General Question

Dog's avatar

What medium(s) do modern cartoonists use?

Asked by Dog (25152points) May 23rd, 2009

I linked to this cartoon by Gary Larson in another thread and as an artist I was curious to know:

1. What medium did he use for this? I can see the ink but how about the color?

2. Are comic artists now using this medium or have they moved into digital- if so what program?

Feel free to post to samples and discuss this even if you are not quite sure yourself.

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7 Answers

PandoraBoxx's avatar

I was just in a local art supply store and they had a display for cartooning markers and special paper. I found a video about choosing markers for cartooning that you might find of interest.

janbb's avatar

It almost looks like watercolor and ink to me but I’m not sure how he would have gotten the dark shading on the dinosaurs if so. I wonder if it is some kind of computer graphic program.

The_Compassionate_Heretic's avatar

Good question.
It looks like it could be markers. The Far Side existed long before digital was the standard. My guess is the image was still colored by a machine at least for purposes of mass distribution.

Felt tip markers will produce a similar quality.

chelseababyy's avatar

Lots of people use pen and ink, and markers (water markers) to fill in color. However a lot of people now use drawing pads, like the bamboo fun, with things like photoshop.

Darwin's avatar

New Yorker cartoonists seem to use just about anything that you can make a mark on paper with, including pencil, pen and ink, ink wash, markers, and even block prints. Some cartoonists will do the work in black and white and then collaborate with a colorist.

Personally, I always preferred to use markers.

prasad's avatar

Um…looks like water colour…but not sure. Some do with pastels also, though this one doesn’t seem to be made in pastel.
I think, the paper has got some texture on it, dots if you look close enough.

What would you (all) have used if you were to draw the same picture or colour it?

TheRocketPig's avatar

Watercolor, Gauche, and Ink Wash are some of the standards of the industry even still. It’s moving into a more digital market… I would say the biggest “paint” simulation program would be Corel Painter.

If we were talking about the moving picture cartoons… I would say that Toon Boom is the standard for most commercial animations

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