SAKANA 603 (+ new inking tools review) (Patreon)

Sorry I forgot to scan the pencils for this one!

I only had 3 thumbnails to start with, but honestly I'm just relieved that I was able to pick a scene to start chapter 25 and jump back in. It feels like tearing off a very old bandaid!

You may or may not be able to tell, but I switched out my longtime inking tools on this page! The pens I was using before were nice, but NOT WATERPROOF. Which means, when I put my hand down on any lines (fresh or not!), it would transfer to my skin and then get stamped all over the rest of the page while I drew other panels. I'm not sure if I just figured out how to work around that before the hiatus, or if I just dealt with it, or if they're making the pens worse these days! But I'm older and wiser now and I realized...I can just use different pens! lol 

Now I've switched to Sakura Pigma brush pens, and good ol' Microns. 

Because physical SAKANA pages are so BIG (6"x18" irl) I can't use super fine Microns for lines, I have to get the special EXTREMELY BIG ones for letters and panel borders. The FB Pigma brush pen has a good enough line variation range that I can use it to replace the Kuretake Fudegokochi I've been using for so long. The MB and BB brushes are good for spot blacks or for panels where the characters are very big. 

The only downside to these is that they're DRYER than the Kuretake pens. Trying to do lots of little lines very quickly can make them streaky, so it'll take a little time for me to become as comfortable with these as I was with the old setup. On the plus side, you put the line down and it's DOWN. No smearing or smudging! I'm looking forward to mixing things up and trying something new! 

I'll be switching to Robber/Robert pages for the next week or two to get that rolling as well.

Thanks for reading!