I had so much fun with my last sketch using the brush pen that I thought I’d continue with another for this morning. I think it’s going to take me a long while to get comfortable enough with using a brush pen to have the confidence to just go in and take on the blue line (or graphite) sketch/construction and flesh it out as I go. I really admire people who have that confidence and experience with the tools to go from a very open, gestural ghost of a sketch and turn it into a finished inked drawing. That comes from long hours of practice and work– and that’s experience I don’t have. For right now, I have to do a more complete sketch before diving in with ink. I’ve been strictly penciling for so long that the use of ink has become almost alien to me. In fact, whenever I do a cover or pin up for a small press or independent book and ‘ink’ it myself, I do so digitally in photoshop. That’s quick and easy and cuts down on the possibility of errors– but there’s something about seeing a finished, hand-inked piece that thrills that old-school side of me. But for right now, as confident as I am (relatively speaking as someone who’s his own worst critic) with a pencil, I’m equally lacking in confidence with ink. My hand tends to shake and my breathing gets very shallow, as if I’m EXPECTING to make a mistake. It’ll take some time to overcome that tense feeling I get– but I want to conquer it.

This is Entry 211.

Mike