weapons of choice

Hey there! Another blog post to feed the beast (the beast being the need to constantly be making new things and challenging myself while sharing everything I can to people that might be curious). A super common question a lot of artists get is “what pen do you use?” A common answer I see is “Whatever has ink or is closest” or something to that effect. For the most part this is the truest answer, unsatisfying as it may be. The reality is, the people that you see making stuff online are often doing it out of a near compulsive need to create. I’m not gonna play armchair psychologist with artists out in the world but I know me and if I have a blank sheet and a half chewed crayola within arm’s reach - I’m gonna be doodling.

via GIPHY

With all that said I do have my tools of the trade and let this post be an ever-evolving, easily referenced resource for you and the budding artist in your life. Ready? Steady. Let’s start with traditional art:

Paper -

Copy paper - nothing beats a good ol’ piece of letter sized copy paper. 8.5”x11” blank field of silent accusation DARING you to try and make something worthy of anyone’s time. Stupid paper. We ARE worthy.

Mostly used for scratch sketches and notes I go through these pretty mercilessly and will buy it by the ream or case at Staples.

Bristol Board - For commissions I use Strathmore Bristol Board, either 9”x12” or 11”x17” depending on the commission. It’s a pretty standard paper size and quality you see floating around the commissioned art world. I like the tooth on these and it takes pencil, ink, and watercolor like a champ. Just don’t over saturate it too much as it’ll buckle and warp and that’s just frustrating. You can find these pads at any halfway decent art supply store or Michael’s, which always has coupons available online.

Watercolor Paper - For the higher end commissions I’ll use an oversized Canson or Arches watercolor paper and cut it down after I’m done. I’m not the best at watercoloring so I like the extra real estate to play with the paint off to the side. Again available at any art store, but play with different ones to see what works for you.

Pencils -

Mechanical pencils and Graphite Holders - Staedtler graphite holders are my go-to tools from forever ago. For sketches I’ll use a H graphite (aka “lead”) and go for a softer 2B for tighten it up a bit. Not much softer than that because I tend to overwork my lines and it can get muddy and worse, smudgey!

Ink -

I’m partial to mechanical pens like a .3 or .5 Micron or Copic Multiliner pen.

But I love the look of a dry brush effect or clean brush contour line. For something like that I’ll rock with a Grumbacher brush of varying sizes (no smaller than a 1).

To cover large black areas I’ll grab any soft clean brush and dip into my Super Black India Ink and get to work.

For that spattering effect you may have seen on my stuff I’ll use an old busted brush or old (but clean) toothbrush and carefully flick to get the effect i’m going for. Also I prefer these Uni-ball Signs pens over the jellyroll white ink pens I see other artists use. I just can’t get those to work for me.

Some other brush, felt tipped pens that beg mention are Pentel’s refillable pens, Pentel’s Aquash Water Brush and the Tombow 82039-Fudenosuke Brush Pen is kinda the best of both worlds. A lot of control and the near organic flexibility of a brush.

Sketchbooks -

My all time favorite sketchbook is the hard cover Moleskine Art Sketchbook. It’s 8.25" x 11.75" and 96 pages of perfect weight, doodle real estate, but it runs about $28 these days and that’s just too expensive. When I can just use copy paper or my iPad to get ideas down on “paper” that cost is kinda hard to justify. That said it’s still one of the best sketchbooks and I still have them tee’d up for any planned time away from my drafting table.

All that said, I do have a landscape Montana Cans Sketchbook, 12" x 8-1/2" still trapped in its shrink wrap. I love the idea of it and I’ll crack it open one day soon…

Let’s Talk Digital

iPad Pro

I’m forever attached to my iPad Pro, much to the chagrin of my beautiful and talented and super patient partner, Jessica. Within that techno-wonder is my favorite art software, Procreate. A lot of what you may have seen on my Instagram account was created entirely in Procreate. I love it. It’s intuitive, especially if you have Photoshop experience. There’s also a robust community of creators on Gumroad that have created custom brushes to really build out that resource. I’ll sometime’s export effects from my iPad to my Mac Mini setup just for ease.

Mac Mini M1, Cintiq 24HD with Photoshop and Clip Studio Pro

This is the absolute core of my work world. All the heavy lifting gets done on this. Freelance, blog posts, video editing, getting comics print ready, planning, plotting, scheming, etc.

Cintiq 24HD is the centerpiece of this war horse of a work station. I’ve had it for nine years at this point and it’s still cruising along. If you can get one do it. Alternatively there are other more “affordable” pen displays like XP-Pen or Huinon. I’ve not used either myself but I’ve seen other artists review them favorably on YouTube.

Photoshop on the Mac Mini is what I mainly use to get work done with file sizes too big for the iPad. It’s an industry standard in my experience. Not much more can be said about it here without falling down a deep, dark, digital rabbit hole.

Clip Studio Pro is the alternative to Photoshop, has great comic creation tools, a fantastic perspective ruler and a robust community of custom brush makers.

Last Looks

Well, that was fun and hopefully just enough for you to chew on. We ended on a some big ticket items but if that’s too daunting for you, circle back to the beginning of this post. Everything there is stuff you can find around the house, typically. Have pencil; will draw. You don’t need the new hotness no matter how pretty and shiny it is. It’s not gonna make you a better artist. Just commit to making something. At your own pace and stick to it. I promise you’ll get better at it. I also promise that you’ll be frustrated that it won't be fast enough. That’s normal. Hell, its expected. Just don’t let it deter you from moving forward. Ok. That’s it. Stick a fork in me. I’m done.

Take Aways:

make stuff
you’re always learning
comparison is the death of joy
the new fancy won’t make you a better artist