SUPERMAN #704

I've inked the whole issue over Leandro Oliveira's pencils.  Here's a picture of what happens to the comp copies when there's too much time on my hands.  

Picture of the variant cover for this issue.  With less time on my hands.

This issue focuses on Lois Lane.  Here's a splash page with her.  

Lots of hair to ink especially with Lois Lane.  

A habit I have while inking hair is to hold my breath.  Thinking that it'll steady my body and hands to give it a much smoother/slicker line.  It's not really necessary to hold my breath.  Just a habit I developed.  With this issue, there was a LOT of hair! So much, I decided to create a collage of all the hair to illustrate how much.  By the time I finished this issue, I think I can hold my breath for minutes on end.  Become a deep sea diver or preform under water escape tricks.

Lots of hair, yes?  On top of that, a huge amount of tapered inking techniques.

There's even more hair in this issue that I didn't include in the collage.  Like the pages below with Superman and Lois Lane.

Close up with more tapered ink lines.

Below you'll see a black backround next to black hair.  To avoid both blacks meshing together, I added a white line in between.  This separates the two blacks and pop the figures away from the background.

The background with the stars (also called Black with Stars) is done by using a toothbrush and white ink.  I would spot the backgrounds in black first, wait for the ink to dry, then spatter white ink on top with a toothbrush.  There so many ways create this effect.  Othertimes, I would use a masking fluid instead of white ink,  Work backwards ending with spotting blacks on top.  Once everything dries, I just rub off the dried masking fluid and presto, the white stars are there.  Finally, I go back on top with a white out pen to create the bigger white stars.

Superman's so smooth!  He definitely knows how to sweep a girl off her feet.  *Swoosh*

Superman 704 is in stores now.