Saturday, October 18, 2008

More X-9: Page 9 Inked


here is the final inked and zipped page 9 from the story. I the previous post you can watch my process. I inked this page mostly with a Hunt 108 pen, a Pigma 05 marker and a no. 4 Dick Blick Studio Sable I bought last week in the awesome new Gick Blick art store which opened here in Center City Pilly. It was aboiy $10, and it's pretty nice and give a good performance for it's price, especially compared to the Series 7 Winsor Newtons which are at least twice the price, and have declined in quality in my opinion in recent years.

Unfortunately I had to Kill my buddy Jamar Nicholas in the process of doing this page as I cast him in the roll of the would-be assasin. But that's what friends are for...

11 comments:

L Jamal Walton said...

Jamar you say?
I cry foul! His hair is too short to be Jamar, and thus it MUST be me. Now where is my check for the use of my likeness? :D

dylan said...

Wow, great stuff Mike, love the transformation from the pencils. Love the black and white contrast.

dylan said...

Oh yeah, totally agree with you on the Winsor and Newtons, gave up on them years ago. Mainly because I have to order them over the internet so its pot luck as to what you get, I just found they were all bad. Switched to Raphaels but they seem to be going the same way, I'm on a Scharff at the mo. I just really wish a shop would stock them by me so i could check them out before buying :(

Mike Manley said...

Ijamal, I say you guys have to fight it out and the the winner has to fight Kyle Baker!

there can be only one!

Mike Manley said...

Thanks Dylan. Yeah you have to see the bushes now as the quality is always suspecticon. There was a time when you spent $30 and got quality, but there has been so many mergers and the quality of art supplies, especially brushes has really declined.

The Raphaels are ok, but overpriced. The best brushes i had were made back into the early 90's and that company went bust, i have a few left I keep for that special product. the secret is buying the best sable hair and having good brush makers, everything now is so automated.

For us comic artists you really have to see the brush by eye to judge quality. I had a bunch of hunt 108's I bought a while back I had to return as they were all warped.

Uncle Ernie said...

I have always loved the texture of the old zip-a-tone. What is the process you use for laying zip with photoshop?

Mike Manley said...

Uncle E, I made it a pretty simple process. I scanned in a sheet of zip I had,and import it as a layer then erase or cut away what I don't like.

SNeelyArt said...

When in doubt, black it out, baby! Who knew Jamar had such skills? He must be multi-tasking...

Unknown said...

Finally a true testimonial of the Dick Blick brush. I buy from them all of the time and wondered about those brushes, and from what I see looks like they do a good job.

W&N did a major decline since the mid-late 90's, I had switched to using Rekab 014k brushes but they too declined in quality and well as being stocked at what seems to be almost every art store I've been to.

May just have to order a small batch and give them a trial run before I start inking the Kolchak story I'm doing for Moonstone.

Not bad Mike, you get a major thank you without much effort.

Alan said...

Yeah, on the last post, I was asking, like Anim, about page speed, not 'rate' as in price, which I wouldn't presume to probe you about ;-)

This page is fantastic: Jamar died in a noble cause

Silvio Spotti said...

Wow! This looks very Al Willianson.
Beautiiiiful.