Electro, Magnets

Thursday, September 25, 2008


A number of months ago, I received an unsolicited package from the UK containing 6 neodymium magnets. The note inside revealed that it was a gift from one of my blog readers, Nick Morgan, who guessed (correctly) that I would find them useful. Nick is a writer and art collector and I'd like to thank him again for such a useful tool.

Pictured above is what I refer to as "the bridge." It's simply a strip of paper that provides me with a testing ground for ink and paint, and helps to control the dynamics of the brush before it touches the painting. Nick's magnet is on the underside, keeping the paper a half inch above the painting, while on top is a pushpin magnet that I already owned. Once I've thoroughly covered both sides of the strip, I can easily replace it with another.

The painting is a yet-unreleased cover for The Twelve, featuring Electro, the mechanical member of the group.



In addition, I attached Nick's magnets to my pencils and eraser, keeping my tools at hand, despite the slant of my drawing board. I attached my kneaded eraser to another pushpin magnet. There's nothing like dropping your eraser and having it stop in its tracks on the way down.

Finally, there is my miniature comic page, which is a 4" x 6" scaled guide that I use during the layout and thumbnail phase of a comic page or cover. The reverse is covered with magnetic tape, which keeps it in place during measurements. Basing it off of the official Marvel boards, I constructed the page in Adobe Illustrator, printed it out, and laminated it with packing tape. This useful tool also doubles as a mahl stick of sorts, keeping my hand from smearing the day's work.

No comments :

Post a Comment

Copyright © The Self-Absorbing Man
Design out of the FlyBird's Box.