Penciled artwork...or inked?

[Mighty Hal]

I know, I know: Penciled artwork is the wave of the future. If I was an artist, I’d do my work in pencils, Photoshop the thing, and send if off to Marvel/DC/Image/whoever. It’s the fast thing. The smart thing.

 

But. As an OA collector, I hate it.

 

I received my first piece of penciled OA art a couple of weeks ago and the piece itself is nice.The artwork is just as promised (purchased on eBay). I put the page in my portfolio, tried to adjust to it, tried to accept it, but it’s…it’s flat. The pencils don’t carry enough pop. Not enough zing.

 

So – is this the future of comic art? Penciled covers, penciled splashes? I WANT MY INK BACK!

[aardvark88]

I always prefer the finished pencils for a splash or cover art. It may have some blue pencil on it & shows more of the creative juice as it flows from the tip of the creator's pen. Quite often, the pencils are light boxed & then inked on bristol board.

 

Sad to see some of the great new comic artists doing a pencil layout & then relying so much on Photoshop.

[pkveronese]

I want my inks!

[Thomas]

I want the inks as well. I also want my lettering right on the page too!

[comicartfan]

This has been covered before. I personally prefer inks, but I do have one piece that is pencilled. It was the way it was done (being colored in Photoshop), and I would have gladly paid double for what I actually got it for.....

[*paull*]

There is a mountain of pages out there that were inked by sub-standard inkers, people that were not as talented as the pencillers that they inked.

 

It depends on the penciller and inker. Would you rather have 100% Kirby pencils un-inked, or Kirby inked by Chic Stone? Frank Miller pencils or Miller inked by Al Milgrom?

[Mighty Hal]

I'd probably rather have the artwork as presented to the printer (and, then, published in the comic). The Kirby pencils by themselves might have been magnificent...but who knows? We never got to see the pencils. We did get to see what Chic Stone did with the work he was presented. He probably thought he did a terrific job.

 

Sure, we've seen some good artists that suffered under a lackluster inker. We've seen a good inker bring some power to lackluster pencils, too.

 

Which brings up: If the original art was penciled...and printed -- you buy the work and take it to an inker for hire (who is rarely a well-known talent in his own regard), are you increasing its future value or lowering it?

[Solar]

There is a mountain of pages out there that were inked by sub-standard inkers, people that were not as talented as the pencillers that they inked.

 

It depends on the penciller and inker. Would you rather have 100% Kirby pencils un-inked, or Kirby inked by Chic Stone? Frank Miller pencils or Miller inked by Al Milgrom?

 

Conversly, I'd MUCH rather have a Jim Lee piece inked by Scott Williams than Lee/Lee or just Lee pencils. And then there's a penciler like Greg Capullo. Pencils only from this guy would probably bring $500 max for a cover. The last Capullo/McFarlane cover went for something like $4K on Heritage.

 

So yeah, I agree with your point that it's better to have pencils only than pencils with weak inks, but it should be noted that strong inks can often make a piece much nicer than it would be in raw pencil.

[*paull*]

Which brings up: If the original art was penciled...and printed -- you buy the work and take it to an inker for hire (who is rarely a well-known talent in his own regard), are you increasing its future value or lowering it?

 

Lowering it, without question. In fact, you may be completely destroying its value.

[micmack]

The best thing to do is make a copy (blue line perhaps) and attempt to get the inker that compliments the penciler the best (Lee/Williams, Miller/Janson or Rubenstein, etc.) That way you have 2 pieces, the pencils and the inks side by side.

 

I have one pencil pin-up by Ed Benes that I will eventually have a copy inked by his sister, whom I think is his best inker.

[osborn_fr]

I want the inks as well. I also want my lettering right on the page too!

 

Same thing here, i like old school stuff

[AvengersFan]

Pencils only don't display well either. If you put a pencil only page up next to several inked pages on your wall in frames the pencil only page seems to disappear.

I also like the hand drawn word balloons of yester-year right on the page like the published comic. Thats part of why I can't really seem to get into the new stuff as much as the 60's and 70's stuff. Even beyond the nostalgia aspect the pages just tell a better story with the word balloons on the page. I've also found that non-comics friends seem much more drawn to the older pages that appear exactly the way they do in the published comics.

[comix4fun]

Would you rather have 100% Kirby pencils un-inked, or Kirby inked by Chic Stone?

 

 

I think that really depends on the context. Stone's inks over Kirby pencils on Thor in Journey into Mystery is one of the greatest combo's of pencils and inks you will ever see in your life. In that case I am taking Stone inks on Kirby pencils over straight Kirby pencils in a heartbeat.

 

Chris

[sborock]

I like and own both kinds. Each piece of art is different and has it's own alure......

[Marty B]

Do you folks leave the penciled pages alone or spray them with something to avoid smudges and smearing? Just in Mylar?

 

Ubie X

[comix4fun]

Do you folks leave the penciled pages alone or spray them with something to avoid smudges and smearing? Just in Mylar?

 

 

I spray mine with a fixative..available at most art supply stores and online.

 

As an added bonus, if you spray it where there isn't alot of ventilation, it will give you the buzz of a 100 sharpies.

 

Chris

[comicartfan]

I remember going to rep's website and having a pencilled Wizard cover offered for 1700 ... - i thought that was a tad aggressive.

 

When I bought the Hulk 34 cover, I commented to the rep that I felt it was strange that no one had bought the piece....it was in his possesion for almost 4 yrs before I had bought it. He stated that few people had asked about it and the ones that did, felt it was too much for pencils only.

 

So I think there is defintely less of a market for pencils only covers....but, the Ultimate Spider-man covers area ALL penciled and sell for alot more than i paid for the Hulk cover....

[chrisco37]

I certainly prefer pencil & ink pages, however, sometimes you have no other choice. I know there are alot of people that bash Turner, but I really like his stuff. Everything I've seen by him has been pencil only. I'd buy one in a heartbeat if that fit into my OA budget.

 

Also, as a side note, if I bought a pencil only OA page, I'd never pay someone to ink the piece (maybe a copy of the page, but never the OA). When I'm buying a page, I want the exact page that was used to produce the finished page.

[mister_not_so_nice]

Also, as a side note, if I bought a pencil only OA page, I'd never pay someone to ink the piece (maybe a copy of the page, but never the OA). When I'm buying a page, I want the exact page that was used to produce the finished page.

 

Exactly. Isn't that the allure to begin with? The point is owning the ORIGINAL ART that was used in the creation of the comic book. If you, as simply a consumer, alter it, than it isn't the Original Art used in the creation of the comic, but something that used to be that you just ed up. As merely the purchaser of OA I feel I have no right to alter the artists vision.

 

As to the original post, I prefer inks over just pencils. I have two pencil only pieces and they just don't have the bold look (even though the subject matter may be) that I like. All personal preference. I really like a couple of the LOVELESS covers, but because they are pencils only they haven't been high on my priority list.

 

Mike

[artdealer]

Yeah, but then I guess most of you who would like to own a Quitely All Star Superman page won't, because it's all in pencil. The same will go with the Jeff Scott Campbell Spider-Man art that will be available through me next year. The first issue he might ink, but then, most likely it will be pencils.

 

Mitch I.