Weapons of Choice

The Ink

After much research, running around New York City to various art supply stores, (Blink which is my favorite, amazing art store at 1 Bond St) I found a great ink for my backgrounds this week. Its called Holbein Drawing ink. I've heard its a fan favorite amongst comic book artists. The big advantage to me is that it creates a very deep, dark opaque black on the first application. It's also waterproof which is important since my hands are constantly rubbing all over my drawings. It comes in two types, standard and special. Standard is a shellac based ink and special is acrylic. The special is thicker than the standard, so it dries quicker and seems to have the tendency to gum up. But the rich black it offers is amazing! So for now this is what I'm using. I'm by no means an expert and If you have any other suggestions of your favorite ink brands, I'd love to hear about them. 

and The Sword

Next in my arsenal is the pen I draw my detail work with. I'm still not completely satisfied with my final results yet, so I'm still searching and researching to find the ideal pen. The best ball point pen to date, out of all I have tried, is the Uni-ball Power Tank Retractable ballpoint pen. Thanks Dave Gordon introducing one to me! As in an earlier post I mentioned it comes in 3 tip sizes. 1.0, 0.7 and 0.5. I find the 0.7 the all around best size for what I'm drawing. 1.0 feels too clunky, and 0.5 feels too sharp and I feel like I'm going to cut through the paper when i'm using it. But the 0.7 is perfect, and as goldilocks said "the 0.7 feels just right!" The company say this pen writes on wet paper, upside down, in temperatures as low as -20 C and even in zero-gravity. How cool is that, but I haven't been able to prove it by drawing in space yet. Again, if anyone has suggestions too a great all around ballpoint pen, please let me know. Up next...paper!