Mad Rupert

Softball GN inking update!

Added 2022-06-23 13:54:28 +0000 UTC

Hey pals, I hope you've been well! Thanks for your patience this month while I dual-crunch the Kickstarter and the softball graphic novel! Here's a selection of pages I inked in the last two weeks!

If you've read Sakana, you probably recognize the spot-black "swoops" that feature heavily in my traditional, uncolored work. They're a little difficult to nail in color, but our colorist has been doing a fantastic job figuring out what works. Unlike Sakana pages, which are inked an an enormous 6x18" size, I've been inking these on 8.5x11" cardstock from Staples lol. Just trying to get this done QUICK!! I think after this project, I'm going to invest in a nice, large-format printer.

Also unlike Sakana, I've been using fineliner pens (Micron, Staedtler, etc) for the small, heavily-detailed panels. I've always used brush-pens and have never been a huge fan of fineliners but I'm COMING AROUND because inking at a much smaller size means I can produce a lot more finished pages in a shorter amount of time. When I'm totally on my game and the backgrounds aren't too heavy, I can ink about 8-10 pages a day. (When the backgrounds ARE heavy, like in the first page here, I can usually do 3-4.) The only reason this is possible is because I spend WAY too much time on my pencils, so I really only have to re-trace and clean up what's already there.

The book will be somewhere between 260-300 pages and I've already got over 100 pages inked! Over one-third of the way there!! Wow!