The Paper:
The best papers for this process are long fiber papers like cotton. We recommend Entrada Rag Bright, though lighter weights work too and are best for books and cards.

The Tool:
The only tools you need are your hands and a good straight edge of some kind. We recommend a simple ruler with a wood and metal edge as it allows for two different edges to pull against to fine tune the desired outcome.

The Tear:
Place the ruler at least 1" from the edge of the print and hold it firmly in place. With your free hand, grasp the paper and gently begin pulling the paper up and towards the ruler. The faster you tear, the less variation the tear will have, the slower and shorter the tears the more. A little practice and you discover what you like best. 

Fine art and advertising photographer Jody Dole gained commercial success in 1990 with his highly original worldwide advertising campaign for Smirnoff Vodka. Since that time he has become one of the photography world's rising stars, earning international recognition including Nikon's Legend of the Year and awards.

Jody was one of the first photographers in the country to use a high res digital camera to make still life images for advertising 15 years ago. However he's strongly rooted in the past, still creating beautiful tintypes and ambrotypes (see images below). Mr. Dole's studio in Chester Connecticut is half high tech digital, and half is a 19th Century collodion wetplate studio and darkroom, a very interesting juxtaposition that can be seen in his unique and stunning portfolio.

Visit Jody's website to see the images he creates with methods from the present & the past!

A great way to swap artwork or create homemade books and cards is through digital printing. Affordable, quality digital printers and a variety of fine papers that are safe to run through them have given us the opportunity to create reproductions of our artwork at a reasonable cost, at home. However, without evidence of the human touch, there is a misconception that it simply requires the push of a button to create and reproduce a masterpiece.

Introducing a small unreproducible or non-mechanized element to your print is a great way to remind the viewer of the artist behind the print. It will also harken back to the days when skilled artisans perfected the craft of creating fine one-of-a-kind prints. Adding a deckle edge to your digital print with a controlled tear is a simple and easy way to ensure that each print is unique and create value. It looks great float mounted and adds a nice element to books and cards as well.

*It's important to remember that adding anything to a print should be done carefully to add value to the print, not distract from the image.

Click here to learn the deckle edge process!

Featured Artist Bruce Waldman was kind enough to join us at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop and walk us through his process for creating a Monoprint or Monotype (see our glossary of terms for clarification). Pictured above are the creative tools necessary; a variety of brayers, palette knives, Gamblin etching inks, rags and textured surfaces. Bruce uses a large plexiglass sheet with white paper taped to the back (to help see your image as you are working).

This is a process that allows you to improvise, work quickly and experiment with techniques and styles. The inks will stay wet and printable for several hours, giving you the opportunity to work for some time on your image before pulling your final print.

Bruce begins, by laying in larger areas of color using a brayer (or roller), then drawing in some of his image using the edges of the roller. A very fine line can be created this way, but it will take some practice to learn how to control the line and get the results you want.

Bruce uses a wide variety of materials, including paper towels and socks, to create texture and pattern in his compositions. Basically anything that will hold and tranfser ink can be used to add a sense of movement or pattern to the plexiglass.

The image can also be created by extracting from the large inked areas using a rag or paper towel, pulling out the highlights and building the image in a new way. One of the great things about this process is the ability to wipe away areas that aren't successful and draw them in again.

A stiff bristled brush can be used to draw on the plexiglass as well. The etching inks are not nearly as workable as oil paints so the effect is more of a scumbling effect than a smooth application of paint. This too takes some practice to get used to but can have excellent results.

Here is the final image as it appears on the plexiglass. You can see the number of techniques employed throughout the process, large areas of ink, drawn line, extraction and brush work. Now it's time to go to print, Bruce is printing on Revere paper, and it should be soaked in a water bath for about 30 minutes before printing.

You don't want your paper to be sopping wet, just a nice light sheen. Lay your plexi on the printmaking blankets, lay your paper on top and cover with another blanket. The best results will come from using a printing press (pictured), many local studios or ateliers will allow you to use the space and equipment for a nominal fee, but a baren or even the back of a wooden spoon can be used to apply pressure to the back of your paper.

Here you can see Bruce checking the print quality. A monoprint (mono meaning "one") gives you only one pull, making each image unique. You can, however, pull a second "ghost" print of the remaining ink on the plate which can give you interesting results as well.

Here is the final result, a very interesting image created using an interesting technique. It's a process that relies heavily on experimentation and results will vary from print to print. As Bruce told the group, he has done this thousands of times and been satisfied with the results only hundreds of times. So don't get discouraged and continue to work until you are satisfied!  

You can see more of Bruce's prints in the Artist Profile section of the Learning Center.

Edition
An edition of a print includes all the impressions published at the same time or as part of the same publishing event. A number of art prints of a certain image, using the same plates, screens or blocks, all the same size and as close to identical as possible.

Artist's Proof
The first set of prints pulled for the artist's own use, are marked as A.P. and may or may not be numbered and are considered by many to be higher in value than the subsequent numbered edition prints. Sometimes marked E.A. (French, epreuve d' artiste) or PA (Italian, Prova d'Autore) instead of A.P.

Intaglio
An intaglio print is one whose image is printed from a recessed design incised or etched into the surface of a plate. In this type of print the ink lies below the surface of the plate and is transferred to the paper under pressure, most often with a press. The printed lines of an intaglio print stand in relief on the paper.

Engraving
Lines are incised into a copper plate with a burin. The curls of copper thrown up at the sides of the furrow are cleaned away with a scraper.

Etching
A metal plate is coated with a ground that is impervious to acid. The artist creates an image by drawing through the ground with an etching needle, thus exposing areas of metal. The whole plate is then immersed in acid until the exposed lines are sufficiently bitten, producing grooves in the metal that will hold the ink. The ground is then removed, and the plate is ready to be inked and printed.

Relief
A relief print is one whose image is printed from a design raised on the surface of a block. In this type of print the ink lies on the top of the block and is transferred to the paper under light pressure. Transferred often by small presses or by hand using a baren.

Monoprint
Ink or paint applied onto an already worked plate. Although a matrix is present, real editions are really impossible to carry out, but some element of the print is repeatable. Subsequent "ghost" prints can be pulled, with varying results.

Monotype
Ink or paint is applied to a smooth plate. Because there is no fixed matrix, only one strong impression can be printed. No element of the print is truly repeatable. Subsequent "ghost" prints can be pulled, with varying results.

Printmaking Tools:

Plate
A plate is a flat sheet of metal, usually copper, steel or zinc, used as a matrix for a print. Metal plates are used for intaglio prints and for some lithographs. Plexiglass plates can also be used to create monoprint and monotype prints.

Block
A block is a cutable surface used as a matrix for a print. Blocks can be made from mounted or unmounted linoleum, various woods or easy to cut rubbery materials.

Baren
A Japanese designed tool with a smooth flat bottom and woven handle used to apply pressure to the back of paper when creating block prints.

Brayer
Roller (often rubber) used to apply ink to plates and blocks. Available in a wide variety of sizes.

Lino Cutter
Tool or number of tools with assorted V-shaped gouges used for carving linoleum or wooden blocks for printmaking.

Ground
A varnish-like substance, impervious to acid used to prepare a plate in the engraving process.

Scriber
A metal hand tool sharpened to a point used to draw on a prepared plate to create an etching.

Burin
From the french for "cold chisel" a burin is a tool used in the engraving process. Sometimes called a graver, it has a rounded mushroom-shaped handle with a steel shaft and sharp chisel tip.  

Bruce recently ran a Utrecht-sponsored event at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in New York City. His lecture was excellent and to see him work was facinating. Click here to see Bruce working step by step on a unique monotype.

Below are some examples of Bruce's work. Click here to visit his website. 

A great way to try out a variety of options before making a final decision is by using a clear layer of acetate or mylar to experiment. Today we'll be using Grafix Wet Media Dura-Lar to find the background color that will work best for us.

We started with a watercolor sketch, before we can move any further the question of the background color arises, this is where the Dura-Lar comes in. We'll use three sheets to try out a number of colors for the background.

Simply lay your sheet of Duralar over your dry watercolor and brush on the color you had in mind. If you're not satisfied, grab a new sheet and try the next color...

Still not satisfied? Grab another sheet and go at it again (see how much time and frustration we're saving?)

Here you can see that the original is unaffected by all of the testing we're doing. This is also a great way to get an idea of how additional layers of color will look over your existing artwork (not just the background).

Using this method allows you to take some time to study how each option will affect the colors you've already chosen for your watercolor and the overall look of your finished piece.

Have fun experimenting!

Clear films have a variety of applications for artistic purposes, from cutting stencils to direct printing or painting. Acetate and Mylar are produced in different ways and each have unique benefits:

Acetate film is really a specific type of plastic material called cellulose acetate. Because Acetate is made from wood-pulp, it has certain attributes that are sometimes desirable and sometimes something you want to avoid.... depending on your application.

Attributes of Acetate Film:

    * Glass-like clarity
    * Good dimensional stability
    * Easily die-cut
    * Printable with conventional screen and offset printing methods
    * Available in Clear and Matte
    * Available in wide range of thicknesses .001" - .020"

Mylar is often used to generically refer to polyester film or plastic sheet. However, it is a registered trademark owned by Dupont Tejjin Films for a specific family of plastic sheet products made from the resin Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET). The true generic term for this material is Polyester Film or Plastic Sheet.

Attributes of Mylar/Plastic Sheets:

    * Archival quality
    * Dimensional stability
    * Consistent color
    * Clarity
    * Non-yellowing
    * Non-tearing

Artistic Applications for Acetate & Mylar:

    * Layouts
    * Color Separations
    * Laser Copies
    * Screen Printing
    * Overhead Transparencies
    * Protective Covering

See how we used clear plastic film to try out a variety of watercolor backgrounds.

The paintings and drawings of Marshall Arisman have been widely exhibited, both internationally and nationally. His work may be seen in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, at the National Museum of American Art and the Smithsonian Institution, as well as in many private and corporate collections. His editorial illustration work has been seen in major publications all around the world.

Mr. Arisman's original graphic essay, "Heaven Departed," in which paintings and drawings describe the emotional and spiritual impact of nuclear war on society, was published in book form by Vision Publishers (Tokyo, 1988).

Chairman of the M.F.A. degree program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Marshall Arisman was the first American invited to exhibit his artwork in mainland China. His series, "Sacred Monkeys," appeared at the Guang Dong Museum of Art in April 1999.

We were thrilled  when a friend of the Learning Center, Kurt Hollomon, invited us along when he visited Mr. Arisman's studio on a recent trip to New York. Marshall was kind enough to welcome us in and spoke about his early years as an illustrator and how he found that by looking inward to his past life experiences the subject matter and point of view that would make his work most successful were there all along. Marshall also spoke with us about his current project, a series of oil paintings done on translucent layers and hung with space in between to allow interplay and shifts in the image as it is viewed from varying distances and angles. We look forward to the final results.

The Learning Center would like to thank Kurt for inviting us to tag along and Mr. Arisman for his hospitality. Below is a small selection of Marshall Arisman's vast body of work, you can see more by visiting his website here.

Click for a larger image.

Click here for more about bristol.
Click here for an interview with comic artist James Sturm.

Tell us what you think about this month's post! Email LearningCenter@utrecht.com.

This month's Learning Center features many references to bristol, so it may help to clarify... Bristol is a heavyweight paper used for technical drawing, illustration, and other two-dimensional art forms. It's particularly popular among comic artists and illustrators.

Unlike Illustration Board, the front and back of Bristol are identical which means that both sides can be drawn on. The surface texture can vary for different applications, including a smooth (plate) finish and a medium (vellum) finish. A vellum surface has a bit more tooth and artists working with rough pencil, chalks, or charcoal would use the rougher texture. Plate finishes are generally more suited to other types of media, such as technical pencils or inks.

We're happy to carry a full line of smooth and vellum bristol from Strathmore.

James Sturm is an internationally recognized cartoonist and the cofounder and Director of The Center for Cartoon Studies (http://www.cartoonstudies.org). His writings and illustrations have appeared in scores of national and regional publications including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Onion, The New York Times and on the cover of the The New Yorker. He is also a co-founder of The Stranger, a Seattle arts and news weekly. His book, The Golem's Mighty Swing, was named the 2001 Comic of the Year by Time Magazine. His most recent books include Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, James Sturm's America, and Adventures in Cartooning.
 
While in grad school in New York City James worked in the Utrecht store on 4th Avenue! James was good enough to answer a few questions for us and send along images that show off his process.

Tell us about your process of making comics...
My approach to making comics is probably closest to that of a novelist except I am doodling my drafts using words and pictures as opposed to just words. My early drafts are very loose and the drawings are little more than stick figures. Each subsequent drafts allows me to become more intimate with the material.
 
What are your essential tools?
To begin with paper and pencil. Early drafts are on just regular copy paper. The next draft is on drawing paper and the final pen and ink drawings are on bristol using various pen nibs including a hunts 102, speedball c-5 and c-6, a G-nib, and various Faber-Castell markers. An Ames lettering guide also comes in handy.

What stock (brand/finish/and size paper) do you use for your final inking art?
I've been using 2 ply Strathmore 500 series bristol with a vellum finish for awhile now. I buy the large sheets and cut them into six pieces. The paper takes ink extremely well, never any bleeding. The 2-ply is sturdy enough to stand up to the eraser and thin enough so I can transfer drawings onto it via a light box.

There are many ways to stay green in the art studio. One of the best ways is by finding a use for the scraps and leftovers that might otherwise be thrown out. This month we showed you how to cut a simple mat, but before you throw out that piece you cut out of the middle, here are a few ideas on ways you can re-use them. *Mat scraps will have a beveled edge that can be pretty sharp, it can be easily trimmed off for any of these uses.

1. Cut a small window to create a viewfinder for landscape painting.
2. Use the white (or colored) side to do quick color studies in oil or acrylic paint.
3. The colored side makes a great surface for oil or chalk pastel sketches.
4. Fortify an envelope when mailing prints or drawings.
5. Cut a large scrap into 2 inch wide L shapes to get ideas on cropping an image or for choosing mat colors when framing finished pieces.
6. Stretch watercolor paper over a scrap for a more sturdy painting surface.
7. Use small pieces for scrapbooking.
8. Mat an even smaller piece of art!

Other tips for keeping a green studio:

1. Use washable rags instead of paper towels.
2. Choose papers that are made from recycled materials.
3. Seek out materials that are made using sustainable practices.
4. Avoid toxic pigments & harsh chemical processes.
5. Responsibly dispose of any harmful products you do use (turpentine, mediums, etc).
6. Look at alternatives, like egg tempera, beeswax mediums and waterbased paints.
7. If you work with materials that produce vapors or dust make sure to use an air purifier to limit what gets released into the atmosphere.
8. Seek other people's leftovers! Material scraps from textile companies or misprinted materials from paper companies.

The more research you do and the more effort you put in will have a greater impact on the quality of life in your studio and environment at large. If you have any great green tips or practices, be sure to share them with us by leaving a comment or sending an email to learningcenter@utrecht.com. We'll add them to this list! Stay Green!

Once you master the basic steps, use your creativity to experiment with your own designs, such as those shown here.

First, a little about matboard...
Matboard is a multi-layered product made especially for framing artwork. The most commonly available matboard is made from processed wood pulp. It comes in a wide variety of surface colors and textures and the core is typically white or cream-colored. (Some matboard has a core that is black or a few other colors.) The surface is a thick covering of art paper that is fade and bleed resistant. Untreated wood pulp contains acid, which, over time, damages what it comes in contact with. To protect the work you’re matting, use buffered, acid-free matboard. Most matboard is available in 32" x 40" sheets and some come in even larger sizes.

Measure twice, cut once
To determine the mat opening size, you must allow at least ¼" (7mm) overlap on each edge of the chosen image so the edges don’t show or fall through the mat window. Use the following worksheet to help calculate the sizes of your opening, borders, and overall matboard.

With these measurements, set the parallel mat guide to your chosen border width. Insert the matboard, color side down, and mark all four sides.

Hook the bevel cutting head onto the rail, and align the silver start and stop indicator with the pencil line closest to you. Firmly push the blade into the mat.

While keeping steady downward pressure on the blade, slide the cutter forward until the indicator line reaches the top pencil line. Pull the blade out of the mat.

Repeat this step three times to complete the mat.

Now you’ll need to adhere your artwork to the mat. A simple but effective method is called the t-hinge. Using a framer’s acid free hinging tape, follow the following steps:
1. Lay your matboard face down on a clean surface and position the artwork face down over the window.
2. Cut and apply two small vertical tabs of tape along the top edge of the artwork, an inch or so from the corners.
About half the tape should adhere to the art and half to the mat.

3. Lift up the mat and ensure the image is displayed in the window as you wish it to be. Move the tape and image around, if necessary.
4. Cut and apply another tab of tape horizontally across the tape on the mat. One horizontal piece on each of the verticals, to form Ts.

That’s it!

Click here for ideas on recycling your matboard scraps and other tips on working in a "green" studio!

Seventeen year old Jordan Else Pemberton of Tecumseh, Michigan, is the winner of our 5th Annual Self-Portait Contest, Co-Sponsored by the Savannah College of Art & Design. Jordan attends the Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan, and will graduate from their visual arts program in May 2009. 

In addition to winning our student contest, Jordan’s recent awards include first place and best in show in the Northwestern Michigan College High School Art Contest, a gold key award for printmaking in the Scholastic Art Awards, the Interlochen Arts Academy Fine Arts Award, and the Interlochen Arts Camp Summer Maddy Award.  Her art has been included in exhibitions at the Margulies Collection, Northwestern Michigan University, and the Interlochen Center for the Arts.  Her artwork has been published in the Interlochen Review and the Red Wheelbarrow, printed on two album covers and used for retail advertisement.  Jordan is interested in portraiture, and the media she enjoys most are painting, drawing and photography.  She hopes to study photography in college.

See Jordan and the rest of the winners from this year's contest here.

Ink can be for much more then just drawing! Ink has a wonderful brilliant vibrance right out of the jar that can be used in many of the same ways as watercolor paint. One of the benefits however is that it's already in liquid form. In this post we'll use ink to create some nice washes and we'll use it with a traditional dip pen. We're working on a send-up of one of our favorite Rembrandt drawings on an Ampersand Aquabord Panel, which is an awesome wet media surface. It gives you all the benefits of working on paper without the buckling and warping.

    

We'll begin by brushing water onto the panel to assure some nice bleeding of color. Then we'll water down our inks and do some light washes, letting the color do whatever it wants.

    

Here we can see how the washes lend themselves ot the drawing that we are going to do on this panel. Using the organic shapes of the first washes we can determine the composition of our final drawing which you can see being laid in here with another yellow wash.

    

We'll use that second yellow wash as a guide for our drawing. The drawing is done with black ink and a Speedball Artists Pen Set. The wash helps speed up the drawing process and adds some richer color underneath the black lines of the pen.

Now that the drawing is complete, we'll go back in and do a much darker red wash to finish our composition and help the drawing stand out. Here is the final result....

So get out there and give it a shot, try drawing over some washes... Try doing the drawing first and using the ink washes to color your images. If you create something you like we'd love to see it! Send an image to learningcenter@utrecht.com.

There are a variety of alternatives to painting on canvas or paper. Many of the Old Masters painted on wood panels and today a variety of contemporary surfaces are available, offering unique opportunities to explore new ways of creating images. Ampersand has created a series of archival quality painting surfaces that are acid-free, non-yellowing and engineered not to warp or bow.

The Museum Series Panels include an unprimed hardbord that allows you to build up your own unique grounds and textures, and a ready to paint gessobord delicate enough for glazing but strong enough for pallette knife painting. Ampersand also offers the two types of panel used in this month's Learning Center on ink washes; claybord and aquabord.

Claybord is an incredibly smooth and absorbant kaolin clay-primed multi-media panel that accepts ink, gouache, acrylics, pencil and airbrush and makes a great surface for collage and photo transfers. The clay surface allows you to add thin layers of paint or ink then remove, reapply or even scratch through to create contrast and texture.

Aquabord is another acid-free clay surface that absorbs watercolor like a fine paper, but without any threat of shrinking, tearing or buckling. The surface offers the ability to lift color out with a wet brush or work in countless layers of color. Perfect for watercolor and gouache, but also a great option for encaustics or acrylics.

Ink on Ampersand Claybord

Mark Penxa is the artist behind the stunning internet exhibition "Stealing Signs: Dead-Ball Era Baseball Memories from My Last Life;1927". A beautiful collection of mixed media drawings of well known and unknown players from the golden years of baseball. A project that began as a gift to his grandfather and snowballed into one hundred pieces of art dedicated to America's Past time that can be enjoyed individually and as an entire body of work.

A native of Detroit,  Michigan, Penxa developed his style and aesthetic from the worlds of skateboarding and punk rock, earning his first freelance check from a skateboard company at 15 and touring with the punk band Telegraph for 8 years after high school. Mark has designed images for Girl Skateboards and is currently in the sketching phase of a snowboard design for DC Shoes. He brings great energy, an excellent eye for line and a do-it-yourself attitude to his work that makes you want to stop and look... and keep looking.

Over the next few months Mark will be working on a series of paintings tackling his home town and it's current political climate as well as curating a gallery show with friend Andy Jenkins about baseball and the art it has inspired.

Bellow are are small sampling of the works in "Stealing Signs" as well as a few other of Mark's drawings and paintings, enjoy.

 

Mixed Media painting and  few sketchbook images...

"None of us were able to choose whether to be an artist or not and you can't learn how to be one but, you can always learn how to be a better one and we should. Constantly. There's a certain amount of responsibility that comes with all of this. It doesn't matter how you maintain it, just that you do." - Mark Penxa

Visit Mark's Website

Marker paper's translucence gives you the convenience and ease of tracing paper, but is much stronger and holds up to multiple layers of ink. Thanks to these qualities marker paper has long been the choice of illustrators and comic artists. You can shop Utrecht's selection of marker paper, vellum, tracing paper and bond here.

Testing Tombow Brush Tip Markers on the two sides of marker paper.  

 

Andy's work was featured in the 2009 Utrecht Resource Guide, you can see a short bio here, as well as a marker comp from Charlatan Ball. Let's get to our interview with Andy...

Learning Center: What do you like to work with for your marker comps?
Andy Suriano: My recent favorites: Copics! I love the Copic "sketch" w/the brush nib. Because they're alcohol based, they blend really, really well together. I also use the Copic refill inks  to lay down tones (more on that below). Also the Copic wide. That being said, I couldn't work without my Prismacolor markers. As for paper, almost always Bienfang Graphics 360, 100% rag, translucent marker paper. The black pens I like to ink with are Tombows, if possible, I'll ink on a separate paper stock (usually a toothier animation paper), then use a copy machine to run that image through onto the marker paper. Although, more times than not, I just continue to marker directly on top of my original inks, which sometimes feels like a fresco painting.

LC: Can you walk us through your comp/illustration process?
AS: Well, I do 2 types of marker comps: 1) the kind I use for my comic books and 2) the kind for illustration and animation development.
For the comic book page comps: After inking the original page in blacks with usually a Tombow or whatever other manner of black pen, brush or more likely brush pen I can get a hold of, I load some (Bienfang Graphics 360) paper into a copier, and copy the page down about 65% or so onto that paper (usually two, just to be safe). I'll then take one of my Copic refill bottles and dab onto a paper towel and work over either the entire page or individual panels with the color tone I want as my "base" (like an underpainting). Since markers are an unforgiving medium, it then becomes an "additive" process, meaning: I work from light to dark. All the while trying to adhere to a light source. 
For the illustration: Underlaying my original sketch under the marker paper, I pretty much work the same way as with the comic page roughs. Once again starting off with the refill vile and using the natural textures of the paper towel, I create textures. I usually use the same piece of paper towel for different colors, accepting the happy "accidents" or bleeds from mixing or picking up the darker color on the towel. I then start the additive process, working light to dark--knowing what my highlight or lightest color will be and where. I work broad then build into details. Finally, I will polish off with some Prismacolor pencils, crayons and even white out over top of everything.

Here is a look at the process...

LC: Do you have any tips for other marker artists out there?
AS: Don't forget what SIDE of the marker paper to use! With the brand I like, it's the underside (so I have to tear and flip). TEST each side of the paper as each take the marker differently. One way is to fold a triangle, marker over both: one is waxier than the other and doesn't bleed through as nice--you want the side that bleeds all the way to the other side solidly. Mark that side and you're good to go.

Since markers are so final, leave room around your "live area" to test the colors first, also test how each blends or lay on top of each other, sometimes you want that stark contrast, but usually you need something closer in shade. 
 
Work light to dark, always "adding" another layer. You can't lay a lighter color over a dark one (although you CAN sometimes brighten one if you have a really strong yellow!)

Also, a little plug for the dying medium that is marker comps: the thing I like about illustrating with markers vs. digital computer coloring is: 1) Sometimes limiting your palette gives a better, cleaner, stronger read. 2) The tactile, organic feeling of marker on paper. Digital illustrations more times than not read "dead" to me. I'll stand behind my paper towel and ink against "manufactured texture" any day.

LC: Thanks Andy!
AS: Your welcome and thank you! It's so much fun to talk about my process.

Many thanks to Andy for that great information and behind the scenes look at his process. You can keep up with his many projects by visiting his blog Andy Updates. Be sure to check out his book, The Art of Andy, and go to your local comic shop and ask for Image Comics' Charlatan Ball...