A quick sketch; brush pen test.

Finally done some drawing. This is a quick sketch to test my new brush pen. Could make a nice tattoo though.

Lovin' the brush pen!!!

Mark Making #6: Mike Dory

Mike Dorey started in 1979 on the short lived Tornado and 2000ad. He instantly struck me as being apart from the other artists in his ability to portray muck and grime. Hence he was the natural choice to draw The Ro-Jaws Memoirs.

Dirty marks, rough brush stokes and stippling.

Mark Making #5: Simon Harrison

This mark making blog looks in close-up at the line work of Simon Harrison. When he started in 2000ad his work stood out clearly from everyone else by the mark making alone. His use of delicate wispy lines in contrast to the stark uncompromising subject matter creates a visual contrast that pulls the viewer in to a very organic and phantasmagorical world.

Take a closer look...

Mark Making #4: John Hicklenton

This mark making blog is on John Hicklenton, a truly original artist who sadly died in 2010. I first saw John's work in 2000ad when he took over drawing Nemesis and Torquemada with his visceral and visually intense style.

John's work is packed with so much detail that you have to look at it hard sometimes just to see what the hell is going on, especially when he drew Nemesis who is a weirdly shaped character anyway. His mark making skills are incredible, simultaneously beautiful and strange. Take a closer look...

 

Mark Making #3: Kevin O'Neill

This is the third in a series of Blogs on Mark Making, featuring 2000ad artists from my youth. This time it is the turn of the comics Goliath; Kevin O'Neill. Now world famous for the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Marshall Law, Kevin has been working with writer Pat Mills for most of his career. Kevin first became recognized for his work on Ro-Busters, this led onto Nemesis the Warlock where he used his unique drawing style to great effect for many years.
I have isolated some sections from a page featuring Torquemada and Trinity.

Kevin O’Neill often used Screentone to apply shading to his black and white artwork.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screentone

In the example below the area of dots is screentone; a rub-on sheet of regular patterns that you cut to shape and apply on top of your artwork. The most popular make was Letratone. I used it myself a few times and have to admit it could be tricky to use but the effect is great. It was particularly helpful if you were restricted to printing only in black & white with no grey areas. This stuff basically allowed for gray areas, only looking like dots up close.

This helps create a powerful contrast to the organic flow of the pen and brush lines, as well as giving even shading. Screentone is available in a number of styles.

This example places the even dots directly on top of the curved brush lines. Nowadays this style can be reproduced on photo shop but the hands-on approach is somehow more satisfying.

This area has a mix of curved brush strokes, straight angular ones and tight areas of screentone. Note the absence of parallel lines in favor of natural angles.

This next piece shows the kind of technical detailing that ran through all of Kevin’s work on Nemesis.

A great example of graded screentone framing a silhouette.

This small picture of Trinity relies on to tone so much that it does not have an edge line to the torso, only an area of constant tone.

This next page has more organic examples of mark making. Take a look at the variety of mark making in these close ups.