A pigment's progress

Today I got a chance to do what I really love. Inking is one of my true loves. The feeling I get when that brush hits the paper is hard to describe. I like the feel of the brush tip on the page. I like the smell of the ink and the look of black ink on white Bristol Board! I am so thankful GOD (and here I AM thinking of the Christian GOD, Yaweh) has given me this thing to do. It's an experience like no other in my book. It's a thrill to be alive when this sort of thing happens!

Not many, I suppose, wax poetic about the art of inking, but I have to tell the world (or whoever may read this): I love inking!



Artwork © James E. Lyle

So what you see here is not the brush part of the inking process. It's the pen part. For years I've done it this way. I outline everything that needs outline, I mark the areas that will get filled in with an "x" (or if the area is small a dot) and then later go back and fill it all in with a fine watercolor brush (a 2 or a 3, although I used to use a 6 until Joe Rubenstein asked me if I was "going to paint a wall with that?"). Anyway, I used to feel like I was cheating with this process. Until I read that it's pretty common, and saw some others doing the same. That's not to say I won't sometimes use a brush to outline, but usually I do pen work first then drop in with the brush. There are things that I can do with a brush that a pen won't do. The nice folds in fabric, particularly at right angle bends are best done with a brush and nothing else.



Artwork © James E. Lyle

I am beginning to feel drunk with the power of this blog! So here's another image. This one is the final image created for Tim Chandler. You can see a bit where I've modified the pen work with the brush (besides simply filling in the black areas). I'm pretty proud of this one. Nice story telling, good composition…yep a good piece.

But I really should get back to work.

Another day, another image

Artwork © James E. Lyle

This is from a book I've been illustrating for Timothy Chandler. Tim's famous in comic book circles as "The Poison Ivy Guy", but he's been working on this pirate novel for several years now. He had the good sense to buy his art in bulk. I'm owe him well over 40 illustrations that he's pre-paid for. Amazing that people like my work so much they'll pay in advance and wait for months to see anything. Tim's a patient man.

Anyway all week I've been trying to get this piece inked. What you see above is the pencil sketch done at about half size. I blew this up on the copier (darkening it in the process) and am inking it on a piece of Bristol Board using my light table. I have an "in-progress" detail that I'm planning to post here soon, but the page is almost done. I really only need to fill in the black areas and clean it up.

However, I spent all day trying to balance my checkbook.

Today's the Day!

Okay, with a set of instructions from Matt and a little providence, perhaps we'll see an image today?



Artwork © James E. Lyle

Hooray! Three cheers and a tiger for Matt! It finally worked. The image seen here was originally created in the mid 90s as a spec piece (that is, created in hopes of getting more work from it). I did it for a guy who wanted to export jackets with "nose art" to the Japanese market. Apparently nose art was big in Japan then. It didn't work out. I never saw a cent from this piece and all the schmoozing I did. So much for schmoozing.

The art was based on a photo taken of my wife when she was about 17. My Father-in-law is a pretty accomplished photographer as well as being the illustrator of Ernie Keebler for 20+ years. So when I base an illustration on one of his photos I know I'm starting from a good source.

A few weeks ago I realized that I own the rights to this piece in full. So I put the image on tee-shirts at CafePress.com. If anyone wants one, you know where to look.

A little more info about yesterday. The waiting was difficult, but I got through. Gypsy Bandwagon set up in a rush for a group of about 50 people. We didn't have time for a proper sound check, but the crowd seemed to enjoy the show. I had been nervous up to the point of actually playing, but it all went away when we started.

The group was pretty appreciative, and seemed to like the jokes as much as the music. So my contribution (besides drumming) was to make silly announcements. Come see us in concert some time and you can here them.

We made $25 each for our work. Starting a band is slow business. We went to Huddle House and blew most of the money on a late, late, breakfast. Perpetuating the stereotype.

The interim

Today promises to be one long wait. Things are changing around here and today seems like one of those pivotal moments.

Woke this morning to the sounds of heavy equipment next door. My older brother, Jeff, is in the process of remodeling the family gas station (which has been closed for a couple of years now) for his electrical business. What with the sudden change in the weather (we've gone from summer like conditions last week, to snow flurries last night and possibly tonight), and the impending performance by Gypsy Bandwagon (www.gypsybandwagon.com) this evening today seems to have "life change" written all over it.

Of course I'm a bit drowsy today, which may be affecting my mood. We were practicing with Lance and Carissa until around 11:30 last night, and then we had to come back home and unload the van after that.

I'll have to reload it this afternoon, unload at the gig, set up, play, break down, reload, drive home and unload. Ah, the life of a musician.

Oddly enough, I'm supposed to be an illustrator. As proof of that I'm supposed to have some art up on this blog, aren't I? Matt just sent me some more instructions on how to accomplish that and I'm going to go try those instructions out.

Okay, that went over as well as a lead balloon. Seems the website that I'm attempting to use to host images is "not responding". I hope this isn't the result of some hacker trying to get back at some perceived injustice. It's just immature to do that sort of thing. Someone offers a free service on the web and some wiseguy decides to crash their server.

Maybe it's not that at all. Maybe they're just doing some sort of work on the site. But from my end it's frustrating. I really do draw pretty well (cue "Napoleon Dynamite" sound track here). I'd like to have someone be able to see what I do without having to go to my other web locations.

Seems I'm still playing cheerleader

Just got done writing a long "cheer" for my buddy Matt (who you may recall has been helping me with this Blog-thing). I passed his info, portfolio, and a long letter of recommendation to another pal, Randy, who owns an ad agency not far from my studio. Maybe Matt and Randy will work together one day. And I, the ever faithful freelance will pick up some work when they are standing together at the top of a 50 story building that houses their empire. My dreams have become less grand for myself and more grand for my friends it seems.

"May I, perhaps, live vicariously through you? Thank you so much."

At any rate today I managed to work up another chapter of Doctor Incubus, as well as considerable inking for that school project. The client is now calling for more corrections to already completed art, but that's the business. I look forward to finishing the project and getting back to more satisfying work.

Speaking of work, if anyone out there cares, have you seen the label for "Crush" wines in your local convenience store? Well, I worked on that label, inking the pencils of fellow cartoonist Orrin Lundgren. Why Orrin chose me for the job is puzzling to me still. He claims that it's my ability at inking, and I've no reason to doubt that, but he's really good too. My gain I guess.

It's nice to have friends.

Getting adjusted to a sharp learning curve

I must be getting better at this web stuff. Just now I uploaded another of my tee-shirt images to CafePress.com and it went swimmingly. I got my new shop all set up and running and then notified my webmaster at comicartistdirect.com that it was there (as well as informing him of this blog so he can let people in on that). But I'm still stymied by my inability to post any of my art on this blog. Matt tells me that I can insert it from an imagehosting site, but I'm still in the dark about that.

"No,no, don't tell me, I'm keen to guess".

Anyway, I actually managed to get two posts on this thing, and both are showing. That's progress at least. In a few days this thing might even be ready for public consumption.

Today I find myself working on

Today I am supposed to be working on a job for the NJ school system. And I'll get to it eventually. I've got MLK's portrait to draw, and my photo reference is looking up at me from my computer desk right now. But I took the morning to write several chapters of a "Pulp" style story that got started this week. For someone who's supposed to be a commercial artist/illustrator/cartoonist I spend a lot of time writing. But this is the first time in a while that I've really enjoyed myself doing it. I have no grand design, I'm simply writing for the enjoyment of doing so. Still I do need to get the requisite $$$ worth of drawings done today. Ah, the joys of freelance work!

I'm also supposed to figure out how to post some of my art here. Matt's parting words last night (as he went home to his wife and kids, and I went home to my wife),"I keep forgetting there's a learning curve to this".

I feel less clueless today, I must say.

Tonight I'm working on posting here. Imagine that! My friend Matt is workingme through all this Blogging thing. (Yes I AM that clueless). Anyway, my agent told me that I should begin blogging. "Blogging?" I said, with a quiver in my voice. "Is that hard to do?" (gulping down a mouthful of water to settle my nerves). "I don't know," he replied,"but it will help you in your quest to become a well known and reasonably paid comics artist."

So here I am. I suppose I will adapt.