A horror story.

Page 1 if I recall correctly, a mysterious window -- ooh er Mrs. I wonder what could this portent foretell...

Page 2 ...well nothing good that's for sure.

Page 3 The plot thickens--then evaporates in to thin air.

What do we have here then--well it a few pages from an aborted comic strip that I found recently while digging through some old work. I only found the photocopies I'm afraid because the artwork was handed over to someone else around the time I left the project. The story concerns a vampire, the woman or old bag you see in the panels but her misdeeds and malfeasance are not the horror story I'm refereeing to by naming this post, a horror story. No the horror story referrers to the tribulations concerning the generation of this artwork together with a few other pages and some character sketches.

You see, it's not my creation, rather it was a collaboration with an author. This guy was/is pretty literate and intelligent, the trouble was he couldn't get his head round the idea that something had to happen on the page for an illustrated narrative to work. Instead he would provide a script that consisted of a page of foolscap that translated to around sixteen illustrated pages. You see the second page of this sample of artwork, where there is no dialogue, well the version presented here very much represents a précis from the original. Needless to say there was a lot of too and froing, arguing the toss and such, none of which I won and since I didn't care for idea of slogging out all the pages need to accommodate a disproportionately concise script, I exited the endeavour.

Only that's not the last of it, you see these reproduction might be of the original artwork or they might be from the redrawn artwork that I created when the originals were accidentally destroyed. I admit that I somewhat foolishly decided to use Higgins ink instead of the normal Windsor and Newton waterproof Indian ink and wouldn't you know, the artwork got wet...

...ugh.

Oh yeah and just don't ask about the spelling for the speech bubbles...

Robert McGinness, the classic Bond illustrator.

I’m sure the illustrator Robert McGinness was at one time the most successful American illustrator, he seems to have been everywhere and done everything for everyone. His catalogue is replete with prestige clients, magazines, film productions as well as the bread and butter work, which is as what we all know, is what really pays the bills. He was at the top of his game, to my mind, in the sixties and seventies producing work in the painterly style that had been the look for illustration since about the fifties. McGinness’s work though, is stylistically rather more versatile, he seems to be able to wander across the line between stylisation and realism at will. It’s generally possible to put one’s finger on a particular talent an artist has and say I like this or that about their work, the way they paint flesh or pose figures. It’s harder to do that with McGinness because he doesn’t rely on style to sell the picture.

McGinness had quite a prominent association with the James Bond film franchise doing poster work and it seems from these examples, pre-production visualisations. In case you’re not familiar with the concept of pre-production visuals, they’re often used to sell a prospective idea to would be investors but they’re also passed around, shared between a creative team to get them working in the same direction. I have my doubts about these examples, especially the one with Bond perched on coral, it seems a little too after the fact to be pre-production but that’s just conjecture. It’s also a slightly odd painting though, it’s odd because it’s rendered like a studio photograph. The figures look as though they’re standing in front of a photographer’s wall, even so far as the seamless junction between floor and wall. Illustrators are or were used for visuals because they don’t suffer the limitations of photography, they can make pictures up and draw or paint them. Oh look let’s give the Pharaoh lots of gold ornamentation, let’s make King Kong reach out at the plane, that kind of thing, so what purpose is there to painting a dreary studio wall, you might as well take a snap. I suppose though, Connery being a star, wouldn’t be available for photo shoots without some stiff financial incentive.

There is also some eroticism here, Domino in the midst of hoiking her knickers off, or on but she has a strange and asymmetric face that reminds me of a kipper. She stares perpendicular to the picture plane with a vacant gaze. Bond though is attentive and alert, what’s that a would be assassin amid the palms – no it’s just a mouse peeking through the photographers skirting board. He definitely looks as though he’s finished but she’s caressing that phallus as though business still needs attending. What is that thing anyway, don’t tell me that it’s a spear gun harpoon, since when did they come gold plated. It seems like I’m being critical doesn’t it, which is odd because I’m a McGinnis fan and fans are supposed to regard the object of their fanishness with uncritical fascination, oh well – bill me.

Although a somewhat less finished effort, the other picture, the one with the couple cavorting in the ocean, is more satisfactory. It doesn’t seem to me to be realistic, I would expect more angular and contorted tangle of limbs for a pair sinking in the ocean. Then there’s the myopia of the aquatic environment that would make staring into your lover’s eyes or even in their general direction – quite difficult. It’s a fantasy though, so these things don’t matter, the water is there just to give context. The foam and spray evoke a sense of motion as well as a lend a suggestion of passion, while foreshadowing the culmination of their union.

McGinnis gives great extremity, hands feet, legs arms there’s always some elegance and poise about them, sometimes his figures remind me of birds, the structure of their limbs being delineated so finely. Here he’s opted to use the background colour in Domino’s legs giving them a feel of translucence or iridescence. Of course, she’s a fish in her element not the cold kipper served up on a slab in the other picture. Interestingly, although Bond’s figure is more solid, more in water than of it, this translucency is also present in his torso.

There you go I hope you enjoyed the pictures, I know it seemed like I hated the one with Bond seated but I don’t really, I actually quite like it and I think it’s a fine piece of technique, it’s just that my thoughts on it tend towards the critical.

Drawing with ink, some tips

It's been a while but when I used to earn cash as an illustrator I preferred to used what even then was seen as as a traditional medium, that being, ink applied with a dip pen or brush. The reasons for this were practical really, It was the easiest way to get a consistent black for repo purposes and I'd spent a bit of time in my amateur comic days monkeying with different materials and I just didn't like the flat lines that newer types of inking implements gave. Now a lot of people who've tried inkwork are a little surprised at my choice, probably because they've struggled with pen and ink and got a bit frustrated, well I did too but once you've worked through the problems it turns out that they're not such a pain after all. The main thing is that you've got to be aware of the pitfalls, once accomplished this you'll find that even under the crush of tight deadline, ink applied with a pen or brush is very productive.

I'm a avid fan of good inkwork particularly when applied with a pen, I love the inky quality of illustrators like Ken Reid and his contemporaries and I'd like a see a resurgence of that kind of draftsmanship. So to enchourage this ends I've decided to document a few tips regarding this subject, I'm gonna cover four topics, pens, brushes, inks and surfaces.


Brushes
This one's pretty easy, you need a brush rather more slender and longer than you'd use to apply paint. The bad news is that brushes are expensive because they're made from sable, at least the ones suitable for inking are. The type of brush I used was the Windsor & Newton Series 3A Designers Sable, sizes 0 to 3. For god sake look after them, clean them immediately after you've used them, especially with indian ink. Don't let anyone else use them either, they'll ruin them. If you're working in a studio with other people, lock them away and then you won't suffer the problem I did when a particularly inconsiderate and arrogant colleague left an expensive brush ruined my in brush holder because she considered anything in the studio as communal property.

Pens
Gillott 404 pen with a William Mitchel No. 2 ink reservoir, the reservoir helps control the flow of ink as well as allowing you to load your pen with more ink. If the ink is getting a bit sticky, just open the reservoir up slightly. You can get a good variety of line with this pen, use it sideways for finer lines and normally for a thinker lines, you can apply a fair amount of pressure too to get broader lines, depending on the resilience of your surface. One thing you should be aware of when using pens, is that gravity is your friend so orientate your drawing board towards the flat and this should prevent any problems with ink flow.

Ink
I can recommend Winsor and Newton Indian Ink or Higgins Fountain Pen Ink too which is a non waterproof ink and can be easier to work with especially for a beginner. One problem with Indian ink is that is that it should really come with a sell by date because a lot of the stuff you get in the shops has been sitting around or years and its various constituents have settled out into two parts. A sticky goo that will gum up your pen and a anemic fluid that is quite translucent and useless for repo. You can buy huge bottles of W&N Indian and that's probably the best way to go, if you do, be sure to stop the bottle immediately you've decanted a quantity into a dip vessel, this will prevent evaporation which is a problem if you only buy small bottles of ink and you're working in the summer without  air conditioning. If you're indian ink is getting sticky, through evaporation, don't dilute it with tap water unless you're willing to throw the bottle away when you've finished your drawing. Indian that been diluted this way will solidify into a gel, usually overnight and will have to be thrown away. I have heard you can use de-ionised water to dilute it, this may be true, I don't know, I've never had to try it.

Surface
When I first took up inkwork the surface that was recommend to me was Frisk CS10, which was probably the cause of my initial problems, it's was awful, totally unsuitable for dip pen work, it had a toothed surface that was meant for mechanical Rotoring pens which does nothing but splatter ink everywhere with dip pens. You can use various grades of illustration board. Daler wash and line board takes ink quite nicely especially from a brush and it dries quite quickly, it's main disadvantage being that you can't apply too much pressure with a pen because it will tear up the surface. Anyone with professional experience would have told you that Letraset papers and boards where in class far superior to anything else that was produced, unfortunately they seem to have given up that part of their business, which is obvious of course, wouldn't that just have to happen? the best inking papers and boards disappear from the market, typical. Their 5000 line paper was a harder surface but it didn't take too long to dry either and you could erase small errors with a scalpel blade or sometimes a T20 eraser.

One surface that a lot of people don't consider is drafting film, drafting film is the hardest drawing surface and can take the most pressure from your pen. It's a polyester translucent material meant for use with mechanical pens again but the tooth is much finer and works well with dip pens. It's quite hard on pens though and will wear them out much quicker than other surfaces. It's main advantage is that you can trace straight off your pencil sketches and you can erase errors with relative ease with a T20 or, because it's plastic not paper, you can wipe whole drawings out with a suitable solvent for indian ink,  just water with water soluble inks. It's disadvantage is that, because it is totally impermeable, it takes an age to dry, especially with indian ink.

One point about all surfaces is that they need to be kept clean and the harder that surface the more important this becomes. When I say clean, what I mean is that they will acquire an oil film from your hands as you're working and this will be enough to cause the ink not take to the surface. To prevent this you can use a piece of paper to minimize skin contact with the surface but you will also probably need to clean the surface periodically with lighter fluid or a suitable studio solvent like Clean Art.