I’ve been busy lately, but I recently wanted to work on some more Walt Kelly style comic drawings. I thought it would be useful to do show some photo steps of the process. I started with non-photo blue and darker blue just to make the photos in the example. I have, over a number of months, learned a lot about the Walt Kelly style of comic drawing. I originally would try to draw completed characters in pencil in detail with the line weights closely to match the final drawings . Then I would just trace with ink over the pencil drawings. But then I grew to learn by studying Walt Kelly’s approach that he used minimal time and detail on his blue pencils, just simple basic layout sketches. The real work was not at all traced over the pencils, but rather new detailed drawings of the characters are done directly in ink with a dip pen and a watercolor brush.

Click on any of the pictures to see enlarged versions.

I am sure Walt Kelly did very minimal sketching as he was always working on tight newspaper schedules and didn’t have anytime to waste. Get it down and move on quickly. I tend to lightly spend extra time sketching in contour lines just because that is how I feel more comfortable making the characters look solid. Kelly saw the contours in his mind and didn’t need to waste the time. It’s a personal thing. The layout sketches were his way of capturing the ideas and writing the story out. Then the inking drawings were the finish art work. It really takes a lot of skill to draw mostly with ink which doesn’t allow much forgiving of mistakes. Many cartoonists do thumbnail sketches and storyboard sketches before drawing the actual panels .  Kelly rarely did much of that, again it was a time saving approach. I do suspect that Kelly scribbled on paper napkins hanging out in the local bar or restaurant with his newspaper buddies. So any of his thumbnails mostly ended up in a crumpled ball in the wastebasket as quickly as he moved on to his actual drawing paper.

Then I started out inking working from my left to right. As I said previously, you don’t want to drag your right hand or arm across wet ink making a smear mess. First was Churchy followed by Grundoon. You can move around as you work but you just have to be willing to stop and allow some drying time. I also find it very useful to rotate the drawing paper as I draw in ink particularly with a brush. Rotating the paper allows you to position your wrist and arm better for drawing. You are using the natural bending and flowing of your body.

Then I drew Racketycoon Chile dancing and blowing his horn.

Finally I added BunRab with his drum. I currently am using Acrylic Black Ink. I can’t tell much difference of the Acrylic Ink versus normal BlackCat India Ink. I have learned that India ink needs to be thinned with water to get better flow when I am using a dip pen. But it works better not as thinned when using a watercolor brush. It’s a matter of experience. Drawing with ink takes a lot of practice.

As I have said in prior postings, time, patience and a lot of practice are the only ways to keep getting better. So you can expect to see me doing a lot more practicing. If you are following along I appreciate your patience.

Readers Note : My total focus is on learning and practice. In all cases for these postings there is no intent to use any artistic material from Walt Kelly’s work or style as anything other than as inspiration. “Inspired by Walt Kelly” or “In the style of Walt Kelly”