Guess what finally came into the mail today?
Grant Morrison: Talking With Gods (DVD)! I am sooo stoked!
“I am not the god of your fathers. I am the hidden stone that breaks all hearts.”
I’ve been making quick studies to improve the look of some of the charecters. Here is one I did for the daemon, Brablith.
So I have recently contacted Nick Mullins and asked him for some pointers. One of the things he threw out as a suggestion is to make sketches from film stills as a study in composition. Here is a blog he wrote about it: http://www.nijomu.com/?p=91
It is a good exercise indeed and here are a few of my sketches:
Wishing you Mastery w/o Tears,
Rick
While searching the internet for information on pen nibs I came across these incredibly helpful entries by Nick Mullins:
http://www.nijomu.com/?cat=37
After reading some of his descriptions of various nibs I decided to buy a few. I have been using a hunt 101 (and sometimes the 102) for as long as I can remember but after reading the blog linked above I bought the hunt 100 (that day in town) and ordered the brause 511, brause ef 66, and gillott 303 online (at paperinkarts.com).
Well, it was love at first line with the hunt 100. It is now my favorite nib! It may be cheaply made and easily damaged but it is incredibly dynamic and can produce a huge range of lines from very thick to very thin.
When the other three nibs arrived, they came with two dollars cash and a marker that I didn’t order. The store had compensated me because the shipping cost was lower than what I had paid (due to the order consisting only of nibs). I found this to be nothing short of incredible. I’ve ordered tiny things on ebay and from private sellers on amazon.com that ran between four and seven dollars in shipping. I know that on ebay, jacked up shipping prices add to the sellers profit, so some of the sellers are over-estimating the cost on purpose. But the good people at Paper & Ink Arts seem incapable of enjoying benefits that come unfairly. Bully to you, Paper & Ink Arts!
Anyway, I have only tested the gillott 303 (as I need different holders to test the other two) and I like it a lot. It has a range of line thickness comparable to the hunt 100 but it is a bit more sturdy. With this sturdiness comes a downside however. The gillott 303 is slower to bend and so it takes more effort to go from thin to thick, which makes it more difficult to transition between thick and thin in a short space. I think I may like the hunt 100 more, but I can’t really know until I put in a significant amount of hours behind both pens.
If you love pen and ink you should definitely check out Nick’s blog posts. http://www.nijomu.com/?cat=37
Until next time, seek mastery,
Rick
This is the “studio art” side of my workspace, where I do my penciling and inking. The other side is the “digital art” side, where I do my coloring. The digital side doesn’t look nearly as interesting!
I’ll be traveling to the city this weekend to check out this year’s MoCCA Fest. I’ll be there on Saturday bright and early and in time to see the first panel which looks awesome and hilarious.
I am also going to try and get a signed sketchbook by Dresden Codak creator, Aaron Diaz.
I forgot about the MoCCA fest until a day ago, so I didn’t have time to gather any real materials. I DID however, create some DYI advertisement cards! I’m going to be handing these out to fellow comic creators with a sincere appeal for them to check out my young web venture.
Well, my barely-existent audience, I have to go and sketch some things out for DMS now!
Seek Mastery,
Rick