Charcoal – shade, condense clouds into solids, cut into (with eraser)
Colored pencil – bear down, attack, kick up dirt
Ink & brush – scoop, carve out, stab, dash
Marker – scribble, swoop, capture territory
Pen & ink – cut, carve, weave
Watercolor – flood, flow, carve out shapes

Addendum: Drawing on plastic digital tablet – drawing on plastic digital tablet.

• An excerpt from a comic by Eleanor Davis in MOME 22. (See her sketches for it.)
• Sam Hiti has a (occasionally NSFW) Tumblr.
• I like this art by Elise Gravel.
• From last summer, but worth re-reading: Gabrielle Bell’s “Manifestation“. (Included in Best American Comics 2011.)
• Shaenon Garrity has been writing prose science fiction lately; her story “Librarians in the Branch Library of Babel” is a funny riff on Borges.

After a month of 5-days-weekly blogging, I found myself taking a little breather. Still painting, just not posting. More stuff to come soon.

This week’s links to art I liked …

• Mattias Adolfsson gives us a tour of one of his grand cityscapes.
• An existential gunfight from Jiro Taniguchi’s Hotel Harbour View.
• Peter de Seve draws Miss Havisham and other Dickens characters.
• Two examples of art-as-reportage, showcased by D. B. Dowd. Love that Sasek illo.
• Mike Lynch draws his Prince Edward Island vacation.

More art and design links …

• Check out the amazing web design (& beautiful illustrations) for the Sketchtravel project – a sketchbook that was passed from artist to artist over a 4.5 year period. Proceeds from the auction of the sketchbook (featuring art from Peter de Seve, Tadahiro Uesugi, Hayao Miyazaki (!) …) will go to charity. Reproductions of the sketchbook are also available.
• Eleanor Davis shares some sketches for her comic in the final issue of the Mome anthology.
• A beautiful cover for the New Yorker by Arthur Getz. (From here.)
• Artists draw covers for Philip K. Dick novels at The Divine Invasion. Proceeds go to help Dylan Williams’ (RIP) family pay medical expenses.

Some nice art from around the web …

• On the blog of illustrator Pep Montserrat, art from his book Un Dia a Gracia. If I understand correctly, it’s a commissioned sketchbook depicting his Barcelona neighborhood. Some beautiful line and paint work.
• Via Sam Hiti on Twitter, a video of bande dessinee artist Hermann (Jeremiah) at work on a painted comic.
• Richard Thompson fills us in on his theory of Little Kid Expressionism</>.
• Images of some Ezra Jack Keats art on exhibit at The Jewish Museum. If you’re like me and have seen some of these only in faded old library books, their verve will really surprise you. (Here’s an accompanying book.)
• A Tumblr devoted to Blade Runner.

• Via @leifpeng on Twitter, Jack Davis-illustrated Topps cards. Judging by #10, I’m not sure if Larry & Raymond were really friends.
• Shaenon Garrity draws a childhood heroine.
• On the Aqua Velvet blog, Nikki Gittins’ type project NEW YORK, NEW YORK. Great use of cutout shapes and photography.
• The great Sam Hiti draws cowboys, shoes, and legs.
• Character designs for Jason’s upcoming book, ATHOS IN AMERICA.
• Eleanor Davis’s graceful and evocative New York Times illustration. (Her site.)

Click for full-size image

Some of the many things I couldn’t fit into the comic:

• The webcomics panel on Friday was entertaining, with a lot of contrast between the folks on stage. Kate Beaton’s slideshow moved at machine-gun pace—you’d barely recover from one punchline before another drilled you in the gut. (She also had a great, underplayed delivery when reading all the dialogue.) Randall Munroe was in a more leisurely and analytical mode, showcasing entire XKCD strips in a slide. Dave Kellett was a little in both camps, doing fast and spirited readings of his strips, then slowing down to emphasize a point.

• Webcartoonists love Emily Dickenson.

• I really hope that Roth video makes an appearance somewhere on the web; there’s at least one frame I’d like as a desktop background.

• A color guard performed at the awards ceremony, and another crew shot confetti over the crowd. Abe Lincoln was also there, in the balcony; at one point he overpowered some kind of prowler that crept up on him.

Related: see Kate Beaton’s Reubens comics and Mike Lynch’s Reubens jam comics. Update: and here’s that video with Tom Gammill and the Roths, on Mike Lynch’s blog.

“Seeking Solace at the Symmetry Shop (An Appreciation of Ben Katchor)” – a not-quite-review of Katchor’s books Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: The Beauty Supply District and The Jew of New York.

“Grey Vampires and Green Cowboys” – A quick look (with lots of pictures) at the art techniques of Christophe Blain in his book Gus and His Gang, and of Joann Sfar in his book Vampire Loves.

Thanks to site proprietor Xerexes for inviting me to blather on!

A few years back I found a watercolor paper that I really liked: Winsor & Newton 140lb Hot Press. It’s not as slick and weirdly absorbent as other hot press papers I’ve tried, and not as toothy as your average cold press paper. The back side of the sheet has a semi-regular pattern (from drying on felt?) that’s different from the front side, but still pleasant. It takes ink fairly well too. I’ve found it to be excellent for making painted comics.

The downside: it’s hard to find, compared to Arches or Canson products. As of this writing most of the brick-and-mortar stores I contacted don’t carry it, and the online ones are out of stock—with no clear answer as to when they’ll have more. Update 8-17-10: I called the company I’d ordered the W&N paper from, and was told that it’s been temporarily discontinued; apparently they’re in the midst of changing paper manufacturers.

I decided to look for an alternative paper and ordered a selection of stuff from Dick Blick. Here are my notes on each paper—no scientific tests, just a quick reaction and scan to give a general idea of the paper’s characteristics. Hopefully this will be helpful to other people ordering these papers blind.

Lanaquarelle 140lb Hot Press

I liked this paper. Its surface has a very slight, pleasant tooth for hot press paper, and it doesn’t absorb the brushstrokes quite as quickly as other hot press papers I’ve tried. The back side looks to be smoother than the front. It also took pen and ink very well. I don’t do a lot of blotting, but it was pretty easy to blot up part of a fresh wash. I’d call this a good backup choice for my comics work.

Saunders Waterford 90lb Hot Press

This is a light, finely textured hot press paper, slightly creamy in color. My brushstrokes sank in quickly, and paint pooled on top and made unpredictable blooms. So it’s not suitable for the painted comics projects I have in mind. However it’s a terrific surface for pen and ink—the pen just glides over it. I could see doing a large-scale ink drawing on this with lots of crosshatching.

Winsor & Newton 140lb Cold Press

I would call this more of a “rough” surface—It was nice and crunchy, and would be great for drybrush. It’s not as great for pen and ink—the pen drags a bit on the surface—but still doable. Absorption seemed pretty slow, and I was able to blot up a fresh wash without too much effort. I don’t think it would work for the detail-oriented comics I’m painting now, but I liked the surface enough to keep it in mind for other paintings.

Strathmore Series 500 140lb Hot Press

This paper had more of a machine-made feel to its surface than the other papers, though I don’t know if it is. It took the pen and ink well, and didn’t absorb brushstrokes too quickly. Might be better with gouache—it would have just enough tooth to do some drybrush.

Fabriano Artistico Extra White 140lb Soft Press

“Soft Press” is Fabriano’s surface midway between cold press and hot press. This was the paper I’d hoped would most closely approximate the W&N paper, and so it did. It’s toothier, and the surface seems harder (more sizing?) when drawing on it with the pen. But the washes dry at about the same rate as the W&N stuff, and without any blooms.

Many thanks to the folks at Johnson Paint in Boston for the lead. Of course, this is another speciality paper that’s hard to find in stores. But at least I have two options to pick from now.