STEP 2: Inking and Cutting Rubylith (continued from previous section) Once i have my rough sketch finalized, I start the inking process... Again, the clock is ticking, i have only about a week and a half from the initial phone call, through the conceptual sketching process to the final inking..

Once i have my final rough sketch, i immediately start to ink, here on a 23" x 32" board. Can you see my little 000 brush?

Here i am improvising as i go, drawing a motor in pencil, then inking it in.. There was a.lot of pencil erasing as i changed the motor around..

HERE I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED INKING.... Laying down the Rubylith The "black' layer is complete. The hardest psrt is not just filling in areas of black, it is deciding where to make it solid, and where to leave it white... Once I have finished the black layer, i shoot it to film and then begin to cut out all of the differeent colors from Rubylith film. Every color is its own seperate piece of handcut film that needs to overlay perfectly...

Cutting the Rubylith This is the background layer, I cut away everything i do not want to be the background color.. what is left in orange signifies what what will be printed in color, in this case, i have decided for better or for worse to print this layer in a cream color.. Every color is its own seperate piece of handcut film that needs to overlay perfectly...

Cutting the Rubylith : Face layer This is the Face layer, I cut away everything i do not want to be this color.. what is left in orange signifies what what will be printed in color, in this case, i have decided for better or for worse to print this layer in a GRAY color.. Every color is its own seperate piece of handcut film that needs to overlay perfectly...

Cutting the Rubylith : RED layer This is the Red layer, in this case i wanted to make a rough "speckled" gradation, going from the cream back ground to this red overlay. I am airbrushng a thick black ink over the film to get a splattery "stiple" effect...sometimes i also just put ink on an old toothbrush and splatter it on that way... COMING NEXT WEEK: the silkscreen process, printing with ink in color!