Blue Line Pages?

[MagnetoWasRight]

Hey everyone...I'm a noob to OA, learning as much as I can about this lovely corner of the comic book world. I came across a few warnings about Blue Line Pages...can anyone explain exactly what they are? Thanks in advance.

 

 

[LastRaven]

Blue line pages or blue line inks are pages that are basically copies of the pencils (which are colored blue in these pages), which are then inked over by the inker.

 

Traditionally, artists have pencilled the page and then inkers come in afterwards to "sure up" the art by making tight, black lines over somewhat looser pencils. Sometimes the inker is the penciller though. Currently, this has taken a different turn.

 

For example, I have art in my gallery that's blueline inked. Nick Roche (Transformers artist) scanned his art and emailed it to the inker, who printed it out in blue onto a large 11x17 piece of paper and put inks onto it. Now, if I had the original pages that were pencilled, they would be worth considerably more since the penciller is often the artist you are after, not the inker and therefore worth considerably less than the pencilled art with inks on it.

 

 

You can see here that there are blue lines on the page. However, often times it's not obvious and can be misleading if I were to advertise it for sale as a Nick Roche piece of original art (I'd get more money, but you would get taken for a ride, metaphorically).

 

This is in contrast to something done in the 80s or before when the inkers would get the pages from the artist who did the pencils and ink directly onto the pages.

 

Here's a good link you might want to check on the process, but it doesn't cover blueline inks since this is a newer phenomenon:

http://www.comicartappraisal.com/illustration/terminology.html

[comix4fun]

Hey everyone...I'm a noob to OA, learning as much as I can about this lovely corner of the comic book world. I came across a few warnings about Blue Line Pages...can anyone explain exactly what they are? Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

Blue Line usually means that the original pencils are scanned and then printed out in blue to then be inked. Blue does not show up in the printing process so the pencils are, for all intents and purposes, invisible in the printed product.

 

So, for an art collector, that could mean when you see a the piece of art that was used to make the finished published piece all you get are the original inks and not the original pencils, which were completed on another board. Given that the pencil artist is given top billing, and common parlance attributes a piece of art as a piece by "X" even though "X" only did the pencils having only the inks to the piece and none of the actual pencils can have a drastic impact on value of the piece in both the short and long term.

 

This is not to be mistaken with Blue Pencil. Some artists, such as Art Adams and Ethan Van Sciver, use blue pencils as part of their creative process to work out details on the page without having to fully erase the pencils given that it will be invisible when printed anyway. They may be slightly distracting when you look at the piece in person, but they are all original work and have little impact on value.

 

 

[malvin]

Just to muddy the waters further. Some artists first draw a small prelim to get the layout of the page, then scan it and print it out on blue line enlarged to 11x17.

 

They then proceed to have detailed pencils on these printouts, which are later inked.

 

So these pages are basically original pencils and inks, even though you see printed bluelines. One artist who does this is Alan Davis

 

Link to Alan Davis Site Explaining This process

 

Malvin

[alxjhnsn]

If you would like another example, check out my Netzer/Rubinstein LSH piece. You can see it being inked over blueline scan and if you look closely you can see what Joe changed.

 

The main image is the fully inked version, the Additional Images show the pencils and the in-process inks.

 

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=742090&GSub=34812

 

[Sardo Numspar]

What do you think the relevance of the blue lines is on this cover piece?

 

[comix4fun]

It looks like he used the blue pencil to show where shadows and variances in color would go.

 

I think, on that piece it's makes the piece work better than if it were black and white with no blue.

[Sardo Numspar]

Thanks, I think it looks fine as well. However, this discussion about blue lines (which I really wasn't educated on) has scared me a little bit as it relates to the purchase of this cover.

[wolf_2099]

Examples of blue line pencil

 

This was sketched out in blue line, for a layout. later it would have been inked or markered over by Darick Robertson for the final cover, but it never got that far.

 

It is because the blue line doesn't really scan, so all those lines don't need to be erased.

[Baron]

 

This is not to be mistaken with Blue Pencil. Some artists, such as Art Adams and Ethan Van Sciver, use blue pencils as part of their creative process to work out details on the page without having to fully erase the pencils given that it will be invisible when printed anyway. They may be slightly distracting when you look at the piece in person, but they are all original work and have little impact on value.

 

 

Cool info, didn't know that was the reason to use blue pencil. Bought a prelim page from Art Adams and it was a tough way to scan it since the blue pencils was very light.

[Dave Aikins]

for the Walking Dead cover, you'd have to check to see if it's an actual drawing done in blue underneath, or just printed out in blue on the board. My gut tells me that it's probably printed out on the board, not drawn. I don't see how that would make a big difference in terms of value...

 

So artists draw in blue marker and then ink over that. Some artists print out their drawings in blue and ink over that...

 

Lot's of different ways to produce art. It's in the best interest of the collector to educate themselves on an artist's technique before spending lot's of cash on the art...

[Sardo Numspar]

I asked Mark Hay at splash page (great guy) for his opinion on blue lining generally, and what it means on the Walking Dead Adlard cover I previously posted. Here is his response:

 

"Hi Josh,

Some covers and interiors that Charlie does involve photo reference so he uses a photograph as part of his layout for the page. He'll print elements of the background in light blue ink (bluelines) and print it out onto the comic art board. He then finishes drawing the remaining parts to the piece in pencil and inks the entire piece. The piece is 100% Charlie, but these days with technology, not everything is drawn/laid out by pencil/hand as it's alot easier to ink over a picture of a bell tower than it is to draw one completely from scratch.

 

Bluelines can also be referenced when an inker is taking another penciler's digital scan onto art board and then inking it. This type situation usually yields inks by one guy and a separate pencil original piece. This is not the case here, as Charlie pencils & inks himself. There is only one original piece of art, which is what you purchased.

Let me know if you have any additional questions. Thanks

Mark"

 

[Baron]

Example of the blue pencil preliminary cover art from Art Adams. Linework was pretty light that taking a photo didn't work getting the details and this is scanning the 11x17 piece and pasting them together.

[MagnetoWasRight]

Thanks for all the enlightening information. I ask because I'm in the process of buying a piece of OA from a newer artist. The page I am interested in lists the Pencils done by Clay Mann, and Blue Line Inks done by Norman Lee. That's why I asked about the blue line's.

 

http://www.comicarthouse.com/normanmagneto.html

 

I am going to buy page #19...I just wanted to make sure there wasn't an issue with the blue line ink's listing.

[Pirate]

Barry Kitson does a lot of thumbnail layouts then blows them up in photoshop, moves stuff around and then print out. He will then ink these or send to inker.

 

EVS draws in blue pencil, so if you see anything inked by him, it's probably straight on board.

 

Not a whole lot of "ORIGINAL" art Per Se anymore. Still original in it's own way, but not old school.

[Pete Marino]

Barry Kitson does a lot of thumbnail layouts then blows them up in photoshop, moves stuff around and then print out. He will then ink these or send to inker.

 

EVS draws in blue pencil, so if you see anything inked by him, it's probably straight on board.

 

Not a whole lot of "ORIGINAL" art Per Se anymore. Still original in it's own way, but not old school.

 

 

There's also the blue-line that's not really blue...

 

Mark Brooks does his pencils on the computer and then psychically inks his pages. But I think he prints it out black / grey.

 

Like Pirate said, not as common to see it done the old way anymore. There's a million ways to get the funny books made.

[pkveronese]

I think it is fine on the Walking Dead cover - it's essentially an reference Adlard used as a jumping off point for his pencils and inks. Cool cover.

[LastRaven]

Thanks for all the enlightening information. I ask because I'm in the process of buying a piece of OA from a newer artist. The page I am interested in lists the Pencils done by Clay Mann, and Blue Line Inks done by Norman Lee. That's why I asked about the blue line's.

 

http://www.comicarthouse.com/normanmagneto.html

 

I am going to buy page #19...I just wanted to make sure there wasn't an issue with the blue line ink's listing.

 

You really need to ask the artist I would think (or in this case Bob and Kim as his reps). I'm not familiar with how Clay and Norman work, but I'm sure if you ask they'll give you an answer on the art. It's not uncommon for pages to be split between the inker and penciller if they are all done one one piece and the whole blueline being printed in some cases and not in others, I would want a clear answer.

 

That said, I did lose out on a piece once waiting for an answer and then found out the artist would never sell his own pencils to it, so the blueline inks were all I could get...