Blue Lines or Pencils?

[OAFan-migration]

Yesterday I picked up the variant cover to BLACKEST NIGHT #3 by Ethan Van Sciver, and couldn't have been much happier:

 

EVS Variant Cover to BLACKEST NIGHT #3

 

One thing that piqued my interest, however, is Ethan's use of blue pencils instead of the more traditional form of regular pencils. I like it, because it allows you to see the artistic decisions made by an artist in an even clearer light, but which do you guys prefer: regular or blue pencils?

 

Going hand-in-hand with that question, does an artist's choice in that medium have repercussions down the road for the future value of the piece?

[joker-fish]

I prefer blue lines, you have to look to see them and they really dont take away from the inked piece

 

But that is just me

[CollectingFool]

Blue Line Pencils like in this cover don't look bad. I actually prefer them sometimes because it looks almost like shading and adds to the look of the piece. There are times though where the artist made a significant change while he was inking and the pencils of his "alternate" idea really don't look right. You don't see it often though but something like that has put me off from buying a piece.

 

 

[hypno-migration]

I have a few pages where the artist has used a red-line pencil and that looks pretty cool.

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=606939&GSub=91135

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=610892&GSub=94237

 

Overall I think I like red over regular pencils and regular pencils over blue.

[Brian Peck]

The red pencil is used as an effect. Basically the inks and red pencils are shot onto two different printing plates. They use filters to separate red and black. I have a few pages like that as well.

[samhain88-migration]

Sweet cover! Honestly it doesnt bother me one bit. I actually prefer to see what the artist chose to do. Makes it more special.

[ashrael]

If it is an inked page for a production page, I prefer blue lines.

 

On the other hand, if it is a recreation or pencil-only piece of art, I prefer regular pencils.

[BSFA-migration]

With Ethan Van Sciver there isn't much of a concern because he inks a lot of his own work, but these days many pencilers provide only blue-line printouts to the inker, which means that you nay not be getting the original pencils with the page. Sometimes the blue line is the result of the original "pencils" being done digitally in the first place and then inked by an inker, which makes the inked, production page the only "real" original art page. Without looking at the page I couldn't say for sure if it's a blue line print or actual blue pencils, but be aware of this when purchasing.

 

When the regular pencils actually do exist, they are far more valuable than the production inked pages that use blue-line in place of the pencils, even though they have actual ink work.

Danny Miki's inked production pages of Marko Djurdjevic and Olivier Coipel's work (for example) is worth about 10% of the original pencil pages.

[ashrael]

BSFA, thanks for the info and welcome to the forums!