A question on inker etiquette

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Bluemeanie
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Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:10 am

A question on inker etiquette

Post by Bluemeanie »

This might be a stupid question, but I'd rather ask it here than in person and risk offending....

I basically want to ask, if someone who is primarily known as an inker is at a sketching table at a convention, is it rude to ask them to ink someone elses work?

Or in other words, if I have two Alan Davis sketches from last year, am I ok to ask Mark Farmer to ink them for me? The previous times I have met him he was good enough to do me original pictures himself, but as you are such an established team it seems a shame not to ask him to add his talents.

And also, as I have asked for the last two cons... do you know if you will be taking part in any scheduled events this year as I really enjoyed the panel at Bristol and the big pad sketches at Birmingham, though was gutted not to win any of them. (The wife got a really nice Mark Buckingham Fabels pic though)
Robin Riggs
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Post by Robin Riggs »

You're most unlikely to offend an inker that way but they may not be prepared to ink at a convention for a variety of reasons. They're far more likely to have sketching pens with them than brush and ink simply because they're much easier and safer to travel with. It never hurts to ask though.

Something else to bear in mind though is that some pencil sketches weren't done with inking in mind. Alan sometimes works with greytones for example. Also I've heard of a couple of pencillers that have been upset when they found one of their sketches was inked when they hadn't thought it would be or was inked by someone they didn't approve of. Most times there won't be any concern though.
-- Robin.

See my portfolio online at
http://www.robinriggs.com/Pages/folio/folio.html
Alan Davis
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Post by Alan Davis »

I’d agree with everything Robin said and all I would want to add is that drawing or inking in a convention environment can be difficult purely because of the location. Many artists spend most of their working life isolated in a studio they have fine tuned to achieve maximum comfort and efficiency. Performing in public at a flat, sometimes rickety table (that may be frequently nudged by enthusiastic fans), with poor lighting, poor ventilation or alternately sitting in a draught, isn’t conducive to doing the best work. Since there is now a high probability that any convention sketch will be posted online there is an added stress to make the sketch ‘publishable’ which has raised the standard of what is expected. A quick pencil sketch can be fudged, imprecise and impressionistic but, not only will inking draw attention to the imprecision of fudged pencils, inking needs to be clean, accurate and precise to look good. That’s not easy at a shadowed, rickety table in a hot stuffy atmosphere.

Alan
Bluemeanie
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Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2007 11:10 am

Post by Bluemeanie »

Fair enough,
I have to be honest, when the "sketch-off" was happening at Birmingham I was thinking it must be so weird for you guys who are probably used to working in isolation to be drawing with a room full of nerds (and being one myself I use the word with the greatest respect) watching you.

Im on a computer all day and cant even type if someone is looking over my shoulder, so god knows how you and the others felt.

thanks for the insight though
Alan Davis
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Post by Alan Davis »

I have grown pretty comfortable drawing in public over the years but the problem I find with the 'sketch-off' set up is the steep angle, low position of the drawing boards and the size of the paper. It just isn't possible to see the whole image while drawing and I haven't yet found a way to avoid distortions in the drawing which are obvious from a distance, much farther back than arms length.

Alan
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