#caainhurst

in no particular order...

1. annihilation: the biologist my babygirl... i feel like my whole blog is a testament to how good this book is BUT ITS SOOOO GOOD

2. moby dick: this book has everything. whales. being gay. running away to sea because of a depressive episode. man vs nature. man vs god. man vs man. cosmic horror. cetology. starbuck. a long digression on the benefits of spermaceti. the main character being the only one to survive because of the efforts of his friend. capitalism. environmentalism. ahab (assigned harpooneer at birth). chatting with the boys. cross cultural friendship. a big fuckin whale!

3. the tombs of atuan: such a good atmosphere and a great main character, tenar i love you can you hear meeeee... and ofc i love a good Breaking Out Of Their Programming story

4. the sympathizer: really well written, rich / boldly painted characters and a great main character, big win for fans of unreliable / unlikable / morally gray narrators

Hey dude! Thanks for asking. I’ve been having a fun time playing around and pushing my textures recently. Glad ya dig!

There’s two parts to this answer: tools and technique. I’ll start with tools.

I buy screentones from deleter-mangashop.com. I mainly use simple gradients and a 40% grey tone. Texture in ink lines comes from g-nib or ink brush on Bristol.

For digital images, I work in Clip Studio, which has an active/non-destructive layer style that translates grey values to screentones (you set dot shape and density). I use digital tools that mimic the traditional tools I like, so my current inker of choice is a brush with about the same flex and texture of the g-nib on textured vellum. Can’t recommend Frenden’s brushes enough (he even provides free updates for life): https://frenden.myshopify.com/

PJ Holden has some nice CS how-to tweets, including a nice thread on using the tone layer style: https://twitter.com/pjhtips

The image of Dazzler below uses a textured pencil for the soft edges. The background uses the same technique for the “airbrush” style coloring.

The second part of the answer is technique. I’ve been focusing a lot on values, edges, and shapes in my artwork for the past year or so. Most hard edges aren’t textured (aside from the inker/paper), but using texture on the soft edges (graphite, colored pencil, screentones, dry brush, airbrush -- or digital tools that mimic them) can describe a lot of information without a lot of rendering. It’s my current go-to.

Mike Mignola’s my idol for that: simple and graphic shapes, clear value stacking, very minimal rendering... but rich with texture. Both the low and high ends of the values are blown out, so silhouette is the main indicator of texture/form in those areas, not any sort of detailed rendering. He leaves that for the midrange, where the transition from high to low value is. Minimal rendering, maximal effect. Look up “3-value study” for some ideas of how to practice this stuff if it sounds like an answer you’re looking for.

Of course it all depends on what you’re trying to achieve with your artwork. Especially for Limiter, I’m pulling from and trying to achieve a bit of pulp psychedelia and horror. So I’m taking a lot of technique inspiration from work done in those styles. Mostly it’s graphic, low-brow... i.e. done quickly and economically. How do you get a soft edge or gradation of value if your print method doesn’t allow it (screen printing, old xerox, old comics, etc.)? By understanding why artists working in or for certain media render the way they do, it helps me achieve similar effect even if I’m mimicking their media digitally.

I guess to say, you can spend hours stippling and rendering every last inch of your image if that’s the look and method you like. For me, both because of a wrist injury and the low-pay-quick-turnaround nature of comics and my dayjob, my personal trajectory for art is finding the quickest way to get the most control over the maximum amount of meaning. That includes introducing a bit of unexpected chaos using splatters, dry brush, stamps, tones etc. to get textures. If your shapes and values communicate maximally, you can get away with a LOT of random bullshit in the middle. And that’s where the fun is.

Anyone who’s taken a workshop or training from me knows I love using Marco Bucci’s videos, so at risk of sounding like a broken record, check him out. The following are my favorites on this topic, but I learn something from each of them, even the ones I don’t think I care about:

Shapes: https://youtu.be/-ZknWKTpc90

Merging Shapes: https://youtu.be/Nap7dwHjD9Y

Edges: https://youtu.be/nnhj5efzN_w

Style/Texture: https://youtu.be/Fbo6ZAuF914

invasion of the bodysnatchers: how do u think ppl see u? how do u see urself?

i've had people tell me before that i'm intimidating, which is just wild to me because i don't really do anything on purpose to be intimidating. i'm pretty sure some people just see me as an emotionless automaton, judging by the way they treat me.

i see myself as... a work in progress. someone who just kind of takes a lot of what is handed to them. not very good at dealing with conflict or anything, not much of a leader, just kind of does their own thing.

hellraiser: do u have any tattoos/piercings? do u want any?

i do! i have snakebites, my left nostril pierced and my right eyebrow pierced. i also have double ear piercings and a cartilege piercing in my right ear... i'd love to get more ear piercings and maybe another eyebrow piercing but i'm not sure.

and then for tattoos i have... a lot. i have, like, eight. a couple of jojo tattoos, a loz tattoo, a shamrock, aphoenix, a ufo... next tattoo i get is going to be a silent hill tattoo, but i'm not sure when that'll be. my life is kinda up in the air at the moment, so i gotta focus on not being homeless first. once i'm on more stable footing i'll worry about tattoos.

the blair witch project: what’s ur biggest pet peeve?

when people expect you to know how they're feeling without ever bringing it up to you. like. how is your lack of communication my problem? it irritates the hell out of me when people get mad about things they could have just brought up were issues, but couldn't be bothered to. if you don't bring it up, you can't get mad at someone else for not knowing.