Tools of the Trade
•
Paper - For roughs I use 75 gm paper, just your regular run-of-
the-mill stuff.
•
Pencil - I do all of my rough drawings with a mechanical pencil
with a 0.5 mm 2B lead. The pencil I use is a Uni Kuru Toga. It's
inexpensive and the unique design automatically rotates the
lead while you draw so it is always sharp.
•
Erasers - I use an eraser pencil, similar to a mechanical pencil,
for smaller erasing. I use a Campus 2B eraser for larger stuff.
•
Scotch Removable Magic Tape - I use this tape for refining my rough sketches. I’ll do a first sketch and then will
tape a clean sheet on top, put it on the light table and clean up the drawing. This
is the sketch that I send to clients for approval prior to doing the final art.
•
Light Table - For years I never used a light table, but now it has become
standard equipment. At first I had one on a separate table and would have to go
back and forth and back and forth. I figured, "This is ridiculous!" So I built one
that sat on my desk and doubled as a drawing surface and light table. It is made
of wood with a slanted surface as I like to work on a slight incline. The glass has
a piece tracing paper taped to the back side so that it’s like using frosted glass
but without the price. When I need to use it I just flip the switch—which is
attached to the cord—and I'm in business!
•
Wacom Cintiq 12WX - For my final art I use a Wacom Cintiq 12WX tablet. The
drawing area is 16.5x26 cm. I'd of course prefer the larger model Cintiq but that
is not financially possible at this time :-)