DC Conspiracy[dots pattern]

12.31.2005

The Small Presser, No. 22: "The Black Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of"

D.C. Conspiracy colleague Jacob Warrenfeltz, who handles art duties on The Alberic Heresies, shares his experiences on inking.

When Matt told me that his next installment of The Small Presser would be about the importance of inking, I thought he was really onto something. When he told me that he wanted me to write, I thought he was just on something.

Though I have learned a lot about inking in the past year, I'm no writer. So, here goes nothing.

As an exhibitor, the first convention I attended was Ithacon 2002, which is a small show, but really receptive to new people. There were a handful of comics legends there that year, including none other than Jack Kirby's inker, Joe Sinnott. The idea of meeting Sinnott was like meeting a living, breathing piece of our medium's history.

I approached his table during the convention, looked at some beautiful prints and original art that he was selling (though, sadly, my broke ass couldn't afford anything) and handed him the fresh, off-the-presses comic that represented my first ever published work. (What can I say, at 27 I was a late bloomer.)

Joe looks it over immediately and says, "Not bad, kid, but whatcha use to ink this stuff?"

"Uh, a felt tip pen and a sharpie?" I thought he was going to have a stroke or something.

His whole head turned beet red as he grunted out, "Damned kids! You gotta use a brush. You got that? A BRUSH!"

The rest of the con was a blast, but something in his words stuck with me the rest of that day. When I started working on my next short story, I switched to inking with nibs. I talked to some other artists and got some understanding of line width. After finishing another dozen or so pages, I felt like I really started to understand it.

Around this time someone showed me The Studio, a book about the art studio that Berni Wrightson, Jeffery Jones, Barry Windsor-Smith and Michael Kaluta shared in the '70s. I've always been a huge Wrightson fan, and there's a photo of him working on one illustration for his illustrated version of Frankenstein. Here's just one of the many examples:

Berni

Oh yeah, in this photo, he's creating this piece of work with a brush.

As time progressed, I became more comfortable with nibs, but I heard from others about REAL line control. To get that, they said, you had to use a brush. The notion intrigued and terrified me at the same time. I picked up some books on inking, and placed them on my shelf, where they collected dust for a few years.

big inks thinks

So, anyway...

At the beginning of 2005 some fantastic comics folks had a writers' discussion at a Barnes and Noble bookstore in Arlington, Va. One of the speakers, Carla Speed-McNeil, creator of the indie comic Finder, mentioned how artists will buy instructional books and then stick them under their pillow at night, as though these techniques could be mastered by osmosis. For whatever reason, her words just completely stuck with me. I went home and read the books. I made the switch to brushes, and since then, I think I have grown a thousand percent over the last year.

DC inking

All that said, brushing is obviously not the only way to ink. This year, I sat beside this impressive cartoonist at the D.C. Counter Culture Festival and watched him crank out some great drawings with just a Sharpie. Everyone uses different tools. The key to inking is: don't be afraid to try new things as an artist. You will always find new ways to grow if you are flexible and open-minded.

Believing that there is only one way to ink will only validate someone else's work. If you are trying to pay homage to someone, or a specific methodology or technique, then have at it. However, don't feel that felt tips, light tables or Photoshop are shortcuts or cheating. This is art. There is no out-of-bounds, or at least the playing field is wide enough that you can try whatever comes to mind.

That, and Joe Sinnott is a really scary dude... I swear he looked just like Barry the Baptist from that Guy Ritchie movie.

Dembicki at 12:07 PM  |  link to this   

2 Comments

Wrightson is the Man. Frankentein, Creepshow, Swamp Thing, Batman...it all rocks.

Here's a good recap of Wrightson's career...
http://www.stevestiles.com/wrights.htm

Blogger Dembicki at 12/31/2005 7:46 PM   

As you know, I ink primarily with nib pens and do all my color with brushes.

It really does just come down to matching what is in our heads to what eventually is finalized on the paper. I have found that nibs and brushes do have almost the same result for me, with the major exception on my part being that I hate the way the brushes get used up so quick with my favorite ink, black magic.

Blogger Deb at 1/03/2006 11:28 PM   

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