HUGE favor (mid-term paper)

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hyelakingsfan
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HUGE favor (mid-term paper)

Post by hyelakingsfan »

Im doing a mid-term project on cels (once again) and i was wondering if you guys can put different types of...

Pens: i know there is quill and rapidograph but i need some more and if possible, if you know, can you write about the pen in just a short sentence (EX: blah pens dry fast, are erasable, and dont smear off) and if you know anything about quill and rapidograph pens can you summarize it.

Paints: I know of 4 different types but i dont know what the difference is
(Gum arabic, casein, vinyl, and acrylic) like is one thicker than the other? do they come in all colors? Which one is easiest to draw with? Just stuff like that.

Brushes: i know there are mixing brushes and drawing and thats all i know. Again, are some brushes softer than the other and easier to draw with?

For my thesis im gonna write something like...."cels are made up of paint, ink, and brushes"....is there anything else thats missing from there?

Thanks to all of you guys even if you cant help, thanks for taking the time to look through it :)

PS: Dont be like me and leave things to the last couple of days :P
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Baakay
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Re: HUGE favor (mid-term paper)

Post by Baakay »

hyelakingsfan wrote:Im doing a mid-term project on cels (once again)
We ARE addicts, aren't we? :D I did anime/manga/cels for every project I could possibly get away with :D
Pens: i know there is quill and rapidograph but i need some more and if possible, if you know, can you write about the pen in just a short sentence (EX: blah pens dry fast, are erasable, and dont smear off) and if you know anything about quill and rapidograph pens can you summarize it.
My pens are rapidograph. Brand name Koh-I-Noor (I think). These have a fairly complicated head assembly that screws into a hollow plastic barrel, thereby being quite light. The business end has a little reservoir for holding India Ink, into which this multi-part head fits snugly. The nib is the reason these puppies are on the expensive side because they come in so many widths, from ultra-fine to big honking fat Sharpie-type lines.

AND... you absolutely must take them apart and rid them of the leftover ink whenever you use them. Because the mechanism works with a little "floaty" bit inside the head (see how nicely I know the technical terms?) with a teeny wire-like thread down through the steel nib tip, the smallish sizes are very prone to getting clogged and seizing up like a bad cylinder in a car engine.

When they are in good working order they are outstanding for consistent, smooth lines.

I'm not convinced that they were really designed for working on acetate though. I can see where they would be second to very little if you were, say, a manga artist. The reason I say this is that the India Ink is incredibly smudgy until it's been dry for a very long while, and even then it can be removed pretty easily. But it works for me.

It's very much like using a quill, except that you have a giant leap in ability to control what your lines will look like.
Paints: I know of 4 different types but i dont know what the difference is
(Gum arabic, casein, vinyl, and acrylic) like is one thicker than the other? do they come in all colors? Which one is easiest to draw with? Just stuff like that.
I know that the *real* cel paints are some sort of vinyl formulation, and that it gets dabbed on as opposed to stroked on. It also doesn't retain brush strokes the way acrylic does (which is one of the reasons my cels always have "issues"). I use acrylic because it's super-easy to work with and relatively inexpensive. Liquitex has enough pre-mixed colors that I don't have to rely on my eyesight to get the colors right from coat to coat.

Gum arabic and casein? you got me!
Brushes: i know there are mixing brushes and drawing and thats all i know. Again, are some brushes softer than the other
Yes.

How's that for brief and succinct? That's all I know. Well ok I do know that the fibers of some brushes are specifically made for working with various kinds of paints and do not work well with others. Go into a Michaels and get boggled with the variety.
PS: Dont be like me and leave things to the last couple of days :P
And take all the fun out of things? :P


Edit: I just re-read this and thought wow, you might actually think I did cels. *roll* Not many. I thought the rapidograph info might be useful, though, as I've had close up and personal experience with wrestling the parts apart -- on the ones I failed to clean properly! :-)
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glorff
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Post by glorff »

The lines on cels are not drawn with ink or a pen of any sort. They are essentially copied onto the acetate with a very specialized copier that uses the douga to make the copy. The colors that are used on the sketch are selected so that the copier will not reproduce them (bet you always wondered why the colors were so unrealistic) The fact that cels lines are copies explaines why there is line fading in older cels, since the object of the machine is to get the art onto the acetate quickly and efficiently to get the job done, photographed and out. As far as they are concerned the lines only need to last a couple of weeks. The newer process line last better than the older ones (which is why DBZ cel fade so badly) 8)

I will leave the rest to someone else for now :wink:
Dave

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glorff
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Post by glorff »

I will add this too from our own links page :wink:

http://home.pacbell.net/wecom/beta_anime_info.html
Dave

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hyelakingsfan
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Re: HUGE favor (mid-term paper)

Post by hyelakingsfan »

Baakay wrote:
hyelakingsfan wrote:Im doing a mid-term project on cels (once again)
We ARE addicts, aren't we? :D I did anime/manga/cels for every project I could possibly get away with :D

I wouldnt say addicts.........ok fine.....yeah, we DEFINITELY are :P


and thanks for the info to both u and glorff :) ....i just finished my paper and its 2:22 AM and i have to get some sleep before school starts in the morning. Thanks again for the info, i really appreciate it.
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