Outlined in ink

Being a comic book kid I love the look of a nice crisp pen ink drawing and I've finally found the drawing pen for me!

Every artist has a favourite brand of pen/pencil that just 'gets them'.

I'm a Staedtler HB pencil man. Always have been. Always will be. But recently, as I've been doing more refined ink drawings with the light box, I've not quite found drawing ink pen or marker that has the kind of control and creates the type of line I like.

Enter the Mitusbishi Pencil Co Uni pin marker.

Sem ready for a fight

Sem's hair a tangle
of tresses!

It comes in 0.05mm, 0.1mm, 0.2mm, 0.3mm, 0.4mm, 0.5mm and 0.8mm and draws like heaven. It goes on smoothly but has grip (unlike a regular marker). It dries quickly and crisply and you can even erase pencil under it without incurring the wrathful smudging! According to the site it's water and fade proof but I have yet to test the validity of that.

As far as I'm concerned these are the pens for me and I've already gone ahead and bought a stock of them! After some experimenting I've found .2mm works well for drawing and using .05 and .1 for detail. The .05 has been particularly handy when drawing the details and fine lines in hair to really give it the depth and body I want. But, I love all the widths. 

Mercy and Gemmy saying "see ya' later"

I've begun using it to do figure studies for the final illustrations. I can't wait to break out the light box and really get stuck in to making some of the final illustrations. For this book I've planned 12 and, unlike Book 1, they'll be action shots of the characters in scenes from the book, not just portraits. 



Enjoy!
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