Traditional art comic tools

[Starlover200]

Can anyone tell me what tools and materials that you use to make your traditional comics ?

[R.n.P]

At first i was sketching with my pencil den tracing with my black pen then when i got alittle bit used to my art style n characters i stopped sketching the characters first.
If i had access to better quality coloring materials in my country i would be coloring by hand but since i don't have i'm using photoshop anytime i wanna color stuff
THE LAST SAMURAI

[Shanny8]

Traditionally, I use non-photo blue leads, a Staedler leadholder, a mixture of Speedball Super Black india ink & Koh-i-noor black drawing ink, 102 & 107 nibs, Koh-i-noor tech pens, metal rulers with cork underbelly(to prevent the ruler from sliding), a no 2 kolinsky sable brush(mainly for fill-ins), & french curves. I use 11"x 17" 2 ply vellum finish bristol(dont like the smooth finish).

Sometimes I will use a C-5 calligraphy nib for some stuff as well.

[understatedcomics]

I use a mechanical pencil with a 0.7 mm lead, Pigma Micron ink pens, and printer paper (because it's cheap and I go through a lot of paper).

[apurviance]

For the last 2-3 years I was doing my comic traditionally on paper, scanning in the ink, and coloring it digitally.

• Carson marker paper cheaper than comic boards and allowed me to trace references when needed, but if you're not careful it can wrinkle when you erase.
• Staedtler Non-Photo blue pencil for sketching. This won't show up in B&W scans, and this brand is not too soft or hard. It's just right. Get a GOOD metal or electric sharpener or you'll go through a lot of these.
• One of the white block erasers for big areas, and a retractable eraser for details.
• Sharpie ultra-fine point markers for regular lines. I use these because they're easy to buy.
• Pentel Brush pen for thick lines and shadows. These are GREAT. Just squeeze the handle for more ink.

Other things

• Some people like to ink parts in red. When scanned in B&W this gives a gray line. Useful for background or less important details.
• I've also used watercolor pencils for color because traditional watercolors frustrate me. Color with pencils then add water to blend it. Scanning watercolors can be tricky. I usually ended up photographing the images with a nice camera outside in bright shade.

This year I'm going 100% digital. It's taken some time to learn, but in the end I think it'll be better for my workflow. I will miss having the physical pages to flip through, though.

[apocryphagraphics]

for Heroes for Ghosts I use:
Blue Line premium art board- pre lined 11x17 inch 3 ply Strathmore 500 bristol. Expensive but awesome
Mechanical pencils for penciling
Windsor & Newton series 7 #2 brush for about 95% of the inking
Hunt's 102 pen nibs for details
Faber Castell Pitt artist pens
Pelikan Yellow label india ink
FW acrylic ink for deep, solid blacks
Signa uniball paint pen for fine white lines.

Some of these tools are more expensive than some of the other suggestions you will get, but one thing to keep in mind is how the inks, pens papers etc... will age. If you want your original art to still look like new in ten years you'll want to use materials that are lightfast, archival quality etc... or you will see things like yellowing of paper, fading and reddening of inks, and all kinds of other deterioration over time. Also cheap papers are harder to erase, easier to damage and more vulnerable to spills and other little disasters.

[phoenixrenaissance]

I use mechanical pencil, Strathmore watercolor paper, Dr Martin's Radiant Watercolor Dye or India Ink. I don't actually ink the lines for any of my comics.

[sarrowsmith10]

For traditional work I use:
*Prismacolor liners, sizes 001 to 08, and B for heavy outlining.
*Ruler for panels
*Caffeine for sanity..
*I use cold press 11x17 Strathmore bristol paper
*Scanners at FedEx or Staples stores since I have the tiniest scanner ever at home
*Blue mechanical pencil for lines, since it practically disappears during scanning and makes for less editing later.
*Colors/Text in photoshop.

[igneriss]

For sketching, I use any random pencil I can find around, I'm not really picky about that~
For lineart, I use Sakura Pigma Micron ink pens or Standardgraph Tec Pens- it actually depends on which art supplies store I visit. I like both and don't really see much difference. I use 0,1 for most of the lines, and 0,3 for outer lines and hair. Sometimes 0,8 for outer lines if something is much closer and I want it to stand out from the background.
For frames, speech bubbles and bigger black areas I use ZIG Art&Graphic Twin Kuretake black pens~ I tried using a black promarker for this, but it was too light :<

[phen]

Lots of graphite pencils, sometimes watercolour sketch pencils! Lately I'm doing half-and-half, sketching and inking traditionally AND digitally. A mega mash-up of media, hoho~ But for straight traditional comic tools-o-the trade:

￭ The initial sketch or my thumbs in 2H and then page rough sketch in HB
￭ The paper for the thumbs is just plain old cheap Strathmore Sketch paper
￭ Inking with Staedtler pigment liners (I use the 4-pack with sizes 0.7, 0.5, 0.3, and 0.1 and an additional teeny 0.01)
￭ The paper for the actual comic is cheap cardstock (A4 size) or drawing paper cut down to (A4)
￭ I use Chinese ink and watercolour (Yasutomo -- very nicely priced for the pigments!) and a huge variety of brushes/bamboo brushes/toothbrushes to throw paint around like a madman, haha^^

[Zpreader]

0.5 Pentel Mechanical Pencils
Deleter A4 Manuscript Paper
Pigma Microns 005-08
Dip Pen w/ G-Tip
Black Cartooning Ink
Zebra Brush Pen
Brush Set

[SpavVy]

These are the tools I use:

DELETER Manuscript paper type A - B4
pigment liners of various brands
G-pen
DELETER Ink Black 4
Speedball India Ink (can be found in art stores and anywhere online.)
White ink
Sakura Foam Erasers (These are the best erasers in my opinion.)
Uni Alpha Gel HD Shaka Shaker Mechanical Pencil - 0.5 mm.
Regular mechanical pencil with blue lead.

[guilleum2]

I use a regular ol' pencil to sketch.
Staedtler erasers are the BEST.
Staedtler pen set (sizes 0.1-0.7) for line art.
Micron pen (size 0.05) for shading.
I draw in a tiny Canson brand Sketch paper sketchbook.
Nothing real special.

[StevenDacasin]

These are my tools of the trade:
-Uni M71010.26 Shift Pipe Lock Drafting 0.7mm Pencil ( but with blue lead instead of the usual gray)
-Sakura 30062 6-Piece Pigma Micron Ink Pen Set, Black
-Pentel Portable Fude Brush Pen, Pentel Fude, Black Body, Medium (XGFKP-A)
-Zig Cartoonist Pen Nib for Manga, G-Pen (Pack of 3)(with obvious Nib Holder)

[UrMom]

Black and white comic:
.Bristol paper, 11 x 14 inches
.Prismacolor 7 pen set, black

Colour comic:
.Bristol paper, 9 x 12 inches (Canon calls it comic and manga illustration paper, but it's really just bristol paper)
.01 blue, and 08 black Micron pens
.03 and 05 black Prismacolor pens
.Verithin Prismacolor colourpencils

Both:
.Any resembling paper for thumbnailing
.Giant-ass graph ruler
.0.5 Zebra brand mechanical pencil
.a large sharpie for gutters
.a white gel pen for shiny things

I'd say what my eraser is, but I have no idea. Got it at Walgreens.

[niinasalmelin]

I use the pencil I can find at the moment, not too soft so that the page wont end up as all grey mush, bit not too hard either so there's nice feeling. The watercolors I use are Winsor&Newton and regular opaque paints.

[acealmansoori]

Actually you can find a lot about traditional comics from this guy in youtube, https://www.youtube.com/user/WhytMangaTV hope it helps.

I mainly use sketches to digitalize the comic, lineart and colors.

[infectedbloodcomics]

Yes! I use a Pilot Color eno 0.7 for line art:

Micron pens for inking! Mostly numbers 01, 03, 05 and 08:

And also Pentel brush pen for inking larger areas of black and other effects