...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.