FA+
Shop
588
Views
Views
42
Favorites
Favorites
Category
Artwork (Traditional) / Fanart
Species Vulpine (Other)
Size 1000 x 813
File Size 153.9 kB
Report this content
More from steamfox
Inspired by the delicate pencil works of Swiftcutter and my good friend Marc Schirmeister, (Schirm,) I'm going to try a little "Experiment" to see if I can produce a comic series using only pencils. Here's one of my first attempts at trying the media of graphite pencils, then cleaning them up through photoshop. Now the softest pencil I'll use is 4B, but even 2B has a bad smudge factor. I've seen people get ink like results using 6B pencils, but I'm sure with my heavy hands, I'd smear the whole lot before I'll get to the shading part. I'm open to suggestions and tips. By the way, I was listening to the soundtrack of "Fantastic Mr. Fox" as I doodled this. I was so delighted with the image, I just couldn't let it go.
Category Artwork (Traditional) / Fanart
Species Vulpine (Other)
Size 1000 x 813px
File Size 153.9 kB
I've found I can get the best overall range with a B pencil. Check the tooth of the paper because a rough tooth will pull off more graphite and carry it in "drifts" where it can be picked up and smudged. Fine tooth papers and even smooth bristol can give good results. To test a paper, simply draw some lines and draw your finger over it a number of times or use a burnishing tool to see if it smears too much.
Yeah I drew above art on that Canson "Biggie" sketch pad paper which is just a grade below that paper they give out to grade school children to learn to write on. Better yet, it's more like something between drawing paper and industrial paper towels. In short, MAN! Does it have "Tooth." I think the next time I'm gonna take your advice and use a smoother paper. Most the "Pros" I've seen use like hot press Bristol Board, but for my purposes that's a bit expensive.
Like the other folks said, the paper is important too. Another thing to try is a smudge guard. They come in two variants. One is a tube of plastic with elastic loops at each end that you put on your arm. They were common in office supply catalogs to protect one's sleeves from ink contamination when servicing printers and the like. getting harder to find nowadays. The other option is to put a sheet of something very smooth between the art and your arm. This can be a page torn from a glossy paper magazine or one of those flexible thin plastic cutting surfaces that are showing up in specialty kitchen stores. Those have the advantage of being more or less transparent, so you can sort of see the drawing through them. One artist I know just wraps his forearms with saran wrap, but that is mostly to protect his clothes from the still wet paint in case of accidental contact.
Good luck with the new direction, thanks for sharing with us.
Good luck with the new direction, thanks for sharing with us.
Yeah! I recall those "Draftman's Sleeve guards." They were pretty well going out of style by the time I took drafting in college. I used a "Slipper" of Parisain drawing paper on this image, which has the "See through" advantage you spoke of. I also have white cotton gloves, but I have to get used to drawing with them again.
Roy, I like this a lot. "Mr. Fox" is an awesome film in just about every way (to include an awesome soundtrack...) and I think your take on the characters of Felicity and Foxie himself well suits them, and gives these charming foxes even more so through your own style.
Meaning, more Mr. Fox art, please. :)
Meaning, more Mr. Fox art, please. :)
The "Eraser" and "Pencil" functions are my "Best Friends." I've also found in "Adjustments," the "Levels" feature, and putting the pointers to the centers of the peaks helps. Secondly, I fudge around in "Brightness-Contrast" (Also in Adjustments.) and set the brightness no more than 25% A lot I've learned by pushing buttons, and if the effect was unsatisfactory, I would use the "Edit" key and start all over again.
Quite often I will "ink" my drawings with just a very clean pencil line. I prefer an HB or harder as I tend to "bear down" a lot when drawing. I'll then scan the pencils and tweak the contrast and brightness in PhotoShop until I get what looks like an "inked" line. Most of the color stuff in My Gallery was done this way (off the top of my head, "The Wish", "Georgette-3", "Alexandra and Sebastian" and the Rock 'n' Roll vixen drawings were all created using this method).
I've also created comics entirely in #2 pencil, using the medium to produce various shading effects. An example of that is [/i]El-Ahrairah and the Homba S'karé[/i], also in my gallery (though the lettering in this version was done with PhotoShop). Smearing the pencils was definitely a problem while drawing this. Doubly a problem for me as I'm left-handed (which is why I usually ink the last panel first on a page). But, as an art teacher once advised me, "turn your mistakes into art." And many mistakes were actually incorporated into the final result of this Watership Down fanfic. Having a kneaded eraser handy was also a plus. And when done you definitely need to spray the art with some sort of fixative.
I also have the Fantastic Mr. Fox soundtrack. My favorite cuts are "Kristofferson's Theme" and "High-Speed French Train." Also note: The version of the Beach Boys' "Old Man River" is abbreviated, and there's one song heard during the end credits (sort of an uptempo version of "Mr. Fox in the Fields") that's not on the CD.
I've also created comics entirely in #2 pencil, using the medium to produce various shading effects. An example of that is [/i]El-Ahrairah and the Homba S'karé[/i], also in my gallery (though the lettering in this version was done with PhotoShop). Smearing the pencils was definitely a problem while drawing this. Doubly a problem for me as I'm left-handed (which is why I usually ink the last panel first on a page). But, as an art teacher once advised me, "turn your mistakes into art." And many mistakes were actually incorporated into the final result of this Watership Down fanfic. Having a kneaded eraser handy was also a plus. And when done you definitely need to spray the art with some sort of fixative.
I also have the Fantastic Mr. Fox soundtrack. My favorite cuts are "Kristofferson's Theme" and "High-Speed French Train." Also note: The version of the Beach Boys' "Old Man River" is abbreviated, and there's one song heard during the end credits (sort of an uptempo version of "Mr. Fox in the Fields") that's not on the CD.
Comments