--and they didn't work as well, I guess because the purpose of Bristol is to be hard and smooth, whereas a softer, slightly fuzzy paper is what will take marker lines much more effectively: paper like the sketchbook! So I looked and wouldn't you know, they come in a whopping 14"x17" size, just right for an A* page (actually two, slicing it in half), and the art store across town had them in stock!
Lucky day, I thought, rushing over there. Until, paused in some unexpected traffic, I noticed a carload of gaily caparisoned people disembarking in an adjacent parking lot, their color familiar--the colors of our local football team, in fact...because oh yeah, today they were playing on Monday Night Football, in the stadium that happens to be right between me and the art supply store. Noooooo. Kickoff wasn't for two and a half hours, but it still took me two hours to make the 14-mile round trip there and back. : P
Anyway I got the paper (and at least our team stomped the opposition something fierce : PP). It's nice! It's actually darker than the 20-year-old version in my smaller notebooks, although it's actually kind of easy on the eyes, a nice neutral light gray rather than the slight off-white yellow that even the whitest papers usually are. And it takes the pen lines just as thirstily and solidly as the old stuff, which is the main thing.
So, I think this will be fun. Might also be a life-saver for the next episode--starting tomorrow!!--because it's going to have a lot of very bright scenes, and I was a little worried about trying to get that across with brushwork alone, which easily gets a bit heavy. (Actually, come to think of it, what really convinced me to give pens another try was that I finally gave way to temptation and picked up another Pentel Pocket Brush brush pen over the weekend, figuring it'd be handy for brushy sketching--and found that it was too brushy, and smushy, and just way less impressive results-wise than I'd been getting with the pen sketches.) Episode 21 will involve some almost literal shark-jumping, so, you know, why not go for it!
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