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The real kicker is I’ve had that book for about 5 or 6 years now. I tried (unsuccessfully) to create a Las Almejas comic strip way back when, but I’m kinda glad that installment never took off. I shall try it again. That book is the “Getting Started” volume in the How to Draw Manga collection. This means you’ll find a lot of tutorials that say things like “Draw a circle here, a triangle there, a square here, fill in a few small details and VOILA! Instant catgirl!”

That sketchbook is a few years old as well, but mostly empty. I bought it originally for journaling, but the paper was so scratchy that I filed it away in my drawer “just in case…” Now it will be known as the “Manga Monstrosities” sketchbook since I’m pretty sure most of my creations will be pretty far from kawaii, at least initially.

Not to sound too much like Patrick Bateman, but the pencil is a Pentel Drafting Pencil in 0.5mm lead size. I’d imagine this would be the perfect diameter of lead to use. 0.7 or 0.9 would probably be too thick (though I have those models of that pencil as well).

The pen is a Sakura Micro Pigma pen in the 0.25mm line width. I’ve used many of these in different colors and line widths over the years. That one is black. It’s extremely permanent (as in, if you get that ink in your clothing it is never coming out, no matter what you put on it), so that is obviously for tracing over the pencil sketch.

Of course, before I can do that, I have to sketch something first.

Oh, and maybe in the next day or so I’ll post a rough draft of the LA story I’m writing at the moment. It’s coming together pretty well, just slow.