Let's Flip the Script

Two frames to post today. I decided to make a bit of a change about how I work, and if you pay close attention you can see the change happening between these two frames. For most of Green Monk I've been sketching out each frame with a 4H graphite pencil. I started out using a mechanical pencil, and found that I couldn't get the crisp sharp lines I wanted, so I switched to a wood ensconced graphite.

The reason for the graphite was that it was very forgiving. I could try different things and erase and start over. This worked for awhile, but lately I've been dissatisfied. I still have a hard time doing a really sharp clean up with the graphite. Once I work it too much it's impossible to erase away, which always leads to me trying to clean up digitally. This in turn causes a messier finished look and a loss of a lot of the fine pen strokes.

So I decided to work with red col-erase. I've been hesitant to use col-erase in the past because it doesn't erase very easily, especially after more than two tries. But when it comes to digitizing and cleaning up my art, it leaves no trace (like a good boy scout).

And I think I like that the col-erase is less forgiving. It forces me to be much more methodical about what I'm doing. I take more time to test out thumbnails, and when I'm ready to put pencil to paper I'm much more deliberate and careful.

Take a close look. I think you can see the difference here. Frame 1, graphite pencil. Frame 2, red col-erase. Feel free to point out anything else that I didn't notice.