Good materials and how not to abuse them

Okay, so if you use crappy tools, you get crappy art. Makes sense. Some people can create great art with crayola watercolors. Most can’t. So give yourself a break and get some good materials.

First of all, Wacom tablets are $100. That’s cheap. So quit complaining, save up your allowance and buy one. Honestly, when people complain that they don’t have a tablet, I just want to smack ‘em upside the head. I mean, you can get them on eBay for $30. But don’t get one of those, get the Wacom for $100. Mine has lasted over 8 years, and it’s still going strong (though now I have a tablet PC I don’t really use it.). And if you do have the money to buy a tablet PC, make sure it uses Wacom technology (most of them do, you can check Wacom’s website) and then download the proper Wacom drivers from their website. A tablet PC will do wonders for your productivity, but it’s probably only worth it if you make money off this stuff.

Second, if you are using markers, for god sake get some marker paper. If you use your nice expensive copics on sketch paper, I’m going to come at you with an axe. Markers are NOT made for sketch paper. That’s why it doesn’t list markers as the materials to use on sketch paper. Duh. First of all, the ink soaks right in – making the colors way darker than they should be. Secondly, it uses up ink about 10x faster than with marker paper, Third, it WRECKS YOUR MARKERS. Think about running a soft sponge against a brick wall. Marker tips just aren’t made for textured surfaces, you’re gonna ruin ‘em. Also, Prismacolors are meant to have four shades in each marker. So you can use the same fleshcolored marker for all the skin, plus go in again for the shadows. This looks crap on sketch paper though, so once again BUY MARKER PAPER. It may be a bit expensive, but you are increasing your marker’s lifespan by, well, decades.

Other materials I like to use (these are just ideas) –

Tinted paper. You can get tinted Bristol paper at office supply shops. It’s meant as index card but it works great to ink on, and color pencils look nice with it.

Copic Multiliners. These are inking pens and they come in regular tips at all different sizes plus brush tips. I use the .03 for everything and then go over thicker lines with a .3, and fill in black areas with the medium or small brush pen. They’re only $2 a piece, which is pretty good. Last about 6 months with heavy use, and $6 for a .03, .3, and MB every six months isn’t two bad. ^_^

MARKER PAPER (see above).

I don’t use watercolors, they drive me nuts. If you want to use them, find a tutorial or 50 first. If I had the time I would take a class.

Photoshop is my program of choice. I’m not saying it’s the best, it’s just what I’m most comfortable with. And it works for me.

If you want to buy a printer, I’ve done a bit of research and the best one I’ve found is the Canon Pixima IP8500. It prints right to the edge of an 8.5” x 11”, which is really snazzy. Also the colors rock – it has 8 different color cartridges (red, green, black, cyan, magenta, photo cyan, photo magenta, and yellow) which may seem excessive but you can really notice the difference in color when compared with other printers, and also you can replace the cartridges one at a time which saves money. I buy the generic inks, about $20 for a set of everything except red and green (because the other Piximas don’t have red and green cartridges, you have to buy these separately).

My printer paper is also really cool. It is the Office Depot (not office max, they suck) brand premium gloss injet presentation paper (item #503-344 if you want to get technical). You can get this is a back of 150 sheets for $20, which is amazing for such quality paper (btw, I’ve tried photo papers and a lot of them are about 1/3 the quality of this stuff, plus they’re more expensive). Wait for a 2 for 1 sale at office max and you can get 300 sheets for $20. Even my graphic design professors have commented on how great it is, and it’s double sided which means that if you ever want to print a brochure or something you got the paper! ^_^

Well, that’s all my tips for now. If I think of something else I’ll be sure to add it.

By Laura Anderton (http://www.laura-anderton.com)