You know, I shouldn’t be so hard on myself for procrastinating. After all, I do have that pesky full-time job.

Nonetheless, I do need to come up with a look for my character before I proceed. This won’t be it, but it meets my blog quota!

Another year, another Louis CK performance within walking distance of my apartment, and an excuse to draw him.

This drawing was kind of a botched attempt at using a dip pen and a brush. Actually, the brush part was fun, but I tried to do a little shading with the nib, which dispensed ink OK for about 10 minutes then quit. I’m sure it has something to do with me being an amateur, but I think the nibs might also be funky. I ordered them from England because it seemed like a lot of cartoonists in the 1950s used this particular nib (Gillott 290), but 60 years later, it’s probably one of those products that’s the same in name only.

I went back and did my shading with the dry brush instead.

I had a little downtime before the debate and sketched our anchor. With the photo comparison, I realize how little it actually looks like him, but I think I captured his soul. Or something. Yeah.

Now I’m experimenting with digitally inking in the same style. Decidedly smoother, but less character? I dunno. I guess it’s all about the same once it’s reduced in size.

This is just a test panel for my comic book, to see if I think I can use real ink instead of doing it digitally. My problem is, I can’t zoom into the paper like I can a digital file, so my naturally shaky hands tend to betray me when drawing little characters with a brush pen. But, I’ll keep practicing.