Thayne and VampireLover asked me to start a list of drawing and inking tools for them to try out. I figure it's good to share knowledge so I'm posting it for everybody to access and to share the tools they use.

Drawing is a very generic term for a wide range of techniques, so I am going to break it out into some basic categories.

Pencils
There are many types of pencils the important thing to remember is the level of softness and hardness. The softer pencils are designated as B and harder ones are H. The leter can be followed by a number that designates the degree of softness or hardness. The higher the number the softer or harder the lead/graphite will be. B leads lay down darker and are used primarily for shading, while H leads lay down lighter and are for more precise line work. The old #2 is a 2H pencil.

One final word on pencils before the list. You have probably heard of pros using a "non-photo" blue pencil to do their initial drawing. It's basically a light blue colored pencil that you can be a little looser with prior to laying down finished pencils or inks. The "non-photo" is a term refering to the fact that older methods of reproduction wouldn't transfer that blue so it was essentially invisible further down the production.

Types of pencils (each type makes use of the various hardnesses)
Mechanical- A holder that uses small lead sizes from 0.3mm up to 0.9mm that allows you to have a uniform tip without the need to sharpen. (non-photo blue leads also available)

Technical- Using another type of lead holder these leads are significantly larger than the technical pencil. They allow for more precise sharpening than your standard wood pencil. (non-photo blue leads also available)

Woodless- Is the size and shape of a wood pencil, but without the wood. Typically a fine art tool used to do large areas of fine quality shading. They come wraped in tough plastic and are used with or without a holder.

Drawing Pencils- Wood pencils of varying hardness that can be bought in sets or indiviually.

Erasers
Not all erasers were created equal.

Kneaded- The work horse eraser of the drawing world. It's plyable enough to shape to your needs and is spectacular at sucking up soft lead (amazing with charcoal too) from your paper. Best of all cleaning it is almost like playing with gum

Pink Eraser- Probably the most familiar eraser, it is fairly good at handling the harder leads.

White Plastic Eraser- The best general duty pencil eraser. It's the middle of the road eraser.

Tools
Some of these tools will be repeated for the inking list. However there is a difference between an inking ruler and a standard one. if you think you may do both drawing and inking, then only buy the inking version of the tool.

Ruler- Only freaks of nature can draw straight lines.

Drawing Board- If you don't have a drawing table it's the next best thing. Plus you can watch tv with it on your lap.

T-Square- Takes some of the pain of perspective away.

Parallel- It's a fancy mechanical T-square. I have one attached to my drawing board.

Adjustible Triangle- This takes even more pain away when drawing perspective.

Compass- Only a freak of nature can draw perfect circles.

Ellipse Templates- An old standby for mechanical drawing.

Drafting/Drawing Tape- It has a kinder gentler adhesive.

Tortillion/Blending Stumps- They come in a variety of sizes and are used to smooth the gradiation during shading.

Light Box- This is like a drawing board that is lit from underneath. It can be used to take rough pencils on one sheet of paper to finished pencils on another, and finally to inks on yet another sheet of paper. Why so many pieces of paper? I'll touch on paper next.

Just like everything else there are many different types of paper. Some are better suited for one media over another.

Let's start with the surface. There are numerous textures to choose from. You can have super smooth to rough to an actual pattern of texture (as with pastel paper). It's all about friction. The rougher the texture, the more friction, the more it will grab your media. This can be useful if you are using soft lead, or potentially a disaster if you are using an ink pen.

Next thing to consider is weight. Heavier paper, or board tend to be smoother and less porous, and are well suited to go from pencils to inks. Bristol is a good all purpose board that is rough enough for pencil, and smooth enough for inks. Plus it's thin enough to use with a light box. Comic boards like "Blueline" are a prelined for production bristol board.

There is really only one type of paper that I think is a must have no matter what media you plan to work in and that's Tracing Paper.


Inking to follow...

Bio, thank you so much for doing this! Thayne was talking about brush markers and radiographs. Do you recommend any such products? Or am I jumping the gun here?

ok a couple things here. First off Bio talked about brush markers, I talked about rapidographs. Oh and yeah he said inkings next so you did jump the gun

Told you I needed help. I can't keep the facts straight. As for jumping the gun, I'm just over eager.

There are another vast array of tools available to use in the art of inking. I'll touch on those of my limited experience here. As this is likely my last post here, I encourage our more experienced members to share their knowledge and fill in the gaps in all of the areas I have touched on.

Brushes
The brush is the ultimate tool for inking. It is also the most difficult to master. In fact it can take a lifetime of pursuit. They come in a variety of sizes. The larger for laying down big areas of ink, the smaller for fine lines and detail.

Sabel brushes- Yep, just like they use in painting. The sizes 0 and 00 are capable of producing fine lines of beautiful weight variation. They are also the tool to use when shading with the old school feathering technique.

Sumi- Soft bristles capable of fine to thick line weights. This type of brush is typically a fine art tool, but has aided in producing such stunning work that it deserves a mention.

Plastic- The type of brush you get with your kindergarten water color set. Not real useful. Throw them away if you have any

A quick note on inks... India ink while well suited to the brush and the traditional pen, is somewhat grainey and will clog a technical pen. Waterproof inks have a tendency toward longer drying times.

Pens
Split Tip ink pens- These are those old school pens that you dip into the ink (there are some that are cartridge fed). These produce a nice line with some little variation. They have a tendency to grab at papers with a surface texture creating the sometimes cool, sometimes disasterous ink sputter effect.

Speedball- An improvement on the split tip, this pen reduces the likelyhood of the sputter, and improves ink delivery to the tip of the pen. These come in a wide variety of tip shapes primarily for calligraphy.

Technical Pens- The most common of theses in the Rpidiograph. It's a pens that delivers a consistent line width and is fed ink through a reservoir housed in the pens body.

Markers
Markers are the down and dirty inking tool. They offer a middle ground between brushes and pens. It's felt tip is soft and will allow more light weight variation than the pens, and delivers a consistent supply of ink. The tend to wear out their useful life very quickly, which can be annoying, but since they are cheap it may be a good trade off for you.

Sharpies- They make yellow with time, so a good ink and brush may do you better in covering larger areas.

Brush markers- A further refinement of the felt tip both moving closer to the line quality of a brush, and shortening the life of the marker. Yet somehow I like these

Other tools
Inking templates, triangle, and rulers- The edge is lifted off the surface of the paper to prevent the ink from drawing underneath and ruining your lines.

Inking Compass- Kohinoor makes one that you can attatch your rapidiograph to.

Exacto Knife/Razor blade- you can lift the ink off your paper by scrapping the blade over it. Usefull in creating texture effects.

White out- Whether in the bottle with the brush, or in a pen, white out is an inkers best bud.

Just an odd observation.

Somewhere along the line I read an interview, I think it was with Marc Silvestri, in which he mentioned that he will sometimes dip an Xacto knife in india ink to get really thin lines. I tried it and liked it. Especially because you can go from thin to thick easily. My major gripe at the time was india ink is messy. So for a loooooooong time I tried different markers or pens. I eventually settled on black felt tip. Buying that rapidograph changed that The difference I've noticed lately is that the felt tip will bleed into the paper and spread out. The rapidograph doesn't.

On those videos Bio and I posted.....

What caught my attention the most about the Adam Hughes vid that Bio posted was paper. I remember him mentioning Bristol and surfaces. I didn't understand much till I accidentally dug into my drawing with the rapidograph

On the Jim Lee ones I've dug up. He spilled india ink on his drawing on purpose, and then used a brush to create a hair-like shadow. And then proceeded to talk about texturing. I never thought about textures in inking. Now however.....

Anyone needing a visual to help may be interested in these..

Adam Hughes
http://heromorph.com/heromorph2/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=1430&forum=3&post_id=15878#forumpost15878

Jim Lee
http://www.youtube.com/results?search=Jim+Lee+Drawing&search_type=search_videos&search=Search

http://gelatometti.blogspot.com/2004/11/jenny-missing-links.html#comments

http://gelatometti.blogspot.com/2004_12_05_gelatometti_archive.html

I don't know how many thought to look, but youtube has a bunch of photoshop tutorials showing how to draw in photoshop or color.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U75VDoxnCL4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DwoBT1Sem0&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCiSI66kOD8

There's more in the side window.

The third one was very cool. I want to know how to change cursor size on the fly like that. I have Photoshop Elements 3 so maybe this isn't an option for me, but if it is how do I do it?

Once again through my internet wanderings I found something that I'm not sure many here know about. I'm giving serious thought to subscribing too.

http://www.2dartistmag.com/

To answer that questoin Bats. I think Bio told me it's the ] and [ keys.

Also, mr Bio's buggin me to post about tablets here since I just got a new one for my birfday.

This was the previous one I had. It is a 4x5 Wacom Graphire2.



This is the new one I just got. It's a 6x11 Wacom Intuos3.



Price wise, I got the graphire for xmas from a friend. He paid 35 dollars for it on ebay. My stepdad got me the Intuos for my birthday and he paid 358 dollars total. For those of you curious, I also saw some wacom tablets at my local best buy for around 75 dollars.

Beyond that, after playing with the Intuos for a couple minutes, I can already see differences. Mostly dealing with sensitivity. The Intuos makes the Graphire feel like drawing with a brick, to me at least.

As for use, one of the earlier posts I made about youtube photoshop drawing has a tutorial on setting your pen up to act the same as a pencil.

So there ya go. Have a ball.

Quote:

If you are talking about adjust your brush size up and down with keyboard short cuts... the [ and ] are it. If you were talking about anything else in photoshop that uses that...no clue. Well, you can adjust the line thickness when you select the line tool and a few other brushes with those two keys.

Quote:

NOt an Intuous... And I think the Graphires start at $100... so if you saw them for $75 then that is a deal!

Granted the Intuos 3 is almost $200 more than the Graphire... but it is SOOO worth the money in the long run. SO, If you are in the market, I suggest that you Save up the extra cash for the Intuous. My Two Cents.

yeah I know they normally start at a hundred. That's why I was suprised my local bestbuy had them for around 75.

I have a graphire, I like it. It is gud!

Quote:

Yes, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. If there are any other shortcuts you think I might need to be aware of, don't hesitate to let my know.

If you're looking at tablets, you may also want to check out a company called Adesso. They're a smaller company, but they make good product. I've been using an Adesso 9x12 for just over a year now it does everything I need it to. Plus it was under $200.

The Wacom Bamboo and Bamboo Fun are extremely inexpensive and work quite well, especially for beginners to digital painting with a tablet.

I have one and have been delighted with it. Miles better than using a mouse.

Eventually I'll probably go for the Intuous 4.

This is quite good!!

Wow, haven't seen this thread in awhile. Seems weird after taking classes. But now that I think of it, I do have some odd thoughts.

The class I took had us using Newsprint and some other heavy weight paper. The teacher was fond of Bienfang.

Don't remember if a view finder was mentioned here. We had to make one from card board. Just cut 2 "L"s out of a square and you're good.

Also, I was at a store called MicroElectronics. They had a Wacom Intuos 4, for 248.00