Thursday, December 16, 2010

So Sumi (ah, puns)

Sadly, I have no comics this week (no time!), so I've posted some previously completed drawings. Back in September, at the cultural cornucopia that is the New York City Comic-Con, I had the great fortune of purchasing a large bottle of sumi ink. Prior to using sumi, I had used India ink for my various projects. What do I think of sumi, after a few uses?

BEFORE APPLYING SUMI


AFTER APPLYING SUMI


Sumi ink is the roundhouse kick to India ink's passive-aggressive sigh. It gives a consistently dark line without my having to constantly reload my brush, it holds up better under an eraser, and it thins out nicely with just a little water. I might even go so far as to say that it has made me a more confident inker when it comes to my comics - the last two I posted here were done all in sumi, and I felt great about them. The drawings in this post are all from my early experiments with the ink, done a few weeks ago when I was still getting a feel for it.
The monster depicted above is called a Donestre, and is from medieval folklore. I read about it shortly before working on the drawings - it is a man with a lion's head that speaks all languages, and lulls foreign travelers into trusting it. It then eats them, leaving only their heads intact. Because it's still partially human, it is filled with remorse afterward, and mourns the heads.

On a less gruesome note, I also recently drew a fashion model from a subway ad. I filled in her hair entirely in sumi:

Next up: comics about beards, and how they foster manliness in the men who grow them.

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