What are some of your favorite drawing tools (pens, pencils, markers, drawing tablet, all of the above)?

I think it all really depends on what I’m doing. I’m in love with my brushpen, but it’s totally balls for penciling roughs. Balls. But really, I’d have to say my red Col-Erase pencils, my Pentel Brush pen, and my Pentel RSVP ballpoint are my daily heroes.

If you have a wide collection, how do you decide on which to use on a particular drawing, project, or day?

I sit at my desk and ask myself this question while staring at the array of pens and pencils and brushes and god knows what else. I painted with a feather once. Not like the end they make quills from, but the fluffy part. I guess what I end up doing is really thinking about what kind of line I want to achieve, and which one of these damn things is going to give me that. Sometimes I trace over drawings a few times with different pens to see what I like best for that particular project. Mostly I get really frustrated and just use a ballpoint.

How do you like your color? Watercolor? Acrylics? Oil? Colored pencils? Markers?

I use acrylics pretty much exclusively right now. Although I’m considering getting back on the gouache horse that I fell off after art school. Such bright, creamy, vibrant colours. I’m also feeling a lot of nostalgia for crayons and pencil crayons. I feel a hefty need to play with them again.

If you do use paints, inks, pencils, or markers for coloring, are there any in particular that are your favorites? Do you prefer travel sets of paints to a full set?

Anything cheap. I buy SO many paints in crazy different colours that if they weren’t cheap, I’d be bankrupt. Or ten grand in debt to a loan shark in order to feed my colour addiction. For acrylic I usually end up buying the Liquitex Basics, and I use Golden mediums with them.

Is there any particular type of notebook or drawing pad you prefer? Or does any scrap of decent-sized paper work in a pinch?

As long as the paper is smooth as butter and completely toothless. I hate HATE textured paper. With a fiery passion. yuck. I also prefer that sketchbooks be hardbound, I don’t like spiral ones because the pages slip around and rub against each other and everything ends up all smudged.

If you paint, is there any particular type of canvas you prefer? Do you like to paint on wood or any other materials?

Canvas is balls. I hate the regular texture to it. I prefer to work on paper for my illustration work, and wood or masonite boards for fine art. Or as I just did the other day, I spread light acrylic modeling paste all over the canvas, like icing a cake, and when it dries it has this look of old plaster. A great texture to work on.

Do you ever do any kind of post-processing (like adding color in Photoshop or similar tool) to your drawings?

I do go the digital route sometimes. Usually when I’m in a hurry, or I want something really smooth and uniform. In which case I usually colour my linework in Photoshop, and then drop in flat colours. I’m no good at digital painting though.

Have you ever tried a new pen (or paper, etc) from reading about it, or seeing the results in another artist’s work?

Yes, actually. I was hearing all this buzz on the interwebs about the Pentel brush pen, and I was looking for a good brush pen anyways. I hate the felt tip kind, the tip gets all fuzzy and gross after 1 drawing, and there isn’t as much control over the line weight. If you can’t tell already, I’m really anal about my drawings, but I also like a little bit of messiness. Sadly I’m incapable of actually letting myself be messy. I found the Pentel pocket brush gives me the perfect amount of control vs. chaos. Plus it fits in my purse so I take it everywhere!

If you work both digitally and non-digitally, which do you find yourself doing more? Is there a reason you would prefer one of the other? Is it because of the tools available in either space?

Lately I’ve found myself slowly moving closer and closer to working digitally, which I have always steered clear from up until now. I LOVE the physical act of painting, of getting it all over my fingers and in my hair and on the sleeves of my favourite sweater that I forgot I was wearing again. But I’m also an illustrator, and there is often a big time issue, I can work faster digitally, mostly because when working digitally I simplify myself a lot. Even more so than that, I’m a starving artist with a terrible, old and shitty scanner and lately it’s just not worth fighting with it, or paying someone to scan it for me.

I asked about post-processing on a computer, but do you think the computer is a helpful tool for making art? Whether it’s looking for inspiration online, or using it to build a weblog to promote yourself and your art, do you think a computer is necessary, helpful, or a distraction (or all of the above)?

I have a huge internet presence, probably too much so. I have two blogs, a website, way too many email addresses, and I’m on Twitter 24-7. My entire fan base (tiny as it is) is online, so without the computer and internet, I’d be even poorer (hard to imagine). I also have a catalogue of work I find inspiring in a folder on my computer. Anytime someone on one of the many blogs I follow does something mind boggling, I drag it into the folder and look at it for hours.

Sadly it is also SUPER distracting, and I’m starting to learn that I have to shut everything off and buckle down, or I can waste entire days playing around on the internet making dick jokes on twitter and chatting, and trolling through other people’s awesome work that they can do because they are not addicted to the internet.

Thanks Britt!

You can find Britt Wilson online on her portfolio website brittwilson.com, her weblog Britt, a Wilson, on Twitter (@Britterson), Flickr (batamarang), and on a weblog she shares with Vicki Nerino: Uterus Parade.

What are some of your favorite drawing tools (pens, pencils, markers, drawing tablet, all of the above)?

I enjoy both traditional and digital processes and try to practice both. For my professional work though, I often go digitally. I’m more comfortable with, and it’s faster for me. I can come back on any step of my process, and I love the technical possibilities that digital provides. I use a Wacom tablet and Photoshop CS4. I start from zero in Photoshop, so my digital work is 100% digital. But I also love drawing with good old pens and pencils. Recently my favorite pencil is a Conté Pierre Noire, I love it because it makes really deep blacks. My friend Victoria Maderna also gave me a wonderful little pencil: Schwarz Black soft, by Faber Castell. It’s soft and oily, but not greasy. Sometimes I draw with pens as well. For the colors, I’m an addict of watercolors.

If you prefer pens, is there any particular brand, color, or type of ink you like best?

I do not prefer pen rather than other medium, but sometimes I feel like drawing with them. My favorites are Pilots, I have several of that brand. I try to use different sizes in the same drawing, but depends, sometimes I start doodling with a ball pen and I end up filling a full page. Another one that I find very useful, is this Japanese ink pen, with a brush: Pentel GFKP. The brush is really good, allowing to vary the line density, and easier to carry on than an ink bottle.

How do you like your color? Watercolor? Acrylics? Oil? Colored pencils? Markers?

As I said, my favorites are watercolors. These are awesome and also frustrating to use, but I love it. I have two boxes of Winsor & Newton watercolors, had them for ages, and they still feel kind of magic. Plus you can take them anywhere, they fit in any pocket! It happens that I use color pencils as well, or acrylics, but I’m not that good with paint. I never trieds oils, and I feel quite ashamed about that haha! In the near future I would like to practice more painting though.

Is there any particular type of notebook or drawing pad you prefer? Or does any scrap of decent-sized paper work in a pinch?

I’m quite difficult about paper. For exemple, I don’t like Moleskine paper much, because it’s yellow and you can’t really add water on it. They are good for pens though. I often prefer watercolor paper, or Canson. About sketchbooks, a friend of mine who is an artist too, Jens Claessens, always buy these A4 and A5 books for me, in a little art store of his town. They don’t have any particular brand I guess, they are only huge books with an hard cover, black or blue, with nothing on it, and the paper is perfect for me. That said, depending of the context, I draw on anything, like on a paper napkin, wood, stones, or the walls of my bedroom…

Have you ever tried a new pen (or paper, etc) from reading about it, or seeing the results in another artist’s work?

I don’t recall this happened, except maybe in school, trying out my schoolmates’s tools. I like being inspired by others but I try not to “copy” other artists process too much. I would be afraid of losing my own personality by trying the tricks of other artists. That said, most of the mediums I use are pretty common. I think it’s how an artist uses a tool that makes it unique, more than the tool itself.

If you create purely-digital art, what are the software programs you use? Is one used more than another?

I only use Photoshop. I used to mess around a little bit in Illustrator and Painter few years ago, but not seriously. I’m a bit of a noob!

If you work both digitally and non-digitally, which do you find yourself doing more? Is there a reason you would prefer one of the other? Is it because of the tools available in either space?

I work digitally for my commission work (for press, graphic novels, illustrations for clients), because it’s easier. I love the freedom that digital process provides me. For quite a long time I didn’t had a scanner, so I learned to draw everything digitally, without traditional sketching. It was more a constraint at the beginning, but in the end it made things easier. I developed my style this way and I can work quite fast now. For my own pleasure I still draw traditionally though, but less than digitally. I sell original artworks on Etsy. I do some when I have time to produce stuff just for fun. No pressure. It seems more difficult for me to work traditionally for a client. I’m not confident enough with it, less practice.

I asked about post-processing on a computer, but do you think the computer is a helpful tool for making art? Whether it’’s looking for inspiration online, or using it to build a weblog to promote yourself and your art, do you think a computer is necessary, helpful, or a distraction (or all of the above)?

Definitely all of the above! It would be crazy to say that it’s not helpful. Not especially for creating art, there is tons of full traditional artists that don’t really need a computer as a tool of creation. But for creating a network, contacts in the industry, for job seeking, to have a website, to communicate with clients, to find reference, for inspiration, etc. Computers and the internet are obviously a huge resource.

Like mostly everything else, it also can be a huge distraction and a tool of procrastination. It’s up to people to use it in a clever way. I’m still trying to figure it out!

Thanks Aurélie!

Aurélie Neyret can be found online at her weblog Clo! and on Twitter (@ZeuClo). Prints of her work can be found at INPRNT and some originals are available on Etsy.

What are some of your favorite drawing tools (pens, pencils, markers, drawing tablet, all of the above)?

I like mechanical pencils because I tend to draw in a very quick scruffy style and would have to sharpen a normal pencil about every couple of seconds. Even illustrations that end up rather minimal and tight start out as a mess of lines and corrections. For that reason, I also find a putty rubber indispensable, because it can get into all the little nooks and crannies of my drawing. I get into a panic if I don’t know where my putty rubber is. It’s a bit like Dumbo’s feather.

I use a lightbox a lot, because I like to keep my pencil artwork separate and the lightbox enables me to experiment with different approaches to the same illustration.

I use a Wacom when I’m on the computer, although it’s just a little A6 tiddler, so I find it’s only useful for rough sketches and quite broad actions, like using the burn tool in Photoshop.

My favourite pen would be my Pentel brush pen.

If you have a wide collection, how do you decide on which to use on a particular drawing, project, or day?


It generally depends on the subject matter. How a given medium supports what you’re trying to communicate is something that really interests me. For example, I recently drew a character for a story set in the 80s so I’ve used half tones to give the illustration a kind of 80s newsprint feel. If I want to do a creepy, Victorian style illustration I’ll use dense linework and treat paper in Photoshop to make it look older. Upbeat kids stuff might be looser more expressive pencils with bright, fresh watercolours.

If you prefer pens, is there any particular brand, color, or type of ink you like best?


I’m forever hassling people to take up Pentel brush pens. They’re really convenient and versatile, you can use them in an expressive loose kind of way, or reign them in for nice tight graphic work. That said, I’ve recently started playing around with a mapping pen and have been really pleased with the results. 



How do you like your color? Watercolor? Acrylics? Oil? Colored pencils? Markers?



Mainly watercolours and Photoshop. If I’m using watercolour I tend to make a set of swatches, scan them in and then compose the colours in Photoshop. I also colour things directly in Photoshop, and use bits of texture – old paper, metal etc. to give things a bit more depth. Photoshop is great with watercolours and pencils.

If you do use paints, inks, pencils, or markers for coloring, are there any in particular that are your favorites? Do you prefer travel sets of paints to a full set?

I like using felt tip pens, I think because of their associations with being a kid. If I think of colouring in, I think of felt tip pens. I also like drawing with biros, for a similar reason – it reminds me doodling in exercise books in school.

Is there any particular type of notebook or drawing pad you prefer? Or does any scrap of decent-sized paper work in a pinch?

I do most of my work in A4 sketchbooks with heavy paper with a bit of a grain to it. I need heavy paper because I make such a mess, it needs to be paper that can take a bit of a battering. I like the grain because of the way it picks up the pencil and the smudges…it gives more information to Photoshop that I can play with later, burning bits in or cloning nice bits of texture etc.



Do you ever do any kind of post-processing (like adding color in Photoshop or similar tool) to your drawings?


Pretty much everything goes through Photoshop. I use curves a lot, and the burn and dodge tool. I play with the colour values and I like to use multiply layers, e.g having a bit of old paper as a multiply layer, or having my inks on a multiply layer and colouring beneath. Even the scruffiest sketch gets curved up and has some bits burned in and other bits knocked back.

Have you ever tried a new pen (or paper, etc) from reading about it, or seeing the results in another artist’s work?

Almost everything I use. I think it’s really important to keep experimenting and to stay clued up. Everything I’ve mentioned so far can be traced back to hearing about it or seeing it somewhere. I picked up the Pentel Brush Pen because the guy who does the concept art for the Metal Gear Solid videogames uses one. The last design studio I worked at had a really healthy culture of trying stuff out and sharing knowledge. I picked up loads of useful bits of Photoshop from the designers there. If I’m not sure how someone’s achieved a particular effect I hunt around on the Internet for a relevant tutorial.

Do you have anything you use out of the ordinary for making your art?

Not really. After talking up the computer so much I’d like to say that I’m a big fan of the ordinary! If the audience can understand how a picture was made, then I think that’s another level to the relationship between the work and the viewer. There’s something magical about seeing an amazing piece of art that is just pencil marks on paper.

If you create purely-digital art, what are the software programs you use? Is one used more than another?

I’m going to continue the trend of contradicting my last answer. I really love drawing in Flash, especially the way you can grab your lines and fills and pull them around until you’re happy with them. Also, Flash and Illustrator are great for more modular pieces – loads of characters and stuff, because you can easily rearrange, resize and edit different elements.



If you work both digitally and non-digitally, which do you find yourself doing more? Is there a reason you would prefer one of the other? Is it because of the tools available in either space?


Nothing beats drawing in a sketchbook.

I asked about post-processing on a computer, but do you think the computer is a helpful tool for making art? Whether it’s looking for inspiration online, or using it to build a weblog to promote yourself and your art, do you think a computer is necessary, helpful, or a distraction (or all of the above)?


Well, generally I think computers are great. Especially for getting your work seen, communicating with clients, researching content for work or seeing what everyone else is up to. The danger with computers is that because they’re so clever and offer you so much choice, you can struggle to keep a focus on yourself and your work. Regarding the Internet, sometimes it can be inspiring and sometimes it can be a bit bewildering when the whole creative industry is out there for you to explore and find your place in. Regarding post-processing, it’s always a worry that by the time I’ve inked a sketch and scanned the inks and cleaned them up and moved them about and coloured them and added a texture I may have killed the spark from the original sketch stone dead. The trick with computers is using them to enhance whatever it is that makes you unique as an artist in the first place.

Thanks Chris!

You can find Chris Rodenhurst online at his weblog Sketchybeast.

What are your favorite drawing tools (pens, pencils, markers, drawing tablet, all of the above)?

My favorite tools are pencils, ballpoint pens and the Pentel brush pens with permanent ink in them, which I purchased while I was living in Japan, god, eight years ago. The Pentel permanent ink is so nice and heavily pigmented that it is really permanent. I made our address sign for the placard at our apartment door with it, and it sat in the full blaze of the Japanese summer sun for two years without a sign of fading.

If you have a wide collection, how do you decide on which to use on a particular drawing, project, or day?

The project is usually going to dictate the medium. If the deadline is tight you need something that’s going to be dry and finished fast, especially when working with paints. For the drawing tools, it depends on what kind of mood you’re going to evoke. If I need a more uniform line weight, I’ll reach for the ball points, if I need verve, power and snap, I’m going to go with the brush pen. If I need some subtlety and variation in tone, it’ll be the pencil.

If you prefer pens, is there any particular brand, color, or type of ink you like best?

For pens, I usually use Papermate pens. The ink comes out of them pretty readily and heavily, and I can get a wide variation out of the line/tone quality. If the ink comes out meagerly or is too liquid, you lose that play and option in the linework. You don’t need those SKG-whatevers that James Jean uses, you just need a ball point where the ink comes out easily but not too liquid. Then you can get all of that lovely “dry-pen” look that he gets.

How do you like your color? Watercolor? Acrylics? Oil? Colored pencils? Markers? All of the above?

I work a lot in oils, which are a very forgiving medium. Watercolors are also a favorite, but to work opaquely over them, I use gouache, which is some of the most unforgiving stuff out there. Mainly because the amount of color and value shift from the wet to dry paint varies widely from color to color, and when you’ve got a mix of them going on, well, you’re never perfectly sure what you’re going to end up with. But I use them anyway, and I’m getting better at predicting how they’ll curveball on me.

Do you prefer travel sets or do you need a full set of colors? If you have a different set of tools for working in your studio (or office, or home, or on the couch) and out in public (at the park, or a coffee shop), what are the differences?

I have a very portable kit that I take with me for sketching. It consists of a cloth fold-over wallet that holds several pens and pencils of different uses, and then a tin that contains a water brush pen and a small watercolor pan set. With those items I can make notations of almost anything I need to out in the field. The only difference between field work water colors and studio watercolors is that in the studio I have a wider selection of tubed gouache paints. In the field, I just mix the watercolors with Chinese White, which is just white gouache.

For plein air oil painting, I use the standard french easel and my full palette, which is a modified version of Richard Schmid’s palette. From left to right on my palette, I lay out: Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt Blue Deep, Viridian, Transparent French Red Ochre, Pyrrolo Ruby (looks like Alizarin but permanent), Cad Red Light, Yellow Ochre, Cad Yellow Deep, Cadmium Primrose (a greenish yellow) and Titanium White. (I’ll use Flake or Zinc white for special effects some times, but Titanium is the workhorse.)

Is there any particular type of notebook or drawing pad you prefer? Or does any scrap of decent-sized paper work in a pinch?

I always have a Moleskine with me, mainly because it’s small and takes pen and pencil well. I don’t use the sketchbook version, just the plain (I get more paper that way!) For bigger sketchbooks, my wife makes them for me out of selections of nicer paper that I buy in sheets and she binds together with covers and coptic binding, which allows the pages to lie nice and flat.

If you paint, is there any particular type of canvas you prefer? Do you like to paint on wood or other material?

I prefer to make my own canvases, because the mass-produced ones are just generally crap: the weave of the fabric is skewed or wavy or the primer is acrylic, which is like sandpaper and can kill nice oil brushes. (I have a nice bristle bright that I used to scrub in some shadows on a 18x24” canvas and when I was done, at least two-thirds of the length was worn away.)

I do increasingly use panels, since they don’t have the give of canvas and I can be assured that when I push the brush into the panel with some force it’s not going to bend and make me miss the mark I was trying to hit. Real Gesso makes excellent panels with traditional panel gesso or oil-primed linen surfaces.

Do you ever do any kind of post-processing (like adding color in Photoshop or similar tool) to your art?

Other than correcting the photos of the artwork to match as closely as possible, not usually. Sometimes I will do some compositing to meet a deadline or accommodate some changes that an Art Director wants.

Have you ever tried a new pen (or paper, etc) from reading about it, or seeing the results in another artist’s work?

Sure! I think most artists do. I’ve tried out Rives BFK after seeing James Jean use it, but the loose nap got on my nerves. My favorite paper for ink and watercolor work these days is Annigoni paper. There’s a light tan version that has a great unifying effect on any colors that go over it and it absorbs ink in a way that makes the ink look like it’s part of the paper instead of sitting on top.

Do you have anything you use out of the ordinary for making your art?

I have some weird brushes, like Epiphanes varnishing brushes and a weird assortment of calligraphy brushes I often use for oil painting, but that’s about as “out there” as I get.

When creating your digital art, what are the software programs you use? Is one used more than another?

I use Photoshop with a Wacom tablet.

If you work both digitally and non-digitally, which do you find yourself doing more? Is there a reason you would prefer one of the other? Is it because of the tools available in either space?

I work digitally on certain projects like storyboards. That way they’re done quickly and are easily editable and I can make quick changes and crank out a set of 10-15 in a day.

I asked about post-processing on a computer, but do you think the computer is a helpful tool for making art? Whether it’s looking for inspiration online, or using it to build a weblog to promote yourself and your art, do you think a computer is necessary, helpful, or a distraction (or all of the above)?

Computers are a great and useful tool, as long as you know what they do well and what they don’t. Promotion by computer is a necessity these days. I can’t imagine getting the word out about my art without it.

Thanks Kurt!

You can find Kurt Ankeny online at his portfolio website and weblog kurtankeny.com and on Twitter (@kurtankeny). You can find out more about the classes he teaches at ankenystudio.com.

What are your favorite drawing tools (pens, pencils, markers, drawing tablet)?

My favourite drawing tools are Faber Castell PITT Artist pens, Pilot Super Grip pencils, Pentel brush pens and my Montblanc fountain pen.

If you have a wide collection, how do you decide on which to use on a particular drawing, project, or day?

I carry my drawing tools in a small Muji Pencil box. It means I can only carry 4 pens at a time, I like the fact that I have relatively few choices and don’t really have to decide what pen to use at any time. Saying that I have tried lots of different type of pens from Rotring, Edding, Staedtler to Pigma Microns but for the moment I like drawing with brown ink as it throws the line back a bit and makes it a bit less dominant than a black line. I carry the Pentel brush pen and fountain pen as sometimes its good to have a looser approach and using a fountain pen or brush stops you be too precise and tight.

The other kit I carry around with me is another Muji Pencil box (large) in it are 2 pencils 2b and 4b, a pencil sharpener, a rubber (or for Americans an eraser) and 2 Pentel water brush pens a medium and a large. The box is padded with tissue to stop them rattling about.

All thats left is a small Winsor & Newton travel watercolour kit. I’m in the middle of trying to simplify the colours I use, but I like to replace some of the pans with colours I prefer such as Permanent Sap Green, Neural Grey, Permanent Mauve and Cerulean Blue. Typing this out I realise that maybe its colours suited to the Scotland’s landscape and light?

It’s all really basic. If I just want to draw on the way to work I take the small Muji box. If I want to paint I take the larger one with the watercolour set - no thinking involved at all! :)

If you prefer pens, is there any particular brand, color, or type of ink you like best?

Apart from Faber-Castell PITT artist pens I like to use Noodler’s Bulletproof ink in my fountain pen. It’s a total lifesaver as you can work over the top of it with watercolour.

How do you like your color? Watercolour? Acrylics? Oil?

I use watercolour pretty much all the time in Moleskine sketchbooks. They react pretty strangely to watercolour almost repelling the paint so you have to work in washes almost scrubbing the paint into the page. From what is kind of a negative thing, I’ve got into painting this way and enjoy the results. So, now I’m trying to do watercolour on proper paper and finding it really difficult.

You recently posted a weblog entry with the kit you carry around. If and when you work at home, or in an office, do you use the same types of tools, or do you have a larger set of colors, pens, brushes, etc.?

Yes, I have a larger variety of brushes and pens to choose from. I also use Dr. Ph Martin inks as well they really add a vibrancy to watercolours. So if you want the reds and greens to really pop out of the page its amazing fun to try these out.

Is there any particular type of notebook or drawing pad you prefer? Or does any scrap of decent-sized paper work in a pinch?

Sorry, I’m a sucker for Moleskine sketchbooks, its a little bit embarrassing how ubiquitous they are. The fact that they are expensive is quite a good thing as you’re not likely to leave them lying about, but because it takes me about a month or two to fill one they turn out to be okay value. Also I like the fact they fold flat so I draw over the two pages, its seems quite a small thing but its a rare quality in sketchbooks. Finally the proportion for the moleskine large sketch book just, well feels right.

I sound like a total fanboy!

I carry around sketchbooks around pretty much all the time, but aye if there’s a scrap of paper around I’ll use it.

Do you ever do any kind of post-processing (like adding color in Photoshop or similar tool) to your drawings?

Oh, occasionally. The Moleskine paper is quite yellow. So what I generally do in Photoshop is take a colour sample of the paper colour add a new layer and fill that layer with the colour then turn this layer off. The layer with the drawing I use auto tone, colour and levels to accentuate the tone and colours, but it takes the yellow tone away. I then turn that yellow layer back on and choose “multiply” and reduce the transparency to what looks right.

Have you ever tried a new pen (or paper, etc) from reading about it, or seeing the results in another artist’s work?

Yes I’ve tried some new Kuretake brush pens which I read about on Meg Hunt’s site which have an amazing dark fluent line. I think they’re for Japanese calligraphy. I just wish they weren’t water soluble.

Also I’ve experimented with trying dip pens after an article by Kevin Cornell who recommended Hunt’s Speedball #102 nibs.

Do you have anything you use out of the ordinary for making your art?

When I’m traveling abroad drawing I carry around a Fuji Pivi printer which does small polaroid type photos. Instead of carrying glue to stick all those handy exotic receipts, tickets and bags of sugar you can buy pre blobs of glue on bits of paper. I put these handy things in the back of my Moleskine.

I asked about post-processing on a computer, but do you think the computer is a helpful tool for making art? Whether it’s looking for inspiration online, or using it to build a weblog to promote yourself and your art, do you think a computer is necessary, helpful, or a distraction (or all of the above)?

Yes, all of the above! I’ve avoided doing digital colouring deliberately. I’m not sure if I’m doing the right thing using watercolour but its something I really want to stick with as I’m really enjoying the process.

Building a web presence and finding like minds has been incredible! At the same time I need to get away from the computer and make things.

From your CV/folio it looks like you do more web design and layout. Do you, in a way, consider that art? I certainly do, even though I’m not very good at it. I’m more on the programming side. If so, what are your common tools for web design and graphic/art layout?

I don’t know if web design is art? I use Photoshop for layouts and Illustrator for more design logo work.

For so long though its been part of who I am as a designer who likes to sketch. I’m at a crossroads at the moment as I’ve left the BBC and I’m looking to try and spend more time doing illustration. It’s a big step for me but at the moment it feels like the right thing to do.

Thanks Wil!

Wil Freeborn can be found online at his weblog, on Flickr (ghostschool), and on Twitter (@ghostschool). Wil also participated in the 6th Moleskine Exchange.

What are your favorite drawing tools (pens, pencils, markers, drawing tablet)?

This is such a complicated question. I love pens, pencils, markers, the computer, the drawing tablet… everything can be used for something interesting… There is a pen I absolutely love, the Pentel Brush Pen.

If you have a wide collection, how do you decide on which to use on a particular drawing, project, or day?

If I can choose in a personal project, some days I feel in the mood for painting and other ones I feel in the mood of drawing or making watercolors… and if there is a briefing for the project, I try to work with the technique and the tools that allow me to transmit the thing I want to say.

If you prefer pens, is there any particular brand, color, or type of ink you like best?

The Pentel Brush Pen. I think that it’s absolutely yummy.

How do you like your color? Watercolour? Acrylics? Oil?

I love everything, but watercolors are the most difficult technique for me. I would love to paint again with oils, like at the university, but I don’t have a place to do it right now because it smells a lot.

Is there any particular type of notebook or drawing pad you prefer? Or does any scrap of decent-sized paper work in a pinch?

I like Moleskines, they are nice. The quality and the variety of the paper are great.

Do you ever do any kind of post-processing (like adding color in Photoshop or similar tool) to your drawings?

Mostly. I always make some little changes alter scan my works, maybe just to adjust brightness and contrast, and to fix some colors.

Have you ever tried a new pen (or paper, etc) from reading about it, or seeing the results in another artist’s work?

Yeah, I think that everyone does… no? :D

Do you have anything you use out of the ordinary for making your art?

I like to add beer to my watercolors. Someone told me that in the university. It makes the colors look more brilliant.

When creating your digital art, what are the software programs you use? Is one used more than another?

I mainly use Freehand and Photoshop.

Do you approach making art on the computer differently than you do with pen, inks, paper, and paint?

Not too much, I think it’s the same with different tools. Well, with the computer I can be more precise, but look at Charley Harper’s work. He never used a computer.

Since you work both digitally and non-digitally, which do you find yourself doing more? Is there a reason you would prefer one of the other? Is it because of the tools available in either space?

I love both, so I can’t decide. I love my computer, but I never stop drawing by hand.

I asked about post-processing on a computer, but do you think the computer is a helpful tool for making art? Whether it’s looking for inspiration online, or using it to build a weblog to promote yourself and your art, do you think a computer is necessary, helpful, or a distraction (or all of the above)?

For me it is a powerful tool. You choose how to use it, indeed.

Thanks Mar!

Mar Hernández can be found online at MalotaProjects, and her online shop, MalotaShop. She also posts regularly to her Flickr account (malota) and occasionally on LiveJournal (h2okt).

And quite recently, some of Mar’s illustrations/characters were featured in a television commercial for Greek ION TV.