So I had decided to fulfill a life-long ambition to draw comics. I haven’t drawn a line for years, and hardly remember whether I could. The last time I really drew was at my ‘A’ Levels era, under the tutelage of the late Douglas Hutton, both my art teacher as well as squash coach. Here’s some things I produced at the time:

Ok, these were probably some of the best work I did at the time. On the left is the Terence Trent D’arby’s debut album cover, “Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D’Arby” done with the ubiquitous orange and black pen called the Biro. Must’ve taken me some 4 hours to do, undertaken on a rather cold winter night in my room at Portora Royal School, Enniskillen in 1989.

The second sketch which had survived the rigours of time was a pencil sketch of the then lead singer of Whitesnake, David Coverdale. Incidentally, I did go watch a Whitesnake concert some years later with him singing live.

This sketch also took ages, especially getting his hair right! Used quite a range of Derwent pencils too, and although I did spray-fix the drawing it still had a couple of smudges.

Ok, so those drawings were done over 27 years ago when I was drawing regularly. During my time as an architecture student at Catz in Cambridge I mostly did collages and isometrics, and cut-away sections which did not really involve drawing skills. So in order to restart my drawing fingers some quarter of a decade later, I did what any sane retired artist would do – I went shopping!

First, the tools. I wanted to start to learn how to do inking, which is the fundamental transitioning skills to turn penciled drawings into recognisable comics – inking. Inking was something that I had always feared, as many a fine pencil outline of mine had been summarily annihilated by my feeble inept attempts at inking them. So between chance encounters of the Faber Castell booth at the New Wing of One Utama, the expansive Art Friend on the upper echelons of the Curve, Damansara and a quick dash visit to Bangsar’s C-Zip Lee, I had procured the following items:

Faber Castell 4 Pitt Artist Pen – Manga Black Set

The set comprises felt nibs in sizes XS (very thin, good for detailing), S (best for drawing), F (good for outlines and emphasis) and B (brush nib which I have never used before and wanted to try). The featured image at the top of this post are depict the four pens and their line weights. I also purchased a Rotring Clutch pencil with a built-in sharpener (at the top of the cap).

For the paper I chose:

Daler Rowney Jumbo Heavyweight Cartridge Pad  -220g/m2

This was to be my testing paper – heavy enough to take watercolours and other medium. So immediately upon purchasing these, I did a Batman sketch whilst waiting for dessert at Franco’s, the Curve. The outlines looked OK until I tried inking – yikes!

Now I really knew I had a problem with inking. But before even looking into inking in detail, I knew I had to start drawing regularly, just to loosen my artistic muscles. I also needed to develop my own drawing style if I wanted to get some level of consistency. Then I remembered that during on of my visits to Nu Sentral, I had picked up a drawing journal called “Draw Something Everyday” at a cool shop called Typo. Now that would be a way to start, methinks.

It was really an A5 sized hardcover journal with various backgrounds intended to inspire putting ink (or pencil) to paper. I thought this would be a good trajectory to take, so the following sketches were produced:

     

While those sketches were being produced, I thought I would expand my repertoire of tools, just to go beyond the black pens. In particular, I had wanted to test brush pens to see their effect. There was, of course, another major factor that would influence what I buy – I was colour blind. So I would rather stick to earthen tones and greys, and I did find the following sets meeting my criteria:

So I had more tools at my disposal, but needed more guidance. In order to ensure I do not stray from the original intent of producing comics, I was looking for books that would help me sketch better, and ink better. God’s grace certainly shone through that day when I was rummaging through MPH at One Utama and came across 2 books that fit both criteria. The first being James Hobb’s “Sketch your World: Essential Techniques for Drawing on Location”, a guide that looks at various techniques and methods for drawing on-the-go, an imperative skill that I need to acquire if I were ever to rediscover and further develop my drawing chops. It even intersperses the chapters with profiles of featured artists, delving a little deeper on their particular methods. Heartily recommended, this book got a 4.5 stars rating on Amazon, and 5/5 at Barnes & Noble!

The other delightful find was John Paul Lowe’s “Foundations in Comic Book Art”. While not strictly a ‘how-to’ book nor is it a history of sequential art, this book manages to find an amazing balance of method and meaning, whilst using his own artwork as well as those from Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) where he has been teaching for over 20 years. Whilst the composition and construction of objects may seem a tad overblown (although useful or those really starting with basics), his exposition on inking (hurray!) is extensive and instructive for a neophyte like moi. Touche! interestingly, this book also received the same ratings as the above!

Thus is the restart of my journey in rekindling old passions. I hope that my sharing may inspire you to explore your own artistic inclinations, and may it bring you the fulfillment that I am starting to experience. After all, according to a great artist,

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.

Pablo Picasso