3/25/12 - Bob McLeod Workshop-Inking

Bob McLeod was in town last month for the first Lexington Comic & Toy Convention. This was a one-day show so we were able to host Bob (been wanting to do this since I met him at Baltimore Con in 2008) for a one-day comic art workshop the following day Sunday March 25th, 2012. He is a great artist and teacher - a rare combination - if you ever get the chance to talk or study with him take it!

Here are some inking samples I did before the workshop: one is from Bob's pencils and the other is from Ryan Sook's pencil art. These are both original inks on 11x17" Strathmore 400 Series 2-Ply Bristol. The scanner won't do a full 17" high but the width should be right on 11". Bob asked how long  I took on the Superman page and I told him (complaining that tech pen work took forever) and he told me I was going too fast! He said at this stage I needed to slow down and work on my line control.

6:30, bristol borad smooth,
Raphael 8404 #3, Hunt 102,
Rotring Rapidliners

3 hours, bristol board vellum,
W&N SS7 #2,
pro white splatter toothbrush

bristol board smooth, all brush,
W&N SS& #2 and #3

Here is another sample that I worked on during the inking portion of the workshop. It is not finished and shows the blueline print out of the pencils. It was quite different for me to have someone watching while I tried to do this (and I was pretty frazzled from being sick and stressed from con & workshop prep). I learned I have a ways to go to be able to make the smooth and controlled marks that Bob was able to demonstrate for us. I heard Bob say to slow down but I think I do better when I kind of "attack" the page. I definitely lost my confidence on parts of this page. Like so many things in life I suppose I want to find a "happy median".

I purposely chose this page because it was tough - lots of different textures. Smoke, shiny metal armor, leather jackets, and wood. Still trying to figure out how to render the lady cop's sunglasses lens. Maybe with a colored pencil?

One thing that I am curious about is if all inkers spin the page. Bob did do this and advocated using the same, away from your body, stroke for all your lines. I have seen other inkers, most notably Tim Vigil (as seen here on youTube doing a Conan sketch) who don't spin the page.

My natural inclination is to try and make the mark as if I am drawing the line from life. When I life draw I don't spin the page - painters don't spin the canvas (at least traditional media painters). Panel two was mostly from the seminar - while panel four was done after the fact (and without turning the page). So I am a little confounded about this spin/don't spin dilemma. I guess common sense is to do whatever you have to do to make the line you want, but to also work to have the dexterity to make the lines you want from different angles.

4/29/09 - Testing Strathmore Sequential Art Boards 500 Series

I met Barbara Faro, a Strathmore paper rep, a couple of years ago when she was visiting Lexington on vacation with her husband. She was kind enough to send to me a box of the sample papers from their new line of Sequential Art Bristol Boards and Wet Media Illustration Boards for our local comic creators group.

Here are three samples (5.25"x8.5") on their semi-smooth and plate 500 series boards. All were completed in April 2009. (Tools and material notes on image)

semi-smooth bristol, Gillott 404

semi-smooth bristol, W&N SS7 #2

plate bristol, W&N SS7 #2, Gillott 1950

Here is a link to a small watercolor illustration I did on the Wet Media Illustration Board sample.

06/27/06 - Comic - Digital - Painter IX

Believe it or not I taught a class on cartooning for high school students last summer (2006) at Berea College for a college prep program called Upward Bound. I guess if you do something long enough someone will eventually take you as some kind of expert (or as a wise friend said to me years ago: "In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king." Quite true Hemang, God rest your soul.)

They were a rowdy bunch and shook my confidence in my ability to teach the class - I won't do it again without a fixed computer lab (try handing out and taking up laptops every class, ughh!!). We created a blog and used Photoshop to computer color their hand drawn original comic strips.

As a demo for the class I created this little comic strip completely digitally using Corel Painter IX.

02/19/06 - Comic - TWD 1 roughs

This is Project 1 for a local Comics Creators Group I am a member of. The assignment was to rough out the first four pages of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead #1. He has a scriptbook out with the first several comic issues scripts.

These were done 1/4 final size or 3.75" x 2.5". This is the stage of drawing where you work out a lot of the logistical problems and should really be experimenting. These shoud be small but clear. It's easy to become attached to your layout if you put too much work into an early version. Don't always go with your first version. Save the detail for the final pencils. Otherwise you will lose a lot of life and energy from the layout to final pencils.

1993? - Comic - Watermelon

I'm having to kind of guess on the year for this one (Kids: always remember to put a date on your drawings!). Here's another complete comic page: all done by hand. Scanned in color so you can see pencil lines and everything. Other than the borders and the lettering, all inking done with a brush.

1980 - Comic - Silver Surfer & Thanos

One of my earliest attempts at creating a "professional" comic page: bristol board, india ink, 10"x15" image area.