HOW TO DRAW COMICS:
INKING WITH A BRUSH pt 6

Continuing the real-life saga of one man’s struggle against his art materials!

Last week I began a discussion of the different ways you can control the brush using different parts of your body. Working from the fingers gives you consistent lines of no longer than about half an inch. Working from the wrist produces consistent lines of no more than 2 to 4 inches. Combined, these two methods are useful for most problems you’ll face in comic inking.

But what if you want lines longer than 2 to 4 inches? In that case, you should learn to draw from your elbow. Using your elbow as a pivot point (I suggest, at least at first, either resting it on the drawing table as an anchor or pressing it against the side of your body for greater stability), you can make lines of between 1 to 2 feet with good control. By locking your hand and fingers and moving only from the elbow, you can get long regular lines, but you’ll need to really practice to maintain the line thickness.

As with any stroke, there are always two directions you can go. When drawing from the elbow you can draw inwardly, toward your body, or outwardly, away from your body. Either one is fine, and you’ll probably have a natural preference for one or the other. Use whichever is more comfortable for you, but practice both all the same. I find drawing inwardly from the elbow to be more natural for me, but it’s more limiting than drawing outwardly since I eventually run up against my body while making the stroke. Which means you can draw a longer more consistent stroke by drawing away from your body.

The final method, which allows you to draw the longest uninterrupted lines, is achieved by using your shoulder or whole body. This technique is more common while standing at an easle, where your elbow is not resting on the drawing surface, than in comic book inking where you’re generally sitting. This method also gives you the least control over the thickness of your line, and in fact control over line consistency decreases with each technique, from fingers to shoulder.

Using any one of these methods of controlling the brush, you’ll find that your natural inclination will be to make curves, rather than straight lines. It’s rather like using a compass when drawing a circle: Wherever you place the stationary leg of the compass, the other leg will swing around the stationary leg in an arc. It’s the same with your body: When drawing from your wrist, for example, the brush will naturally make a curve that swings in an arc around the wrist.

With the exception of drawing from the fingers, where you can make short straight lines of a quarter to a half inch in length using this method alone, to otherwise achieve straight lines you’ll need to combine the different methods of brush control together. When drawing from the wrist, for example, you’ll need to simultaneously move the brush with your fingers to compensate for the arc your brush wants to make around the wrist. With this method you can achieve good straight lines of about 1 inch or so in length. Drawing mainly from the elbow, you’ll need to compensate for the brush’s natural arc by using your shoulder or upper body, or alternately by moving your wrist or fingers. Here you can get good straight lines of up to 8 inches or more. Realize that compensating like this takes a great deal of practice, so don’t worry if your lines are all curves to begin with.

You should practice each of the methods of handling the brush. The more ways you can manipulate the brush with confidence, the less you’ll have to think about how to make the line you want and the more you can concentrate on what you want to draw.

Next Wednesday: An introduction to some of the kinds of strokes you can make with a brush in: Inking With a Brush, part 7!

Ex animo!