My Tools of the Trade

Making an amateur comic doesn't means that you should had the sophisticated materials ready to be picked up at the time you decided to create one. Many of the comic writer started with these just only simple items that you had already encountered usually when you go to a small school supplies shop.

In line with this, I will share some of my tools in the trade when I draw some of my one shot comic strips.

1. Paper. Of course, this should be a common sense since the paper is where the pictures will be drawn out. The paper that I am talking about here is not the paper that successful artists are using in laying out their stories. A simple 8" by 11" (or 8" by 14") bond paper - either totally clean or only one face of it is free of scribbles - will do in presenting your stories.
   
   
2. Pencil. This is also one of the common senses in the world of drawing. You do not need all grades of pencils (i.e. from 9B to 9F) to make a drawing with elements of lightings and shadows on your pictures. A No. 2 grade of pencil is good enough to instill elements of shadings on your drawings. Just control your the pressure on your pencil to effect a realistic picture.
   
   
3. Ruler. There are times that you are forced to draw buildings and houses on your drawings, especially when you are setting a background for the story. Having a ruler will save your time drawing straight lines especially when doing perspective backgrounds. A simple 12" ruler is good enough for making straight lines.
   
   
4. Marker. I included marker in my list since I always draw black in white. The permanent marker enables me to blacken out some of the areas easily without the need of resharpening the pencil every time you are forced to do intensive blackening.
   
   
5. Crayons. This will enable me to color the front pages of my drawing. An 8 color-crayon package available in the local market is enough for coloring your work.
   
   
6. Inking pens. I use pens in inking the outline of my drawings. It tends to finalize the sketch line and eventually reveal the form of your drawing. Usually I am using a 0.3 to 0.5 inking pen for finalizing the draft and pencil outlines of the drawing. A sign pen can be also be a substitute, but it is a little bit expensive than inking pens.
   
   
7. Eraser. It is usually a must have for amateurs since you always experience draw-erase scenarios when you are doing your comic arts. It is useful also in cleaning the final art by erasing unnecessary sketches on your drafts. However, you should picked up a good quality eraser for you not to tore the paper while erasing.

The above items are applicable for both digital and traditional comic drawing.

That's it. ^_^