Steve Rude Talks Tools of the Trade

Comics artist and painter Steve Rude shares what tools are in his artistic toolbox.
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[@ArabKatib]

Greetings from Dubai, Arabia, Middle East.. YOU NAILED IT!! Couldn't agree more.

[@nlmoviefan]

i totally agree with your last couple of points.i know alot of people who don't bother to buy comics anymore because of it

[@SuperAntgarcia]

YOU HIT IT RIGHT ON THE NOSE.

[@randalwung8715]

Steve has always struck me as one of those seriously curmudgeonly guys who still keeps producing here and there so I can't fault him for that. I have a pet peeve with people like Alex Toth and Barry Smith who'd rag on the industry when they'd stopped doing comics 'cause I'm like, "Why don't you fucking do all the things you complain aren't done when you're more than capable of doing it?" But back to Steve, what he says about things like computer coloring absolutely obliterating linework and photorealism sucking all the wonder and magic out of artwork is spot on. He was back at DC for a hot minute-yay!-but he's gone again now-boo! Must be tough having standards...

[@bryantrogers5596]

astonishing art of skill

[@vollsticks]

I was blown away when I got that Dollar Bill one-shot--not only did we get The Dude INKING himself (which he REALLY doesn't do enough of!) we also got him LETTERING, which was amazing for me. I'm not sure if we'll see that again so I treasure it, bought three copies in fact, I don't care what Alan Moore says! This video is spot-on. The Dude always talks sense. Photorealism is the absolute BANE of good cartooning. Horrible. Mind you I don't read capestuff any more.

[@JACKJOYAdeadlygraphicstudio]

Nice job

[@peterterwilliger8190]

Time for a live action movie?

[@gjgoltz]

It's funny how you mention that you don't need to modify much when you use thumbnails; I've always thought the same. Heck, I almost feel guilty about it. I find whenever I DON'T use thumbnails in my work, mistakes abound.

[@JonWRowe]

Does Steve Rude still use type B lead in his pencils?

[@ImCurrentlyNaked]

Totally with him on the over rendered comic - something about them really throws you out of the flow and distracts from the reading of the comic. It turns a single panel into a distracting piece of 'art', rather than a piece of the whole. There are some artists I really admire the skill of, but I think they're terrible comic artists; reading their work from panel to panel is like pulling teeth.

[@streetfighterGeeK]

totally agree, I do not read any of the mainstream comics anymore, if you're looking for style read Jeff smith, or will Terrell.

[@ryangunwitch-black]

Wow. He doesn't even know what year it is. Old people, man.

[@benb3316]

So awesome to see an underrated legend of comics. I've loved Nexus comics for ... well ... ever since I discovered them. And I love modern tech. Drawing skill still comes first. Modern tech gives you the ability to work with it and spread it far better than ever before. But - well do you want to paint them then pay a photographer $100 a page four times (CYMK) for photos, then more than that for 'plates' for each and every page? Thanks to modern computers you can just zip something to the web, people's tablet, a printer... Also he's right about people throwing up digital ink and crazy alchemy of hundreds of layers. But - as he pointed out - it's not that you can rely on art school to be a comic book artist. If you want to be some fake 'starving artiste' with the parents money paying for that now grossly expensive loft and you get to play freaky sjw LARP for a few years as long as you don't wind up in jail too often - then welcome to art school where you can learn how to shove a crucifix into urine and call it art but 50/50 or greater you'll get an advanced degree and not be able to draw a STICK FIGURE to save your LIFE...