Draw Me a Robot: Cartoonist Tools and Workspaces

1. Who are you and what do you do?

I'm Trystan Mitchell and I'm a freelance illustrator working as The Bigfoot Studio, based in Cornwall in the UK. I show work (including free paper toy downloads!) on thebigfootstudio.com and blog works in progress over at bigfootstudio.blogspot.co.uk and as @inkfunnel over on Twitter.

I attended Falmouth Art College as a foundation student, before it was a University, back in the1980s. They were pretty snooty about commercial art and illustration in general in those days, and I let myself get pretty discouraged for a good while with the notion of art as a living; I've only come to a full time career in illustration over the last ten years. Prior to that I muddled through as a painter & decorator, signwriter, agricultural labourer and regular site crew at various UK music festivals like Glastonbury, Reading, Womad and the like. I got involved later with education and charities working with vulnerable kids and disaffected youth and their families down in Cornwall, and as a local county Learning Mentor for Travellers (Irish and Romany families) after living on the road & outdoors myself for twelve years.

The bulk of my commercial work of late has been educational text books and abridged classics for schools etc, in Europe and the USA (Penguin, Heinemann, Oxford University Press, Ballon, McGraw Hill etc) and promotional work for various businesses, mainly in the UK. Still trying to crack the kids' story book market though, hopefully with the help of a new agent after dispensing with my previous representation earlier this year.

I grew up loving the works of Arthur Rackham & Heath Robinson etc, the classic Victorian UK illustrators, but surrounded by the UK comics of the 1970s which were my staple visual diet for years. As such, my real love is illustrating comics and I've contributed to a number of small press and independent publications, collaborating with several brilliant writers & illustrators. Professionally in comics I'm currently illustrating the fourth issue of Dana Larsen's adaptation of his cannabis pastiche novel "Hairy Pothead & The Marijuana Stone".

My pet project of the moment though (being all me own work!) is my newly launched and slowly evolving webcomic The Call of Cthrnwall at . Combining my love of weird fiction from the likes of Algernon Blackwood & HP Lovecraft, with a childhood & imagination spent growing up on the edges of Bodmin Moor and various other bits of Cornwall.

2. What’s your hardware setup?

The career arc as an illustrator can be a little hand to mouth, so the hardware set up is fairly basic. Not being a real tech' head it keeps me happy and lets me get the job done, while not being horrendously expensive to replace when it goes rogue on me. I work with a basic PC (supplied by Scan Computers in Bolton) with 2.7GHz dual core Pentium chip and 4 GB of RAM (couldn't tell you what kind of graphics card it runs but I know there's one in there somewhere), a 52cm Flatron W2246 screen, an ageing Epson Perfection V300 A4 scanner...and a trusty Wacom Bamboo drawing tablet and stylus. Like I say, basic stuff, entry level really but it gives me results I'm happy with, with the occasional work around.

3. What’s your workspace look like?

Workspace? Compact and bijou in the jargon of the day! I've recently found a new home in a converted 1800's piggery attached to a farm back on my beloved Bodmin Moor here in Cornwall. My new studio space is about 7.5' x 6' and fits my drawing desk and computer station beautifully, with room left over for tools and reference shelving. It's also a real doddle to keep warm with the woodburner below decks! Having horses and peacocks calling in the neighbours' yards makes for an atmospheric soundscape when I need a bit of tranquility to get my thoughts together...

4. What tools do you use to make your cartoons?

Tools wise, I'm still draughting all my original artwork by hand on genuine real world paper and boards; I see a lot of artists insisting on Bristol board and high quality papers, but after much trial and error I've found that a good surfaced laser copier card is just as adequate and has stood me in good stead for years now.

I prefer clutch/mechanical pencils, working mainly with a 0.5 and a 0.7 nib, HB, 2B and blue architects leads. I have a couple of straight edge rules to hand and a collection of good old fashioned french curves and a set of compasses for when exact arcs are critical.

My drawing board is a beauty...an old animators board with rotating perspex sheet so it can double as a light box. A friend rode their motorcycle 270 miles from London with it strapped to their back in the middle of one winter and presented it to me when their animation studio was shifting premises; I've always been massively grateful for it. I've just had a new surface made up for it, slightly wider to clip sketchbooks and my Galaxy tablet to for reference, but it still feels like the same old faithful board to me!

1) I'm Zach Weinersmith. I do SMBC. I also have written some gamebooks, some kids' books, and I created a show called BAHFest.

2) I have a cintiq 22" and an inexpensive desktop.

1. WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU DO?

My name is Jonathan Rector (@artbyjar), and I live in Windsor, Ontario, Canada! I’m a published illustrator, comic book artist, and video game developer. I’ve been working on comics for over 10 years, including work for Arcana, Ronin, Blue Water Productions, and most recently, ComixTribe. Check out my website for more art, commissions, tutorials and places to find me online.

2. WHAT’S YOUR HARDWARE SETUP?

I use a Cintiq 12wx mounted to an Ergotron desk arm while at home. The setup isn’t anything fancy, just practical. I purchased a second monitor that can rotate, horizontally, to work better with my typical 11x17 art board for comics. When I’m out and about, I use a Surface Pro 65GB model. I have purchased a few items to make working on it awesome! For starters, I bought the Wacom Bamboo Stylus Feel (worst name ever), and it has proven to be very good. I snagged a really sweet cover, that acts as a stand. Finally, I attached a Logitech USB Game Controller to use for key board shortcuts. I’m left handed, and finding devices for people like me was proving to be difficult. The controller does the job great! Makes working anywhere much easier, and frees me up.

3. WHAT TOOLS DO YOU USE TO MAKE YOUR CARTOONS?

I’ve been a Photoshop guy since my High School days. It took me quite a while to get anything useful out of it, for comics. I dabbled with darkening the lines to make them look inked, but my pencils were never clean enough, and the messy digital clean-up work, was a gigantic time sink. I eventually stumbled upon the ‘DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics’, and it changed everything. After some practice, I was making comics fully digitally in Photoshop. I’ve only recently started using Manga Studio 4EX/5EX for the last 2 years. What an amazing piece of software. Now it’s all I use for my comic making needs. Save for coloring, which I still lean on Photoshop to do.

1. Who are you and what do you do?

My name is D. M. Rolfe. By day I create advertisements, brochures, posters for a big London advertising agency. By night I create cartoons. My passion is thinking up gags and creating cartoons which I then try to sell. I regularly contribute gags to Private Eye magazine and every once in a while I sell a cartoon. However, it’s my life’s ambition to get published in the New Yorker magazine.

I have no formal art education hence the funny noses I draw. But I did attend art college where I studied typography.

2. What’s your hardware setup?

Very basic. I use an old Apple MacBook and an Epson XP-305 to scan all my work. If I need to adjust or correct an image I will use Photoshop and my Wacom Bamboo tablet. That’s it! I do have a lightbox, is that classed as hardware?

3. What’s your workspace look like?

Voila!

On the other wall behind I have lots of cartoon books. i tend to keep my latest reads on my desk. Which at the moment are Bob Mankoff and Gahan Wilson.

4. What tools do you use to make your cartoons?

I usually work in black and white with grey washes. My line work is all drawn with Sakura Pigma Micron pens. I usually prefer an 08. I draw all my cartoon roughs on layout paper and then use a lightbox to create the finished cartoon on cartridge paper. The washes are all added using Dr Marten’s liquid watercolour and a synthetic brush. One the rare occasion I work in colour I will add colour in Photoshop with my Wacom tablet.

Finally… my robot.

I wanted to try and think up something quintessentially British!

Who are you and what do you do?

Hi and thanks for asking me for a submission to Draw Me a Robot! I’m Rob Stenzinger and I make comics from time to time at ArtGeekZoo.com, and make podcasts at LeanIntoArt.com.

Recently I coded, illustrated, and wrote a choose your own adventure style book about making video games. It’s called Video Game Construction Kit: Underwater Tomato Ninja Edition. I also provide User Experience design, facilitate workshops, and do User Interface engineering for a rapid prototyping team as my primary gig.

What’s your hardware setup?

I use a combination of analog tools, iOS, Android, and OS X devices day to day. My main workstation is a MacBook Air. When It’s docked, I use a Cintiq 12wx mounted to an Ergotron desk arm. When it’s not docked I use a Huion H610PRO tablet for pen input. My mobile art workstation is a Samsung galaxy note 10.1 though I often do you use analog tools to capture sketches and linework. I then either snapshot or scan as a sketch layer or turn it into vector ink lines using either CocoaPotrace on OS X or Vector Pro on iOS.

What’s your workspace look like?

My home office is a dedicated small room in my basement where I’m surrounded by artwork, desks, books, toys, juggling balls, and guitars.

What tools do you use to make your cartoons?

I try to be ready to do illustration work just about anywhere. I mostly prefer the setup and tools at my main workstation yet do find it useful and productive on the move. To accomplish that I used a Modbook for about 3 years - which I loved. Later I sold the Modbook to move to the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 which is less powerful but far more portable. I use mostly Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, though experiment with manga studio and mobile tools such as Sketchbook Pro mobile, LayerPaint HD.

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is David Scott Smith, and I am a cartoonist and illustrator. My “day job” is as an artist at Disneyland in California, where I hand paint cels, old school animation style, for park guests. At home I make the gag-a-day space monkey sci-fi webcomic called Space Base 8. You can find my illustration portfolio at dssillustration.com, and my twitter handle is @cartoonsmith.

2. What’s your hardware setup?

I use an 27 inch iMac with a 3.2 GHx Intel Core i3, with 16 GB of memory. To that I hook up a Yiynova MSP19U tablet monitor, which I really like. I also use a Logitech G13 programmable gaming keyboard for photoshop shortcuts and macros.

I have an Epson WF-7510 scanner/printer, which is cool because it scans and prints 11”x17”. To top it off, I set up my iPad (3rd gen) and my iPhone 5S in my workspace.

3. What’s your workspace look like?

My wonderful wife insisted I take a spare room in our house for a studio! A counter runs into a corner around two walls of the room, and serves as a long desk. I have the computer on the desk at one side in the corner, and the Yiynova tablet monitor on the other side.This way I can sit in my chair and easily just scoot over from the computer to the tablet monitor. The G13 gaming keyboard is to the left of the Yiynova. I keep a regular computer keyboard above the Yiynova for when I need to type something that is not a shortcut. I stuck a little springy pencil holder thing on the Yiynova so I can quickly stick the stylus there when my hand is on the way up to the keyboard. I can also move the Yinova closer to the iMac and use it as a second monitor if I want. My iPhone and iPad are between them, accessible no matter where I sit, to display reference, etc.

On the other side of the Yiynova I have a drawing table/light box with a rotating drawing surface that I built. Check out my Youtube video about it. I have a little drawer unit taboret next to that, and it rolls under the desk when I’m not using it. To the right of that is the scanner and drawers full of paper.

I put cork boards on the wall behind the desk all around the room and pin up lots of junk like keyboard shortcuts, reminders and reference. Also in the room is a kitchen island that didn’t fit in the kitchen when we moved, which is a great workbench and storage.

4. What tools do you use to make your cartoons?

I used to pencil and ink my comics in real life then color the scans in Photoshop. But since I got the Yiynova tablet monitor I work all digitally, in Photoshop CC. I like the G13 gaming keyboard better than a regular keyboard for Photoshop shortcuts, and I keep it to the left of my Yiynova tablet, under my left hand when I work. I use software called ControllerMate to program it.

1. Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Byron Wilkins, cartoonist. I am a retired video producer and presently do illustrations, commissions and a webcomic. I am a mostly self-taught artist, but did take art classes in high school and college, but that was back in the ‘70s so at this point they really don’t count. I also run the Webcomic Alliance along with Dawn Griffin and a whole slew of talented artists who contribute How-To articles and videos for the beginner digital comic artist. Check out my portfolio. I’m also on Twitter as @tr1byron.

2. What’s your hardware setup?

My primary machine is a Windows 7 Pro 64-bit machine with an AMD Phenom II X4 970 3.50GHz processor with 8 GB of RAM. I have a WACOM Intuos 4 PTK-840 tablet for drawing along with a Canon 9000F scanner. I also have a Samson C03U pro microphone and Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB audio interface for doing podcasting. I have a second system, an older Windows XP Pro system, which I use mainly for bookkeeping and maintaining back-up files. It’s handy to have a second system when the primary system is busy with rendering or other tasks.

3. What’s your workspace look like?

An organized mess. I’m fairly neat, but a few things pile up during projects. I converted a bedroom in my home into my home office and it works very well. Plenty of light and easy access to a bathroom (handy at my age).

4. What tools do you use to make your cartoons?

New submissions coming soon, but in the meantime, give these famous workspaces a gander.

1. Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Kevin Parham. I am the cartoonist of Another Comic Strip; however I make my living as a Project Manager in the field of power generation. I have only recently taken up the mantle of “webcomicker” – the result of a self dare to challenge my insecurities and fear of the Digital Age of art. I am a 14 year veteran of marriage to the same amazing woman who happens to have an uncanny tolerance for the “Artist Quirks” (you’re all smiling because you know exactly what I mean), and we get to raise three super smart and talented children. We are in cahoots together on an “in-progress” children’s book which I will illustrate, tentatively titled ‘Finnigan Frogmore’s Daring Day’. Some of the concept art can be found in the “Other Doodles” section of my website:

Anothercomicstrip.com

Other avenues where my art is shared:

Twitter - @bkparham

Facebook - Another Comic Strip

My comics are most often one panel posts, which is an art form I’ve always respected tremendously. To me, drawing a picture that effectively sets up and delivers in one clever panel is an amazing feat, and really satisfying when accomplished. I also enjoy drawing faux comic book covers and fan art (also found on the site). I will soon be moving everything to Comic Press with Comic Easel.

I would like to be able to say that I live as basically as possible because it sounds cool. The truth is that if I had an autobiography it would be titled ‘The Reluctant Minimalist’, which leads me to…

2. What’s your hardware setup?

It’s as minimal as one can get and still produce a webcomic. I have temporarily abandoned pencil and paper and exclusively draw everything I publish digitally in order to catch up with the curve (although I still do basic sketches on paper for my own enjoyment). Interesting to note is that the Smash Master 3800 (Highlands Edition) robot is one of my only published digital drawings that actually began on paper (you may pick up on it's slight presence in one of the process pictures).

Production of ‘Another Comic Strip’ begins with a 5 year old Dell Studio 1535 laptop equipped with Windows Vista that I’ve “Frankensteined” with a new motherboard and new power circuits. It runs on the Core 2 Duo at 2.16 Ghz with a 250 GB hard drive. Graphics are driven by the ATI Mobility Radeon 3400 series. This is connected to an ancient Acer flat screen monitor (you did in fact read “Acer”). However, I see Apple products on the horizon.

3. What’s your workspace look like?

I was recently bumped up a class, moving from one end of the love seat with a T.V. tray supporting the monitor, to a small desk behind the love seat. Now the T.V. tray supports the laptop. The television is still in my line-of-sight, which is important because a movie is running in the background 100% of the time I am drawing at home (usually movies I have seen hundreds of times) – I don’t know why it helps, but it does. This is a top shelf set up I tell ya!

In all seriousness, with three kids, two dogs and an understanding wife all sharing the same space, I am happy to have a small corner of our home in which to work.

4. What tools do you use to make your cartoons?

When I first started drawing digitally, I was using a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 with the LayerPaint app. Most of my first published digital comics and/or drawings were done this way. I think 'Another Comic Strip #4' was the first to be done by using the following (which is now the set routine):

1. Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Adam Huber and I draw a webcomic called Bug Martini. It's a gag-a-day strip all about people dealing with random nonsense, except that instead of drawing people, I draw bugs. Why? Because bugs are way more fun to draw than people, as are animals, aliens, monsters, mole-men, mutants, plants, mutant plantmen, etc.

2. What’s your hardware setup?

I use an iMac (with Photoshop CS5) and an Epson scanner to get my comic on the web. I also have a Wacom Cintiq 12WX that I used to draw a previous webcomic, but decided to go back to pen and paper. I occasionally use the Cintiq to make minor corrections I've found (or my more observant readers have pointed out).

3. What’s your workspace look like?

I've converted the second bedroom in my apartment into an office of sorts. When I sit at my chair I'm surrounded my two computers (a Mac and a PC), a scanner, and all the audio equipment I use for my weekly podcast (the Geeks of Steel podcast I do with fellow webcartoonist, Matt Forcum).

On the other side of the room, I have shelves containing my shipping supplies for sending out original art and a table to work on. Hopefully, this room will see much more activity in the coming months with my first book - God willing.

4. What tools do you use to make your cartoons?

1. Who are you and what do you do?

I'm Chris Jones and I've been a freelance illustrator for over 10 years. I've worked in editorial illustration, children's illustration, graphic novels, and webcomics. About 3 years ago I decided to shift my focus to children's illustration, and now I'm mainly doing illustration work in children's educational books and magazines. I am also always working on side projects that include developing ideas for children's books and comics.

2. What's your hardware setup?

I work on a PC - Windows 8, Dell XPS 8500, 3.4GHz Core i7-3770, with 16GB of RAM, a 2TB Hard Drive, and a 256GB Solid State Drive (on which I run my OS and all applications). I work with a 21" ASUS LED monitor, and a Wacom Cintiq 12WX.

3. What's your workspace look like?

I work in my basement studio. I have a set up that includes my computer workstation, a 6x4" magnetic whiteboard, a main drafting table where I do all my drawing, and a second drafting table were I do all my cutting. The second table It also includes large piles of disorganized sketches and general clutter!

What tools do you use to make your cartoons?

1. Who are you and what do you do?

I'm Irma Eriksson and I'm a cartoonist and illustrator originally from New Jersey, but living in Stockholm, Sweden. My main project is my comic "Imy" which I have been publishing online for almost 6 years. It's a slice-of-life strip about a rock-chick barista, her friends and her fish in a coffeepot. I just printed my 4th "Imy" volume which I'll be selling at New York Comic Con this coming weekend (table i6 in Artis Alley if anyone's going!). "Imy" was also featured for the month of May in 2013 in the Swedish newspaper "Göteborgs-Posten." I have a second comic called "Cosmical", which turns the planets into characters and teaches a little about astronomy while, hopefully, making people smile. I am currently building up that one offline. I'm also a freelance illustrator and my work can be seen at illoluv.com.

2. What’s your hardware setup?

My best friend in the world is my 13" MacBook Pro from 2010. I call him Clyde, because he's the Clyde to my Bonnie. 2.4 Ghz Intel Core Duo, 4GB RAM. He's still going strong, although a little slower these days. But he goes EVERYWHERE with me. I hook up Clyde to a 17" Philips widescreen monitor which is easier for me to work on when I'm sitting at my desk. And I use an old Wacom Graphire 4 tablet with a 5x4 inch workspace to do all my drawing. I also have an iPad Retina which I like to use to draw with, but that's mostly just for fun sketches.

3. What’s your workspace look like?

I don't have any office space for myself in my apartment, so for a long time I was just using the dining room table. After a couple of years, I decided I needed something a little better, and I wanted my dining room table back, so I bought a small desk for the corner of my bedroom. Since I work mainly digitally, I don't need that much space for drawing. My workspace is small, but it suits me just fine. The little fun inspirations that decorate it are some toys: a couple of She-Ra figures, my little bear (Mr. Cool), an Iron Man bobblehead, a Sackboy stuffed toy, my old Rubik's Snake, and my Pacman stress ball. Hanging above it are two great original Booksmarts panels by Tom Racine, and the comics page from the first issue of the Swedish newspaper where my comic was featured (translated to Swedish!).

And in case you wanted an explanation of my robot, here it is:

When I sat down to draw my robot my head was spinning with all the different types of robots I could draw. The possibilities are ENDLESS. I was thinking of doing a femme-bot type but then, suddenly, this guy started to form. He was going to be cute and sweet at first, a happy little robot, but he decided to be evil instead. And no evil robot is complete without a laser! And he can fly, so watch out!

4. What tools do you use to make your cartoons?

1) Who are you and what do you do?

I’m Mark Stokes, a freelance illustrator and cartoonist. I've worked many years as an animator, creating television and commercial advertising animation for clients including Time Warner Cable, SPCA, and Boy Scouts of America. I'm the co-creator of the children's animated series, Jingaroo, and I animated a short film, "Honey, Home I'm Higher" which ran in Spike and Mike’s Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation. I've won two Telly Awards and a Bronze Omni Intermedia Award for my animation work.

I also create Zombie Boy Comics, an online comic strip featuring the afterlife and times of Morgan McCorkindale and his pals, which recently hit its third year online. Zombie Boy as a character celebrated his 25th anniversary last year. His first appearance was in print in 1987, as a comic book, with subsequent issues throughout the next decade. I made the transition from a comic book into an online comic strip in 2010, with my first strip posting on Aug. 2, 2010.

Zombie Boy Comics is posted three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

2) What’s your hardware set up?

I work on an iMac 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 with a 21.5” screen. I draw with a Wacom Intuos4 Medium Pen Tablet for my digital work.

3) What tools do you use to make your cartoons?

1. Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Shaun Bryant, and I am a character designer and illustrator. I am currently working at Powerhouse Animation in Austin TX. At Powerhouse I design characters, paint backgrounds, do rough storyboards, and every now and again create 3d assets for different animated projects In my free time I develop characters and illustrations to strengthen my skills and add to my pile of projects I hope to pitch in the future. You can check out some of this work at www.art-bomb.com.

2. What’s your hardware setup?

12w Cintiq

20in. Acer monitor

HPE 150F PC running the Adobe Master Suite CS5

Mustek A3 scanner

Canon ix6520 printer.

3. What’s your workspace look like?

My workspace at home is squeezed into my living room. I have a drawing desk from Ikea and it has a nifty built in light table, and my monitor is on a pivot arm above the table to allow for more room. The Cintiq I use is pretty mobile so its no problem to push it out of the way to use analog tools when needed.

My desk is always in flux covered in art books, sketchbooks, pencils, paints, and inks much to my wife's dismay, haha. I try to reign in the chaos but I think my mind rejects a barren desk.

4. What tools do you use to make your cartoons?