Cheap sketchpad sketch

[avram]

Wow, that really is a crappily-put-together sketchpad — the slab of board that serves as a front cover fell off the first time I used it. I think it’s bonded to the first sheet of paper with rubber cement, so easily enough fixed once I can find mine. But sheesh!

Another art-related concern — I was reading an interview with Colleen Coover (creator of Small Favors, a woman-friendly lesbian porn comic that I still haven’t managed to find an actual copy of) and saw the following:

ST: You use a lot of zip-a-tone effects in Small Favors. Is that actual, physical zip-a-tone, a computer-generated substitute, or something else entirely?

CC: It is really zip, which I was using a lot when I first started working on Small Favors. However, as my supply got lower, and it became apparent that I wasn't going to be able to replace it, I have been working on using different techniques to create dynamic light and shade without it. [...]

I couldn’t believe that Zip-a-Tone wasn’t available to a dedicated cartoonist, but googling around and searching through art supply store sites didn’t turn anything up, not even under the generic terms (mechanical tone or benday screen). Now I know why kuronekogirl orders her tones from a Japanese comics supply house. This must be more of that Getting Old stuff.

Comments

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

They've got Small Favors up at Jim Hanley's Universe.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

What's Zip-a-Tone?

[chatworthy.livejournal.com]

Self-adhesive half-tone patterns, formerly sold by the sheet. If you had a large area to fill with a pattern, you'd get out your zip-a-tone and an xacto knife and carefully cut the tone to shape, then peel the backing and apply it to your drawing.

Nowadays, what tends to happen is that the original drawing is scanned into a computer, then filled using a paint program.

[chatworthy.livejournal.com]

It's hard to find, all right, as are the letters you burnish onto drawings. Last time I needed the letters, all the local shop had left were in a discount box on the clearance table. And this is five or six years ago. Makes me wonder if Dave Sim is hoarding the entire Canadian zip-a-tone supply until Cerebus is done. (Would also explain his drawing style of late, come to think of it...)

[avram]

And otherwise it might fall into the hands of Feminist/Homosexualist Axis!

[chatworthy.livejournal.com]

Ooooo. Scary. I think you're on to something there.

A while back I decided I'd stick with Cerebus till it ended, and I still plan to do so. I agree with Dave Sim on very few things - all of them related to art marketing. Cerebus is very nearly not entertaining any more (and has frequently been just plain Not Entertaining At All many times in the past, beginning with Melmoth). What keeps me buying an issue every month is more akin to morbid curiosity. Watching a slow-motion train wreck. That sort of thing.

I used to wonder what will come next after Cerebus. I even looked forward to Sim's Next Thing. I no longer care very much. Maybe Gerhard will find a mad genius writer with a coherent story somewhere. Certainly he can't go back to his old job (art store delivery guy) - there's no more zip-a-tone to deliver. Sim has it all.

[kuronekogirl.livejournal.com]

Actually you can also get it at "pearl paint" in china town. That's where I go for the western stuff, but I like Japanese screen tone (zip-a-tone) better because its lighten and less sticky and sports a wider variety of designs and patterns.