Mal,

   Glad to see that you got to meet one of the living legends and have him review your work.  Their advice is always good.  With practice, you just might break through!

   About those brushes and inks, you can't lose.  I've used pens with India ink for years.  It's actually still better than laying it down with markers (even today's PITT markers are still not up to that quality, though still better than bargain markers).  While I've used the brush, I find that I'm a bit too heavy-handed for it, so I go for the pens and save brushes for any fill work that's needed.

JT,

   If you're getting back into it with your character, I'll take the hint and resume working on mine.  Sapphire Spectre looks badass in that pic.

Conner,

   Nice Hulk pics.  Looks like you're channeling Trimpe and Kirby here.

I don't draw much these days, but this is something I did a few years back...

it breathes the way your pen-work just CAN'T, doesn't it?

Thanks for the feedback, guys. The improvement of line quality I'm noticing already is a revelation. I'm thinking about getting a good dip nib for fineline work - any recommendations as to size or brand?

JT, LOVING the Sapphire pages - the latest one up there is a beauty.Connor, I second what Carmen said - very nice old-school Hulks there. Peter, VERY nice mountain gorilla. Like that a lot. Joe, cute little shot there, and yes - really liking the brush as a tool. I'm keeping the Copics, pens and Pitts for the semi-regular commissions that I get, but I'm using the brush for all my proper page work now - it's great to use.

Check out DickBlick.com. 

     There's still a few brands out there that'll produce a good small crowquill that'll be fine for the detail work.  I use a Speedball #102, #107 and #108 for a variety of fine linework that my heavy hands wouldn't allow me to do with a brush or larger nib.

     The ink I've used -- Pelikan -- isn't listed there, but they do have this website.  From my experience, it's the best brand out there; waterproof and relatively stable on most papers.

Been wondering when this thread would get bumped again...

A couple of pairs of little sketches that I did over the past week:

This one on the bottom is a spoof of my original character shown at the top.  Based on a series of Japanese cartoon shorts titled Nyoron Churuya San, she's making a "mreow?" noise like a cat which discovered that no one is sharing their dinner.

(Churuya, in turn, spoofs another spoof of a character named Tsuruya from a series titled The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan.)

The second pair:

My original character flying into action (note the expanding ball of energy in her left hand).

I supposed that this was going to be Uglik the Troll getting Mjolnir in his face, but for some reason he looks more like Kalibak.  Ow.