Outland - The Methods - Pencils

Okay so I have already penciled the next page - so I thought I would use this page to explain / clarify the methods I am using - probably will disappoint a few people here, but I am nothing if not honest!

Firstly I downloaded all of the brilliantly scanned original pages from The Drawings of Steranko web site (be sure to drop them a email and say Hi and let them know what your doing!)

Next I used iPhoto (but you can use anything similar, photoshop etc) to make the images all black and white and to remove as much colour as possible - this image is then printed out on the biggest size you can make it on the biggest size paper you can print on, in my case its A4 size .. (that's 210 × 297 mm)

then… I blue tack this print out onto the back of a bit a standard craft  white cardboard the same size (not  that thick, but thick enough to soak up the ink without bending too much) and place it ontop of a light box (I only have a rather small one, which was cheap)

and use a 4h pencil (as I tend to not erase the pencils from a finished piece due to the sheer amount of ink on a page!) and spend around 2 hours drawing everything I can see - 

so yes I am just a shameless tracer

 - but the challenge is between the end result being too degraded and as close to the original as possible

I do try and take my time and make the most of the existing detail as I can, but I have to admit my pencils tend to be rather loose - the method and pencil type I am using do not lend themselves well to the extremely tiny details found in outland..

Anyway - this is what I got after about 2 hours - (thankfully its barely visible!)

Why don't you have a go, I would be interested to see the results!

Tomorrow I spill the beans on how I do linework..!