TOOLIN' AROUND

Okey folks, let's get down to brass tacks. Let's buckle up, pump knuckles and grease up our shins for some real fucking shit about steel, hair and moral fiber!

I was reminded this week that my original function on this blog was to talk shop instead of swooping through like a shitty magpie, with puppets on either arm. But how do you build a puppet anyways? One string at a time, folks. And really, sewing is just another form of drawing, and by extension, storytelling. 

For hopeful spinners of bad yarn (which sometimes glimmers) knowing how to work that cranky loom can be fun and liberating. Gotta know where to put that peg in, how heavily to tarry our heel before slamming on the breaks and throwing the whole ugly rug out the window. 

How to coax those threads 'til they're like warm putty, fuzzy wire, taut rope and eventually, solid concrete, with real emotions!  

We're talkin' art supplies, you goons. Austin has a real nice blog (temporarily semi-dormant) which gives great scoops on this sort of practical nonsense. I direct you there, if you have not yet visited, before spilling my bile below. 

This post covers just a very few  'traditional' cartooning supplies. I will gladly write about Uni-balls, the world of felt-tips and the succulent surface of the soiled paper bag at a later date. Blood and spit on a Q-tip. 

Please disobey these words and strengthen yourself and our community with your opposing innovations. Or pay heavy heed to my every mumble. Above all, I encourage the furious joy of tactile actions, enlivening dead objects, then tossing your filth, full-force and squealing, against the wall. We cartoonists will cackle, we are all fools. Only the zookeeper is humorless, which is totally understandable from his point of view. 

Raphael Sable Brush 

With this tool you can make as thin and clean a line as you would get from a small nib, but the touch on the paper is soft, your grip is tight, and you can fill in blacks without switching tools. Calluses on your thumb-tip and middle finger, The softest feeling makes a cold, hard line.

I always thought Kochalka, Watterson and Doug Tennapel had nice brush styles, so as a tween in my hovel, I invested in some shitty white brushes and proceeded to ink them into oblivion. Going through a brush every day is annoying. So I went to the books, which all recommended Winsor Newton Series 7. These brushes were so fancy but also failed me. 

So I went to my local art supply store, Wet Paint, where the nicest brush-vendor on earth told me the real story. A tale of competing brush-makers on parallel streets swatting each other with sales figures and other vulgarities. Basically, Raphael is still legit and for ink drawing, they rule. You will coat them in dark toxins and they will thrive, if washed and soaped a little.

Series 8404 and 8408 are my favorites, basically the same, but 8408's have a little longer tip. I used to use a size 0, 8404 and hold it really close to the tip for control, but now I prefer a size 1, 8408, and can hold it further from the tip, and fairly upright, as if I were doing very minute calligraphy. The longer tip and my arm moving more than my wrist or knuckles. 

I've heard of some cartoonists using size 2, 3 brushes, but usually not bigger for some reason (there are always exceptions: Blutch, Brinkman). I haven't done a comic on really huge paper in a little while. I feel like a smaller brush would be fun to use at a big desk. Or a big brush on a small desk.  I would like to know what size Chester Brown uses, drawing on a lap-desk.   

Tachikawa G-pen

The Tachikawa nibs are blowing up like crazy. Or maybe they blew up ten years ago, but I was busy twaddling my brush. Either way, Austin cued me into these little dudes, which he uses like a madman. I use them for lettering and occasional curlicue lines I'm too lazy to make with a brush. They've got really nice wooden holders, make really nice thin lines and can fan out proper. 

I wish I had discovered these earlier, instead of battling my soul with Hunt nibs, which also have their awesome abilities. Go talk to Overby or Dave Cooper or Marc Bell about that, I guess. Rumor on the street: Sammy Harkham used a Hunt 108 for years, but switched to a Tachikawa 'School nib' recently. In his newer work, I can see the change in the line, I think. Can you??

 

I realize there's a whole diverse range of Tachikawa products, which I'd like to investigate, but haven't yet. Maybe I will do a report on them sometime. Or maybe I will just dream of them.

Prismacolor 'Verithin' vs. 'Col-Erase' Non-photo Blue

There's a few kinds of non-photo blue pencils out there, and some of them suck, if you're picky. Chris Ware uses 'Col-Erase' pencils, or so I gather from the picture of his pencil-box in 'One Eye' by Charles Burns. But I hate that tool! I can only get the line and heaviness I like from a 'Verithin.' It is harder to erase, but the line it makes is really nice, so maybe you don't have to erase as much, since the tool itself is conducive to happy results.

I find the normal Prismacolor (not 'Verithin' or 'Col-Erase') to be too waxy and heavy, which is the normal complaint from cartoonists about ALL non-photo blue pencils. Either that, or 'you have to sharpen them too much,' but I guess I enjoy sharpening, non-electric. It's kind of like eating a carrot. Which, as we all know, is good for your eyes. I hereby state that the more sharpening you do, the better you will be able to 'see.'     

I'm amazed when I switch to a normal lead pencil, or a mechanical, at how much faster it is to work with, but I guess I don't get the line I want from them, for comics at least. Or rather, they don't make a line that I'll want to ink over. 

Non-photo blue is all about potentiality! The integration of a phase of process which will be rendered invisible. Begging for another step, later peeking out from underneath. This is getting rather long. I still haven't touched on paper and ink. Oh well. Thanks for reading this far. If my words haven't made you geek out and grab a pencil, maybe this will: