"Inking" And "Coloring" A Picture of "The Thing" That Was Drawn By Mike Bowden

...This is exactly what the title said. I do not consider myself an artist, so take this blog lightly.

I liked this pic from Mike Bowden, because it was just kind of a cool looking Thing. The hands are huge, and it's obviously where the artist put the most work, along with that front foot. The hand on the right of the page is running off, because that's just what my printer did when I printed it off- the original had a complete hand. I used to draw...not well...but it was passable for no training whatsoever. I had never tried inking before though. I had traced my own drawings with felt tip pen, but not actually with ink. So I saw this, obviously scanned from the pencils, and thought I'd give it a try. I don't have all the fancy tools, so I just used my favorite pen- a Pentel R.S.V.P. BK90 Fine point black.

Not too bad, if you artist guys can tolerate my personal opinion, unrefined for art as it is. I wasn't going for any embellishments here. My goal was simply to darken the pencils, tracing the pencil lines as accurately as possible. I didn't add any shading or other extras, although I felt like I screwed up the back foot. I wanted to see this puppy colored, but I didn't want to mess up my original inked copy. So I ran it through a copier.

The copier made it darker still. That seemed to help certain areas, but hurt others. Whatever though, I took one of the copies and colored it.

Basically, my reason for two-tone coloring is this: I did this when I came home from work, and I was tired. Simple as that. I wanted to see how this Thing looked if I used orange, and if I used a yellow. Being tired overruled my dedication though, so I went half-and-half on this one copy, using my oil pencils, which have been stored away for...let's just say many years. As you're looking at it, the left hand side of the page is colored with an "Orange (2)," and the right hand side of the page is colored with a "Yellow Ochre." The trunks are done with a "Blue (1)" and "Black," and I used the Black again to thicken some lines around the hands and head, to separate them from the body parts they overlap, since they were the same colors.

There is some unintentional shading in the Yellow Ochre shoulder. I did not intend for certain chunks to be a lighter yellow. That's just me putting a different pressure on the pencil. So it was unintentional, but I kind of like it- I think it works.

I wanted to see both colors, because I was curious which would look "more right." My opinion is that the Yellow Ochre is the usual color used for the Thing, but that the Orange (2) would be good for more intense moments, for deeper lighting, or if you just wanted to emphasize the monster over the man- I think that orange hand looks like it belongs in a horror comic. ...Yeah, so that's my non-artist opinion. However...

I am not aspiring to be a comic inker or anything. This was just a fun exercise for me. Still, I always want to know what others think, so if you have a comment, a pointer, or whatever, let me know.

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Thanks for reading! :^D

After seeing the different inkers when I do my deviantArt picks every week at Images Unplugged, I was contemplating doing this exact same thing. When I was younger in the 90s I tried to get into comic art but wasn't great. I was able to do the "training" method as I would call it of tracing the art onto standard paper, because it wasn't vellum it still required me to interpret a lot of detail and to try harder at actually drawing the shapes. I wasn't too bad at that. I figure inking would be similar, but I know to do some really nice inking you have to have multiple pens/inkers in your repertoire if your going non-digital, and for digital I wouldn't' even know where to start lol.

@wmwadeii: Yeah, I know there's a boatload of proper tools out there and all, but this was just a fun thing to pass the time. I didn't really add anything to the "inked" portion, other than darkening the pencil lines. In a way, that makes me feel like I added nothing significant to the picture. In another way, it makes me feel like, "Yeah! I traced the artists pencils exactly, preserving their original drawing!" lol When I used to draw, tracing the pencil exactly was always my goal, but I was, again, a kid with no training/knowledge of ink or shading techniques. Tracing this pic took me back, but I wouldn't expect any pro to take it seriously.

always good to experiment...unless your parents makes you clean up the mess

@deadcool_xd: Wow, just got the notification for your comment from over 8 days ago. o.O

And um...I'm WAY past the age of my parents making me do anything...except feel guilty. They're still very good at that.

Wow they look incredible. You are very talented my friend. Keep up the good work.

^_^