Comments on: Anatomy of a Pen and Ink Drawing From Concept to Finish http://www.optimumwound.com/anatomy-of-a-pen-and-ink-drawing-from-concept-to-finish.htm a site that teaches creatives cutting edge marketing tactics while celebrating razor sharp writing and badass oen and ink artistry. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:15:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: jcrash http://www.optimumwound.com/anatomy-of-a-pen-and-ink-drawing-from-concept-to-finish.htm/comment-page-1#comment-2847 jcrash Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:26:21 +0000 http://www.optimumwound.com/?p=639#comment-2847 No worries Jay, I'm not here to start a flame war. I do like your guys site and all the Masters of Ink interviews, I guess that's why I was a little surprised at this article. Good luck with your new comic and stylistic developments. I certainly respect the hard work and energy that goes into making a comic, regardless of technique. No worries Jay, I’m not here to start a flame war. I do like your guys site and all the Masters of Ink interviews, I guess that’s why I was a little surprised at this article. Good luck with your new comic and stylistic developments. I certainly respect the hard work and energy that goes into making a comic, regardless of technique.

]]> By: admin http://www.optimumwound.com/anatomy-of-a-pen-and-ink-drawing-from-concept-to-finish.htm/comment-page-1#comment-2845 admin Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:42:31 +0000 http://www.optimumwound.com/?p=639#comment-2845 Jerry I don't want to argue back and forth with you all month on this. You're a good artist and I respect that you don't hide behind a wall of anonymity. I truly do. And after all of these years we've developed some pretty thick skin. Rich has been experimenting with realism for the past 2 years. I think he still puts his own stamp on it and is developing a style that walks a fine line between his old influences and possibly veering too far off into static realism. But most of his recent drawings have been single illos and not sequential work. It's been a joy watching his evolution over the past 15 years. Our new comic, a collaboration, will probably push off into different styles to see what works and what doesn't. I've been playing with realism for the better part of a decade. And yes, there's a big risk of over-rendering the images. Personally I've been loosening up my approach as the drawings do tend to look static. Perhaps I'll do a post / video in the near future. Thanks for reading. -Jay Jerry I don’t want to argue back and forth with you all month on this. You’re a good artist and I respect that you don’t hide behind a wall of anonymity. I truly do. And after all of these years we’ve developed some pretty thick skin.

Rich has been experimenting with realism for the past 2 years. I think he still puts his own stamp on it and is developing a style that walks a fine line between his old influences and possibly veering too far off into static realism. But most of his recent drawings have been single illos and not sequential work.

It’s been a joy watching his evolution over the past 15 years. Our new comic, a collaboration, will probably push off into different styles to see what works and what doesn’t.

I’ve been playing with realism for the better part of a decade. And yes, there’s a big risk of over-rendering the images. Personally I’ve been loosening up my approach as the drawings do tend to look static.

Perhaps I’ll do a post / video in the near future.
Thanks for reading.
-Jay

]]> By: jcrash http://www.optimumwound.com/anatomy-of-a-pen-and-ink-drawing-from-concept-to-finish.htm/comment-page-1#comment-2843 jcrash Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:05:38 +0000 http://www.optimumwound.com/?p=639#comment-2843 Glaze over all you want, but those are still going to be some very un-dynamic panels. The foreshortening looks flat, the poses are stiff, expression are stilted etc. No matter how much I enjoy any of the rendered aspects of what Richard does, visually it will fall flat because it lacks that exaggerated perspective, squash and bounce of a solid drawing foundation. For me it's not a B&W "You either like it or you don’t". I do enjoy the stylized line work, but I want more than that from a comic artist; I want dynamic poses, proper foreshortened forms, expressive anatomy, exaggerated perspective and all the trimming that go with good figure drawing. Are you telling me all of that is not part of the "style"? Glaze over all you want, but those are still going to be some very un-dynamic panels. The foreshortening looks flat, the poses are stiff, expression are stilted etc. No matter how much I enjoy any of the rendered aspects of what Richard does, visually it will fall flat because it lacks that exaggerated perspective, squash and bounce of a solid drawing foundation. For me it’s not a B&W “You either like it or you don’t”. I do enjoy the stylized line work, but I want more than that from a comic artist; I want dynamic poses, proper foreshortened forms, expressive anatomy, exaggerated perspective and all the trimming that go with good figure drawing. Are you telling me all of that is not part of the “style”?

]]> By: admin http://www.optimumwound.com/anatomy-of-a-pen-and-ink-drawing-from-concept-to-finish.htm/comment-page-1#comment-2829 admin Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:36:09 +0000 http://www.optimumwound.com/?p=639#comment-2829 As soon as someone starts saying "this is that" or this is "how it is" my eyes begin to glaze over. There are no rules. You either like it or you don't. It's a look or a style but it certainly isn't simply 'tracing photos'. Otherwise everyone would do it. A lot of addition and subtraction goes into the process. You still need to learn your craft, spend years learning how you make the pen 'talk' to the paper. You don't simply grab a pad of paper, some pens and a lightbox and become a 'realist' in a week. And there's a shitload of action sequences in Rich's comics. No windows were hurt in the process. -Jay As soon as someone starts saying “this is that” or this is “how it is” my eyes begin to glaze over.
There are no rules. You either like it or you don’t. It’s a look or a style but it certainly isn’t simply ‘tracing photos’. Otherwise everyone would do it. A lot of addition and subtraction goes into the process.
You still need to learn your craft, spend years learning how you make the pen ‘talk’ to the paper. You don’t simply grab a pad of paper, some pens and a lightbox and become a ‘realist’ in a week.
And there’s a shitload of action sequences in Rich’s comics. No windows were hurt in the process.
-Jay

]]> By: jcrash http://www.optimumwound.com/anatomy-of-a-pen-and-ink-drawing-from-concept-to-finish.htm/comment-page-1#comment-2827 jcrash Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:53:52 +0000 http://www.optimumwound.com/?p=639#comment-2827 I kind of agree with Kiandru here. So are you using the photos as your "pencils" and then inking over that? Man, doesn't that get expensive and tedious to get the models then light and shoot, panel for panel What about action sequences? Are you throwing people thru sugar-glass windows too? What about powers? It's seems rather limiting as far as story telling goes. If you can't draw, just hire someone that draws and do your inks over them. Sure artists use photo references, but they are just that "references", not tracings. It's not cheating, but it's not drawing either. I would call it what it is, pen and ink over photography. Or pen and ink over photo collage if you are taking from different sources. I think that the misrepresentation is where you are going to draw a lot of heat from. My .02 I kind of agree with Kiandru here. So are you using the photos as your “pencils” and then inking over that? Man, doesn’t that get expensive and tedious to get the models then light and shoot, panel for panel What about action sequences? Are you throwing people thru sugar-glass windows too? What about powers? It’s seems rather limiting as far as story telling goes. If you can’t draw, just hire someone that draws and do your inks over them. Sure artists use photo references, but they are just that “references”, not tracings. It’s not cheating, but it’s not drawing either. I would call it what it is, pen and ink over photography. Or pen and ink over photo collage if you are taking from different sources. I think that the misrepresentation is where you are going to draw a lot of heat from. My .02

]]> By: admin http://www.optimumwound.com/anatomy-of-a-pen-and-ink-drawing-from-concept-to-finish.htm/comment-page-1#comment-1900 admin Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:41:50 +0000 http://www.optimumwound.com/?p=639#comment-1900 It’s not necessarily a comic subcategory. All of the examples above are actually illustrations and not comic panels. Richard drew them for movie reviews. People have used photographs for decades. Falls under the categories of realism and photorealism. It is definitely hand art. All pen and ink. As far as cheating how would you determine that? Do artists that create on a computer tablet (Intuos) or a Cintiq cheat because they can perfect their line work a million times before saving the file? Do artists that use photo backgrounds or computer model backgrounds on their comic art cheat? Do guys who rip off Jim Lee’s or Todd McFarlane’s style cheat? Did the Dutch Masters (16th century) who used primitive projection systems to project an image on to their canvas to paint cheat? There’s room for everything under the sun. All styles. -Jay It’s not necessarily a comic subcategory. All of the examples above are actually illustrations and not comic panels. Richard drew them for movie reviews.

People have used photographs for decades. Falls under the categories of realism and photorealism. It is definitely hand art. All pen and ink.
As far as cheating how would you determine that?
Do artists that create on a computer tablet (Intuos) or a Cintiq cheat because they can perfect their line work a million times before saving the file?
Do artists that use photo backgrounds or computer model backgrounds on their comic art cheat?
Do guys who rip off Jim Lee’s or Todd McFarlane’s style cheat?
Did the Dutch Masters (16th century) who used primitive projection systems to project an image on to their canvas to paint cheat?

There’s room for everything under the sun. All styles.
-Jay

]]> By: kiandru http://www.optimumwound.com/anatomy-of-a-pen-and-ink-drawing-from-concept-to-finish.htm/comment-page-1#comment-1897 kiandru Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:39:25 +0000 http://www.optimumwound.com/?p=639#comment-1897 is this genre some specific comic subcategory or it is just another way of cheating while creating comics? i understand working with a model but working on a picture it feels a little cheap. and i can not consider it hand art. probably black and white photography but not drawing. anyway, it's my opinion so don't bother to give me a reply on my deviant profile. have the best day! is this genre some specific comic subcategory or it is just another way of cheating while creating comics?
i understand working with a model but working on a picture it feels a little cheap. and i can not consider it hand art. probably black and white photography but not drawing.

anyway, it’s my opinion so don’t bother to give me a reply on my deviant profile.

have the best day!

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