Final Frontispiece (a warm-up)
Before I begin inking my image for the frontis to The Wyrm King, I am going to do a quick warm-up to get reacquainted with my pens. I strive for a lively, loose pen line to maintain an energy in my ink drawings. Before I begin any final inkwork, I do a small, simple exercise to get in my grove.
Usually, these warm-ups are non-commissioned pieces for the project – that way there’s no pressure on me if they don’t come out well. Oftentimes, I copy a master in order to pick up a thing or two which may help me with the image at hand. For the mermaids in my piece, I’ve been studying Arthur Rackham’s amazing illustrations from Siegfried & The Twilight of the Gods (1911) and The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie (1912) which have been conveniently bundled together by Dover Publications in Rackham’s Color Illustrations for Wagner’s “Ring”.
I found a nice image of Sieglinde drugging someone’s drink (p. 20). Her profile was classic Rackham, and a perfect image to study. Here you see my quick pencil reproduction. This is likely much larger than the size Rackham would have worked at.
I am putting in underlying anatomy that I know I won’t ink. It still helps me to understand the form so that I can chose what is important to ink, and what to leave for the eye and brain to fill in.
I use FW inks for everything. For the Spiderwick books I use black India. In the past, though, I have used burnt umber – which is likely what Rackham used, especially if he planned on coloring the image after. A deep brown would settle into the washes, possibly even emulsifying a bit, and would look less like a cartoony outline.
This study, and most of the illustrations I do in ink, are rendered with a Hunts 102 “crow quill” nib. It can draw a beautiful, delicate line but also has a lot of pluck – which I like. I save the older, worn nibs so that they may be used for thicker linework.
I keep a scrap of board nearby to scribble out and get the ink flowing. I also use a damp paper towel to keep the nibs clean. I usually scrape off the dried ink with a blade before I begin.
Here’s the pencil drawing inked. I used Rackham’s image as my guide for what to ink, and what to leave untouched. Especially when drawing women, the more lines you give them, the older they appear.
I erase the pencil lines and scan the image as a bitmap (at least 600 dpi). From here, I would do clean up and all fixes in Photoshop. In the past, I would have used gobs of China white paint to white out areas for re-inking, or simply patched in a new piece of Bristol (which Charles Gibson often did). Thankfully, those days are behind me.
Next up: Time to ink the final!
PS: It looks like the Rackham book by Dover is out-of-print. However a quick search for his name on the Dover site brought up several other books chock full of great Arthur Rackham art (and at an affordable price).
PPS: while you’re there, check out this awesome inkmaster of the past: The Drawings of Heinrich Kley
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Thanks for sharing your process. You know, if you were to compile all of these types of blogposts into a book, I would buy a copy – and recommend it to all my illustrator friends. I’d love to have this sort of thing on pages I could flip through. Hint hint…
That’s really interesting.
I just discovered your blog Tony! I don’t know why I didn’t discover this earlier. After all we have Myspaced, Facebooked, linkedin-ed….. have we Linkedin-ed? Anyway, your blog is wonderful and is a jewel on the internet!
Larry says Hello!
and so do I
Hello.
~p~
Thanks Pat Ann, that means a lot coming from you. I do hope you both are doing well.
I have had this little blog for a couple of years now. Because I don’t do as many signings and conventions as I used too (I am trying to spend as much time as I can with my little one), I have felt that this has offered me a chance to share process, thoughts, ideas, etc.
So, when are YOU going to have a permanent site up? I am pretty sure readers of my blog would love your work (and Larry’s too).
Thanks again for dropping a line.
That daughter of yours is gorgeous. She looks so much like her Mom. She’s lucky too, to have a father and mother who lovingly devote time to her unconditionally.
As for a Pat Ann website, I have recently purchased space on http://www.squarespace.com. I’m still learning the ropes and having a great time doing so. It’s up now (it’s website that I used for this post) and when time, knowledge and cash allow, I’ll add my domain name to it (pat_ann.com), more pages and bells and whistles.
We may be slow on the uptake, but when we do decide to do something, we stubbornly stick with it!
Don’t be a stranger Tony (and you too Angela) feel free to call us anytime, we practically live in the studio!
Om Shanti
~Pat Ann~
Thanks for posting this… I love other people’s process stuff. Also, the Rackham Wagner book has been a fave of mine since high school.
Not long ago, I had a chance to look at some original Rackhams up close at a drawing show at the Met. Reproductions – Dover included – don’t even begin to do them justice. They are spectacular. The integration of ink and watercolor has all these nuances that are so, so lovely.
Apparently Columbia University also has a huge trove of Rackham originals.
Tony, thanks for making these great process posts! I’ve been inking with brushes for a while now and occasionally try using pens. I love the line quality of nib pens but it’s frustrating for me how often I need to stop inking to dip them. It seems like I get a bit more mileage per dip on a #2 sable brush (once I’ve been going a few minutes) but I probably just need to get accustomed to the difference of pens.
I have had moments where I have a nib holding ink and it doesn’t seem to be flowing to the point and making a mark. Then if I press to hard I may wind up with a puddle of ink right over the drawing…I’ll look for FW inks and try them out because I’m wondering if the inks I’ve been using for brush work are too thick / resinous for pens (been using W&N Black Indian Ink with the spider on it pretty exclusively).
Also, I never thought to ink using burnt umber either. Thanks a million!
Peter
Tony,
I just love your work! You’re creature designs are very imaginative and there is such a wonderful life to your characters, not to mention your backgrounds.
Thanks for sharing a bit of your process here… really nice of you.
I’ve been using a sable brush for my line work but am now considering trying out some nibs as well.
Thanks again
C