Hope's studio
Comics: Salamander Dream, Gray Horses
Website: http://www.hopelarson.com
Making comics since year of: 2003
Art education/schools attended: Rochester Institute of Technology, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Tools
Pencils: All non-photo-blue, all the time. I never erase my pencils.
Inks: I'm married to my Pelikan Drawing Ink A (yellow label).
Brushes: Windsor & Newton Series 7 #2. I've tried a variety of synthetics, but none of them cut it.
Pens: Deleter G-pen nibs (steel Japanese nibs that give a brush-like line) and a variety of felt-tips for touchup. I also use a whiteout pen for corrections, of which there are many.
Paper: Smooth bristol board.
Lettering: For my next book I'm farming this out to a friend who's a whiz at hand lettering. Not my strength!
Color: A variety of colored inks, watercolors, or just Photoshop.
Layout/ Composition: I draw thumbnails on scrap with whatever pen or pencil is nearby.
Convention Sketches (when different from illustrations done in the studio): I had a bad experience with spilled ink at a con, so now I use a Pentel brush pen for cons.
Tool timeline, starting from when you began drawing in any serious way until the present, and what spurred the changes:
2003: mostly vector art (Adobe Illustrator), and a synthetic liner brush for real media
2004: some vector, then a Series 7 #1
2005: Series 7 #2
2006: Series 7 #2 and G-pen nibs
What tools you'd never use, and why: I'm bad with fixed-weight pens.
And lastly, any advice you'd like to give: Never throw anything away. Tools that used to drive you crazy may prove ideal later on!