Comic book creators have been using the traditional pencil or pen and paper for decades. That’s the reason there’s so much original artwork for sale at comic book conventions.
However, over the past few years, there’s been a shift in the way that technology has provided new tools for comic book creators to bring their art to life.
Ian Herring, an illustrator and colourist based in Toronto, currently works out of the RAID studio. His most recent efforts include Ms. Marvel, Silk, All-New Hawkeye and E For Extinction plus his own project Junior Citizens.
In this photo, Ian is using a Wacom Intuos 4 small tablet. According to Ian: “It’s fairly old now (eight plus years) and there are newer versions out there but this thing keeps going!”
“The tablet takes input from a special pen which tracks movement similar to a mouse but also reads the pressure used and the angle of the pen,” explained Ian. “This is how I do most of my colouring in Photoshop as I paint in the colours and add the rendering while looking at the screen, not the tablet. It uses similar technology as a Wacom Cintiq but unlike those models there’s a disconnect between drawing directly on a surface and watching the results appear on another screen.”
Ian also remarked: “Almost all my work is done using this Intuos and it is the third one I’ve owned. My first was a tiny plastic model with an awful pen and was eventually held together with a piece of duct tape. It was passed on to a friend of mine before finally dying after years of faithful service.”
The most current version is the Wacom Intuos Pro.
According to Doug Little, Sr. Public Relations Manager, Wacom Technology Services, Corp.: ”The Intuos Pro is popular, but I would say that our Cintiq pen displays are even more popular with comic and cartoon illustrators. Wacom hosted the National Cartoonists Society Reuben Awards this past May. It was an absolute blast.”
Please visit www.wacom.com to learn more about these products.
And to see Wacom Intuos Pro in action check out the Wacom YouTube channel.
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