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Hey Marcelo,

First of all, thanks for your reply, as always a great help:)

The pirate stuff looks awesome, hope you all hang in there and actually get to finish this. I love the characters and especially the mood.

I got some Clearprint Drafting Vellum and am getting ready to do my first piece. There's different kinds of Prisma Pencils, which ones do you use, or does that matter? Also, do you work with many different grades (pencils) or do you stick to one.
One last question for today....I promise:D Do you start out with a rough layout and then clean it up on vellum before shading it, or what's your approach, when doing a piece like the barbershop for instance?

Can't tell you how much I appreciate your help and expertise. Hope I get the chance to make it up someday:)

Hans

Great page! Really liking the overall graphic look of it.

very nice work!

Thanks everyone, thanks for all the kind words.

Hans,

I'm glad you are set up to do some drawing on vellum. There is only one set of Prisma pencils, but a wide variety of colors to choose from. I mainly use black.

There are pencils called Verithin that are like Prisma pencils, but they are NOT the same. Verithin pencils do not have much wax, and can be brushed away with a swipe of your hand if you attempt to draw with Verithin on Vellum. You don't want to make this mistake.

Because vellum is transparent, you need to take advantage of this. Do all your planning, under-drawing and construction on regular paper or tracing paper. Use various sheets of tracing paper to add elements to your layout. Move the tracing paper around to find the best compositions. Once your under-drawing is completed, you can begin transferring your drawing to your vellum.

I use a very fine ball point pen and lightly sketch in key elements of my composition. Then I use my Prisma pencil to lay in the rest of the composition. When I begin to add my values I use facial tissue to smear the Prisma pencil in large areas like a charcoal chamois to create a soft effect...and a blending stump for the finer details.

Afterwards, I use an eraser to add my whites. I use the eraser as though it were white paint.

Voila! The drawing is done.

wow man, those lilo and stitch conecpts make my head explode! totally amazing! i'm glad i found this blog.

Hey Marcelo,

Once again, thanks for all your help:) I just finished my first "Prismacolor on vellum" piece today. I posted it on my blog and would love to hear your opinion:D. What could be done to improve etc. Is there a trick to how you create the atmosphere that's in your images? It's almost like it's a little blurry, but not really?! lol It's hard to explain, but there's a sense of light or particles in the air! Hope you know what I'm talking about:)
Well, I had great fun working with new materials and it definitely wont be the last time I do so.

Thanks again,

Hans

Hans,

This piece looks great for a first try. Your construction drawing and composition are very good. And, you are right, I do try to capture the light particles in the air ... not just the ones illuminating the surfaces or lightsources.

Hans, I think most of your development will come from experimentation and careful observation. You just have to be patient.

But, since you asked, here's another trick. I like to collect photographs that have effects, lens distortions, or tricky lighting situations. I study the heck out of them and try to employ that understanding into my work. The images I collect have nothing to do with the subjects I'm drawing, only the effects. I suggest you do the same. Study why they work, and how you can replicate the effect in your work to maximize your story-telling.

Good luck!

Hi Marcelo,

I'm trying to come up with new ways of saying thanks, so I'm not just repeating myself, but you should know by now how grateful I am for your help:D

I'll definitely try to study some photos and fortunately I am extremely stubborn and patient, so hopefully someday I'll get the a-ha feeling.

One little question here! I just now noticed that the vellum I have is Clearprint 100% new cotton fiber Design vellum and if I remember correctly, you're using 100% rag drafting vellum! Is there a big difference?

Thanks again...again,

Hans

Hans,

I'm glad to hear you are finding the information useful. Perhaps others are reading this and also finding your questions and experience useful too.

I enjoy sharing what I know ... what good is the knowledge if it isn't shared? Hopefully, the day will come when someone will ask you, and you can return the favor that was passed down to me and pass this information along to the next generation.

If I remember correctly, the Clearprint drafting vellum I used at Disney was 100% rag, However, I was suprised to discover the stuff I'm drawing on here at Sony is the Clearprint 100% cotton fiber ... just like you are using. I didn't notice the difference, so I they must be identical. Perhaps I'm remembering it wrong, or they made a slight change to their vellum formula. It even comes in the same orange plastic wrapper.

Suffice it to say, you're on the right track.