Radiant Comics

Ink Swatches

I’m a methodical artist. That means that the way I do things is important. The method. If I want to make some art I have certain ways of doing it. I don’t have just one way though. I have a lot of different methods. Sometimes it’s not even about whatever style I’m working in or the tools I’m using but in the way I’m organizing the tools. That’s how things were this week as I worked on another color ink drawing.

I wrote last week about how I was working on some new color ink drawings in my “Comic Book Covers to Comics That Don’t Exist” series. I’ve continued with a couple more of them and came up with a small tweak that helped me get them done. It wasn’t a tweak to the way I used the ink or laid down the brush strokes but a tweak to how I physically used the ink containers.

First of all I don’t have any of the color inks in their original bottles. Back in 2020-2021 when I first started buying color ink in order to work out a style with them I also bought some Rubbermaid 1/2 cup food containers. They come with lids and stack on top of one and other. I have about thirty of them and poured a whole bottle of ink in each one. I find it easier to dip my brush into those Rubbermaid containers than in an ink bottle. Plus I can spin the brush tip against the side of the container to point the tip. It’s a method that works well for me.

The containers of ink sit over on a side table that I have filled with various art supplies. The fact that they stack and click together makes them take up less room than they otherwise would. I also have a page full of swatches of the ink colors. How I was working earlier in the week was that I would pick a color from the swatches, go over to the table and pick out the ink, and then bring it to my drawing table and use it. I’d usually leave the ink right on my drawing table when I went to pick another color. The containers would then build up on top of my drawing table and crowd me a little.

Here is where me being methodical comes into play. That method of piling up the ink containers on my drawing table wasn’t working for me. As the table got more crowded it somehow crowded my thinking too. It wasn’t the end of the world but it also wasn’t serving me so I wanted to try something else.

Color Inks In Their Cubbies

My solution to the crowding was simple. I would only leave one container of ink on my drawing table at a time. So for the next color ink drawing that I did I would pick a color, walk over to the table the inks were on (it’s only a couple of steps away), pick a color, bring it over to my drawing table, used the color, and then return it to the side table with the rest of the inks.

I found this helped me out a lot. I was only thinking about one color at a time and there weren’t other containers of ink to distract me. Especially since I was trying to avoid spilling any ink. Y’see my black ink (which I wasn’t using) has a special place in my side tray that is outside of the swing of my arm. I can’t accidentally knock over my black ink because it is a little too far away for that. But with the multiple containers of color ink flat on my desk there was a much higher chance of spillage. I even did spill a some ink at one point. That was annoying.

The one ink container at a time really cut down on my chances to knock some ink over. It helped me think a little more clearly too. As soon as I was done with a color, at least for that part of the drawing, it was away from my drawing table and back in place on the side table. No clutter under my arms.

The funny thing is that when I’m working with markers I work in a similar way but it’s still a bit different. I have all 200 or so of my markers on a side tray on the left hand side of my desk. They are close at hand so I can easily get to them and pick a color. That part is a little bit different than the color inks but not the next part.

Markers In TheirHolders

When I work with markers I only have one marker at a time out of their holders. I’ve seen people work with markers and they pull a color out of their marker holder but then put it on their desktop as they finish using it. People can work with a dozen or more markers kicking around their drawing surface. Not me. I can’t do that.

If I pick a light green marker to work with then I pull it from its slot in the marker holder and then use it. After I’m done using it the marker goes right back into its slot and I choose another color to use. Even if I know I’m going to use a color agin in the piece I don’t leave it out on my desktop. It goes back into its spot. I need the top of my drawing table fairly clear. It’s never totally clear but I don’t need extra markers rolling around it.

So that’s it. Simple stuff. That’s what method is sometimes. It’s not always about whatever technique that you’re using in a piece. Often it’s just about the physical process of working and how you organize your tools.

I have to say that I was much happier working with only one color ink on my drawing table at a time. At first I thought this method would be too distracting as I had to take a couple of steps every time I wanted a new color but instead it actually helped me concentrate.

Sometimes it’s the little things that help me get things done. That’s why it’s good to pay attention to them.

Experimental Painting 01

It’s not east trying new things. That statement can be attached to things in general but what I mean by it is that it’s hard to try new artistic things. That is what I was doing this week. I’ve been finishing up my Gatsby project this month. It’s still not done but it is a big project and I have no new big project in the works to replace it.

In recent years I’ve done big projects such as a series of 24×36 inch paintings or a series of 22×30 inch Big Ink drawings but I’m not in the mood for either of those. So what I’ve been getting done is a series of smaller things. They are the things I’ve always managed to get done such as my web comic, small 6×9 inch ink drawings, and my “Dreams of Things” covers to comic books that don’t exist.

It’s not like I haven’t gotten stuff done but it isn’t as satisfying as it could be. But I’m also not in the mood for anything big. It’s a conundrum. Then I had the idea to do something new. I’ve been seeing these videos online of people making art by layering the paper with images and paint and tape and whatever. They start with one thing and just go. The piece transforms many times until it reaches its final form. It looks cool in a video. I decided I wanted to give something like that a try. Without the video part.

I like to buy art supplies and I like to try out new art supplies. Usually when I put a big order in with an art supply website I throw in a few little things to try out. So I have a backlog of papers, pencils, pens, and other such things kicking around the place.

The first thing I did was to look through a pile of pads of paper that I have. I had black paper, plastic paper, watercolor paper, acrylic paper, grey paper, mixed media paper, and toned paper. The pages were anywhere from 10×15 inches to 5×7 inches. I picked out a few sheets of paper on the small side.

Experimental Painting 02

The next thing I did was to organize what paints and pens I wanted to use. I pulled out some black brush pens, a big black marker, a few sets of watercolor paints, a silver pen, white and black acrylic paint pens, and a set of Sharpie paint pens. I also pulled out a pouch of sample art supplies from Strathmore that were given to me.

I’m used to starting a piece with no idea of what I’m going to draw but this was a little different. I like making images. That’s the main thing I like in art. Usually I decide what kind of piece I want to make and then draw an image that goes with what I want to finished piece to look like. I say to myself, “I want to make a ‘Dreams of Things’ cover” or “I want to make a Big Ink Drawing.” Then I create the image and do all the steps that are necessary to finish the piece.

When I’m trying something new I have no idea what steps are necessary to finish the piece. That’s what I was doing on Friday. I didn’t start with any idea in mind how the piece was going to look in the end and therefore had no idea how to make an image for it. So I just grabbed some paint and threw it on the paper. Then I grabbed a marker and added to it. I also added some pencil drawing after that. I had no idea where any of it was going.

At some point after flailing around like this I decided I had to draw something. I didn’t want to make an abstract painting. So I started drawing a figure. It wasn’t a very good figure so I drew over it. After drawing a bunch of stuff with a bunch of different tools I decided to draw a face over the top of it. Faces are kind of my default subject matter so it was comfortable going to them but it didn’t make me happy. I was, after all, trying something new.

For the second one I threw down some watercolor paint but since I tried out the plastic paper I had to put it aside to let the paint dry. It didn’t sink into the paper. It sat on top of the plastic.

With the third one I went straight to drawing a face. I used various tools to draw the face but I didn’t like it much. So then I drew another face right over it. There is also lots of brush strokes, pencil lines, and color blobs that have nothing to do with the face. I was just trying stuff.

Experimental Painting 03

Eventually I was switching off working on all three paintings to give the paint time to dry and to let me get new ideas. I worked from about eight in the morning until about three in the afternoon on these three paintings. In the end they looked okay but I wasn’t very satisfied with them. After all I had no image in my head of what they could be so there was no satisfaction of making that idea come to life. They just were.

I was so unsatisfied with them that afternoon that I cleaned up really fast. All the paper and tools went away back to their spots and soon my drawing table was cleaned off and looked like it usually looks. It was like I couldn’t stand the disorder that the “New” imposed on me.

When I looked at the three small paintings the next day they weren’t half bad. They looked okay and there was the occasional nice idea in there. But I still wasn’t sure what they were and what good they did me. They were too new. I’m going to have to sit with them for a while.

Over the years as I’ve come up with new ideas and new techniques they rarely come quickly. Some have sat for months or years percolating in my brain. Usually it’s a mixture of new tools and techniques that I try out but don’t know what to do with until I get the idea to mix them with something else. So that day of trying all that new stuff is really just step one. But I have no idea how many, if any, more steps there will be.

Trying new stuff is hard.

Texture 06

Last week after I finally printed out a second proof of my illustrated version of “The Great Gatsby” things ground to a halt. I didn’t know what to do with it and had no idea what to do next. I had a half baked idea that it needed more double page illustrations but I had no idea of what they should be. I tried working up sketches for a couple of them but got nowhere. So I put it aside and worked on other things.

Then, as I was thinking about it this week, the problem I was having with it hit me. I didn’t like the design of the book very much. The illustrations for the book took so much work that when I finally did some design work on it (last year) it was really only very basic design. I left most of the page open with the type filling only about 60% of a single 9×12 inch page. It was, sort of, modeled off another book I saw and that one had very minimalist design. So did mine but mine was boring.

I think it was last summer (August 2023) that I was working on a print and needed a digital texture in it. That’s the sort of thing that I like to do with ink and then scan it in (Making Textures Blog). So instead of making one texture I filled a 68 page sketchbook with them. Then, in April (2024), I filled a 84 page sketchbook with more textures. So I had 152 textures all scanned in and ready to use for whatever I needed them for.

I enjoyed making the textures but laughed a little bit at myself. I needed one or two textures for the original print but I filled the whole 68 page book with them instead. I overdo things like that at times because I know that it’s good to have a library of textures to choose from. It’s easier for me to make a whole bunch of them at once than to make them one at a time as I need them. And it paid off that I had them all ready to go.

I decided that what the design for the Gatsby book needed was some texture and color for visual interest. I had about two inches of white space on the outside edge of the pages and an inch and a half on the bottom of the pages to play with. I decided to put an “L” of texture on the left hand page and then mirror that as a reverse “L” on the right hand page. It is still a fairly simple design but I think it works well. Especially with each double page spread having its own texture.

Texture 15

The next thing to do was to figure how to actually execute the design. It’s around a 200 page book and every page (minus the illustrated pages) had to have this design put on it. The first thing I did was to figure out the Photoshop work. I made a CMYK 9×12 inch 450dpi template and then opened a texture. Each texture was made with black ink but I decided I wanted them to be in color. So I turned the original greyscale file into a DuoTone document. This meant that I could pick a color and the black and grey would be turned into that color.

After turning the grey texture into a color I pasted it into the CMYK 9×12 inch 450dpi template. I sized it properly and moved it in place. The next step was to mask out where the text would be. I wanted the texture on the edges and not behind the type. So I figured out the proper place for the texture and then used a layer mask to hide the texture where the type would be. I also made the edge of the mask fuzzy so there wouldn’t be a sharp line where the texture ended.

The next step was to bring the Photoshop texture into the inDesign design file. That just meant making new layer named “Background” and placing the texture in a box on that layer. Simple stuff.

I also leveraged the template to make each texture a little easier to place. When I finished texture 15 I would “Save As” and name the document texture 16. Then I would open texture sixteen, turn it into a DuoTone color document, and then paste it into the texture 16 document. After adjusting it I could copy the layer mask from the old one and give it all a save.

Texture 29

None of that was hard but I had to do it all about eighty times. I worked on it for about three hours on Friday and then another five hours on Saturday before it was done. It was boring and repetitive to do but I like the way it looks now. I still don’t think I’m done with it yet But it looks better than it did.

One more things that I have to do before I print another proof is to proofread the whole thing. “The Great Gatsby” has been in the public domain for a couple of years now and I got a copy of the text off the internet when I started this project. The first thing that I did was to typeset the whole thing but there were a lot of formatting problems with it. That often happens with large blocks of text that you’ll find on the internet. Formats aren’t compatible and things get scrambled. That and typesetting for a book is it’s own specific thing compared to type that was prepared for the internet. It took a while to typeset the whole thing but I still found mistakes I had to fix as I went. It really does need a good proofread.

I had been treading water with this project for a few months now. That’s okay because there is no deadline on it and I have other things to do but it does feel good to get going on it and get a design that I like better. We’ll see where it goes from here.

I am still trying to finish up my Great Gatsby illustration project. I’ve been working on making my own illustrated version of the book for over two and a half years. It’s almost done.

Last week I printed out a second proof of the book. Unlike the first proof (Printing Out Proofs) it went smoothly. I made a PDF of the whole book, broke that pdf into sixteen page chunks, printed out those chunks, folded the pages in half, and stapled the pages with my old mini-comics long reach stapler. It all went as expected and I had no problems.

One thing I did differently than the first proof was the binding. For the first proof I clamped the pages in place (about twelve sixteen page sections), drilled four holes near the spine, and put short lengths of cord through the holes. After I tied off the cords they became loops that were the binding. It was nothing fancy. A couple of the knots came untied over time too. It was tough tying them again.

This time, after it was all printed out, I tried to think of a new way to bind them. The “Tied with cord” method didn’t work out as well as I would have liked. The cord coming untied was not a help. Then I remembered rings. In my brain was some foggy memory of people binding stuff with big rings. It was something I had never done but I looked up binding rings on the internet and found them.

The rings were about an inch and a half across and through they look big and clunky they do the job. I drilled holes through the paper and put the rings through. The rings open up and then close again so it was easy to get them through. They make it easier to look through the proof too compared to the cord. The cord tended to want to keep the pages in place while with the rings the pages slide around the ring easily. At least so far. I haven’t put the proof in my bag and traveled with it. I did that with the corded one and that is when the cords started to untie and it got tricky.

This second proof also got the cover and end papers printed out with it. The first proof only had the interior pages since I hadn’t finished setting up the cover and end pages just yet. The end pages consisted of the 120 faces that I wrote about last year. 120 Faces

One thing that wasn’t in this proof was the second cover that I did. I somehow misplaced the files for it. There was an illustration that I did for the interior that I used for a class demonstration and made a cover out of the illustration. I ended up liking that cover so I worked on the design some more and finished it up as a cover. I wanted to use that as the back cover in this proof but couldn’t find the finished design. I thought I had put it in my “Gatsby” folder but it wasn’t there. It has disappeared on me. I may have to remake it.

I still haven’t proofed the actual text of the book. It’s now a public domain book and I downloaded the text of the book and typeset it in inDesign but I had to clean up a lot of the formatting. I found some very obvious mistakes in the text as I looked through the first proof but I didn’t actually read it. I plan to eventually sit down with the book, play the audio book, and read along with the audiobook to see if there are any mistakes. That’s the best plan for proofreading it that I came up with but it’ll take five or six hours so I haven’t done it yet.

The main thing I did with this second proof was to get all the illustrations in place. I have the book set up so that, except for the chapter illustrations which are on the left, all the illustrations are on the right hand side. Things didn’t go quite as planned in the first proof so I had to work that all out.

What I found out looking at the second proof was that I’m not sure if I like all the illustrations on the right hand page. I don’t know why. I like the idea in general and I have no problem with it in the digital file but in looking at the proof it didn’t work for me as well. I’m going to have to think about it some more.

One thing that I really liked in this proof was the double page spreads. There are only two of them in the book and one of them was messed up in the first proof but in flipping through the second proof they really looked good. Being twice the size of all the other illustrations they stood out. It gave me the idea to make a couple of more double page illustrations but I haven’t gotten any ideas for them and that pushes off the finishing of the book too.

In the end it really doesn’t matter if I push off finishing the book though. It’s not like anyone is waiting for it and I have no real plans for publishing it myself so me finishing it up is in no hurry.

To finish up this blog I have to tell you that I searched some more for that second cover that I had made and I found it. As I said it was a demo that I had done for a class I was teaching and so it was in a folder with a weird name. The folder was named “Cover Gatsby Spine Folder.” I think that’s because I made a cover template for them and the book cover had a spine in it. I did a search for “Gatsby” on the Google Drive of my classes and a whole bunch of stuff came up. I looked through a lot of them and then the cover finally appeared. Yee-haw!