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Joe Smith
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Posted: 07 July 2022 at 2:05am | IP Logged | 1 post reply

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Steven Queen
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Posted: 07 July 2022 at 2:30am | IP Logged | 2 post reply

Whoa!  Who is that?
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Joe Smith
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Posted: 07 July 2022 at 3:00am | IP Logged | 3 post reply

A rather grotesque Granny Goodness 😬
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Joe Smith
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Posted: 07 July 2022 at 9:17pm | IP Logged | 4 post reply

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Steven Queen
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Posted: 08 July 2022 at 3:54pm | IP Logged | 5 post reply

Another weird/messy doodle (no reference) resulting from trying to find the appropriate level-detail at which the half-tones should vanish for the female face. 

I should probably stop posting these half-baked cookies.




Edited by Steven Queen on 08 July 2022 at 6:37pm
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Steven Queen
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Posted: 08 July 2022 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | 6 post reply

To continue with the experiment a bit more...this is the part that is the most elusive to me: INKING.

Converting those rendered half-tones from the pencil into something that is just lines of pure black is becoming (in the digital age) a lost art.

In the Renaissance, folks like Albrecht Dürer, made woodcuts of mind blowing-ly finely spaced lines to create book illustrations.

At the end of the 19th Century, during the so-called Golden Age of Illustration, you had people like Franklin Booth apply a similar style to the lithgraphic printing process.

I don't fully understand the technological limitations of the comic book industry when Mr. Byrne started, but I guessing it was not possible (except in magazine formats like Epic Illustrated?) to reproduce pencils.  But folks like Bernie Wrightson, with his Frankenstien line work, showed everyone that that older style could still be beautiful.

So with TRUE inking, there is this additional step, right?  A decision to be made as to how the shaded pencil tone is to be reproduced in ink.  If it's past a certain threshold into the "dark"  it just gets made black.  Other wise cross-hatched...then just hatched (using the contour of parallel lines to show form)...less and less densely until the lighter tones get completely left off the page.  Like so:



I think perhaps inking is the hardest skill of all to master.  Certainly it's the most painstakingly slow (if done well).  So many decisions to be made, and if done with real ink---so fatal the mistakes!  I struggle with it.

Of all the inkers of Mr. Byrne's work I've seen, I think his own hand was the best  (that FF cover of Invisible Woman on issue 245 always comes to mind for some reason).  That makes sense too---he understood the scene better than anyone.

Also, I think the inkers of today are at a disadvantage.  Folks in the mid 20th century had the advantage of watching black & white movies to see how others used lighting to make up for the lack of color.  How shadows can create drama, etc.

All in all, is does make sense that colorists---the painters on the new age---are replacing inkers...and to a certain extent becoming the primary artists as well.  Digital painting is so much easier as skill to pick up IMO.



Edited by Steven Queen on 08 July 2022 at 7:21pm
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Steven Queen
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Posted: 08 July 2022 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | 7 post reply

@Joe:  I dig the last one.  Again, I'm not sure of the character, but the perspective and careful line work is great.

Also, one last supergirl image --- a mix of the pencils and inks (33% opaque overlay), just for fun.


which speaks a bit to why even black & white comics frequently add a gray-wash (or zip tone).

In this case, bad pencils + bad inking = something acceptable?

Oy! This drawing stuff -- it's a bunch of voodoo!


Edited by Steven Queen on 08 July 2022 at 7:22pm
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Joe Smith
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Posted: 09 July 2022 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | 8 post reply



Nice overlay image, SQ!

The previous drawing I'd done is Morgaine Le Faye, the DC
Kirby version.
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Rebecca Jansen
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Posted: 09 July 2022 at 7:24pm | IP Logged | 9 post reply

Hawkgirl landing is ambitious!

Supergirl has that warm Crumb feeling in the overlay version.
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Joe Smith
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Posted: 10 July 2022 at 4:01pm | IP Logged | 10 post reply



I've been struggling with the lower view/underside whatever
we're going to call it.....
this is my third attempt, and the other two were so bad.
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Paul Wills
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Posted: 10 July 2022 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | 11 post reply

Joe I can see the progress in your work.
Steven, this is just my quick take on the inks for that drawing. Of course, I can't get all the nice subtleties of the pencils. I kind of comic-booked it up! And sorry I couldn't quite get a grasp on the hair in the original, I did my best.


Edited by Paul Wills on 10 July 2022 at 8:23pm
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Steven Queen
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Posted: 11 July 2022 at 1:05pm | IP Logged | 12 post reply

Paul, what a wonderful gift!  I was pleasantly flabbergasted to see this.  I can safely say that you are the first person to have ever inked one of my drawings (besides me).  And what a transformation!  Smooth confident inks make such a difference.  What sort of tools are you using to get such fine detailed lines?  A side by side with everything lined up vertically and in scale (a silk purse from a sow's ear?) :


Thank you for taking the time to do that.  What fun!  Again, there are so many decisions to be made with inking---it's a herculean task.


@Rebecca: Crumb!  Another first in my life---but now that you've mention it, I see the resemblance in the overlay result.  Props to you for making that connection! It was serendipity, to be sure.  I doubt if I could consciously ape his style.

@Joe: That upward perspective is a tough one.  Did you construct a vertical vanishing point and break the figure into 3-point boxes?  That's how I'd have to tackle it (i.e. laboriously).

You all realize, it's a lot like feeding a stray cat.  Show it any kindness and it will keep coming back for more. :)

So on that note, here's another recent study.  For the sake of comic fandom, we'll call her "Moria MacTaggert" for lack of a better correlation.


It's actual the sketch that proceeded the Supergirl doodle, as I was trying to get a better handle on the structure of the female face.  I used this life-study sketch by David Malan, that I bumped into on-line, as a guide for the lighting and pose.  This one was choked fully for proportional missteps that I ultimately had to correct digitally.  The SG-doodle was intended to be a self-test to see if I'd absorbed any of the painful lessons.

Again, the reduction from half-tone shading to inks would baffle me in the extreme, and it's probable that many images just do not lend themselves to inking.  (This is quite likely one of those.)  I think that when an experienced artist like JB does the layout, he has already done the simplification step with his pencil.  After all, why waste time tonally rendering when you know most of that detail will be distilled away?  What we are seeing in ELSEWHEN is ink-like clarity in HB pencil, right?  What he does is masterful and amazing.

Don't you all feel that's the way things are heading in modern comics---less crafted line-work and more reliance on painting?  The skill to ink something beautifully is becoming a lost art.



Edited by Steven Queen on 11 July 2022 at 1:29pm
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