Below you will find examples of previous cards and tiny paintings that share the spirit of what you might recieve for a donation. But keep in mind, there are many talented artists participating in this ongoing donation drive. You’re not just limited to me!

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Even though I wasn't getting paid much on this project, I still consider the old adage, "Make work for the job you want, not the job you have." I don't know who coined that, but I do know it wasn't me. At any rate, I really do want to do more poster and illustrative work in the future, so I considered this a portfolio building exercise, and treated it accordingly. The layouts I created are approximately 3 inches high. I was careful to include all the information the poster would contain, so I could be sure it would all fit. This is an important stage in any type-inclusive illustration, including comics.

So off went three concepts. I was pleased that they picked option A.

I created this piece with a technique I used for color illustrations before I owned a tablet: by layering multiple black ink layers in photoshop and coloring them each like you would a screen print or riso print. My skills for this are maybe even better for this now that I have some years of printmaking experience behind me. I created a two color piece, for reasons you can read about in my blog post:Color Separations in Photoshop.

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Once those were scanned I had a series of black and white images I stacked in Photoshop and colored using the layer mask. And, while I did use my tablet to create and additional layer of color to make the illustration look more lush, it was nice to return to this more "tradigital" form of coloring. I plan to use it in future pieces where there is not time to paint, or where a painting would impede the design in some way.

If you find yourself wandering that long, lonely road called Allegheny on April 19th, stop by a little park on the edge of Port Richmond and plant some flowers with us.

Below is a collection of my favorites…

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I am often remiss in archiving my strip comics here. I have mostly posted them on my Patreon, via my newsletter, or (more rarely) via my Instagram or bluesky account. I have been trying to pull away from Meta and social media generally. I still have friends there, and it is (unfortunately) still a place to reach out to new, possible fans.

But the community feels fractured by algorithm. I am ever uneasy about giving more of my work and my spirit over to a platform that benefits more from me than I do from it. (Which is why, I hope, some of you may decide to sign onto the newsletter or join my free Patreon tier. It really does mean a lot to know people are actually seeing my work and not sucking it in with their usual hyper consumption of “content”.) There is also an immediacy to timeline-based comics. They stick less.

If you want to read some older strips, you can find them here:

Sketchbook Fury | Comics (Part 1)

Maybe I will make more strips this year. That sounds like a nice goal. Please feel free to leave a comment! I really love those!

I have been in a rut. Really, for almost a year, but most acutely in the past few months since I quit smoking. And by rut I mean a full on depression in which I barely had the energy to do the work on my slate, never mind extra work to post here. I wasn't even sketching properly. Those are dark times.

Money has been really tight lately, so I opened up commissions for the first time in forever. I think it's been years since I accepted any. Not since my late cat was sick, and he died a few years ago at this point.

I feel a real fear when I open commissions. Truly. I'm not some big name guy. Not many people are out there, hoping for a "Larsen". (Unless it's an Erik.) This means commissions could be any old drawing a person was hoping to get. Sometimes these are fun. Like pets. I love painting pets, because I love painting animals. But sometimes these are nightmares. Like a request to draw their kids in portrait (oh no) or a request for twelve dozen OCs in a 5 x 7 piece (OH NO) or a rendition of a beloved dead relative (OH.NO.) I have limited my commissions to requests for this reason. Certainly, I can draw anything if my life depended on it. But not a realistic likeness of gam gam.

I didn't get any of that this time! This time I received a batch of really open and thoughtful (and a few very silly) prompts. I was honestly so happy, because I think this is exactly what I needed to drag me out of my rut.

At my core or cores, I don't think of myself as an artist. I am an illustrator. Give me an assignment and I will make it my own. I need parameters. I even give them to myself before I start to write or make a piece on my own. My imagination has no limits, and that is the problem. It will float into the ether, vibe out every vibe, run unbridled in a panoply of directions, and I am left with a horrific kind of choice paralysis which, coupled with my recent feelings of very very sad, leads me to do absolutely nothing.

Essentially, what I needed was a small batch of low stakes assignments.

SQUIDBOY

I prefer to not call out commissioners. I feel weird doing it. But Tim sent me in some old strips of his characters, so I imagine you'll see his name anyhow. I really liked this guy's big, bulbous head and that cat reminded me so much of a lot of early 90s cartoons I remember from my younger-years.

I wanted to start this with thumbs. I really love drawing backgrounds. They add so much to the storytelling of a piece. The problem with backgrounds is that they can lead to some strange and uncomfortable tangents if you don't give them a little planning. I also did a few doodles of Squidboy, to get a feel for his shapes (or, the shapes I would be using).

My biggest thoughts regarding the Characters and their Background was NOT completely centering the characters. That is very boring. Whenever I can, I try to design along diagonals. This is something you will find a lot of old school comic artists doing, though I think it is more of a subconscious approach to composition than it is an attempt at formality.

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From These loose concepts, I moved on to pencils. My pencils are only kinda tight. There is always a level of refinement from this to the inking stage.

The final inks for this are done with a Preppy fountain pen (03) and Carbon Ink (waterproof/lightfast), which is a medium I use almost exclusively in my rough concept stage. I love Platinum pens. I don't know how their higher end nibs perform, but their cheap pens are my go-to for daily drawing. I thought it would be fun to do a finished piece in them. I also thought a monoline approach would be in keeping with the linear quality of the original characters. I did this on Fabriano Studio watercolor hot press paper. I have a big, thick pad of this for some reason. Functionally, it lies somewhere between a bristol and a hot press paper. I also used this for the final Astronaut painting, and I liked it a little less with water color. I had to be very attentive to my brush water capacity, but I'll get into those weeds a bit later in the post.

Tim expressed that his characters often wore shirts depicting fake punk bands. He offered the Dark Banner suggestion (for Black Flag), and I thought turning the bars on their side would make a nice touch for the design.

ASTRONAUT

The Astronaut commission was an open prompt. I could do anything I wanted (oh no). And I did flounder for a bit. But I also recently rewatched Scavenger's Reign. Rather than do flat out fan art, I thought I would come up with my own character. I don't draw a lot of sci fi type stuff. I wanted to push in that direction for a piece.

My process for this wasn't much different. I'll spare you the iteration of my pencil, but here is the (holy god so messy) thumb I did, to get a feel for the nature of the space I wanted to create.

As I mentioned, the Fabriano Studio paper was a little on the frustrating side. I am comfortable enough with watercolor that I could handle the drifting washes, but idk that I would recommend it to a beginner. The cold press pads may give better control. But the hot press pads were very slick and the water wanted to rest on top of the paper for a long period of time, making thinner washes a bit harrowing to apply.

I built this up in 2 painting sessions, allowing the paint and paper to dry out completely in between working. This allows the washes applied later to retain more color definition, so they do not blend with the paint beneath, but lay over and blend with transparency instead of mixing. This is, essentially, the analog version of "multiply" layers. I added a little bit of gel pen at the end to clean up the highlights and add stars. I'm a dirty cheater.

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Photos never do watercolor justice, so here is the final color corrected scan...

I cannot guarantee I will post every commission in here. I like to ask permission. Most likely I will post the best of the best later as a collection.

Thanks for reading!

NOTE! This post has been copied from a post on MY PATREON, with some editing. The original post is offered to free and paid memebers in its entirety. Consider following my Patreon for more frequent posts, behind the scenes posts, and sketchbook scans.

What are coil reservoirs? They are the best in 18th century technology. Based on the concept of liquid suspension, they add what is essentially a small pot of ink to the top of your dip pen nib. This is most useful in nibs with greater line variety, like vintage nibs or drawing nibs. While these will work with manga and napping nibs, the lack of line variation makes them less necessary to the function of your pen.

The Hunt 101 makes a variation that includes a coil cage housed under the nib. This is a coil reservoir, and perfectly serviceable if you are able to keep the belly of the nib up off the paper while you draw. I prefer attaching my own reservoir to the top of the pen because it gives me more options in the angle that I hold my pen, and therefore, the range of marks I can make. This DIY version will also allow you to attach the reservoir to any kind of nib.

Let’s start with what you will need to make one:

• 26 gauge steel wire (they can also be made with a thin paperclip, but the guage wire in clips are difficult to bend to shape and I suggest using a thimble if you are going to try that gauge of wire.)

• Wire cutters (I have heavy duty wire cutters from my grandfather, but 26 guage wire could theoretically be cut with heavy steel scissors or light duty wire cutter.)

• A mechanical pencil, brush end, or any instrument that comes to a tapered point. (I prefer the conical shape of a mechanical pencil.)

• Masking tape

Okay… let’s make one of these things…

You will find a reservoir extends your ink flow significantly. In pen nibs that are softer and have a lot of bend, it allows you to use the full width of the pen with less railroading and ink dumping.

As with all tools and tricks, it may take some acclimating to become accustomed to a coil reservoir. It’s possible you may hate having a tiny coil on your pen, or you may love it. But if you do use one, feel pride in the fact you are using a technology almost as old as nibs themselves.

Happy drawing!

In college a huge part of my technical focus throughout my sophomore year was oil paint.  It was 2001 and the concept of doing highly detailed work on a computer was laughable to most professional illustrators. (At least, that was the case at the art school I attended).

But despite my earnest efforts, and the fact that I had a fairly good sense of color and all the principles of painting, I could never get my work into the realm of “finished” that I wanted. Whenever I attempted to improve my technique, I was met with vague critique about mark making that I didn’t really grasp, concepts of refinement that were never shared with me. A medium that I sorely loved was becoming something I couldn’t stand to work in, because it was never good enough to take me anywhere.

A day will come where I will post long and thoughtfully about art school, where it fails and assists young artists in their craft and development.  But let’s put it this way for now: college discouraged me from painting in a professional, illustrative capacity for two decades.

Digital art has come along in spades in that time. It is often hard to tell what is and isn’t done on an iPad now. But even though I came to embrace the computer as an assembly and coloring tool, I’ve found that much of my enjoyment when it comes to making art is in physical media.  Over the years I have kept a ridiculous amount of what I like to think of as “media practice” sketchbooks, where I was essentially finishing tiny illustrations and character studies in colored pencil or paint or ink.

Then, came ORCS! (There is another story to add here, regarding ORCS! and its long road to realization, but that is not this post.  This post is about my first professional painting, done sixteen years after I graduated art school.)

When it was time to consider how I would be doing the covers for my first series as a creator, I really wanted to do something special.  I had been dabbling with gouache and liquid acrylic in earnest since the lockdown started. With a fresh set of cheap liquid acrylic paints on hand, I figured I’d have a go at painting the thing.

This was not too insane of a thought.  I have a little time to work on the cover itself, and I figured: if it didn’t pan out, I could always go about things in the usual way (with ink, maybe some graphite, and computer coloring).

It went better than I thought! Four years of cover art later (including variants for Miss Truesdale and Count Crowley along with a number of personal studies), I am finally at a point where I have real confidence in the medium and I am excited with regards to where I can take it.

It’s strange how years of making can wear on you in ways you don’t expect.  A large part of what I like about making art is the technical nature of doing a thing, whether I am obsessing in the storytelling or the process.  Sometimes you need to shake up the doing for your own mental health.  It also helped me to reclaim my love of painting from art school, which discouraged me from pursuing that course in my work.

(And, while I consider the computer a useful and important tool in the kit, I look forward to the day I don’t have to worry if my Photoshop update will crash my computer.)

Here’s a collection of ORCS! Covers over the years, in chronological order. (Scanned and color corrected versions):

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I’ve been asked enough times over the years for suggestions on various inking materials. So, I think it’s finally time I sit down and do a blog post on them. I’m going to start with brushes, which have the widest range of marks and applications when it comes to ink.

I’ve been inking with a brush since college. Before that time, I was using the microns and Faber Castel brush pens that many young artists cut their teeth on. Ultimately, I found those tools to be less than ideal. Before the advent of jetpens.com, ink slingers were relegated to what was available at their local art or craft store in terms of brush pens and liners, and those options were severely limited.

I picked up a brush at the suggestion of one of my professors and haven’t looked back. Not only are brushes a more ecological and economical option to brush pens (which are often disposable), they offer a wider range of mark making options, which means less switching between tools during the creation of a piece.

So, let’s talk about some available brush options, what they are capable of, and some techniques for practice and study.

Brushes

There are as many variations of brushes as there are inking techniques. That is to say: there’s a lot out there to choose from. I’m going to keep my list fairly short, limiting it to the most common types of inking brushes. Do not consider this a definitive list. If it can hold ink, you can ink with it.

IMPORTANT FOR NEW BRUSH BUYERS: Make sure you wash off the starch on a new brush. This is the stiffening agent used to keep the brush in shape prior to use. Soak a brush for a few minutes in lukewarm water – preferably in a shallow dish on its side – and then wash thoroughly until it is soft. Do not soak the brush head-down in a cup, or the brush will become misshapen.

Watercolor Round

These are probably the most accessible types of inking brushes for someone new to analog inking. They offer the cleanest line in addition to being fairly easy to control. Generally, you are looking for a round with good “snap” (a quick bounce back once the bristles are bent against the paper) and a tip that holds its shape for a decent period of time before it needs reshaping.

There are two major kinds of watercolor brushes: natural and synthetic. (Natural brushes are made with animal hair, so vegans may find this a less desirable option.) The best quality natural brushes are Kolinsky sable, produced from the tail hair of the Kolinsky (a type of weasel). Winsor Newton, Raphaël Kaërell (8408 is my preferred brand), and Princeton all have Kolinsky sable brush options. These brushes hold a fine point, retain their shape admirably, and snap back instantaneously. They are also extremely expensive, and maybe not the best option for inkers on a budget (though they are a worthwhile investment, as I have Kolinsky sable brushes that are decades old).

If you are just starting out, sable and sable-mix brushes are cheaper options that will still provide good performance, even if they may not hold up quite as long as their more expensive counterparts. Both Raphaël and Princeton make brushes using lesser quality hair that perform nearly as well as their more expensive counterparts (and are a preferred brush for some inkers, who are particularly hard on their brushes and tend to burn through them quickly). However, my favorite mix brush is Silver Black Velvet, which is an incredible brush for extremely detailed work and also a great watercolor brush, though it is nearly as expensive as its high end counterparts.

Synthetic brushes are also available in a large variety at very affordable prices. The biggest difference (with a few exceptions) I have noticed in synthetic bristle brushes is that they do not come to as fine a point as natural bristle brushes. This means if you want a very fine brush line, you need a much smaller brush that will hold less ink and require more dipping. That said, they are generally more affordable and also vegan friendly.

The brush I started inking with was Utrecht Synthetic Taklon size 1, which is an all around good lining brush that held up under heavy use for nearly a year. Raphaël Kaërell makes a very quality synthetic brush that I use for both inking and painting. I’ve also found a brand called Wonderforest that touts itself as a watercolor brush, but is really better for gouache, acrylic, or ink, because it doesn’t hold moisture well enough for watercolor, but has an excellent snap and point.

Asian Brushes

Another brush type specifically designed for use with ink are asian brushes, which includes Japanese Sumi Brushes and Chinese Ink Painting brushes. These brushes are made to hold a lot of ink and are great for expressive line work, dry brush technique, washes, and watercolor. My personal preference leans towards Chinese painting brushes, which come in a wide variety of shapes and hair types, each designed for particular purpose. There are numerous books written on the subject of Chinese ink painting and calligraphy. I have no formal training in the practice, so I will refrain from going into the specifics of Chinese ink painting technique. But these brushes are so versatile, I would be remiss not to mention them. They are my go-to for landscapes, textural work, dry brush, and expressive cartooning.

Generally, these brushes are made from animal hair, and while there are synthetic options, I’ve found those are more comparable to western watercolor rounds than the Asian brushes they are trying to emulate. The most important characteristic to look for when choosing these brushes is hair type, because this will effect snap and bounce in the brush. For a bouncier brush, you will want to look for “weasel” or “wolf” hair. This is similar to a sable in its performance and actually describes the same animal, since the Chinese translation of a weasel is literally “yellow-mouse-wolf.”

Other hair types include goat hair (little snap and better suited for washes or watercolor), horse hair (a brush with less snap, but one that produces great dry brush effects), and combination hair (normally a mix of goat and weasel, though like goat, better suited for washier applications). There are also a number of unique brush shapes available, like the “red feather” which has a wide belly and fine point; or the ‘twig,” a brush with a short, triangular appearance that makes interesting, winding lines.

I generally suggest leaning towards “hard” brushes, preferably made of weasel hair for a first timer. These will be easiest to control for someone accustomed to western brushes. Do not be put off by the general size of these brushes. They are designed for a wide range of marks and are capable of creating very fine lines and extremely thick drags of ink with a single stroke.

Shape Brushes

Not necessarily a different type of brush, but a consideration for different kinds of marks, are watercolor brushes of various shapes. Filbert, flat, angled, fan, or petal brushes all produce lines and marks of different quality than the standard watercolor round. These brushes can add broad areas of texture, calligraphic strokes, and unique line qualities to a work that may not be achievable with a basic round, but may provide more control than a Chinese painting brush or Sumi brush.

These are available in the same hair variety as any other watercolor brush. For inking, I would suggest avoiding squirrel or faux squirrel hair and leaning more towards the sables and taklons.

Ink & Paper

It would be possible for me to devote an entire blog post just to ink and paper supplies. Like brushes, there are so many types of ink and paper, and brands that produce each type, that this list could theoretically go on for several thousand words. Again, I will be putting down a general list of ink and paper types, but not a definitive one.

Ink

The largest consideration when it comes to ink is the type pf paper you are inking on and your preferred viscosity of ink. Personally, I use Dr. Ph Martin’s Bombay India Ink the most. It is kind of a goldilocks ink: not too thick, not too thin, good n’ dark, waterproof, thins out consistently, reasonably priced, and it doesn’t bleed on any paper I’ve used it with yet. That isn’t to say I don’t have an ink drawer with a surfeit of ink brands/types that I use for different and specific purposes, but this is the ink I need to restock the most.

However, Winsor Newton makes a fine drawing ink too, if a bit less even in large areas of spot black. Pelikan ink has lacquer in it, and produces very dark spot black. Dr. Ph Martin Black Star ink will go on cellophane without beading up. Sumi Ink is a big bang for your buck, very dark, and makes beautiful washes. Or buy a Chinese ink stick, and grind the ink yourself. Acrylic ink is a little thicker, and makes for good dry brush technique. And if you absolutely must buy the cheapest ink for your pocketbook, Black Cat is serviceable, though quite thin. You can thicken it up by letting it sit open overnight so some of the liquid evaporates.

When it comes to white ink for highlights and corrections, I’ve developed a preference to Deleter White 1 for details and Deleter White 2 for corrections. The former has a gouache-like quality, which makes it go on smoother and more opaquely when painting in details (even watered down), while the latter is closer to liquid acrylic, and is best suited for correcting a larger area or dry brush. It takes inking-over better than Deleter 1, which can sometimes absorb the ink and make it look grey. The Uniball Signo Borad is a good gel pen option for tiny corrections or lettering, though its shelf life is somewhat limited.

There are many comics pros that swear by Pro White, but I’ve never had any luck with this brand, because every bottle I’ve ever bought has been completely dried out and un-mixable when I open it. I think these tend to sit on the shelves too long.

Try to keep a separate brush for white and black ink, unless you want to have white and gray ink. And swipe a few coffee stirrers the next time you’re at the coffee shop. These are perfect for mixing up ink that may have sat on a shelf until the pigment settled at the bottom.

Paper

If you can afford nothing else, get yourself decent paper over a fancy brush or ink. Nothing is worse than paper that wrinkles up under heavy coats of ink or bleeds out the second you touch liquid to its surface. Can you use printer paper to ink on? Sure. In fact, because brushes apply ink in thin layers, this is more possible than trying to use a nib on printer paper.

But it can be a frustrating surface. Printer paper is extremely susceptible to humidity, has a more open weave and tends to bleed with thinner inks, will wrinkle over heavy areas of spot black, and it does not have the longevity of art papers. It will disintegrate and fall apart long before a piece of slightly more expensive Bristol.

If you are inking in stark black and white, a pad of good, old, trusty Bristol Board is your best bet. My brand is Strathmore 300, but most any bristol board will do. Some artists prefer a thicker Bristol because they really beat up a page. It goes without saying that “smooth” Bristol takes fine line work best, while “vellum” provides more texture and can even handle a wash or two without becoming over-soaked and pilly.

If you want to do a lot of heavy ink wash work, or plan on adding water based color (watercolor paint or colored ink) later, I would lean more towards a hot press watercolor paper, like arches. Is it more expensive? You bet. But even 90lb watercolor paper will handle that extra liquid better than 500 series bristol. It’s what the paper is made for. Also, if you’re aiming for more texture in your line, cold press and rough watercolor paper is something to look into. If you are doing sequential work and need a large quantity, you can test cheaper, student grade brands and see if they can accomplish what you are looking for while keeping you in budget.

Finally, there are the vellums and extra smooth papers designed for highly detailed work. I don’t use vellum much, unless I am designing color separations manually. For that I have a rediculous roll of old school, thick vellum paper I took from a former screen printing job before the place went out of business. I imagine one day I may have to hunt down a vellum brand I can recommend, but for now, I’d suggest sorting through reviews if you want to go that route.

I do enjoy the Strathmore Plate Bristol, which is a very smooth surface. However, I use it for nib and ink more than brush inking. There is also Borden and Reily’s Bleedproof Paper for Pens, which I discovered is not-quite bleedproof with certain inks. It takes India Ink and Sumi ink well enough and offers a plate surface at an inexpensive price.

Holy crud, are you still reading this? Good on you! It’s time to get to the meat of the matter…

Setting Up

Your setup doesn’t have to be overly complex. However, there are a few things that are useful to keep on hand:

• An ink well is used to pour some ink from the bottle so that you are not dipping your brush directly into your source bottle of ink. This allows you to see how much ink you are getting on the brush and keeps you from overloading on ink. It also keeps a wet, dirty brush out of your bottle of ink, which will keep it from getting moldy or washy. Don’t go out and buy anything fancy. An old lip gloss container, well cleaned, has been my ink pot for a decade. Just make sure your “well” has an airtight cap so your ink doesn’t dry into goo.

• A flat “dish” is good to have on hand for dry brush work, as it allows the ink to thicken up and become more suitable for brushing on dry. Any shallow container can work for this. I’ve upgraded to a little porcelain dish that I was given by a friend, but I used the top of a tube mailer for this purpose for years.

• A water container feels like a no-brainer. Try to get a good size jar for this. And again, you can use any kind of jar you are about to trash or recycle. Stay away from metal tins because: rust. Do as I say and not as I do: try to clean out your ink jar on a regular basis or risk starting a new form of life in your “problem water”.

• Rags or paper towels are useful for blotting ink or drawing water out of your brush. I love old washcloths or towels for this purpose, but an absorbent t-shirt or regular old paper towels are fine too.

• Scratch paper for making exploratory marks, bringing the brush to a point, and testing the ink load on your brush.

Optionally, a brush rest is a nice way to avoid your brush from drying at an awkward angle and deforming your brush head. I use little chopstick holders, but anything that raises the brush up off surface is good for this purpose, including the wooden chopsticks you get with a food order or a simple pencil.

Try to set up your workstation on the side of your paper that your dominant hand is on. This will help you avoid crossing over the piece you are working on to dip your brush, and you’ll be less likely to drip ink all over your work.

Loading the Brush

Loading the brush works differently for different techniques. If you want to hold a steady line for a longer period of time, or avoid a dry brush look, you want to:

• Dip your brush in water to dampen the bristles and prepare them to accept ink.

• Drag and twirl your brush on your rag. This will squeeze out excess water that would dilute your ink while bringing your brush to a point.

• Dip in ink.

• Drag and twirl your brush on your scratch paper. This serves the same purpose as dragging a watery brush across a rag, to pull out excess liquid while bringing the bristles to a point. Doing this on the paper prevents too much ink from being pulled out of the brush.

You may find that you need to repeat the last two steps a few times to get your brush loaded to the point where it is making a perfectly clean line (if this is the look you are going for). If your ink has dried out a bit and gotten gummy, forgo the second step, because diluting the ink is something you will probably want to do.

For a dryer look to your line, you’ll want to start with less water. The dish is useful here, because it will cause the ink to dry out and thicken, making it easier to create a dry brush effect, even on smoother papers.

• Dip a dry (or mostly dry) brush in ink, try not to soak the brush too much.

• Drag the brush across a towel or rag to pull out excess ink. You do not need to twirl your brush here, unless you want to shape it into a point.

• Drag the brush on scratch paper to be sure the density of ink is where you want it.

Remember: test, test, test! This is why you have scratch paper.

Mark-Making Exercises

Now that you have your brush all ready to ink, why not experiment with the range of marks it can make? Smash your brush; drag it along in winding paths; practice pulling straight lines; creating clean arcs and circles. The best way to test is by doing, and this is a good way to warm up before beginning a piece.

You’ll find holding the brush at different angles to the paper will make certain marks easier. A lower angle (about 45 degrees) will make straight, even lines while holding the brush more upright will give you more control over varying line weights.

Make an effort to pull your lines in one stroke as often as possible. This creates a cleaner line and will help you develop your brush control. Turn the page as you go. Pulling lines towards you is more natural for your arm and wrist than pushing lines away, and will prevent the brush from skipping and making you line more ragged than you would like.

Rendering Exercises

Practice different rendering techniques by starting simply. Attempt various gradations using differnt mark making techniques, like hatching, scribbling, or tapping the brush. Attempt a “clean” dark to light render. Experiment with the different aesthetics created by different marks in both dry brush and “wet” brush. How do those variations effect the texture of the gradient? Are there textures you prefer more than others? Do you hate texture, and would prefer to render with more graphic shapes? Can you combine those techniques? Interrogating your likes and dislikes is a fist step to developing a personal style.

You can also test rendering texture on basic shapes. This is a good way to test a texture or rendering style without getting caught up in a lot of drafting. Spheres and egg shapes are good for this exercise, because they allow for smooth gradient transitions. Find places where you can eschew outlines and use implied edges and texture to define the form.

Stylization Exercises

Now that you’ve done all of these little exercises, it’s time to apply them to a drawing. Different applications of ink will create different stylizations. All artists have their own preferences where it comes to stylization, and the best way to decide what your preferences are is to test what ink applications suit you best.

Try using the same basic line drawing with different mark making applications and techniques, like dry brush, hatching, and implied edge.

Take you brush and ink outside from life. Do quick black and white studies to sharpen your sense of contrast and use of negative space to define form. You’ll find this exercise will help improve speed and your understanding of tonal qualities when translating color reference into ink.

Try mixing your mark making techniques in a single drawing. How are you able to define different textures using different kinds of marks? Do certain techniques muddy your drafting? Are there areas you are able to use less lines? Need more? How are you crafting your negative space? Defining surfaces and light? Showing volume and depth? How do your lines help to move the viewer’s eye along the page? Etcetera and so forth.

Whether you use a brush, nibs, or a q-tip, these are all aspects of inking: the utilization of marks and graphic shapes to create an image based in basic principals of visual design. That utilization looks different for different artists. The bast way to decide what suits your tastes best is to test, practice, and try again.

Brush inking, like any tool or media, requires patience and practice. The benefits of the brush, with its wide range of mark making applications and versatility in finishing techniques, have made it a personal favorite. It’s important to remember that the mastery of a technique comes with practice. Don’t wait “until you’re ready” to create a piece in ink. You will learn as much from your failures as your successes. The more you work with a medium, the more confident you will become.

As October– the month of inking challenges– approaches, I hope this post is helpful to some of you. Happy inking!

Links

• Dick Blick

• Jackson’s Art Supplies

• St. Louis Art Supply

• Oriental Art Supply

• Oriental Art Material (ships from China)

• Wonderforest

• Inking Technique Handout

*No link in this post is an affiliate link. They are there for convenience. Please, find your materials at the best price for your budget at the art or craft supply store of your choosing. If you would like to support my artistic efforts, consider becoming a Patreon or buying something from my store. TY 8)

Sketches, clean drawing and final painting for my issue #2 variant cover of Miss Truesdale and the Fall of Hyperborea. Out with Dark Horse.

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I’ve done editorial work sparsely throughout the years. However, sequential work has largely dominated my portfolio, especially in the past decade. This has been somewhat frustrating, because I do enjoy doing work that is conceptual. I’ve simply never been very good at building out a whole portfolio in my spare time.

I went to undergrad school with James (James, you need to secure your website, bud), and have watched his editorial work develop into some of the best in the field. I felt like it would be a good move to be a student again, and learn from someone who actually has a solid handle on the editorial side of the business. It was a huge bonus that this is a remote learning experience. Getting time to leave the house for a few hours every week is nigh impossible with a spouse that also works and a 7 year old.

I was really nervous about being on the student side of the desk again! On one hand, I am returning to this role with a skill set I never had as an undergrad. I’m not struggling with media like I used to, or laboring over draft after draft to get the aesthetic I want. But I did learn that I still have all the nagging self doubt over my work that I had 20 years ago. Does this fulfill the assignment? Am I overly focused on what is expected and producing work that doesn’t fit my portfolio as a whole? Aw, crud, how do I want to finish this? Does this look “editorial”?

I was relieved that the preliminary work for illustrating was something I have done so many times that it was not the chore I considered it back in school, though my thumbnails are still scribbling nothings. Thankfully, James wasn’t the stickler for perfect thumbs that our old professors were.

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Ultimately, after a lot of class discussion and chatting with James for a bit, I went with the astronaut image. The idea was far enough away from the article (which centered on human interaction among strangers) that it felt like a compliment and not a direct reference. It also felt very “in my visual wheelhouse”.

This is where taking a class moves away from actual freelance. I am doing this to build out a part of my portfolio that has been sorely neglected, so these assignments are more for me than someone else. There isn't a "brand aesthetic" I have to aim for. Or an image in an art director's head I have to try and recreate. This piece is still, very much, me.

I'm not sure how well I did at "creating an editorial image," though. It's a nice painting. I really like how the asteroid came out. I'm pleased with my dry brush technique in the black and white image. But I think it's a hard sell to an editorial art director. Not just style-wise, but also because it looks like it took longer than it did (I finished the acrylic painting in 5 hours). Both seem to fall more in line with sci fi magazine illustrations then they do editorial pieces.

I did like that I learned a lot about speeding up my painting process for this assignment. I also feel like I’d like to bring more of my line into my painted work for future assignments. But we’ll see how things go. At the very least, I have a new way to examine my illustration work moving forward.

I have a feeling I am pushing my work in some direction, lately. I’m not sure what direction that is ultimately going to be, but I’ve decided to enjoy the journey for now.

So, for the uninitiated, and everyone else wondering What the heck is ORCS!? I wanted to do a post with all if the issue summaries and a small preview. But first…

What the Heck is ORCS!?

ORCS! is a fantasy series I concieved back in 2016 and started to produce as a webcomic. I’m not really built for webcomic work, which made updates sporadic. However, I was able to produce 2 mini comics from the series that I sold at shows. Fast forward to 2018. I was working for Boom! on Adventure Time when my editor asked for a pitch. Not thinking anything would come from it, I pitched ORCS!. Along with the zines I had a whole series outlined, maps, world building notes – all the fun stuff. I organized all this info, did some heavy editing on the ancillary material (it’s never good to over share on a pitch) and sent it off.

And holy crap Boom! picked it up.

As for what the series as a whole is about, I’ll quote the pitch:

The ORCS! Are here and they’ve come for you!  Follow the adventures of a wiley band of misfits as they adventure through the Known World.  It’s all fun and games until an ancient evil grows more powerful is awakened. The Orcs must team up with former rivals and bitter enemies to save the Four Kingdoms from a a growing darkness that threatens all life on their world.

This basically sums up the concept of all three volumes (The Curse being the second of the three). I designed the story to expand out to include more of the world as the volumes progress, even though cameos of future players exist in the first two volumes. Essentially, stakes are risen as the plot moves forward. So, while the series remains all ages (no cursing, no nudity), and is billed as an “adventure comedy”, it does move thematically into some grim and treacherous territory that I am constantly balancing with its rating.

It is sometimes a difficult series to explain. Some have likened it to D&D, though I don’t play any tabletop games, so I’m not sure how they connect outside of the usual way all epic tales are structured. I’ve poured in all my knowledge of various folklore, love of psychedelic fantasy, interest in various forms of western mysticism, Tolkien nerdery (ORCS! began as a LotR spoof), and personal preferences regarding character design into this story, so it remains an amalgam of many influences.

While volume 1 (The Legend) focused most on our main gang of characters, The Curse introduces us to more of their tribe, a new group of allies, and a number of characters outside the tribe.

Issue 1

The tribe invokes the wrath of a Wizard, who uses his magic to darken their door with a monsterous creature designed to destroy them. Still, help comes from the most unlikely places.

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Issue 2

Pez pulls a prank on Bog that goes horribly awry, setting off an unfortunate series of events that will change the Known World forever… (Colors on this issue were graciously provided by Gonçalo Lopes, because hoo boy my deadlines were hell. This preview includes some small adjustments I made for the trade.)

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Issue 3

Left pondering the reality of her choice, Pez makes an unlikely ally for an impromptu adventure.

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Issue 4

The grand finale of the series. An ancient evil has risen from legend to curse the tribe and enact its revenge upon the Wise Woman.

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Volume 2: ORCS! The Curse is available for preorder, or you can order all 4 (50 page) single issues at your local comic shop.

Zines are self published booklets. Unlike most published material, zines are produced entirely by an artist or artists. They can serve as periodicals for fandoms (fanzines), writing anthologies, gatherings of political ideologies, or pure artistic expression through comics, illustration, or poetry. Essentially, a zine can be anything its creator wants it to be, whether it is a mini-comic or a manifesto (or combination of the two). Because they are self published and produced, they are void of editorial oversight or interference. Anyone can make them and distribute them in whatever way they wish.

There’s a good sized community out there for any kind of zine you can think of, not to mention numerous local and national zine fests where zinesters can gather to trade their books. They have long served the comics community as a way to tell a story that is short and unfettered. Some zines are akin to tiny works of art: riso printed, screen printed, hand bound, and full of fancy papers. Others are quick and dirty fold-ups that serve the purpose of any ephemera, a quick relay of information.

The purpose of this post is to focus somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. Coming from a background in comics and illustration, I have always loved self publishing and mini comics. Why wait for an editor to approve your story when you can produce it yourself? And, in fact, the first ORCS! books were zines I made for my first indie comic shows. They proved I could tell a story in a limited space, and showed proof of concept when it came to my weird fantasy world.

But I also love making mini comics to simply tell a story. And to get that story out to people who might be interested. Sure, you could make a webcomic or post a short story on social media, but those options are almost more ephemeral than a zine. There is something about the printed page that stays, that feels like a small and secret treasure, that feels real in a way that is hard to achive on the internet, with its constant scrolling and shifting Terms of Service.

So, whether you use the information below to make one zine– mini comic or otherwise– or you use it to make a hundred (or a few hundred), I hope you give the adventure of self publishing a try.

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Foldable Zines are made from a single sheet of paper, and they are probably the easiest to produce, even though folding your first piece of paper may get a little confusing.

These make for great, cheap zines to sell at cons, a special one-off for a friend, or (my favorite) a fun project for the kiddos.

You could also include them as inserts in a larger zine or booklet, a special add on for enamel buttons, or a givaway for fans of your work. The possibilities are endless and up to you. The best part of folded zines is that they can be unfolded, leaving a blank side where you could put surprise art or a poster.

Lots of fun stuff to be done with the foldable zine! So, how do you make one?

You will need:

• a sheet of 8.5 x 11” paper (letter size)

• scissors

And that’s it! You can preprint your zine using the template at the end of this post, or fold the paper and draw on it directly. The choice is yours.

How to fold and cut your paper:

• Step 1
  Take your piece of paper and fold it in half vertically.

• Step 2
  Unfold the paper, turn it horizontally, then fold the edges into the center of the paper.

• Step 3
  Fold the paper in half.

• Step 4
  Unfold the sheet of paper.

• Step 5
  Holding the paper horizontally, push the ends in so the center sections pop up.

• Step 6
  Cut the paper along the fold made by folding the sheet vertically.

• Step 7
  Holding the pages, fold the paper over to form a pinwheel shape.

• Step 8
  Fold the paper into a booklet shape.

Whether you’ve printed them out, or draw on them directly, you can take this time to trim the edges if they’re a bit wonky. Personally, I will buy a foldable despite wonky edges, but you do you.

Stapled zines are probably the most “book like” in terms of creating a finished piece that feels professional. You have more finishing choices to make here, as well as options to have your book professionally printed by a printing shop.

But I am going to focus on making small runs at home. Most print shops, which will fold and bind your zine for you, do not produce books at a price that makes them affordable for a reader until you are publishing 100+ copies. And I don’t suggest doing this on your first go. If you have a large audience, then this makes sense, but if you are still building your practice, making smaller runs will keep you from overspending.

There is also the added bonus of creating zines with multiple types of paper, inserts, and even french folds, which are expensive options when you print at a print shop.

Making your own zines will also teach you a lot about the process of production. This will help you make art that suits production, instead of creating specialty illustrations and comics that are difficult or expensive to reproduce.

First, let’s discuss some paper terms I will use a lot, but have specific definitions.

Sheet: A sheet refers to the entire paper, front and back. It consists of 2 spreads.

Spread: A spread refers to one side of a sheet. It consists of 2 pages.

Page: A page refers to one half of a spread.

The Math

I hate math too, but it is important to know the space you are working with before you begin laying out your story. Keep in mind that each sheet of paper will yeild 4 pages, so all interior art must be divisible by 4.

So, an 8 page zine will require 2 sheets of paper, a 12 page zine will require 3, a 16 page zine will require 4, etc. This is important when budgeting your project. If you are taking your pages to a copy shop, knowing how many double sided copies you need will determine the base price of the zine and therefore what you might charge for it at a show (general rule of thumb is to double the base price for the sale price).

Unless you are flush with cash, you probable only have a set amount with which to produce x amount of copies. Keep this in mind when writing your zine, because the longer the story the more costly the printing. Be on the lookout for places where you can get cheap or free prints, and consider keeping your zine art black and white. This cuts down costs and enables you to use printing options that are poorly calibrated, therefore less expensive.

Supplies

• Long arm stapler (preferrably with a stopper)

• A double sided printer or access to a double sided printer

• guillotine/paper cutter (optional but useful)

• cover stock for covers (80-100lb) (optional, but nice looking)

• copy paper for interiors (20lb)

The Half Page Zine

If you are making a comic, the half page zine produces a result closest to a standard American comic in its dimensions and available space. A half page zine is a Letter Size Sheet folded in half, creating a page size of 5.5 x 8.5. You can download a template of the half page zine below.

Here’s where things can get confusing if you are making a zine that is more than 4 pages, because–unless you are sending that zine to a print shop to have it assembled–you need to set it up so that it will print the pages in the correct order once they are folded.

The best way to do this in your layout program is to use the zigzag pattern, starting on the right hand side with page one, continuing down until there are no more spreads to zig zag to, moving to the right again and zigzagging up (pictured left).

You’ll notice the even pages are always on the left, and the odd pages are always on the right. This is a good way to check and make sure that you’ve laid the zine out correctly.

Once you’ve done this, it is only a matter of making a pdf you can print from, and insuring that the pages print head to head (alternatively, you may be asked to pick “short edge” or “long edge” binding. Since we are folding on the short edge, you want to flip the page on the short edge.)

Print your cover art separately, even if you are using the same paper on the exterior and the interior. It will make your life far less confusing in terms of printing while affording you the option to upgrade or change cover paper at a later date.

Side Note…

Certain programs will allow for “booklet printing”, including adobe Acrobat. That means you would not have to use the process of setting up your spreads beforehand in a zigzag pattern. All you would need is a PDF of all your pages.

HOWEVER, I have used this printing option to varied results, and have found that setting up pages manually is more reliable in terms of the final printing, because you do not have to fiddle with printer settings for margins, printable areas, or paper source. This is also not an option if you hand a file over to a copy shop, or hijack a zerox machine with hard copies.

Most copy shops either don’t deal in booklet printing, or will charge you extra to print your pages out that way.

The Quarter Page Zine

Quarter page zines are the most cost effective of the stapled zines, because each sheet of paper will yeild 2 copies. Folded, this zine measures 4.25 x 5.5”. There is a page template for the quarter page zine below.

This can get even more confusing than half page zines, but take the time to figure it out. Quarter page zines may be small, but once you get the hang of them they are a great way to produce pocket-sized books.

For Quarter Page Zines, the sheet of paper will be cut in half after it is printed (which is why a paper cutter is so handy). This means that each sheet of paper becomes 2 sheets of paper yielding 2 copies of each spread.

The least confusing way to lay this out is to lay out your spreads using the same zigzag pattern as the half page zine. Then duplicate those spreads so there are 2 spreads printing on top of one another per 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper (pictured above).

Be careful with your measurements here! If your placement is off the margins for each spread will be different, so make sure you are setting them up on the right size paper.

For the 1/4 page zine, you will still need to flip your art head to head, but if given the “short edge binding” or long edge binding” option, you want “long edge binding”, because the sheet is being folded in half vertically after it is trimmed.

Print Your Cover Separate. In the same way it does for the half zine, a separate cover file is easier to manage when printing and gives you options later.

My biggest suggestion for art is to try to create compelling images in black and white. Certainly, color printing is always an option, but it will be more affordable for you, the artist, and your readers if you relegate color imagery to the cover.

You can download a PDF of useful tips for creating black and white art here: Black and White Art.pdf

You can download a PDF of creating tones in Photoshop here: Tones

Most importantly, you want to create art with no bleed. Bleed is when an image runs to the edge of the page , but this is less of an option when you are using a printer or copier, which normally has a margin of 1/4 inch. All templates have been designed with the margin in mind.

• Foldable Zine Template

• Half Page Zine Template

• Quarter Page Zine Template

• Half Page Zine Layout (InDesign)

• Quarter Page Zine Layout (InDesign)

Wishing you all the best of luck in your zine making! Please share and comment. And let me know if links aren’t working!

I’ve had many people ask me: Are those covers really painted? Yes! All my covers for ORCS! have been lovingly rendered in Liquitex liquid acrylic. As acrylic brands go: this is not the fanciest paint on the market, but for my own needs it works perfectly, as I am building up areas of thin washes and thicker opacity.

But that’s a little down the line. First, let’s talk sketches!

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I always start with a rough sketch or layout. Whether I do that layout digitally (as I did here) or traditionally (as I often do for my comic pages), I make sure that all of my art and text is roughly to scale. This takes a lot of pressure off of me at the drafting stage, because the composition is pretty much right where I want it and I can focus on making a good line drawing.

One thing I do with my paintings that I don’t do as much with comic pages is define my tones in the sketch stage of the painting. Unless I am painting a comic page (a rarity), I am digitally coloring, which leaves a lot of room for messing up. Paint is slightly less forgiving and mistakes take longer to correct, so I am trying to go into a painting with as much worked out as I can.

For this painting I had the benefit of a digital version, which I created well before I started on the final art for the pages and paintings for the individual issues. This was used in all of the original promotion of the book and laid good groundwork for the painting as a color study I could reference.

It also allowed me to double- check the sizing of my characters against the layout of the type. This is something I do often with the pencils, but it was nice to have a color back-up.

For most paintings, my color study stage would be done traditionally in gouache, which allows me to mark the various color mixes I will be using for the painting (gouache and liquid acrylic have standard, corresponding hues, so a mix in gouache is almost identical to a mix in l. acrylic), but as this was the last painting I had done for the series, I was comfortable enough with painting the characters and the color scheme to mix by sight.

Now that all of that preliminary work is done, I can start to paint!

I paint on Arches natural white hot press watercolor paper (156lb) and use a very cheap 11 x 17 light table to transfer the drawing in colored pencil. I like to use colored pencil for the transfer because sometimes the pencil will mix a little with the first paint layers and black CP can make the paints look muddy. I try to choose a color that is just dark enough to see through a thin layer of paint, but not so dark I can’t paint over it with a thicker, opaque layer.

I then go in with a thin, overall wash to tone the background and lay in rough shadows for reference. I do this stage in watercolor, and it’s almost always completely covered over. I was talking to a friend about under paintings: their usefulness versus the time they eat; and by the end we agreed that anything you need to get through a painting, even if it feels arbitrary, is probably a good step. I’m not sure that I need this step, but I need this step.

I’ve also been making a point to mount my paper on board (cardboard in this case, but more recently, I found a large, scrap piece of plastic board). Normally, I would tape down the paper on all sides straight to my drawing table, but because I had to bounce between projects while I was painting this, I mounted it instead, and found I liked working this way a little better. The industrial magnets hold it to my table (there is sheet metal under the cutting mat) and it allows me to turn a painting like I would turn a drawing as I ink it.

The background of this paining was mercifully graphic, which allowed me to play a bit with washy, pure color. I also put in a layer of turquoise shading on the characters. Again, much of this would be covered once I started to paint the characters proper, but It is necessary for me to get down so I could conceive the lighting.

What a mess! However, here I am starting to lay in the dark black areas and define those globular shapes of the astral plane. After painstakingly paining the negative space I went back in and cleaned up the edges, adding overlapping globs in more opaque color.

This is where the liquid acrylic outcompetes gouache. By the end of this painting, I will have put down so many thin layers that gouache would have become grainy and unwieldy, but the acrylic maintains a smooth texture throughout the painting. Yes, you have to paint fast, but years of watercolor and gouache sketching has made me a fairly quick painter.

This was a complete session for me (a few hours) and where I called it for the day. At this point, I only had to worry about the eleven characters. Which, believe me, is enough!

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The background characters were the first I tackled. I wanted them to appear far off in the distance – almost like an apparition – so I didn’t want to over-render them or get too noodley with their details. This is something I find hard to do on the computer. Zooming in tends to warps my sense of space.

I rendered them in several layers of light and dark. You’ll notice not much of the background gradient serves as a mid-tone. I was concerned, after that first pass of lights, that they might become a little too transparent looking if I didn’t add in a mid-tone layer of greens that defined their forms better. (The photos make it appear like there is a warm, yellow wash in some images. There is not. Cameras are not always very accurate with paintings).

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I painted all of my foreground characters with the same process that I painted Old Granny for the back. I put down an initial pass of flat color. There is a little rendering in this stage, but it is very subtle dimensionality. I will then put in a layer that pushes the highlights a bit more. But the layer that always pulls things together is the shadow layer. Once that layer is in, it is only a matter of cleaning edges and adding in small lighting details, like reflected light and subtle highlights or textures.

I am using extremely small brushes by that final stage (round 1 and 0), to the point that it often feels more like drawing than painting (which is probably why I like painting and rendering in this fashion. It’s familiar and not unlike brush inking by the last stages.)

I repeated this same process for the foreground characters (displayed below). After the first stage of flats, I will go in, character by character to paint each individual (though you will notice I tend to render around the group while I do that).

I wish I could tell you that there is some trick to this stage, but there really isn’t! It’s a gradual rendering – pulling out and pushing back – details until I have everything where I want it. The more preliminary work I do, the less time I spend on the rendering process, trying to find my colors and blends. (Though not practical for time sensitive work, sometimes it is fun to “find” a painting as you go.)

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The very last pass is extremely subtle, and I’m not sure most people would even notice the thin layers of color I went in and added to the shadows, or the areas I warmed with pinks and reds in the background to help the painting look more homogenous. But I know they’re there, and I do think they make the difference.

Painting is a kind of return to my roots for me, as much of my college was spent wading through oils. Though I’ve always kept painting sketchbooks, it is only in the last few years that I’ve been able to find an applicable working method for my professional projects. But no painting is finished until it is scanned. Below is the color corrected scan, along with photographed details of the image.

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Whatever your process for creating an image, I hope you found something useful in my painting process. As always, comments are appreciated.

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As always, comments loved and very welcome! 8)

This past fortnight in my sketchbook, I did some outside sketching while I mommed, some character doodling, and a lot of watercolor mish mash. Please be advised that my sketches sometimes feature nudity, and there is one mild “sexual situation” at the end, though I think it’s rather tame, TBH.

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Feel free to leave a comment below. Social media sites die, but blog comments live forever.

ORCS! Issue 6 is the final chapter of Book 1 (there are 3 in total), and completes our first act. Here’s a preview…

Variant cover by the wondrous Sweeney Boo!

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ORCS! Issue 5 hits shelves June 9, 2021, with a variant cover by Sweeney Boo and my bud Andrew Maclean!

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