Lets talk paper

[Dburkhead]

"It's a poor carpenter who blames his tools." Nevertheless, good tools help a lot in producing a good product.

One of the key "tools" in producing hand-drawn artwork is the paper it's printed on.

I use several kinds of paper in the course of producing my comic:

• 50-80 lb paper in sketch pads, with just a bit of "tooth" to it. I use this mainly for practice sketches and preliminary storyboarding.
• Strathmore 400 series Bristol Board pads, smooth surface, in 14X17. This takes pencil well and erases cleanly, takes ink well without bleeding, and is sturdy enough not to need excessively cautious handling to keep it from crumpling or creasing as I work with it. It's also not so heavy that I can't work through two layers when using my light box. I cut it down to 11X17, which is the largest size that will fit in the scanner at work in one piece, to work with.
• Tracing paper in 11X14 and 14X17. Useful when working out character design or trying to figure out what's going wrong with a particularly difficult object or pose.

What else is popular out there?

[Anywherebuthere]

I use 24 weight 8x10 copier paper with a brightnes of 92. I think It's HP or something like that. But it holds the ink very well, as well as makes for very easy scanning.

[Mercury Hat]

I got a pack of white cardstock, 8.5"x11" at the Wal-Mart. 110lb weight, and it takes my ink washes very well (though the paper curves just a tad if I use too much) . Nice and smooth and so much cheaper than Bristol Board.

[Dutch!]

A $5, 120 page A4 ring bound booklet of display paper I can pick up easily from Kmart. Bugger the fancy stuff...I can get it half price if I dip into my classroom budget through the school, but that's sort of sneaky.

Mind you...now that I'm using the comic and characters in the classroom, I could probably get away with that...

SWEET! CHEAP COMIC SUPPLIES PAID FOR BY SCHOOL PARENTS!!

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

I use 300 series Bristol. It works well for brushes and dip pens. Sometimes I use xerox laser paper when I scan a sketch in and want to ink it without losing the original penciling. It takes ink from dip pens well, though not well enough for me to do a whole comic on it. It takes Prismacolor markers well too.

[Faub]

I like being able to lay out the entire page on a single sheet of paper. Working larger IS better. I've tried drawing each panel separately. I've tried cardstock. I've tried 11x14 bristol and I've tried 14x17 bristol cut to 11x17. For whatever reason, drawing on the 11x17 bristol makes the pencils go super fast. Maybe I've just gotten faster. Dunno.

[Jackhass]

I use the same brand/type of Bristol board you do...for just sketching or doodling I use these big fat sketchbooks. I'm not sure what brand they are.

[Zhan_Dvega]

I got a pack of white cardstock, 8.5"x11" at the Wal-Mart. 110lb weight, and it takes my ink washes very well (though the paper curves just a tad if I use too much) :D. Nice and smooth and so much cheaper than Bristol Board.

Georgia Pacific cardstock buddy! *highfives Merc*

[Mercury Hat]

I got a pack of white cardstock, 8.5"x11" at the Wal-Mart. 110lb weight, and it takes my ink washes very well (though the paper curves just a tad if I use too much) . Nice and smooth and so much cheaper than Bristol Board.

Georgia Pacific cardstock buddy! *highfives Merc*

Whoo hoo !

[Kris X]

Cardstock, sketch paper or Bristol board. That's it.

[Bwerith]

A friend of mine gave me a pad of paper for me birthday... Borden & Riley #234 Paris Bleedproof Paper for Pens. It is fairly thick, incredibly smooth, doesn't bleed at all, and is probably really expensive. I'm not sure if I will buy another pad of this after the current one runs out, because I am cheap.

[Tetsuo75]

photocopier paper, napkins... whtever has an empty space where I can draw.... but mostly I use tracing paper for characters (it saves me from using a light box)...

[Aster Azul]

Ee, I was just going to ask the same thing...

I want to get some big paper. I've gotten really into doing these hugeous intricate poster things... but I always run out of space and end up taping a bunch of sheets together.

But if you use big paper, how do you scan it in? Are big scanners super expensive? I just have a cheap paper-size one...

Also, does anyone use an easel? And could you recommend one?

[[AlmightyPyro]]

I just use normal printer paper and card stock. thats about it. I draw on a note book while sitting in my computer chair too. nothing fancy.

[Faub]

11x14 and 11x17 bristol can be scanned in two parts. You just have to stitch the two halves together. If you rule the page like Blambot (see the articles)

1. Scan both ends of the page.
2. Open the first page.
3. Rotate the layer so the edge of the page is totally horizontal with the bottom of the window.
4. Flatten the image so when you expand the page it fills the background with the background color.
5. open the second half as a new layer.
6. Rotate that so the bottom of the page is on the same line as the bottom of the window.
7. change the canvas size to be double the width.
8. expand the bottom layer to the full image size (with background color filling the empty space.
9. Set the top layer to burn.
10. Line up the two layers
11. Chop off the overlapped area, cutting from the middle over the overlapped area.
12. flatten the image.
13. rotate the image upright
14. crop off the extra space.

[Aster Azul]

Faub, you are simply awesome.

[Starline]

Computer printing paper. HP Everyday Copy and Print actually. Acid Free kind.

[Sput]

Computer printing paper. HP Everyday Copy and Print actually. Acid Free kind.

[Faub]

Faub, you are simply awesome.

I've done that particular scan process for most of the last year.

[Testdrive]

you gotta be awesome and use cheap printing paper XD