Inking a Marker Card

I've been animating on the computer for so long now that I was fearing I would forget what paper pencils and markers were. I had to do a poster for someone so thought I'd share the process step by step with the rest of you cavemen who still draw with your hands and primitive utensils.
First, I rough out the drawing very lightly with a colerase pencil. I use red for Ren and Stimpy because most of their colors are warm and the red and brown markers will blend well with them.
I use Tombow brush pens to ink with. They have a nice soft feel and you can do thick and thin lines with them. I keep them organized by color families. Grays in one rubbermaid container, reds, magentas, browns and yellows (hot colors) in another, blues, greens and violets in another. I always keep a rubber squeak toy handy to give me comfort. Diet coke is essential to keep the synapses firing.
I work left to right because I am right handed. I don't want my hand to pass over the freshly wet colors and accidentally smudge them. I start with the heavy outlines first. Generally the largest forms have the thickest outlines.
I also kind of stick to related colors - I'll do the warm colors first because Ren and Stimpy are mostly warm colors.
I buggered up a line around Stimpy's eye mask so I just spread the red. Buggering up is an ongoing hazard that is harder to fix with traditional tools than on the computer. I find myself wanting to click the undo button but there isn't one so instead I curse myself.
Once the big forms are inked I start in on the secondary forms - eyes, mouths, tongues etc. Their outlines are slightly thinner than the heads and bodies.
When doing eyes, it's important to KEEP THEM ALIVE. I don't want to draw perfect ovals for either the eyes or the pupils. I also don't want to draw the eyes or pupils perfectly parallel to each other. That would be a sin against biological organization.

I try to keep all the shapes and forms flowing and organic.
When a marker starts to dry out, I try to take advantage of it by getting a soft dry brush sort of effect.
Uh oh! I buggered up the line around Stimpy's nostril. In order to get the smoothest possible lines I have to draw them fast. The danger there is overshooting where the 2 ends connect. If I draw the lines more conservatively and slower to make the connection, then the lines get wigglier.
To keep the fart gas bubble looking ethereal, I don't connect all the lines.
Don't forget the extra chunks that bring authenticity to your farts.
I use slightly different colored inks for some details. It helps to bring depth and believability to the personalities of the fingernails.
To give a sense of weight to the forms, I like to make the lines under them a bit thicker and darker. It makes you feel the gravity tugging at your crotches.
I draw the lettering fast to keep it alive and not wiggly. I don't worry if it isn't perfectly on top of the rough pencils.
The last inking step: I add some little touches of detail here and there. I don't want to do too much because I still want the drawing to feel like a cartoon and not overly rendered.
The details - like wrinkles, are thinner - but they still should wrap around the forms they help describe. I have to be careful that I don't just have magical floating lines flying around on top of the characters. Each wrinkle has a purpose and direction.

Once the inking is finished, I read a comic book on the pot and wait for the ink to dry. Then I come back refreshed and ready to erase all the pencil lines.
I like these types of erasers. They don't smudge and they get rid of most of the pencil. I remember in school the art teachers always gave you those gray putty like erasers like you got in the Jon Gnagy kits. I think it was to make you feel superior to your less artistic friends but I hated them. They just make a mess and collect filth and hairs and loose teeth. Nasty little balls of crud.

You can eat the little eraser turds but I don't recommend it. I take the drawing outside and replenish the earth with them. The cats think I am giving them their daily fix of catnip. When they find out it's not, they smack my ankles with their little poo bespeckled paws. That's the thanks I get for feeding them.

Here it is all clean and ready to color.
I'll do another post about coloring.

Oh and thanks to the latest students and contributors. I hope you find some of these things useful.

Simple Graphics with Pleasing Styles

Favorite Off Model Friends

Here's Mickey with his hunk of cheese that he is never without.
Fred with a glandular condition.
Yogi to blow on - with hole.
Swedish gay porn Donald.
Yogi in his Sailor's hat and Mickey Mouse overalls and sexy bare chest.
Dino with eye pimples covered with primeval ooze.
Fred and his bitches.

Wilma's Dad is Gumby.
Popeye lets his hair grow out and dumps Olive for a normal looking girl.

Donald with jaundice and a wounded bleeding hat.
Donald with water on the brain. I use this one for toy drawing classes because it is so useful.
Here's what Donald looked like when he was yanked prematurely from the warmth and security of his yolk.

Fred with a piece of Barney's nose stuck to his club.