The Bullpen

[schnuth]

   Have any of you been reading Jim Shooter's new blog?  I haven't seen it mentioned and a search didn't turn anything up.  He's been talking about his early days writing for DC as a teenager, and the burden of helping his family financially at such a young age.  So far it's been a really fascinating read.

http://www.jimshooter.com/

Aaron

[BobBretall]

Karma for the link!  Very cool read......

[Greg Leclair (greg1ca)]

Sweet. Thanks for the info

I am a huge Jim Shooter fan

[qrowdad]

Thanx for the link -karma to you

[David]

The Inking Rant

And now, some points about inking. Inking is a complex discipline. It requires the following:

1) Control of the tools, that is, being able to make the pen or brush make exactly the mark on the paper that you want it to every time—nothing accidental.

. . .

2) Mastering technique.

. . .

3) Creating the illusion of depth.

. . .

4) An inker needs to be able to draw well to properly interpret the meaning of the pencils.

Full blog post and examples can be found here.

[Jay Tomio]

Worldbuilding Master 

[Spooky]

"Pencilers and inkers—use a ruler. Use templates. Never freehand any man-made or machined object. Do not cheat. Do not fake it. Get it right. Yes, it will take much more time—for a while—until you polish up the skills. But, better one good page than ten bad ones."


That's a bit to overruling, isn't it? A lot of of perfectly straight lines can become very uncharacteristic, sterile and boring. If it's man-made then it's probably imperfect and musn't always be straight. I don't know if always using a ruler is the dogma that always leads to a good page. A consistent one? Yes, but not always the best or even a good one if your lines aren't able to convey depth.

[David]

That's a bit to overruling, isn't it? A lot of of perfectly straight lines can become very uncharacteristic, sterile and boring. If it's man-made then it's probably imperfect and musn't always be straight.

How exciting should a computer monitor or keyboard be?

I'd rather see some straight lines on a car than wobbly ones.

[BobBretall]

"Pencilers and inkers—use a ruler. Use templates. Never freehand any man-made or machined object. Do not cheat. Do not fake it. Get it right. Yes, it will take much more time—for a while—until you polish up the skills. But, better one good page than ten bad ones."


That's a bit to overruling, isn't it? A lot of of perfectly straight lines can become very uncharacteristic, sterile and boring. If it's man-made then it's probably imperfect and musn't always be straight. I don't know if always using a ruler is the dogma that always leads to a good page. A consistent one? Yes, but not always the best or even a good one if your lines aren't able to convey depth.

If you read Shooter's advice, he always says there are no absolutes & artists (once they know what they are doing) can break all the rules they want as long as there's a reason.   Same applies to rules for writers.

 I think what he's really trying to say is "don't do a bunch of half-assed looking drawing because you're too lazy to do it right"

[Spooky]

How exciting should a computer monitor or keyboard be?

I'd rather see some straight lines on a car than wobbly ones.

Well, it's more about style. Most american comic artist come from a school that adheres to realism, so it makes sense to utilize a clean and straight style of inking. And I guess Mr. Shooter is referring to those type of artists, but, ironically, he doesn't make it very clear in this piece.
To say, that drawing a pole, car or tv set in freehand isn't "right", is very wrong. And to equate it to bad art is a bit extreme. As a writer, who in this rant is critizising Romita for not using the right terms, should've been more precise.

What follows are some examples of wrong inking.

[Dean S.]

I've really been enjoyed Shooter's blog for awhile and I agree: I don't think he's saying that things MUST be done a certain way.  He's just saying that when you're starting out, you need to learn to do things technically correct before you start to do experimental things. 

I'm also a big fan of his urging artists to find reference material for things they don't know how to draw.  Although I think that writers could help by being a little more vague in the script so that the artists can just draw "a car" rather than a "1972 Ford Mach II" where the artist has to go track down what Mach IIs look like. 

But...Shooter's blog is great. 

[Jay Tomio]

Seems like a simple case of stating that one should know the rules before you can break them and create something too awesome for the world like Maxx.

[BobBretall]

What follows are some examples of wrong inking.

Can you name the penciler & the inker in your examples?

[Spooky]

Can you name the penciler & the inker in your examples?

Sure.
First two examples are from Dave McKean's Cages, third is from Paul Pope's Heavy Liquid and the last example is from Taiyo Matsumoto's Gogo Monster.
All three artist inked themselves on their work.

I'm well aware that he mentions, that the reader doesn't have to follow the rules at all times. But on, at least, as much he writes about how it shouldn't be done any other way.
I think a more helpful way would've been, if he had written about the examples at the end of the article and described what made them work, like he does on his storytelling lectures.

[BobBretall]

First two examples are from Dave McKean's Cages, third is from Paul Pope's Heavy Liquid and the last example is from Taiyo Matsumoto's Gogo Monster.
All three artist inked themselves on their work.

When Shooter is talking about "inkers" I'm pretty sure he's meaning this to be inkers who are inking someone else's work, not people who do the full job (pencils/inks).

If you're doing the full job, do whatever you want.  Your art is YOUR art in that case and it will stand or fall on it's own merits.

I think the basic point here is:
* know the basics
* don't mess up another artist's work by doing "lazy inking"