A sanity check for Day Off.
Here I’ve silkscreened 3 out of the 6 colors I’ll be printing. The blue marker art was drawn quickly by me so I had a clearer idea of what’s going on.
Fully assembled book
Middle spread
Middle spread fold out!
Planning phase for a new silkscreen book Day Off.
Yesterday, I made time to print the first of three colors.
I’m excited already! Stay tuned…
I’m nearing the end of Hearts & Holes, so in an attempt to remain spoiler-less…
I’m using these….
…to turn pages like this…
…into this…
Brought to you by:
2 brush pens (one for the trees, one for the outlines)
4 rapidograph pens, (2 for outlining the small images, 1 for making sand texture and one for the text)
1 pencil
1 eraser
1 White out pen
1 White out bottle
1 sadly dry brush for white out that I forgot to wash out
There are about 16 pages to go and I average 1 page a night… so hopefully this step in the process will be done in 2 weeks. I’m going to keep truckin’!
I’m always on the hunt for white out pens.
Last time I tried this test, Deleter Whiteout 2(#1) won the contest begrudgingly (that was the the control). Dissatisfied, I found a few more promising prospects and I’m back for Round 2. Once again, the goal is to promote laziness so the whites that require the least amount of layers and the least amount of tools will win.
I’ll be testing on this:
I used a Pentel Brush Pen to write this.
Here goes:
Results after 1 layer
After one layer of white out for each…
1. Deleter Whiteout 2
This is the control. Works well, but from the looks of it, others are faring much better. Onto the next!
2. Deleter Whiteout 1
I bought this based on reviews that it was better than the Deleter Whiteout 2 and they were correct! The paint is a bit thicker so when you dip your brush in, be aware of that. You may be laying too much paint onto your paper. Overall though, this was a success!
3. Copic Whiteout
A commenter was nice enough to drop the hint on Copic Whiteout on my last test. I bought it and I have to say, it’s quite nice. It comes in kind of a solid-thick-paste, so I had to use some water to loosen the paint up to actually start to soak it into my brush. This is the only downside– figuring out the proportion of water to ink — but other than that, I’d say this is also a solid choice.
4. Krink White Paint Marker
I keep dropping money on paint pens and so few of them have worked for me. This one is no exception. This is a felt tip acrylic pen that works on glass, metal and some paper. Unfortunately, on vellum, it comes out too thin, oily and generally not pleasing. I knew from the first layer that it wasn’t going to work out between us so I didn’t try for a second.
5. Molotow White Paint Marker
I was ready to be disappointed with this pen but using after the first layer, it filled me with a lot of hope. The first layer, as you can see above, isn’t great– it doesn’t fare better than the worst performing non-pen. Wait a few seconds though, apply a second layer, and prepare to be amazed.
I'M SO AMAZED.
Conclusion: I’m tempted to say that at least for now, my white out search is on hiatus. I’ve found solutions for my inking woes in both bottled form and pen form. Here are my picks in my humble opinion:
Best Pen: Molotow White Paint Marker
It may take 2 layers to get it working but the paint dries fairly fast and the results are surprisingly good. This will be my go-to for smaller mistakes like spelling or stray lines. Not recommended for larger areas that need white out– it feels like a waste of time to use this white out in this way.
Best Bottled Whiteout: Deleter Whiteout 2
It’s thicker in consistency than the Deleter Whiteout 1 but doesn’t need water to dilute it like the Copic White. It’s the perfect combination of coverage, efficiency and laziness. This will definitely be what I’ll use for those large mistakes like spilled ink or poorly inked things.
I’m on a mission this week to start wrapping up my long form comic (dare I say “graphic novella”) so thought I’d spend my 20-30 minute train rides to and from work with some comic fun. Today I was lucky — I was able to get a seat and draw in comfort both ways but that probably won’t be the case every day. In the best of conditions, I was able to clock in 4 panels each trip. I’ll do my best!
The rules are simple:
I’ll keep you updated so we can all find out what happens at the end of the pipe…
The idea log continues a week into the new year! I think I should scale down how often I make them or else I’ll burn out by the 3rd month… but for now, I’m clocking in an idea a morning. Check out the slideshow of what I did today:
I kind of think of these as a game. As a kid, I drew lots of random dots on pieces of paper and challenged myself to make drawings using all of them. It became more of an exercise of making the best of the circumstances/materials you have, which I realize I’m still trying to do with this book idea project.
Logging ideas can be fun... if you're in the right mood
Resolution for 2012: More thoughts on paper.
Friends and family can attest: my memory is generally, nearly-all-the-time, sort of poor. I’ve decided that starting now, I’m going to keep a log of my current/prospective projects. When making books, I always begin with tiny mockups which are cute but eventually become lost– so I’ve also created homemade (aka. ghetto) pockets for them. A good book is only as good as its idea — and if you don’t keep track of your own, who else will?
My resolution also includes putting new ideas into the book. They won’t all be practical but maybe I can somehow simplify them in the future. I aim for one new idea a day but I’d be happy if I get in 4-5 a week. Here’s to keeping up with goals!
My idea today: A pocketable mosaic
Been working hard at another silkscreen book called Hi Neighbor!.
My idea started off as a tiny mockup that I drew on the train:
Measures less than an inch tall
Then, after a few more mockups and a few weeks of printing, Hi Neighbor became real.
The full version on nice archival paper
I chose this book format because it fit the content (slanty buildings) and also because it was easy to make. Just fold a rectangular sheet of paper into eight sections (4 columns by 2 rows) and then cut 2 quarters in the middle divide. That sounds complicated, but trust me, it’s not.
You can get an idea of how it's made from this picture
Look inside and there’s a little surprise — blueprints of everyone’s apartment!
A lot of easter eggs on this side
I only made 16 of these– 1 of which I accidentally cut incorrectly, which found a home in my sister’s collection, leaving me 15 good ones.
Comics soon!
For the past few weeks I’ve been printing, cutting and gluing together Smell Book, a little step accordion book about a little guy who’s smelling about town.
The cover
The hardest part about printing this was making sure the smells lined up when I folded up the accordion. Of the 50 I made, 5 of them were defective. Don’t cry for them though, those 5 will find good homes with forgiving friends and family.
Open sesame!
I tried to connect the smell scenes together either by color changes or connecting lines. I’ve come to realize that I love making accordion books– depending on how you design them, they can be separate narratives or one long continuing one.
A little close up
It took about 3 weeks to get this done. For every 3 hours of studio time, I can usually print 2 (3, if I’m lucky) of colors at a time. Cutting and gluing is the easiest part since I can do those from home.
More books to come!
Smell Book is the newest short narrative I’m working on. As always, my books start with a mockup like this:
When opening the book, you’ll see what he’s actually smelling. These are definitely some of my most favorite smells to date!
I should have taken a picture of each color layer I made but alas, my memory failed. Here’s the print so far 4 colors in. There’s one layer left– the best layer– the smell layer!
I’ll update again soon with my results when I print at the end of the week.