Questions about Duoshade/Unishade Options

[Psychomud]

Ok, so I am shopping online at BLP and my basket contest are up over $160 so far (loading up!).

I come across the DUOSHADE/UNISHADE art boards section (again). Once again i am baffled - what the heck is it for? Crosshatching - ok?

I understand crosshatching as a technique to shade art and provide depth and mass.

How EXACTLY do these boards help with crosshatching? I just can't figure it out.

My understanding is this:

It's basically a type of bristol board (art board). After doing your drawing(s) on the page - you add something called Graphix (what the heck is that?) and the shading is done for you?



If how I described it above is correct - how to you make the shading come out correct dependant on your light source in your art?

ALSO - it appears the croshatching patterns are ALL similiar. As I understand crosshatching - the ammount you use and the type of strokes depend on lighting and figure shape - so you will do different crosshatching for your shadows on your art at different points on the figure or object you are creating.

Than - on top of all that You (the artist) have to figure out how much reduction your final production will be done in BEFORE you pick the appropriate duoshade/unishade stuff.

I GUESS that the "graphix developer" is like INK or "white-out"? I am confused.

Can someone explane all this?

Please and THANX! I but it's gonna be difficult to explane to an untrained artist such as myself. But I love to learn!

MAYBE this should be a Sketch Magazine article?

[Psychomud]

Hmmmm. Maybe I will spring for that with my coupons.... I wanna see what it's like.

[Psychomud]

Ah I found some stuff - it's for doing shading for cartoons meant to be published in newspapers and stuff right? A textured shading.

Cool.

[Jimmy T]

I still have some Duoshade from the 80's. it uses two bottles and if you brush the clear liquid of one then the lines going one way appear and the second bottle of liquid brushed on makes the lines in the other direction appear. Wally Wood and early cartoonist used this stuff extensively. The board and chemicals got expensive in the late 80's, and lost favor.

Jimmy T

[ClosetNinja]

Its basically a form of hatching that you cut/paste on the image from my understanding.

[Bill Nichols]

Zip-a-tone, et al, is of the cut-and-affix variety. Duoshade tones are already on the paper and are brought out with the addition of chemical solutions on a brush...

[LurkD]

It slowly yellows with age, too.

I don't even know if anyone makes it anymore.