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Sketch of BBQ and I playing Street Fighter 3
Today I stopped by the art store and got a fresh vial of India Ink and some new steel nibs for my dip calligraphy pen.
For those of you who do not know what that is let me educate you. It is a pen that is like a quill pen made from a feather but this uses steel instead. You dip it into a vial of ink and you can get some wonderful organic variations on line weight and shape by changing the pressure and angle of your stroke. However it is easy to smear and drip on your illustration and it take a degree of patience to work with a dip pen. Traditionally they have been in the tool kit of comic artists for over a hundred years. I am a bit rusty and this is the first drawing I have done with one in almost a decade.
This is a test sketch of BBQ and I playing some Dreamcast Capcom fighting games.
I am wondering if it comes off as sloppy or too cartoony? I am going to take a try to "ink" a drawing in the computer in a vector drawing program like Flash. You can get very precise detail and lines like that but it does not have the organic chaos of a dip pen.
I also picked up a set of nice Sakura pens. They are disposable but you do not have to clean them as much as a rapidograph pen. They are also not as fragile or temperamental as a metal pen like the rapidograph.
I drew and inked while watching TV and it was a nice distraction. It felt not so brain numbing to watch TV when you are trying moving your pencil over the page.
I have about nine comics already written out. So I have some ideas to draw from when I kick this comic into high gear for it's launch on July 4th.
Jake at June 2, 2004 
Games
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Comments
Very cool! I don't think it's too cartoony. It looks like this is going to be an awesome comic!
Posted by: Matt Jakel at June 2, 2004 10:11 AM
BBQ looks like Hot Soup of Lethal Doses fame. :)
Posted by: Matt at June 2, 2004 12:12 PM
Lookin awsome Jake! And it doesn't look to cartoony at all.
Posted by: Mike at June 2, 2004 1:10 PM
I like it. Those are some damn sexy sweatpants.
Posted by: BBQ at June 2, 2004 2:23 PM
The images remind me of a variant of Dr. Katz meets Undergrads style artwork. As strange as that idea is, I like it! It has the potential to be hilarious (if that's what you're going for..)
Posted by: Sean at June 4, 2004 10:53 PM
That looks awesome man. P.S. BBQ looks like Jesus, that rules.
Posted by: Sion at July 11, 2004 6:32 PM
i know this is late, but i wanna throw my 2 cents in. the cartoon looks great, by the way. i honestly can tell you are a bit rusty, but for 10 years out its really good! (i know a bit about rusty, and i know how to tell the difference between "rusty" and "bad". this is goo and rusty :-) )
anyhow, i use steel quill pen and i find it far too scratchy and delicate. i used to make some amazing (if i do say so myself) detailed stuf with a kooh-i-noor .18 rapidograph pen, but that was in 11th grade and a jealous biatch took it from me. i didnt have the balls at the time (still makes me angry to this day) to get really mad and make her return it. she kept telling me shed give it back and never did.
wow, now i sound like a whiny bitch. my point is that youve inspired me and im going to order some rapidograph pens again. i love em. thanks jake! keep up the good work, bother on this site and with your cartooning!
Posted by: WiL at November 11, 2004 8:58 AM
