Fingers finally gets caught!

Really had fun(!) with this one. It took ages because I tried to do it digitally, and although I found some part easy to do, I couldn't get the drawing side right, so in the end, I went back to traditional methods.

If I did this again, I would make the background of the helmet black, and not fill in "Fingers" stripes. Expect to see more coming soon, as I've bought some more pens.....

Fave Pens for quick cartoons: Pentel Tradio (great for everything), Copic Multiliner SP Brush Pen (Very controllable for a brush pen), Copic Sketch Marker.

Fave Pens for best: Dip pen, with a manuscript drawing nib (or post office nib) with FW acrylic Ink - gives me the best lines.

Inkscape Tips

I tested out InkScape at lunch today, to see if it was any good at inking. Actually, that's a lie, because i know it is, as I've used it previously - the only problem I had with it was that it could be difficult to use... Not any more.

Two additional features have been added to the latest release (0.46 at the time of writing) which make inking easier, as well as some additional options. The first is changes to the calligraphy tool, which now has a mass option - this basically slows down your drawing movement, which helps promote a smoother line. The second is the tweak paths tool, which allows you to push and pull paths in a magnet like fashion - great for fixing small inking errors.
One other thing - the preferences are better. I used to use the "simplify paths" option, which removes extra nodes from a shape, but I always found this was too vigourous. There is now a preference setting which controls this, making this option less of a hit and miss affair than it used to be.

For best results, set calligraphy tool mass to 0.10, simplify to 0.0030, and use a graphics tablet. The above picture was drawn using only a mouse - the graphics tablet makes it look even better!

GIMP - Cartoon tips...

Quick tip for GIMP users - when cleaning up a scanned cartoon (B/W), I've found the best way is to convert the cartoon to a greyscale image, and then run the NL filter (under the Filter->Enhance menu). You should use "Alpha trimmed mean" and set the radius fairly high - this gets rid of the white speckles you can get!

GIMP also has a nifty INK tool!

Bin Dun?

Almost certainly been done before - but I liked the idea of having a go. Inked using a dip & brush pens, lettering in Paint Shop Pro.

Oh Bugger!

as you may have guessed from my previous post, I'm a bit peeved today. I thought I had a great gag, but then spoiled it with a terrible drawing (all because the size ws too small). As with a lot of my drawings, the idea sketch seems better than the actual drawing - probably thinking about it too much again.

The jury is still out on the pen debate. During my lunch hour, I use a Pentel Tradio for my inking, which works well, unless I'm in a hurry (which I usually am). I may well try inking using OpenCanvas at work, and see how it goes.

As for the gag, perhaps a cartoon showing the car careening into the water might be better...

As you are probably aware, you actually failed on your emergency stop...

Not one of my best efforts, as I drew the thing too small, but here ya go anyway...