Sunday, October 21, 2007

Page 6, Inked

Well, after a short hiatus and a trip to SPX, I'm back in business (so to speak) and putting some ink on the page. In fact, there's kind of a lot of ink on this page. And yet, I don't think it's quite dark enough. When I look at the fields of black in my scan, there are little flecks of white all over the place. I need a new device for spotting blacks. Anyone have any recommendations? I'm trying not to use a Sharpie because they discolor over time.

Anyway, here's what happens on page 6.


I think that both of the requirements I got out of Ben Towle's constraints for these pages fit in pretty organically. It was fun to set up that end-of-the-page "reveal," in particular.

While I was inking this page, I started thinking of the junkmen as "The Chicken" and "The Egg." I wonder which one of them is named Mutt?

Anyway, let me know what you think; I'll probably ink p. 7 early next week, so please be sure to take a look at it and offer me any comments or suggestions you might have.
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3 comments:

  1. MikeOctober 21, 2007 at 8:30 PM

    I like this a lot, Isaac--a good dark page. I'm also really keen to see what it will look like in color; the tier where Stepan magicks the glass could come alive in a cool way.

    Do I see a misspelling in panel 3, where it looks like "Selayy" instead of "Selavy"? If so, that's an easy fix.

    Finally, my hat's off to you for your ingenuity in suggesting a team of horses while showing as little horse as possible! Bravo!

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  2. Ben TowleOctober 22, 2007 at 11:23 AM

    Nice page! Looks like you guys nailed all of the constraints nicely, and are moving the story ahead to boot.

    As far as blacks go, I sometimes use an inked q-tip to lay down big areas of black. Maybe give that a try?

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  3. IsaacOctober 23, 2007 at 11:32 AM

    I've tried (and enjoyed) the Q-Tip trick. It's great for big fields of black. My problem is those fields that are too big for a pen but too small for a Q-Tip. (That page was drawn smaller than a sheet of typing paper.) I've been using one of those Pitt brush-pens, but they aren't really dark enough.

    I've got brushes and a water-soluble ink (Higgins Black Magic) that I use for linework, but it's not very dark, either, and fields of that stuff would probably wind up mottled. The ink that I use for nib pens (Higgins Eternal) is dark, but it's really gummy, and I'm pretty sure it would ruin a brush.

    My guess is that I'm just going to have to buy a brush I can devote to spotting blacks.

    Unless there's a better solution?

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