Hello I'm Mike Manley, welcome to my studio Blog. I am veteran comic and animation artist and I created and edit Draw! Magazine. This blog is a chronicle of what's happening in my studio. Follow my process and path as an painter, cartoonist and teacher and find out how they inform and enrich each other!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
RAZOR BLADE INKING TECHNIQUE
Here is a video I shot to show how to do a cool inking technique. http://www.actionplanet.com/Razor blade technique.mov
Thanks for posting this! I use a blade to scrape out mistakes in my inking, but always wondered how the older artists did their rain/snow/explosion effects with it. I used to try to figure it out myself, but had terrible results. Thanks for taking the time to give a proper demo.
BTW, is there a good method of using the blade in combo with a ruler to create some perfectly aligned rain/snow effects? I remember Romita and Kubert used to do some excellent rain and splash effects that were so straight I swear they must have used rulers...
Mike, Sure, you could probably use a straight edge, a ruler with a raised edges or one with cork of quaters taped to the bottom as a guide the use the razor with. yeah, the old guys all did a version of this, especially guys who were influenced bt Caniff, who I believe was the first guy I have seen use the technique---it could have been Sickles as well.
I see too much computer art demos online and in some conventions but I found your video more refreshing. Maybe it's 'cause I love the Old School artists.
Cool little video demo! Nothing like a video to demonstrate an art technique that most of us will not be able to see in person. Hope you will do more. Or maybe create another DVD?
I like to check out the instructional videos that Gnomon Workshop markets on their site. Lots of Digital art instruction but not much on comics until just lately. They have had a pencilling comics DVD by Stephen Platt on sale as their only comics instruction for the past year but noticed they have four new ones up now. Three of them are in series, pencils, inks and colors all by Image guys. If you get past the stock image style and the over-rendered pencils (what is left for an inker these days?!)the art is respectable. But they apparently just demo a full page pinup - how can you teach storytelling or pacing or show character emoting with a PINUP! I guess I should reserve final judgement until after I have actually seen them in their entirety an not just the clips on the website.
I wish the guys at Gnomon had contacted you or Bob McLeod to make some comic art instructional videos. But I guess Image has those Hollywood connections and location on their side (being west coast dudes). David Finch is a decent artist but I think there are lots of guys out there with more experience and frankly better storytelling skills. Guess it's the Wizard Magazine popularity quotient coming into play again!
JG, Hahaha. Well drawing is one thing, storytelling another. To teach both effectively I feel you have to teach each one seperately, which I do.
Image style I suppose is the default comic style much like Marvel had a style back in the day. I haven't seen any of those videos myself so I can't judge.
The demo I did is for a single trick, to do one on storytelling would take several videos to help break it down.
Great vid Mike. I just use dry brush and then work into it with white dry brush. I've tried scraping in the past without much luck but I'll have another go after watching this and make sure it's a really sharp blade.
Hey that Rocks! something those wacom kiddies won't ever catch onto is how much more fun you can have doing stuff the traditional way.
Looking foward to Draw Magazine this month unless you push it back another 4 months lol.
Hey the magazine put out by American Artist simply called Drawing is really good (more fine art approches and antidotes saying drawing is a dying breed in the latest issue. Although good not as good as Draw magazine.
Nice trick,im an Irish graphic artist,but i think the king of razor blade art is alberto brecca take a look at the second video on the right after watching the the first one,hes Argentinian and you can download his work as .cbr files. here's the link: http://www.blinkx.com/videos/alberto+breccia
11 comments:
Nice, I hope you do more of this sort of thing!
Hey Mike,
Thanks for posting this! I use a blade to scrape out mistakes in my inking, but always wondered how the older artists did their rain/snow/explosion effects with it. I used to try to figure it out myself, but had terrible results. Thanks for taking the time to give a proper demo.
BTW, is there a good method of using the blade in combo with a ruler to create some perfectly aligned rain/snow effects? I remember Romita and Kubert used to do some excellent rain and splash effects that were so straight I swear they must have used rulers...
Anyway, thanks again -- always love your site!
Best,
Mike
Thanks dave, I plan to do some more demos.
Mike, Sure, you could probably use a straight edge, a ruler with a raised edges or one with cork of quaters taped to the bottom as a guide the use the razor with. yeah, the old guys all did a version of this, especially guys who were influenced bt Caniff, who I believe was the first guy I have seen use the technique---it could have been Sickles as well.
I see too much computer art demos online and in some conventions but I found your video more refreshing. Maybe it's 'cause I love the Old School artists.
Thanks for posting and sharing!
Hi Mike,
Cool little video demo! Nothing like a video to demonstrate an art technique that most of us will not be able to see in person. Hope you will do more. Or maybe create another DVD?
I like to check out the instructional videos that Gnomon Workshop markets on their site. Lots of Digital art instruction but not much on comics until just lately. They have had a pencilling comics DVD by Stephen Platt on sale as their only comics instruction for the past year but noticed they have four new ones up now. Three of them are in series, pencils, inks and colors all by Image guys. If you get past the stock image style and the over-rendered pencils (what is left for an inker these days?!)the art is respectable. But they apparently just demo a full page pinup - how can you teach storytelling or pacing or show character emoting with a PINUP! I guess I should reserve final judgement until after I have actually seen them in their entirety an not just the clips on the website.
I wish the guys at Gnomon had contacted you or Bob McLeod to make some comic art instructional videos. But I guess Image has those Hollywood connections and location on their side (being west coast dudes). David Finch is a decent artist but I think there are lots of guys out there with more experience and frankly better storytelling skills. Guess it's the Wizard Magazine popularity quotient coming into play again!
Sorry for rambling,
-JG
JG, Hahaha. Well drawing is one thing, storytelling another. To teach both effectively I feel you have to teach each one seperately, which I do.
Image style I suppose is the default comic style much like Marvel had a style back in the day. I haven't seen any of those videos myself so I can't judge.
The demo I did is for a single trick, to do one on storytelling would take several videos to help break it down.
Something I might actually do.
Great vid Mike. I just use dry brush and then work into it with white dry brush. I've tried scraping in the past without much luck but I'll have another go after watching this and make sure it's a really sharp blade.
Hey that Rocks! something those wacom kiddies won't ever catch onto is how much more fun you can have doing stuff the traditional way.
Looking foward to Draw Magazine this month unless you push it back another 4 months lol.
Hey the magazine put out by American Artist simply called Drawing is really good (more fine art approches and antidotes saying drawing is a dying breed in the latest issue. Although good not as good as Draw magazine.
...I'm from the 'white-out' camp. ;) But I've been known to drag a few hobby knives through the ink.
Great Demo! Please do more!
And here I thought razors were only for shaving and arranging coke into neat little powdery lines. Looks like you found a new use for them.
All kidding aside, that looks so interesting. Makes me want to grab my dad's old razors, buy some ink and start razor-ing away!
Nice trick,im an Irish graphic artist,but i think the king of razor blade art is alberto brecca take a look at the second video on the right after watching the the first one,hes Argentinian and you can download his work as .cbr files. here's the link:
http://www.blinkx.com/videos/alberto+breccia
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