Me and My Tools Part 2... really? Who would have thought.
So I'm still reading about stuff that people are using in their art stuff. Remember
how I love my Prismacolor colored pencils? Well, I love it then and I still love it now. However, now there is another item in my arsenal:
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| The Prismacolor colorless blender |
Yes, I'm a Prismacolor convert. So what the blender actually does is blend your colors to have a smoother look and in my case, to spread the color. Now, the Prismacolor pencils blend pretty well on their own and before, I blend colors with the use of the white colored pencil and the effect looks ok to me. But after experimenting with the colorless blender I can't help but think, "Where have you been all my life Prismacolor blender??". It just retains the vibrant colors better than the white pencil and I have to admit, it's one of the best finds I ever had in my cartooning journey.
And then, since I upgraded my colored pencils, I looked forward to getting a better pen. I always used ordinary black ballpoint pens in my art, and I supposed I just have to buy a better quality (and more expensive) pen. Maybe I will luck out and buy a pen which produces less blots and gives a more reliable, even ink. But I was not happy with that reasoning. So I had to do research.
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| My brush pens |
In comes the brush pens. I am going to admit, I just came about them by googling "what pens do cartoonists use" or something like that so I'm just a crowd follower. But this is actually a good thing because I'm pretty happy with my brush pens.
Daiso flexi-brush pen
I'm really, really tempted to hunt down the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen since it has really, really great reviews and it looks like a lot of cartoonists use it. But alas, being in the Philippines makes it hard to find a store that carries it, the pen is expensive (as expected!) and I'm not sure if it's what I need. I hate buying stuff which I'm not sure I'll use. After a few more googling, I came across
a post which tells of a great nylon-bristled brush pen sold in Daiso, of all places.
There are a lot of Daiso stores in the Philippines so one trip and 88 PHP less later (around 1.50 USD) and I got the pen. Thank goodness it was available; it's the only kind of brush pen available in the store and only two were in stock. And although I came to learn that it looks like it's better for calligraphy use, I am still in love with it and will definitely play around with it.
Pentel Pocket Brush Pen -- I still might hunt down for you because I am curious.
Sakura Pigma FB
When I googled for Sakura Pigma, the reviews are ok. Not great, not bad, just ok. But it's the brush pen I chose amongst the sea of brush pens in the local bookstore because of its fine line. And I need fine lines in my comics because my panels are tiny.
During that time, I had no idea about brush pen differences. I don't know what's felt-tipped or nylon-tipped and if their differences even matter. I am hardly a brush pen expert now but at least I know the difference. My Sakura Pigma is felt-tipped so there is not much variation in ink width (kinda like Sharpie) unlike the Daiso pen which is nylon-tipped, has much more ink flexibility and has a more "water-y" effect. I love the feel of my Daiso pen but I have to admit, the Sakura Pigma is better for my cartoons since I need neat, even lines. Unless there is some kind of trick and style that I still need to learn.
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Left: Sakura Pigma
Right: Daiso brush pen
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I will still be looking for other brush pens because I might find something better and it's fun to experiment with them anyway. Plus I would like non-black ones since they look like so much fun.
How about you, how do you ink your cartoons?
