I’ve been busy for the past 3 + months. But, I am ready to get back to practicing my classical cartooning. To loosen up, I need to do some more Walt Kelly style ink drawings. I have lately been doing digital cartooning in my BugPudding comics, but this new work is back to traditional ( classical ) brush and ink work. I don’t know about you, but even in the terms traditional cartooning art , there are tools that are less referred to as classical. Classical ink drawing originally was done with dip pens using steel nibs or with sable brushes and India ink. I’m not even going to go done the “rabbit hole” of all the new types of inks now available. But, as I have mentioned previously, there are great brush pens from Japan and elsewhere, that are now very useful tools for creating traditional inking drawings. I am using watercolor brushes for my inking, but I am also starting to use the “commercial” “brush pens” from Pilot, Pentel, Tombow, Zebra, and Kuretake.  They are all just tools. Drawing and inking is a skill in and of itself and requires lots of practice, so don’t get lost in the various tools.

NOTE: I am not promoting any specific art products, but I know that, like myself, many readers are curious about the tools and supplies other artists are using. So again, take this information as you choose or not.

I am having problems with taking my art pictures which are drawn on “white” Bristol  Board, but show up in these photos as if it is on a bluish or orangish background. It is caused by my lack of camera skills, not the actual artwork. It has to do with adjusting “white balance”. I will keep trying. I think it may be caused by the type of lights that I use in my studio.

These first two examples are, as always, in the Walt Kelly style. (see my reader’s note at the end of this post)

For this above photo, I took it with my phone camera above my drawing board, so you can see how I see them. It gives you a scale size perspective of the drawings next to 5 1/2 to 7 inch pens in the picture.

Pens : Tombow Fudensuke WS-BS 150 soft tip, Kuretake No 7 fine tip, Zebra WFSS4 150 Extra Fine, Zebra WF1 150 Fine, and Pentel XGFKPX-A Brush Pen.

All of these that I used here are what I call “marker style” pens, manufacturers tend to call them all as brush pens. To me,  a “marker style” pen has a “solid” soft tip. The Pentel XGFKPX-A , that I use, is an actual brush pen, which actually has a fine hairs bristle style of brush. “Brush style” pens take more practice to master than “marker style” pens. So if you are choosing “brush pens”, understand that the term “brush pen” does not always mean the same thing. To me, I think of a brush like what you would use to paint with watercolors and has either natural or synthetic hair bristles.  A “marker style” is like what I refer to as a “Sharpie” (Tm) solid felt tip marker. I like both styles of pens, but they are used to achieve different inking lines , solid VS variable. “Marker style” pens are great for thin or solid line marks while “brush style” allows the production of variable (thin to thick or thick to thin) marks just like using a real paint brush. I particularly like the Kuretake No 8 and No 13 brush pens with Platinum fountain pen converters 700A#9 to allow me to use bottle India inks.  I also like the Kuretake No 22 and No 24 brush pens. But be careful understanding that commercial brush pens , which are very convenient, are overtime more expensive than real brush and ink. In all examples, pressure sensitivity is critical with all inking tools.

Two of my favorite Kelly characters, The Deacon and The Mole. I had a lot of fun inking these two.

And finally, Pogo shows up with The Deacon. Hopefully you enjoyed this latest posting. I’m just glad to be back to practicing traditionally again.

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”