Back in 2004, when I was still drawing stick figures, I found myself obsessed with what tools professional cartoonists and illustrators were using. If I wanted to be a pro, I had to know what the right pen and the right ink was — everything that the pros used. When I was surfing the web and looking at illustration books, I headed right to the section where they talk about the tools.
A kneaded eraser? Really? How does that work? I bet I’ll get great line quality with that size 0 liner brush and just draw the details with a Rotring Isograph. And that Ames lettering guide? Just wow.
I knew all that stuff, but it didn’t change the fact that all I could draw was stick figures. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but to pull off the stick figure thing well requires more mastery than a six year old with a crayon. (Check out Matt Feazell’s Cynical Man to get what I mean.) But I was getting too focused on the tools that I forgot why I needed them in the first place — I wanted to learn how to draw.
Couldn’t I do that with a regular pencil?
