Wednesday 4 March 2009

Gorilla/Z pages 1,2,3

Here's a Judge Dredd story that Mike Collins pencilled in 2007 and that I was lucky enough to ink. Mike and I had talked about working on a strip together for years and it was good to eventually team up with him on this Dredd story. I had an absolute blast working over Mike's blue line printed pencils ( I also had photo-copies of the 'normal' pencils for reference). We've also just recently finished collaborating on another Dredd strip which was just as much fun.

So, here along with my finished inks for Gorilla/Z are Mike's preliminary sketches and full pencils that he has kindly allowed me to post up as well. Enjoy.


All feathering lines and detail were inked using Rotring Isographs (.20 .25 .30 0.35 nibs) which were filled with FW Acrylic Artists Ink. For larger areas of black I used Staedtler Pigment Liner Pens and Permanent Markers.

Mike uses Strathmore 2-ply Smooth Bristol Board (400 series) which is a joy to ink on. I wish it were available in this country. Mike gets his through the Joe Kubert's World of Cartooning website and I can't wait to get my hands on some.

5 comments:

Wiggz said...

Thanx to both of you for putting these up. =)

Matt Jones said...

Wow! You do all your inking with rotring pens?! Feathering using graphics pens sounds like a chore - I mean, getting the lines to taper to a sharp point with a pen which produces a flat line sounds like loads of work... and eye strain!! So, let me get this straight you replicate the feathering technique usually done with a sable brush with rotring pens? wow. How long does it take you to ink a page on average? All ways thought your work had a unique look, now I know why!!

By the way love your work, your art made a massive impression on me as a young lad reading 2000AD.

Cliff Robinson said...

Thanks Wiggz.
Hi, Matt. Yup, it's crazy but it's true. And not as hard as you may think. Feathering with a rotring pen just involves zig-zaging with the pen and then going back over lines to 'black in' the wider part of each 'feather'. I can ink a page in half a day, but pages with a more detail would take a little longer. For me, inking with a brush takes FOREVER. I much prefer the tech pens and fineliners. Thanks for the complement, Matt. Cheers.

Sean Phillips said...

Cliff,
Great Art have some good smooth Bristol Board...

http://www.greatart.co.uk/BRISTOLBOARD-tracing-paper-bristol-board.htm

Great blog BTW!

Cliff Robinson said...

Hey, thanks, Sean. Nice of you to drop by. I'll see if Great Art send out sample boards as I'd like to try before I buy. Canson are doing pads called 'Comic Book Art Boards'. The boards of a really nice, but narrower than A3. Cheers.