Introducing...

Sarah Benkin  draws horrible things.  I don’t mean she draws horribly, but rather the content of her comics are horrible things.  Sarah likes it this way, she is a perv-ayor of filth, of many armed sea creatures, and of Eldritch horror.  It takes a special kind of girl to do the sort of comics Sarah does, a girl who likes Cthulu and Bradbury and long walks on beaches with razor sharp sea shells that cause you pain and agony at every step.  When she’s not drawing the most horrific mini-comics I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, she does illustrations for tabletop roleplay manuals, takes commissions, and visits conventions to peddle her horror-wares.  She's kind enough to provide this blog with the finest tutorial I've seen yet, which will be up tomorrow.


Here's a little sampling of her amazing work for your peepers to peep.

This is a double whammy introducing, as Sarah was kind enough to also send me a photograph and explaination of her most commonly used materials!

1: Prismacolor Turquoise Lead Holders—One for grey pencil, one for bluelines. I like lead holders because they have the convenience and efficiency of mechanical pencils but with a full lead.

2: White plastic eraser—Pentel brand, not that it matters

3: Nib pen—I use the Japanese nibs. I have a few, including the artist’s nib shown here, but I do almost all my nib inking with a G nib. The metal is nice and flexible

4: Winsor & Newton Series 7 sable brush, size 2--This is one instance where the materials really do make a difference to me. This brush can do anything

5: Various texture brushes—Represented here by a synthetic fan brush

6: FW Ink—Thick and dark. Just like how I like my…fudge. We’re gonna say fudge.

7: Dr. Ph Martin’s Bleed Proof White Ink—Most white ink is terrible to work with, too thin, too water soluble, can’t ink over it. This is thick and not terribly soluble, you can’t really ink over it unless you pray for a miracle, but it’s the best I’ve found so far. I should switch to white guache.

8: Prismacolor brush pen—I use this only for sketching in ink. It’s great, fast and disposable

9: Microns—I didn’t used to like tech pens, but lately I’ve been using them for hatching and detail work a lot

10: Uni-ball Signo white ink pen

11: Sketchbook—I like the little ones. Very portable, can sketch in them anywhere

12: Copy paper—Great for working out ideas, because it’s so disposable. There’s no pressure

(Not pictured) Bristol board—For final versions. 300 or 400 series works find for me, I find. I like the vellum finish for inking. Strathmore is the brand I tend to use.

Her amazing work will be available in our soon-to-debut Big Cartel store, which I will link as soon as it's up!