It has been over a month since I posted any additional cartooning drawings on my journal. I am very pleased at my latest progress. Studying the style of Walt Kelly is an excellent way to learn drawing cartoons in India ink. This latest group of drawings are dynamic showing solid drawing and weight using brush inking. Getting movement in action on a flat piece of paper in black and white requires the use of lighting and bold ink shading. I particularly enjoyed using examples of Churchy LaFemme and Howland Owl. The hard shell of the turtle is not normally presented in dancing and the owl is very feathery.

I am much happier with the taking of my art pictures which are drawn on “white” Bristol  Board. I adjusted the lighting above the camera and that helped. But I also edited the photos to adjust the contrast. I’m learning.

My inking drawings used  a Kuretake No 7 brush pen and a Kuretake No 13 brush pen, both using  Platinum cartridge pen ink converters ( 700A #9 ) to allow me to use these pens filled with bottle “Blick Black Cat” India ink. I also did shading fine lines using a Zebra WFSS4 150 Extra Fine pen. 

It is lots of fun making these inked drawings. Learning to control the brush requires practice. It takes a light touch to control the pressure. As I said previously, the direction of the light on the characters and bolding the characters weight are what makes these drawing so solid.

I have read some articles about how Walt Kelly worked creating the Pogo comic strip. It appeared that he worked on his drawing board pinned in a single fixed position. To not turn the drawing as he was inking may have influenced his style and approach. Kelly’s Disney experience would have influenced him using a turning animation disc so maybe he turned more on his drawing board. Most pictures of Kelly working were publicity press photos and not actually showing him actually working at creating the strips. Kelly overtime had two major assistants, George Ward and Henry Shikuma. I suspect that the assistants learned and followed Kelly’s style, but in my opinion as I followed the years of evolution of the comic strip, the inking style and the drawing style was influenced by both the work of  George Ward and Henry Shikuma. I personally think Henry Shikuma through the 60’s and early 70’s was a major influence on the art work. We will never know. I don’t ink in a single fixed position and I like to constantly turn the Bristol board particularly when inking. It has to do with your arm movement. Do not move the brush or your fingers when inking – only move your wrist at the pivot with the brush in this locked position. Ink lines from left to right in a horizontal direction, using the natural curve of your wrist. Just rotate the page as you work to keep horizontal. Sometimes working vertical and turning the page to position that is also workable. It’s a matter of having a comfortable natural wrist motion. I am right handed.

More to follow in future posts.

Readers Note : My total focus is on learning and practice. In all cases for these postings there is no intent to use any artistic material from Walt Kelly’s work or style as anything other than as inspiration. “Inspired by Walt Kelly” or “In the style of Walt Kelly”