• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Inks over blue-line?

19 posts in this topic

to me neither of those are desirable. I know with the internet age that scanning and emailing allow creators to live where they want, but I think it takes away from the whole "original" part.

 

I try to stick with pieces nowadays that I know are over pencil (Doug Mahnke->Christian Alamy/Tom Nguyen) or a piece that Barry Kitson inks.

 

Even more troublesome in the current market are the digital inks. You might see partially completed inks. On the other hand with photoshop, not much art is penciled directly on a board. They will blowup thumbnails in photoshop and then print out on board. They may or may not pencil on their own blue lines.

 

I guess it comes down to buy what you like, but the thought of me owning a penciled page and someone else having the blue line inks cheapens the whole art experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

to me neither of those are desirable. I know with the internet age that scanning and emailing allow creators to live where they want, but I think it takes away from the whole "original" part.

 

I try to stick with pieces nowadays that I know are over pencil (Doug Mahnke->Christian Alamy/Tom Nguyen) or a piece that Barry Kitson inks.

 

Even more troublesome in the current market are the digital inks. You might see partially completed inks. On the other hand with photoshop, not much art is penciled directly on a board. They will blowup thumbnails in photoshop and then print out on board. They may or may not pencil on their own blue lines.

 

I guess it comes down to buy what you like, but the thought of me owning a penciled page and someone else having the blue line inks cheapens the whole art experience.

 

Plus you have to buy two pieces of art, which is a pain.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While my preference is for pencils and inks on the same page, if that's not possible due to the change in work processes with high res scanning and inks over blue line copies (which does away with expensive FedEx shipping costs), then my preference is for the original pencilled page.

 

If I can afford the inked page, I'll pick it up but my preference is for the original pencils. Best,

 

Royd

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've been tempted a few times by pencil covers and pages but I always end up passing on them if there is also a blueline inked version as well. Just knowing that there is also a blueline ink version kills it for me. I really don't want to buy two versions of the same piece of art.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To me, if there is a penciled version and then a blue line inked version, depending on whose are you're a fan of, the penciled version is by that artist, and the inked version is by that inker and although credit should be applied, from a true art standpoint, the original art is in the inks and inking, again, the original art (not blueline reproductions).

 

It's not a bad thing, and in a way I personally like 'em paired up and then you get 2 pieces. It shows the evolution of a piece from the original pencils and what the inker does to embellish the piece, so side by side you can, to the credit of the craft of inking, see exactly what the inker does to finish the piece and get to what's eventually published.

 

I don't think they should be priced to a point where the rate to get the pair becomes outrageous of course too.

 

From a collecting standpoint this only applies, for me to published art. I'm personally not a huge fan of not-established artists inking over bluelined pencils and then selling it with the artists name in the forefront, and their inking contribution in fine print.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I don't think they should be priced to a point where the rate to get the pair becomes outrageous of course too.

 

Actually, if you want both examples, it usually costs you a lot more than if it was done as one piece. That is what bothers me most of the time. :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Out of curiosity how does one go about getting a blue line art board copy of a piece of art that one has? I have a cool penciled piece that I would like to get a blue lined copy inked and then frame the two side by side.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that the main danger about splitting the art in two pieces is a potential fraud.

 

I've seen cases of people (including an art dealer) selling the inks over blueline prints like if it was the original art, without warning of the existence of the pencils.

 

In this case, you can notice that it's not an unique original because of a "blue shadow", but if the seller uses a black & white image, you could get confused, because it could look like if they were traces of the pencils.

 

This confusion also happened with Byrne's work in his duotone age (Namor or She-Hulk pages). He used to pencil and partially ink in an average sheet, and then he'd scan it and print it in black over a craftint sheet, and add the tones and finish the inking there. I saw Craftint pages sold as the the unique original, without warning.

 

The same happened with his Silver Surfer one shot, when Palmer lightboxed the pencils on a Craftint/duoTone sheet.

 

I think that inkers working on blueline prints should state CLEARLY this, specially if inks and pencils are sold individually.

 

I agree with AKA Rick, and I prefer to have two separate sheets. Pencils are preserved, and you can learn a lot about the inker's work by comparing both of sheets.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Out of curiosity how does one go about getting a blue line art board copy of a piece of art that one has? I have a cool penciled piece that I would like to get a blue lined copy inked and then frame the two side by side.

 

It doesn't necessarily even need to be blue line. I've done stuff like that where I inked scans on a lightbox ( http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=259555&GSub=58172 ) No blueline underneath and no worries for the guy getting the commission about figuring out how to print out blueline pencils.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think that the main danger about splitting the art in two pieces is a potential fraud.

 

I've seen cases of people (including an art dealer) selling the inks over blueline prints like if it was the original art, without warning of the existence of the pencils.

 

In this case, you can notice that it's not an unique original because of a "blue shadow", but if the seller uses a black & white image, you could get confused, because it could look like if they were traces of the pencils.

 

This confusion also happened with Byrne's work in his duotone age (Namor or She-Hulk pages). He used to pencil and partially ink in an average sheet, and then he'd scan it and print it in black over a craftint sheet, and add the tones and finish the inking there. I saw Craftint pages sold as the the unique original, without warning.

 

The same happened with his Silver Surfer one shot, when Palmer lightboxed the pencils on a Craftint/duoTone sheet.

 

I think that inkers working on blueline prints should state CLEARLY this, specially if inks and pencils are sold individually.

 

I agree with AKA Rick, and I prefer to have two separate sheets. Pencils are preserved, and you can learn a lot about the inker's work by comparing both of sheets.

 

There is potential for fraud. Let's not just think of fraud happening with the separately inked version though. We have seen people credit Miller, Kirby, etc with pencils when the really just did some loose layout of the page. Buyers always need to do their homework.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It can also be a genuine mistake as happened in the case of an artist whose work I handle. I noticed a DPS on ebay which was advertised as pencils and inks when I had the pencilled page offered for sale at my website.

 

I knew the dealer (who's a trustworthy and reliable person) and contacted him to say that the page he had offered for sale on ebay was inks only as he handled the sale of the inker's work. He was surprised and contacted the inker who confirmed that it was indeed inks over a blue-line or copy of the pencil image.

 

He immediately removed the page from ebay.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think there are a list of artists whose work are done in Pencils only and that's the way the original art exists and then there's a subsequent legit inked blueline version, which looks closer to what is eventually published of course.

 

I know for certain some pieces are by:

 

Tim Seeley (Sheena covers from Devil's Due)

Drew Johnson (I think Ray Snyder inks over blue lines)

Adriana Melo (I think Mariah Benes inked over blue lines)

 

I would imagine with deadlines and logistics, a lot of the overseas based artists in the UK or Brazil probably prefer this method of either digital inks or blueline printouts in order to get the job done (after all, the original art is less about creating the collectible factor of the art than the fact that it's work used to publish the actual comic books, so these artists need to do what it takes to get that job done)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I handle the sale of 2 artists whose work is inked over blue line copies of the pencil image:

 

Nicola Scott (Doug Hazlewood inks over blue line copy)

Ardian Syaf (Vincente Cifuentes inks over blue line copy)

 

The process saves on the cost of FedEx-ing original artwork from penciller to inker and then to the company and also saves on time as the artwork is sent from one to another as high res scans.

 

The penciller sells his/her original pencils and the inker sells his/her original inks of the same page.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It can also be a genuine mistake as happened in the case of an artist whose work I handle.

 

Yes, this is something that could happen. Because of that, I think that it should be written on a margin of the original art that it was lightboxed or it was inked on a blue print. This could save some confusing situations.

 

This is a sample of what I'm saying...

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=279655&GSub=43405

Link to comment
Share on other sites