Artists, can I ask you something?

[Dysis]

I've always been curious about how digital artists started creating their work. If it's alright, would you mind sharing how you started off and reached where you are now?

It would be awesome if you'd drop your first and latest pictures too! Of course, it's only if you're okay with it.

[jcmraz]

The left is not my VERY first but it's the first comic that I put any thought and effort into back in high school. I've really always sorta liked drawing. I started in elementary school and middle school drawing swords and DBZ stuff. I got more into anime and manga when I was 16 and started drawing more stuff like that.

How I reached where I am now was a long and slow road. I stunted my growth a bit by being too much into drawing anime and not enough time focusing on real life and human anatomy. I made a bunch of remakes of that first comic as I improved. Then I made a comic called 3 Wishes trying to break away from those initial anime inspired concepts that's still up on Smackjeeves on permanent hiatus. It was after 3 Wishes that I went on a break from making comics for a couple of years, realizing that if I didn't plan a project out well and get better I would just hit that same type of wall I always did with my writing and art. I just drew from life for about 2 years straight. reddit gets drawn and such. Eventually I decided I craved the process of making a comic again so I started brainstorming and when I had an idea I spent a year just worldbuilding and preparing and drawing more from life. Since the beginning of Runner I've put myself through the paces trying to improve every aspect of my art and story telling. There's really too much to go into specifics but I really buckled down trying to get this right and trying to push myself. 3 Wishes was safe and I took shortcuts to ease the burden and so I could meet my self-imposed deadlines. But now the quality and improving is of primary importance.

Runner | Tapas

[Kelheor]

I started drawing digitally in January 1 of 2016, immediately joining 1page1day challenge. It was hard Before I drew at school, but then basically spent 8 years not drawing just to immediately go for digital. I never drew in color before that too, just black pencil. So these are quite literally first artworks I have.

This year we also made the first one-shot, which was such a pain, but put us on a path of creating comics and was a huge push for art progress.

After that it's just a lot of drawing, 1 ongoing comic since 2017, 2 short ones in between and these are my last panels

[alextsarace]

well, I did my my first digital a looong time ago when I didn't even had tablet . those are a lot of shame omg.

next ones were done with the help of tablet but still shame lmao

and this is the most recent work, lesser shame but still....

[Crusoe]

One of my oldest pieces from back in 2013 I think and this is one of my most recent ones, which is my new cover. There were a few years inbetween where I only did traditional art though, so I still have a lot to learn about digital art

Started of on a very cheap wacom tablet, but I've upgraded to an iPad recently.

[summermcallen]

This was my first try on my iPad.... reaaallly bad. my hand shaked the whole time and I had no clue what I should do.

But I think I got really fast better. This is two years ago and one year ago I started my webtoon. So till then I was definetly confident with my digital drawing. Maybe I needed 2-3 months.
This is my progress how I draw digitally. Fist I sketch the whole episode in a note programm and there I cut it in 2-4 max site files. Then I put lines on this pages to mark the max size, so its easier to manage the size of the panels.
Also I draw my storyboard in the files. Then I sketch it, the lining and color...
Hope this will help you

[Eiranyx]

Well I started drawing around 2008 --- but it's mostly on paper... then I only started to take it seriously around 2012 - 2013 -- it was my first year in taking an art course majoring in digital arts ---it was a year of struggle...
in the first picture (my crappy OC for a project btw) as you notice, it lacks dynamic, and its too stiff, the colors are too bland and it lacks depth -- but to be fair, it was drawn using a mouse -- I cannot afford to buy a drawing tablet that time, and one of the requirement to pass the year is a digital illustration, so I have to improvise. Then I only started using the pen tablet when I was already on my last year of study.

So these are the progresses to where I am now

[J.Lovelace]

I had around two decades of experience as a traditional artist + some digital art drawn with just a mouse, before I switched to a drawing tablet in 2012.

It was frustrating at first to master the pen pressure and slippery surface, scary even, because it felt like I have to re-learn drawing all over again. My lines used to be horribly wobbly XD
But I gradually got better and better at it after learning about stabilizers and increasing my speed

Early drawings vs one of the better recent works

[irresponsiblepics]

Im a stubborn traditionalist scribbler that moved to digital due to space/storage.
It was an uphill struggle and took a bit of modification to get comfortable with it (paper screen protector/Noris digital etc) it just feels odd coming from paper to slippy screens.
My profile pic represents my frustration! XD

While there are many tools at my disposal with digital my (own) rules are basically draw it all by hand with Autodesk Sketchbook. Digi ink and eraser (the best thing about digital. Erasing ink!)
The only other thing (digitally cheat wise) is that I use is pre drawn panel templates and pre drawn drawn BG's (for some repeated panels) and text (my hand writing skills are appalling) but aside from that I approach my strip as drawing straight on (digital) paper. I draw my own speech bubbles.
Heart>Arm>Pen
I do not use any line correction tools,resizing etc
I try to use digital as a tool and not as a crutch.

Off topic rant.
Im going to be unpopular but how does one improve ones drawing skill if they rely on Photoshop and the like to correct proportions and neaten up linework? I see it going on so much on live streams.
Id rather have "bad" drawing with character than clean lines and no personality.
Anywayyyy apologies but that's just how I feel about it!

Wellside Wishes | Tapas

[PaleOcra]

I started from paper and pen. When I first switched to digital, it was mainly about not getting used to tablets. It took time to get used to, but only one week or so.

Paper Pen

First few times with tablet

After 15chapters or so

So, to any who is struggling to use a tablet, just START! and push through chapter 1. it will get better and better.

Self promotion here :

The Mist Silver Wolf

[migxmeg]

I used to be an oil painter back in college, so spent a lot of my younger years doing traditional drawing/painting, so there is some background, but extremely rusty (2007):

2018 - bought an inexpensive Wacom because I really missed doing art and figured I could make some fun things for friends and family. I read an insane amount of manga so of course I ended up starting on a comic with the husband. Silly me put one of the mcs in the body of a cat, knowing full well I sucked at drawing cats consistently and abandoned the project when work/life got busy.

2019 - switched to iPad.

2020 - lost my job and drawing all the time as of June-July. Can't wait to check again in a year and cringe!

[Legendofgenii]

You know I love your work already, but that oil painting is amazing! Have you tried something similar but digitally? I mean a whole comic like that would be torture, but I'm now imagining your OCs painted.

[surenlicious]

I lost so much old art from back in the day, but I have one of my first pieces of digital art here (I only drew traditional up until then):

I would describe my current process as something like this now:

I use both traditional and digital media, and yolo everything on my itty-bitty drawing tablet. I don't need a big one, haha.

This is some of my recent work now:

[migxmeg]

Thank you for smashing today's batch of self doubt demons <3.

I've tried but I'm a super tactile artist! I end up getting frustrated with the brushes in clip/apple pencil combo if I want them to be something they're not. The other problem is I can't visualize lighting/shadows/color in my head so without a model it would probably be pretty nasty-looking .

[jjfresh]

No.

kidding, anyway
I slowly converted to digital because of convenience and really, there's so much power with digital. Of course you can do the same stuff with skill on paper, but it's really becoming the norm to incorporate some digital into your work (most manga artists have been converting to digital with some exceptions)

I still like everything to be my work, even if I use 3d software of such as a short cut. For example my comic,

The building is clearly 3d and used as a "shortcut" in these pages and other pages where I trace it. But I made this building myself in a 3d program.

This is what digital allows us to do. Can make things easier or more interesting.

---

This was how I first started using digital when I was about 90/10 traditional. (I did something way back when too but I can't find that old old stuff)

Then it became 10/90. I still draft by hand most of the time.

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

I’m pretty new to art in general. I only started drawing back in April of this year. I started out doing the free Draw A Box online class in traditional ink and paper. I did that for about a month before I figured out that digital was the way I wanted to go. I feel like I was really lucky to get into digital art when I did because the combo of software and hardware options along with learning resources available right now is just amazing.

Here is the very first page of my comic.

And here is the most recent panel I’ve published.

I’m still learning. But I feel like I’m gradually getting better at this.

[migxmeg]

That's the fastest "gradual" I've ever seen, haha. Awesome progress!

[oshirockingham]

2014:

2020:

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

Thanks! There are still a lot of things I struggle to draw, but I’m a fast learner I guess. And like everybody else I’m my own worst critic. I think digital drawing tools really help decrease the difficulty level when it comes to the learning curve of teaching yourself how to draw.

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

This is an awesome level of improvement on just about everything!