From: [i--ru--r] at [cats.ucsc.edu] (Isaac Truder)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.info
Subject: Rob Davis Comics Career Article 2 of 9
Date: 1 Sep 92 08:02:26 GMT

A Mr. Rob Davis, comics aritst, has written a number of articles on the
subject of breaking into the comics business and conducting your business
once you're in.  He has recently personally given me permission to
disseminate his articles to the Internet (they were previously available on
CompuServe).  These articles originally came from a publication called the
Comics Career Newsletter.  Here is the second, this time for inkers:



                     THE GUY WITH THE DIRTY FINGERS
 
                              By Rob Davis
 
 
    Two aspiring comics creator were standing in line at a convention.
One of them turns to the other and asks, "How can you tell an inker
from a penciler?"
 
    The second guy smiles and says, "The inker's the guy with the dirty
fingers."
 
    What is an inker?  He's the guy (or gal) that makes the penciler's
drawings printable.  He's the guy that gives the artwork that extra
something.  Ask several comics inkers what they do and you're likely to
get three wholly different answers.
 
    So what do you have to do to become and inker?  It really isn't much
different from a penciler's labors.  It takes practice.  Study inkers
that you like, analyse what they do to give you that feeling of texture
and emotion in their work.
 
    No matter what tool(s) the inker uses to do it, his job is to bring
to life on the page in a reproducable manner the intent of the writer
and the artist.  Mood, lighting and the feeling of the book depend very
much upon what the inker does.  A "competent" inker will merely darken
in the lines drawn by the penciler. A truly great inker will add
something extra to the work without taking anything away.
 
    As far as tools go, anything that does what you want done is best.
Personally, I prefer to do most of my inking work with a brush (#2 sable
for me) since it gives me a thick, fluid line varying from a hair-fine
line to a thick, bold stroke but anything (and I mean anything) is fair.
As I understand it, Dick Giordano likes a brush for the same reasons.
Other inkers use a pen almost exclusively.  Terry Austin, for example,
uses only a pen.  Still other inkers use a mixture of the two,
experimenting with different combinations until they get the desired
"feel" that they're looking for.
 
    Inkers have been known to save old, worn-out brushes for uses as
special effects.  I have an old oil painting brush that I keep handy
because when the ends of the bristles are soaked with black ink it makes
wonderful tree branches with leaves.  I've also used rubber cement as a
"resist", applying it in ribbons and swirls and then, using an
ink-soaked Q-tip, I apply a black area over the "resist".  With a little
practice and control this makes a great effect for swirling smoke in a
darkened room or any number of similar phenomenae.
 
    Crow-quill pen tips, sponges, fingers, cotton balls, paper towels,
tooth brushes ... the list is endless.  Experiment.  Learn to make a
"mistake" into a tool.  Just remember that whatever you do it must be
black.  Grey washes are not going to reproduce properly with the normal
printing process used in today's comics.  (There are exceptions to this
-- some black and white comics are using grey washes.  This is usually
reserved for special books as it adds and extra step in the printing
process.)
 
    After all this you say you still want a recommended minimum list of
tools?  For what it's worth here's mine:
 
 
1.  Two good #2 sable brushes.  The first is for black ink, the second
    is for corrections in white.  All the pro's I talk to rave about
    Windsor-Newton.  What I do is to go to a store where they have their
    brushes on display where I can get to them.  I take the #2 sable
    brushes I find and twirl them in my mouth (yeah, I know, it sounds
    nasty), soaking the bristles and getting a razor-fine point.  If the
    brush doesn't come to a satisfactory point I don't buy it.
 
2.  A crow-quill pen point and holder.  These are cheap and real handy.
    It takes a page or two of work to get one flexible enough to get the
    variance in line that I like, so I keep several points on hand and
    work each one until it's ready for regular use.
 
3.  A set of three or four different width technical pens.  For a good,
    solid even width line these can't be beat.  I think Mars-Staedler
    makes the best and easiest to use.  These pens aren't cheap so you
    may want to purchase only one or two pens to start and add to your
    collection as you can afford it.
 
4.  A good supply of Higgins "Black Magic" waterproof ink.  Make sure
    it's "Black Magic".  Plain India ink doesn't always go down on the
    paper totally black, it sometimes comes out grey.  Remember, it has
    to be BLACK!
 
5.  Some form of "white-out".  I use gauche.  It's a water-based paint
    that comes in a tube in many different colors.  For this use, of
    course, you'll want white.  Check your local arts supply store, they
    should have it.  It will cover most any waterproof ink, but remember
    that if you use a water-based ink it will bleed thru the gauche and
    your corrections will be worse than the mistake!
 
6.  A straight-edge.  I recommend you get two: a triangle and a
    triangular ruler (like an engineer's or architect's ruler).  If you
    can only afford to get one, get the triangle, you can use it with
    the technical pens.  The triangular ruler is really nice for making
    straight lines with a brush.  Holding the ruler in one hand resting
    one of the edges on the paper and holding the brush against the top
    edge of the ruler, you can slide it down the edge making a straight
    line.  Varying the pressure of the bristles can give you some really
    nice effects.  You can do the same thing with a flat ruler but it's
    harder to keep steady.
 
7.  A flat surface to work on.  I picked up an adjustable drawing board
    on sale many years ago but you can use any flat board or table top
    available to you.  Find a surface that's comfortable for you.
 
8.  Q-tips.  I read in a book once where an artist used them to fill in
    large areas of black.  I tried it and liked it.  Any brand will do.
 
 
    Okay, now you've got all this stuff to work with but where do you
get the pencils to ink?  There are a couple of ways to take care of this
problem.  Each have their merits and faults.  You can ink your own
pencils or some aspiring penciler's work, but unless they're up to
professional level you're not learning as much as you could.  The best
way to do samples is to acquire photocopies of a professional's pencils
and ink on translucent vellum laid over them.  Where do you get them?
That's the problem.
 
    You may be able to get photocopies of a penciler's work from the
artist or the company.  Try writing to the company/artist politely
asking if they might send you photocopies to pracitce on.  This might
work, but I wouldn't count on it.  Your best bet is to talk to a
penciler or inker at a convention.  If you hit it off with him and he
has copies available he may give you some.
 
    There's a real Catch-22 involved here that is very hard to overcome.
You're most likely to get photocopies if you can show you're a competent
inker, but how do you become competent without the copies to practice
on?  You may have to work on another aspiring artist's pencils until you
reach some level of competence.
 
    Just as with penciling you must keep in mind that it will take
months and perhaps years of practice.  Compare yourself constantly with
what you see in comics.  If you can, acquire some pages of original art.
Since the originals are reduced to about 65%, what you see on the page
of the comic looks very different in original size.  If you examine the
originals very closely you can pick up some ideas about how the inking
was done.  Compare them with the printed page and see how certain
techniques change in reduction.  It would be even nicer if you could get
copies of the same pages in penciled form, but you'll probably have
better luck finding a haystack needle.
 
    Most of the same rules that apply to penciling also apply to inking,
naturally.  Comics story telling is conveying information.  To do this
well things must be clear and convincing.  Learn to apply blacks and
"cross-hatching" or Zipatone (reproducable grey areas on clear adhesive
film) to give the art a feeling of depth and three dimensions.  Study
lighting and shading for dramatic effects.
 
    Be aware that creating a sensation of movement, where necessary, is
important.  Comics panels are a series of "still" pictures; if a panel
calls for dynamic movement you, as an inker, will be called upon to make
the movements clear and readable.
 
    It isn't necessarily important that an inker be well versed in
anatomy and perspective but it can be a plus.  Be prepared, you may be
called upon to do corrections on a penciler's work.
 
    I can't say enough about going to conventions and talking with
editors and other artists.  You can send samples to companies from now
'til doomsday, and not get a pinch of the advice you'll get from
actually speaking to someone at a convention.  The professionals come to
these cons with the expectation of seeing tons of material.  Remember --
most of them were on the other side of the table at one time.  Many will
be quite happy to look at your work and give helpful critique.  The
admission price to the convention will be payed back many times over the
useful suggestions and advice you'll get from them.
 
 
RECOMMENDED READING LIST:
 
"Comics and Sequential Art", by Will Eisner; "How to Draw Comics the
Marvel Way", by Stan Lee and John Buscema;  "Dynamic Figure Drawing", by
Burne Hogarth; "The Marvel Comics Try-Out Book", Marvel Comics Group.
 
 
 
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
| This article is Copyright (c) 1992 by Rob Davis.  The author is a
| feelance artist whose work has been seen under a number of different
| company logos.  His professional comics career started with SYPHONS
| #7 from NOW Comics, as a letterer.  He also lettered RUST #'s 1 and
| 2 and penciled, lettered and inked DAI KAMIKAZE!.  At Malibu
| Graphics Rob has penciled and inked several projects.  Among those
| were SCIMIDAR and MERLIN.  For Innovation Rob penciled STRAW MEN,
| MAZE AGENCY, and QUANTUM LEAP.  At Rip-Off Press Rob penciled,
| lettered and inked THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN NEMO.  At Marvel Comics
| Rob penciled theee issues of Hanna Barbera's PIRATES OF DARK WATER.
| At DC Comics Rob has penciled STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, and
| STAR TREK (one issue each as fill-in, so far).  All this as of
| September, 1992.




--
-Hades (Brian V. Hughes) 
	    "Egads! These look like a women's fingerprints"
						   -- Durlock Holmes