something I am grateful for today

[johncomic]

I have a plan.

It remains to be seen if I follow through on the plan or not... but for now, I at least have it.

Now that I have a project in mind that seems like it would benefit from this: I have dug out my brushes and I plan to [finally] learn how to ink with them.

Not sure if I am too old of a dog for this new trick, but I am finally up for taking a shot at it, with more enthusiasm than I can ever recall previously for this task. My gratitude is for the fact that working in my chosen artform still truly excites me after all this time.

Comments

[alisonebruce.livejournal.com]

Never too old to learn a new trick -- as long as you want to learn.

I think age mostly keeps us from taking on lessons that we feel we *should* do - not what we *want* to do. (With the possible exception to taking up a new extreme sport.)

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

Lately I have been hearing from people who regularly ink with brush-tip markers instead. Sounds like their technology has improved over the years to the point that they can produce nice line results.

I'm keeping that option in reserve in case I find the actual brushes too difficult to master -- the markers are reputedly easier to handle, and going by my own experience I am sure this is true. But first I would really like to make a good solid attempt at learning how to handle a “real one”.

[ginsu.livejournal.com]

There is just no substitute for good planning. Improvisation, on complex long-term projects, is a romantic folly.

Re the inking book, I found this quote notable:

Let’s be realistic: The star of the comic book creative team is the penciler. Most people buy the comic to see their art.

Heh. What he means is that he buys comics to see the penciler's art.

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

He also recognizes that the majority of fan[boy]s make their purchases on the strength of the penciller's name.

But a good choice of inker can make a penciller a star. John Byrne gathered a cult following for his pencils fairly quickly, but it wasn't until Terry Austin inked him that he suddenly became John Byrne®

And I never really appreciated Ross Andru until the time I first saw him inked by Tom Palmer and saw the strengths in his art brought forward more clearly.

[ginsu.livejournal.com]

Sure. Thing is, he's easily demonstrated as being wrong -- it's not the art that sells comics, but the story.

Ask yourself how many times a company like Marvel or DC needed to remodel a major title or an entire universe. These were critical projects, demanding the safest choices -- the talent seen as most likely to yield a superior sales outcome.

Whom did they choose to architect the makeover? Invariably, it was guys like Grant Morrison, Brian Michael Bendis, Geoff Johns. You mentioned Byrne -- he did it too, at least twice that I recall, but he was a double-duty guy who also wrote.

Has there ever been an instance in which a major makeover project was handed to an artist with no writing experience?

[johncomic.livejournal.com]

Image!! :P