FA+
Shop
How Gen Draws (Your questions answered!)
15 years ago
For the tl;dr folks:
Artcards: SoHo Urban Artist cards
Sketchbook: 9x12 90lb, no brand, just nothing thin
Pencils: Col-erase non-photo blue pencil for construction, then a .7 mechanical pencil
Pens: .50 technical pen, Rotring Art Pen, Numerous brushpens from Jetpens.com.
Erasers: Vanish Four-In-One eraser, Pentel tri-eraser, Tombo mono eraser, Horsehair eraser dusting brush.
Coloring: Copic markers, ShinHan Touch Markers, Prismacolor colored pencils & Turpentine, gelpen.
Let me start this off by saying that I have never been to art school nor taken an art lesson past high school. I don't claim to be an expert in my field and my biggest teachers have been experience and observation. I'm still nowhere near the skill level I want to be at, but every day I draw a little more and learn a little more. I learned what I learned through trial and error, and developed the method I use to draw because it's what suits me. Your mileage may vary.
At least once a day I'll get a message that asks me what my tools are. So let's go down the basics.
If I'm drawing a sketchcard, I use one of the SoHo art boards that I buy from Jerry's Artarama, but many artists I know simply cut their own cards and you may find that easier. The standard ATC size is 2.5 x 3.5 inches.
For a full sized image I start drawing in a sketchbook with 90lb paper thickness, and once I have a sketch I like I will often use a light table to transfer it onto a sheet of watercolor paper or good thick bristol board. I also will sometimes use my printer and print the linework onto paper instead. But usually all my non card pictures start in a sketchbook.
As for drawing itself, I tell people I draw in layers. Most people think that it's just pencil, then ink, then color, but that makes you think that there's only those three steps when in fact there's quite a few more.
My base pencils are done with a Col-erase non-photo blue pencil. That's why my initial pencils on the livestream are difficult to see. It's referred to as non-photo blue because copy machines don't pick the color up. I suppose that's largely moot in today's age of high definition scanners and printing methods, but it still works for me and I usually have two boxes of them on hand and I go through them fairly steadily. And if the name of the pencil didn't give it away, one of the appeals to this tool is that the pencils are erasable like graphite despite being colored pencil. (I have also seen people do their pencils in Col-Erase colors like carmine red or navy blue.)
Many artists I know have very clean and well defined pencil lines. Mine are not. I lay down lots of construction lines so I can eyeball variations before I commit to any one line, like I might scribble an arm in slightly different poses on the same character and pick out the one that I like. I may work over and over on a section of the body until I'm happy with it. I consider the penciling stage of art to be fluid and abstract at the very beginning. I build up basic shapes and skeletal stick figures before I give them faces and body definition.
After I have my lines where I like them I also have a huge tangle of blue lines sometimes, so that's when I'll get a graphite mechanical pencil (usually .7 size) and will 'ink' the lines that I'm happy with so I have an erasable image of what I expect the finished product to roughly look like. That way it stands out a bit better amidst the blue lines and I can see any mistakes with a great deal more clarity, plus I can still make quick changes.
Once my lines are where I like them, I do preliminary inks with a .50 technical pen. A technical pen is a pen that draftsmen used to use because they draw a fixed width line. The difference between a tech pen and a Pigma pen is that you can load your own ink into it. People will sing the praises of Pigma pens to me but I actually dislike the things because they always fade when I erase. My tech pen inking never fades and since they're refillable and have few moving parts I can use the same pen for years.
An alternative to a technical pen that I use is the Rotring Art Pen. I use this particular pen because it's a fountain pen that does not clog easily and was made for artists. Their ink cartridges are solid colors that don't fade and they also make an 'ink exchanger' that lets you use a refillable cartridge to load your own ink up in instead if you wish. I mostly use this pen for when I work in Sepia ink, which is when you see my inks come out in a brownish color instead of solid black.
After that I erase my pencil lines. People comment on the funky shaped eraser I use on the livestreams but you can't find those so easily anymore. Currently I REALLY love the Vanish Four-In-One eraser because it rarely tears the paper, leaves big chunks instead of fine dust when you erase so it's easier to clean up, and seems to pick up all my pencil lines without messing up my inks. The Vanish is currently my favoritest eraser EVAR and I often give them to people to try (I like it so much I buy them ink bulk).
Before that I used the Faber Castell Grip Eraser because it always gave me a corner. I don't like the block easers because they always seem to catch on the paper and bend or rip it. Now, for smaller detail erasing I'll use a Pentel tri-eraser, and for erasing something like an eye or a tiny detail that I don't want to mess up the pencil work around, I'll use a 2.3mm Tombo mono eraser. Oh yes, and that little brushy thing I use to sweep the eraser boogies away is one of these.
Most of my pens are brushpens from jetpens.com. These guys import supplies from Japan and have a lot of wonderful and practical products. I'm trying to get a handle on brush inking and thus use many of their brushpens. And yes, I ink with that expensive sable hair brush they have listed. I suggest you start off a lot cheaper though to make sure you actually like or have a knack for using one. And just so we're clear, I'm still learning. Folks will compliment me on my 'steady hand' in the livestreams when in actuality I shake all over the place. The thing is that I will then work over the line to hide and correct any shaky wiggles to the line to make it look all smooth and stuff. HAH!
Now, if I want to do something in color, that's a whole new pack of fun.
I start out with base colors in marker and just sort of slop them around with an intention of where I want light and shadow to be. I'll sometimes draw the rough path of my shadows and then fill them in if I like how it eyeballs. If I make a mistake I can fix it in the next step. Also, I use copic markers but only because I got a deal on a large set of them. Before that I used Prismacolor markers and was perfectly happy with them.
An alternative to Copic markers that I try to point people to are the ShinHan Touch Markers. They're a Korean copic knockoff and in my opinion are just as good. The only thing is that they're not refillable and they don't come with the pseudo brush tip some Copics come with. But if you want to bulk up your collection I can't recommend these enough. Copics run $4-$7 each while the ShinHans are less than $2 a pop.
Quite often, with the cards at least, marker is as far as I go. But sometimes I want something a little more detailed and 'soft' looking, and in those cases I work a little deeper and bring out the colored pencils. It's imperative that you use wax-based pencils for this as water based might be a little more messy. But basically I layer over my base colors in pencil and start to smooth it out. Once I'm at that point I do that turpentine thing that all of you love. I should also note that if you use Prismacolor markers, the prismacolor colored pencils match the marker colors exactly. So don't let anyone tell you that you HAVE to use copics.
I initially learned about the process from Ashtoreth, who doesn't have a FA as far as I know. I noticed he had a really beautiful and smooth colored pencil technique and I asked him how he did it. He told me he used a blending marker that he would dip over and over in rubbing alcohol and then work it in very small little circles over the colored pencils to break the wax down and make this semi-watercolorish looking effect. I found that similar results could be achieved with Q-tips dipped in rubbing alcohol or the corners of kleenexes and/or paper towels. Later at a convention
zjonni taught me one better by telling me about turpentine and how he would dip a brush into it and gently work it with the bristles of the brush to achieve a similar blending effect. this picture (warning, bare boobies), was an example of the technique and he even sat down and demonstrated it for me a little.
Later I refined my own method of doing it with paper stumps that I would dip into turpentine and work over the pencil in little circular motions to blend it. When I needed a new color I'd shave the tip off (since it had color smeared on it from the previous use that I didn't want smeared on the new area) and repeat the process. I have a pencil sharpener that could grind twigs if I wanted it to, and sometimes I'll shove the stump in there, or sometimes I'll just shave it with an exacto knife.
If you look at this picture in my gallery and then look at the description below it, there are links to me going step by step through this basic process. The only difference is that since it was a commission I used my light table to transfer my pencils in my sketchbook to a nice thick piece of Bristol board. A light table is also a nice 'I screwed up parts of this picture but I like other parts too much to just redo the whole thing' kind of tool. You can transfer your image onto a new sheet of paper and start again without having to completely start from scratch. Or if your pencils are really messy and you don't want them to show on a finished color piece you can transfer the art.
Now, keep in mind that this is the technique that works for ME. I've developed it over the process of fifteen years of drawing and selling art, and you may find that some or most of it is complete rubbish for you.
That said, I do believe in a few basics that every artist should learn. Firstly, practice anatomy. Learn the differences between the male and female body beyond boobies and plumbing. Learn how to draw different body types. I see so many artists who can only draw one body shape and who can't draw muscled or fat or lean and lanky bodies.
Secondly, learn some techniques in traditional media even if you primarily work in digital. Getting your hands messy (figuratively, not literally like I tend to do in the streams) is an amazing teacher. Learn how to ink and color with pens and pencils and watercolors or whatever color medium you want to play with. Another thing I see all too often are artists who don't understand color value, light sources, shading, or line weight. Knowing how these work in traditional techniques will improve your understanding of them in digital ones.
And finally, don't let anyone tell you that you can't use a certain tool a certain way. Use what you want to use the way you want to use it. Art has a few basic and unbreakable laws regarding anatomy, perspective, and color. But which pen to use or which ink to use or which tool in general to use to achieve those ends is all up to you. Be willing to get your hands messy and play with new things, but if you don't like them then ditch them and move on. Yes, I ink with a $70 sable hair brush, but I've seen people do gorgeous things with ballpoint pens that cost a dime. My watercolor set that I dabble in from time to time cost me a whopping $5 and I love it.
So there you go. That's how Gen draws, what Gen draws with, and how Gen feels about drawing.
Artcards: SoHo Urban Artist cards
Sketchbook: 9x12 90lb, no brand, just nothing thin
Pencils: Col-erase non-photo blue pencil for construction, then a .7 mechanical pencil
Pens: .50 technical pen, Rotring Art Pen, Numerous brushpens from Jetpens.com.
Erasers: Vanish Four-In-One eraser, Pentel tri-eraser, Tombo mono eraser, Horsehair eraser dusting brush.
Coloring: Copic markers, ShinHan Touch Markers, Prismacolor colored pencils & Turpentine, gelpen.
Let me start this off by saying that I have never been to art school nor taken an art lesson past high school. I don't claim to be an expert in my field and my biggest teachers have been experience and observation. I'm still nowhere near the skill level I want to be at, but every day I draw a little more and learn a little more. I learned what I learned through trial and error, and developed the method I use to draw because it's what suits me. Your mileage may vary.
At least once a day I'll get a message that asks me what my tools are. So let's go down the basics.
If I'm drawing a sketchcard, I use one of the SoHo art boards that I buy from Jerry's Artarama, but many artists I know simply cut their own cards and you may find that easier. The standard ATC size is 2.5 x 3.5 inches.
For a full sized image I start drawing in a sketchbook with 90lb paper thickness, and once I have a sketch I like I will often use a light table to transfer it onto a sheet of watercolor paper or good thick bristol board. I also will sometimes use my printer and print the linework onto paper instead. But usually all my non card pictures start in a sketchbook.
As for drawing itself, I tell people I draw in layers. Most people think that it's just pencil, then ink, then color, but that makes you think that there's only those three steps when in fact there's quite a few more.
My base pencils are done with a Col-erase non-photo blue pencil. That's why my initial pencils on the livestream are difficult to see. It's referred to as non-photo blue because copy machines don't pick the color up. I suppose that's largely moot in today's age of high definition scanners and printing methods, but it still works for me and I usually have two boxes of them on hand and I go through them fairly steadily. And if the name of the pencil didn't give it away, one of the appeals to this tool is that the pencils are erasable like graphite despite being colored pencil. (I have also seen people do their pencils in Col-Erase colors like carmine red or navy blue.)
Many artists I know have very clean and well defined pencil lines. Mine are not. I lay down lots of construction lines so I can eyeball variations before I commit to any one line, like I might scribble an arm in slightly different poses on the same character and pick out the one that I like. I may work over and over on a section of the body until I'm happy with it. I consider the penciling stage of art to be fluid and abstract at the very beginning. I build up basic shapes and skeletal stick figures before I give them faces and body definition.
After I have my lines where I like them I also have a huge tangle of blue lines sometimes, so that's when I'll get a graphite mechanical pencil (usually .7 size) and will 'ink' the lines that I'm happy with so I have an erasable image of what I expect the finished product to roughly look like. That way it stands out a bit better amidst the blue lines and I can see any mistakes with a great deal more clarity, plus I can still make quick changes.
Once my lines are where I like them, I do preliminary inks with a .50 technical pen. A technical pen is a pen that draftsmen used to use because they draw a fixed width line. The difference between a tech pen and a Pigma pen is that you can load your own ink into it. People will sing the praises of Pigma pens to me but I actually dislike the things because they always fade when I erase. My tech pen inking never fades and since they're refillable and have few moving parts I can use the same pen for years.
An alternative to a technical pen that I use is the Rotring Art Pen. I use this particular pen because it's a fountain pen that does not clog easily and was made for artists. Their ink cartridges are solid colors that don't fade and they also make an 'ink exchanger' that lets you use a refillable cartridge to load your own ink up in instead if you wish. I mostly use this pen for when I work in Sepia ink, which is when you see my inks come out in a brownish color instead of solid black.
After that I erase my pencil lines. People comment on the funky shaped eraser I use on the livestreams but you can't find those so easily anymore. Currently I REALLY love the Vanish Four-In-One eraser because it rarely tears the paper, leaves big chunks instead of fine dust when you erase so it's easier to clean up, and seems to pick up all my pencil lines without messing up my inks. The Vanish is currently my favoritest eraser EVAR and I often give them to people to try (I like it so much I buy them ink bulk).
Before that I used the Faber Castell Grip Eraser because it always gave me a corner. I don't like the block easers because they always seem to catch on the paper and bend or rip it. Now, for smaller detail erasing I'll use a Pentel tri-eraser, and for erasing something like an eye or a tiny detail that I don't want to mess up the pencil work around, I'll use a 2.3mm Tombo mono eraser. Oh yes, and that little brushy thing I use to sweep the eraser boogies away is one of these.
Most of my pens are brushpens from jetpens.com. These guys import supplies from Japan and have a lot of wonderful and practical products. I'm trying to get a handle on brush inking and thus use many of their brushpens. And yes, I ink with that expensive sable hair brush they have listed. I suggest you start off a lot cheaper though to make sure you actually like or have a knack for using one. And just so we're clear, I'm still learning. Folks will compliment me on my 'steady hand' in the livestreams when in actuality I shake all over the place. The thing is that I will then work over the line to hide and correct any shaky wiggles to the line to make it look all smooth and stuff. HAH!
Now, if I want to do something in color, that's a whole new pack of fun.
I start out with base colors in marker and just sort of slop them around with an intention of where I want light and shadow to be. I'll sometimes draw the rough path of my shadows and then fill them in if I like how it eyeballs. If I make a mistake I can fix it in the next step. Also, I use copic markers but only because I got a deal on a large set of them. Before that I used Prismacolor markers and was perfectly happy with them.
An alternative to Copic markers that I try to point people to are the ShinHan Touch Markers. They're a Korean copic knockoff and in my opinion are just as good. The only thing is that they're not refillable and they don't come with the pseudo brush tip some Copics come with. But if you want to bulk up your collection I can't recommend these enough. Copics run $4-$7 each while the ShinHans are less than $2 a pop.
Quite often, with the cards at least, marker is as far as I go. But sometimes I want something a little more detailed and 'soft' looking, and in those cases I work a little deeper and bring out the colored pencils. It's imperative that you use wax-based pencils for this as water based might be a little more messy. But basically I layer over my base colors in pencil and start to smooth it out. Once I'm at that point I do that turpentine thing that all of you love. I should also note that if you use Prismacolor markers, the prismacolor colored pencils match the marker colors exactly. So don't let anyone tell you that you HAVE to use copics.
I initially learned about the process from Ashtoreth, who doesn't have a FA as far as I know. I noticed he had a really beautiful and smooth colored pencil technique and I asked him how he did it. He told me he used a blending marker that he would dip over and over in rubbing alcohol and then work it in very small little circles over the colored pencils to break the wax down and make this semi-watercolorish looking effect. I found that similar results could be achieved with Q-tips dipped in rubbing alcohol or the corners of kleenexes and/or paper towels. Later at a convention
zjonni taught me one better by telling me about turpentine and how he would dip a brush into it and gently work it with the bristles of the brush to achieve a similar blending effect. this picture (warning, bare boobies), was an example of the technique and he even sat down and demonstrated it for me a little.Later I refined my own method of doing it with paper stumps that I would dip into turpentine and work over the pencil in little circular motions to blend it. When I needed a new color I'd shave the tip off (since it had color smeared on it from the previous use that I didn't want smeared on the new area) and repeat the process. I have a pencil sharpener that could grind twigs if I wanted it to, and sometimes I'll shove the stump in there, or sometimes I'll just shave it with an exacto knife.
If you look at this picture in my gallery and then look at the description below it, there are links to me going step by step through this basic process. The only difference is that since it was a commission I used my light table to transfer my pencils in my sketchbook to a nice thick piece of Bristol board. A light table is also a nice 'I screwed up parts of this picture but I like other parts too much to just redo the whole thing' kind of tool. You can transfer your image onto a new sheet of paper and start again without having to completely start from scratch. Or if your pencils are really messy and you don't want them to show on a finished color piece you can transfer the art.
Now, keep in mind that this is the technique that works for ME. I've developed it over the process of fifteen years of drawing and selling art, and you may find that some or most of it is complete rubbish for you.
That said, I do believe in a few basics that every artist should learn. Firstly, practice anatomy. Learn the differences between the male and female body beyond boobies and plumbing. Learn how to draw different body types. I see so many artists who can only draw one body shape and who can't draw muscled or fat or lean and lanky bodies.
Secondly, learn some techniques in traditional media even if you primarily work in digital. Getting your hands messy (figuratively, not literally like I tend to do in the streams) is an amazing teacher. Learn how to ink and color with pens and pencils and watercolors or whatever color medium you want to play with. Another thing I see all too often are artists who don't understand color value, light sources, shading, or line weight. Knowing how these work in traditional techniques will improve your understanding of them in digital ones.
And finally, don't let anyone tell you that you can't use a certain tool a certain way. Use what you want to use the way you want to use it. Art has a few basic and unbreakable laws regarding anatomy, perspective, and color. But which pen to use or which ink to use or which tool in general to use to achieve those ends is all up to you. Be willing to get your hands messy and play with new things, but if you don't like them then ditch them and move on. Yes, I ink with a $70 sable hair brush, but I've seen people do gorgeous things with ballpoint pens that cost a dime. My watercolor set that I dabble in from time to time cost me a whopping $5 and I love it.
So there you go. That's how Gen draws, what Gen draws with, and how Gen feels about drawing.
Shane
Cool info. Definitely love the blending stumps and turpentine.
Somehow I picture the Flavalaguna singer of the 5th Element when reading your description.
Have one very greatful kittybird!
By the way, I got your books in today. I wasn't aware they were so little! Kinda fitting though.
I'm gonna have to check out some of those pens...So far the only pens I've really used or known much about are these. I love the multi pack b/c it does have a brush pen along with a detail and larger nib size. They work fairly well and I've always been a fan of Faber Castell products. But I seriously need to learn more about other types of inking pens. >.> Hey, if you find the perfect tool that works for what you need, 70$ is a drop in the bucket if you can create awesome art from it. I'm sure you've gotten its worth out of it a 100 times over by now. :)
I'm writing too much, but I just wanted to say thank you for sharing your techniques! After your last stream, I've been craving coffee, tea and cookies. xD
If I were to recommend a single pen for try-it-outness on Jetpens it would be this one, which combines a smaller nib that still gives you flexible line weight with a lot of control on one end (and I've never seen anything like that kind of pen tip here in the US. Closest thing that comes to mind is a felt tip, but the tip of these don't fray at all), and on the other end you have a nice fat bristle brush for deeper and braver strokes. Only warning is that you need to give the ink a little time to dry or it might smear on you. They also have refillable versions of either side of the pen nib in individual pens if you find you like them.
Of course I started out just surfing through and buying a few random ones that I wanted to. I ended up giving my leftovers that I ended up ditching to
Going to go see Harry Potter tomorrow...and Tron next moth - so many movies! I usually don't go the the theater much, so this is exciting for me! Can't wait till Tron!! *dances a jig*
I'm jealous. a little bit. those erasers, especially the faber ones, aren't availabe here in germany at all. or at least, not in regular stores...
one day I found a soft eraser which could pick up graphite from really deep down in the paper crevasses you just pessed them in without destroying the paper, but unfortunately they got discontinued... for whatever reason. -.-
most erasers are either PVC (smears!) or contain sand, and it's hard to find simple caotchouk ones.
I use all kind of papers, including one made of 90% bamboo fibres with a helping of rug, and you can do ANYTHING with it from pencils to watercolour/acrylic splashes like nobody's business without it bending over to take the pain... a bit expensive, but still.
I also found out that using copics roughens the paper surface up a bit, which takes up more colour pencil then, or, in that case, oil pastel, which makes for nifty highlights on cloth. or inside eyes...
aah, the fun of experimenting! ^^
I used to use a rotring rapidograph mechanical pen, but the tip gets caught in the paper surface (cramped hand, I guess), and .25 is a bit fine, so I needed to go over the initial lines two or three times. now I use a faber fineliner, and a brushpen for thicker things like black shades. they come in normal (don't last too long, alas), or in thumb-think, which are a bit uncomfortable to handle. but I guess one could ink with them, for the tip stays sharp a long time.