Scratchboard!

Like me, you probably wake up every morning and say to yourself, "Why Not Scratchboard?".

As the manufacturer states - Paint on it. Draw on it. Scratch on it. Piss on it. Call it rude names - Scratchboard, or "Clayboard", provides a greatness of ease not found in any other working surface since God himself carved the Ten Commandments upon stone tablets on Mount Sinai with lightning bolts and lasers.

In fact, it is said, that after Moses broke the tablets in anger, God offered him two Scratchboard plates from the art store to "try again".



I had to do a quick Scratchboard demo for my class so I took these old clayboards that were sitting around collecting dust and I made these. As you can see, I lost patience with the "scratching" part of Scratchboard. And, I'll never be as good as Mark Summers. I have some scratchboard nibs, but Mark Summers only uses a #11 XActo blade and he's a MACHINE so I mostly used the Xacto. But I encourage everyone to give scratchboard a try. Here, I started with a fully inked plate and scratched out the Snoop Dogg type. With the buildings and explosions, I drew them with a tech pen and scratched out lines for windows and highlights and used steel wool for a softer drybrush effect.



On the Snoop Dogg figure, I stated with a plain white clay surface and I drew it with tech pen, brush and a Hunt 102 crowquill. Making corrections, highlights, and speed lines is super easy as long as you have a sharp Xacto blade. I ran out of time, but I'll put it away and work on it later.

The Singular Adventures Of My Sketchbook

I love teaching but after eight years of it, I'm getting burnt out and I want to take a little break this year and focus on my comics and craft. I've been teaching an Inking class and in the beginning of the semester we focused exclusively on line and stroke...ONLY. All the while, referring to the classic pen and ink masters- Howard Pyle, Thomas Nast, Daniel Vierge, Edwin Austin Abbey, Joseph Clement Coll, Charles Dana Gibson, etc. Reexamining these artists has greatly influenced my own work. Proceeding on, we explored other rendering techniques.

Here's some quick stuff I ripped from my "sketchbook" that I used to try out new materials and papers and inks. These aren't that great. These samples look exactly like the art I made as an undergrad at MCAD!


Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran
tech pen, brush,Wash with China Ink, old marker


I popped open an old Koh-I-Noor technical pen with year-old ink and it still worked. I did all the outlining in thin techpen to contrast the heavy blacks. I used the palm of my hand to spot some of the blacks.



Lilly Allen
Ink, collage



I've been doing all the one-layer-washes in Non-waterproof ink lately but I tried to do the lines in grayed-out Higgins Drawing Ink. I actually collaged the dress pattern on instead of Photoshop which I think looks better. I miss real collage. I'm getting more impatient with art-making which is not good. I used to spend 2 weeks doing a piece, now I only want to spend 2 hours.




Tricky
Tech pen, India Ink, Non waterproof, China Ink, chalk, acrylic, collage



This is a really unfinished demo. I used it just to experiment different layered media. This is why I like handmade over digital even though digital gets all the love these days. I bought my Adobe CS3 with my teacher discount but I'm going to wait a few months to install it so I can make friends with Photoshop 7 for just little bit longer. I'm scared of progress.

Tigers are Awesome

I took a break from the madness to draw animals and garden stuff at the Como zoo for 2 hours.Colered with Copic Markers.


I used this drawing to try out all my crowquill nibs from various manufacturers. I’ve been teaching an Inking class this semester at MCAD which Is going aw’right I guess. I had to test out all the classic nibs on the market before I demonstrated them—Brause, Gillotte, WM Mitchell, Leonardt Hiro, Speedball/Hunt, and all the Japanese nibs.



I’m going back to using more nibs, in accompaniment with brush, in my work like I did in Lucifer. I pretty much have all the basics covered with a Windsor Newton Brush series 7 #2 or #3, the G-Pen (Nikko, Tachigawa) and the Hunt 102. Although, I ‘m dabbling with other Kolinsky brushes because the WN has some occassional problems. I still use Faber Castell Pitt Pens for preliminary “dead” monoline outlining and then finish with the brush like how a lot of classic inkers work such as Al Williamson and Alex Toth. I like their Inking. Plus I use the Pentel Tradio Stylo pen but it's not water proof.

If you don’t have the G-Pen, get a Hunt 99. Damn, that’s a great pen. It’s not as fine–line as the 101 Imperial and the 56 School Nib but it has the perfect brush-like flexibility and it’s super fun to ink with.

When I practised on this Tiger, I used mostly a G-Pen, Hunt 99, Hunt 108, and a Gillotte 404 and 303 but I was trying a little of everything.

I Wish

Wacom Cintiq

Stop Wasting Your Life Away, You Fool

I'm dropping everything, EVERYTHING, in my life right now to do something I have to. I must do. Right Now. I don't want to do it, I NEED to do it. I've woken up E V E R Y morning for the past 6 years saying to myself, "Ryan Kelly, you HAVE to do this, NOW". I then I don't do it.

Everyone close to me knows what it is. My gallery name, The name of this blog, My flickr name, my ebay name, etc, etc,.. should all clue in to what it is. I need to mention that i'd rather fully write and draw 20 books rather than write a "pitch". But, Here I go. Character sketches, eearggh, Here i go. I got to get in the game, especially when i'm sitting on the most important thing I feel I'll ever do in my life.

In other news:

The best darn sketch pen (and extremely hard to find) Tradio pen by Pentel is now a prominently featured item at Wet Paint on Grand Ave, Saint Paul:



Pros: Everyone describes the "juicy" ink flow. Dries immediately on copy paper. Makes a great bold comic line.

Cons: It can take up to an hour to dry on comic bristol. Sometimes catches on the rough paper. The Pen itself is a little pricey. Refills there are $3.50 a pop.

My Magical Funhouse of Inking Horrors

Last week, Hope Larson talked about her inking tools during her presentation at the school. I got a buzz when I found out she uses the same tools as me, and I always love to hear tool and technique talk by other artists. The tools are of the comic artist are pretty common and inexpensive. I spend a lot more on materials when I'm painting.

Here's my Dollhouse of Inking delight. Behold. My Star Wars figures are normally propped up like that. It's workplace flair to brighten up my day. Some people have pictures of their children or a Gary Larson calendar; I have Han Solo and Admiral Akbar. I also have a complete 1980 Hoth playset from Empire Strikes Back in case you're interested in knowing that.




Here's what I use to ink most all my comics (See photo above, from left to right):

Windsor Newton Series 7 Brush #2
I used this for half the page duty on Lucifer. I switched to using it almost exclusively for the first few issues of Local. Now, I'm back to using it for about %50 of the mark making. The #2 size is superior to the #1 because it has a larger "belly", holds more ink, snaps back perfectly and makes the same point as a #1 while providing a thicker line as well.

The problem is, I go through WAY TO MANY OF THESE. And, I don't know why. Ink gets in the ferrule and the brush is useless forever. I do not overdip. I assume the problem is that I don't clean out my water enough and I'm swishing my brush in inky water way too long. If the brush makers of the Series 7 knew how many of these I go through, they would ring my neck. Every single one of these brushes are MADE BY HAND, very delicately, by experts, maybe 12 people, and no machines involved in the formation of the series 7 pure kolinsky sable hair into the ferrule and black lacquer barrel. It's a time consuming process and that's why the damn thing costs so much I guess.

THE G-PEN (Niko, Tachigawa)
This Japanese nib is my absolute favorite right now, hands down. And I've gone through a TON of nibs by Gillotte, Brause, Hunt, EsterBrook, etc, etc. I did a ton of nibwork in Lucifer, but then I stopped it on Local. Now, I'm back to using nibs because I miss the unique line that it makes, a line that's full at one end and not a cursive line like the brush. This G pen is amazing. It's large enough and flexible enough. and I can go back and forth with , side to side and it makes a nice full line for profiles. And. It's super durable! Love it.

HUNT 102
A standard nib in comics for a long time. The only other nib I seriously use. It's great for hatching and line patterns. It's dazzling on the smooth paper. I don't do back and forth strokes with it. It's a "drawing" nib and I realize every company has a nib equivalent to it but this one is my favorite.


PENTEL TRADIO STYLO
I found out about this pen through Peter Gross. Linda Medley also uses it, I believe.
It's non-water proof ink and it can take UP TO AN HOUR TO DRY ON BRISTOL PAPER. I kid you not. But, it dries instantly on copy paper. Bizarre. It's my secret weapon. Like a lot of Pentel (japanese) products, they're hard to find in the United States.


Faber-Castell PITT PEN
The felt tip sketch pens. Blah. I use them for some things. Some basic outlining. The Pitt Pens seem to last a long time for me.

THE PENTEL BRUSH PEN
This is the brush pen that everyone's talking about around town right now. I admit, It's pretty darn nice. A nylon tip, I suppose, but in no way can this replace the natural sable brush. It takes refillable ink cartridges (non-waterproof) but I've heard of inkers pouring their own ink in the empty cartridges. It's very convenient. I don't use it that much on my pages but it's great for traveling around with and sketching. Next to it is the Pump Pen by Ackerman pens. I'm not a big fan of it. and next to that, are my "Japanese Water brushes", one filled with ink, one with pure water. These can be fun and easy to use for sketching and spotting blacks or doing quick gray washes. They're about $6 a pop and they don't dry out. But they can be a little leaky sometimes. You can buy different tips.

I also use a lot of different India Inks. I don't have a clear favorite though.

I've been teaching an Inking class this semester so maybe I'll use this Blog to post some Inking tutorials. Fun!