Tools of the trade

I thought I'd try something a little different today. I'm going to give you a little insight into some of the equipment I use on a daily basis. This is by no means exhaustive as I have all manner of different pens and other bits that I use for specific jobs.

First up is possibly the most important, 'Paper'. I tend to rough out my ideas in moleskin notebooks or other pads. If they're something that will be scanned in and inked over digitally then chances are I'll just draw them on normal printer paper as it's easier. However if I'm doing something more elaborate like a comic page or a commission that requires hand inking then I will always draw it on bristol board. I tend to use either Daler Rowney or Windsor & Newton personally but there are a lot of other great companies out there. 'Pencils' A lot of people in the comics industry use non repro blue pencils such as col-erase as they don't show up when the page is later scanned into a computer. I on the otherhand have never found one that works right for me, so I stick to my good old Rotring mechanical pencil with a 0.5 lead. I do sometimes use ordinary pencils particularly when drawing on old book pages as they don't tend to be so scratchy against the paper, but mostly its the Rotring. 'Pens' Now then Mickey love let me tell you about Paulines pens! Sorry had to stick a League of Gentlemen reference in there. For most of my illustration work I use uni pin fine liners which are brilliant for cross hatching and drawing in details. I use 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 0.8 nibs not sure if they do others but they're my go to. I also use a Pentel brush pen which is amazing for loose sketching and filling in larger areas. Other artists use them for everything with great effect but I haven't mastered it to that level yet. My new boy though is the Pentel Touch, which is somewhere between a brushpen and felt tip. It's a fantastic pen for getting varied line thickness and you can get some really fine lines with it too. I use it a lot for the 'Apple Tree Pirates' as I find it a great cartooning pen.  'Bits and Bobs' I'm sure there are a myriad of different tools out there to help artists including a few I'd really like myself but these are the ones I currently use the most.  A good solid pair of compasses. Mine are Rotring and have been used for years. They are pretty much essential to me because you can do a lot more than just draw circles with them. A 360 degree protractor. These can be really useful for making logos with circles involved as sometimes marking things by eye just isn't accurate enough. A set square is another essential as I use it as a ruler as well as for right angles. Rubbers are another essential item for various stages of drawing. a normal rubber like everybody has and also a putty eraser which is a new discovery to me, no idea why I've never had one before because they're super useful.  So there we go. That's a little glimpse into the tools of the trade for me at least. If you want to know anything more about them please drop a comment or find me on one of the social media below.