Comic Artists, What Art Program Do You Use, And Why?

[Candlebite]

Gonna add to the list of people who use Clip Studio Paint (Ex), which i've been using for hell of a long time, even back to its previous versions- Manga Studio 4 & 5.
I've used Photoshop and the other Adobe things back when I was in art college but never really used it for personal art.

I used to draw traditionally and then scan it, to work on it digitally, but my laziness towards that ironically led me to git gud at just starting without drawing on paper first.

As for why i sticked with Clip Studio its a swiss army knife of art, don't got to switch to other software- just start a picture using it and finish using it-

And it has many helpful tools and secrets just hidden in throughout it like placing in 3d objects into your art, good animation tools,paint not going over lines, and other things.

Plus its occasional updates that happen 1 or 2 times a year adding new tools and uses to it-
(I Love the animation tools update it had)

[alextsarace]

I'm doing my job fully in sai (except for text in bubbles - it's a job for paint). my pc is old enough to run those cool new stuff and even if I have photoshop I never used it because I ain't comfortable with it.

[darthmongoose]

Clip Studio (ex) for everything except doing text and spreading out panels to switch from print to tapas scroll format, which I do in Photoshop.

I've been using Manga Studio/Clip Studio probably about fifteen years now, for its great page organisation, panel making and gloriously crisp, responsive inking. Plus now as well as the best inking tools, it has painting tools that in my opinion blow Photoshop out of the water with just lovely natural blending on the "opaque watercolour" brush in particular.

Photoshop is still the best for things like colour grading, cropping and getting things ready for print though, as well as creating marketing assets. New features coming to Clip are closing the gap, but aren't quite there yet.

[borzoiteeth]

GIMP is my main tool for digital/mix media arting. I normally work with multiple layers. If I find/make a cool texture I will scan/take a picture of it, edit it in GIMP and then make it an effect or a brush. I often abuse layer mode effects during colour grading.

[AmandaJ-art]

Clip Studio Paint. I just like the options for comics on it. It's nice just being able to go on the asset store and find all the things I need.

[TheDWrek83]

I sketch out my pages on Sketchbook Pro - Sketching literally feels the best on this program for some reason. Maybe it's the copic marker brushes? I also so a lot of the line art here, a thicker outline of any human figures and anything that doesn't require finer details. It's steady stroke tool has been a godsend as far as clean line art goes. It's not for everyone though. For the finer line details I jump to Sai. Their stabilizer for the line art is also fantastic for getting some crisp line art. Then it's off to Photoshop to line up all the panels and do simple flat colors. Theeeeen it's back to Sai because of that stabilizer again where I can add some flat shades easily. Then itts baaaack to Photoshop for the final bit of dialogue/text, etc.

Sometimes it feels like a bit much but, eh. It works.

I got an iPad Pro earlier this year and Procreate is interesting, I was able to do a whole page there once (not the text portions however) but it was a bit of a challenge. I mostly just use Procreate when I do color sketch commissions since I'm not planning on taking it to the next usual phase (line art and adding color to the line art)...

Lotsa jumping around...

[silverraven0]

I only have iPad and I didn't own PC, so what I use is Medibang and ibis paint X since they're FReE ;v;

Medibang get annoying sometimes because it likes to FC on me and I sometimes lose my progress when I accidentally clicked "leave without saving" than "save and leave" above it. QvQ

I also once made a 10 page comic completely on my Android phone. It is a nightmare for my hands and eyes.

I have bought procreate but I don't like the app so I leave it in the dust. It was a waste of money. I really really want to use csp but they're subscription based on iPad, so I've been hesitating for a long time.

[honeyandcreambutter]

Clip Studio Paint Pro for literally everything I do. I'm most familiar with the brushes and tools from there since I first started with it 3 years ago. It's a steep learning curve if you're a beginner at digital art but once you get the feel for it, you'll be using CSP like a champ! I also feel like it's easier to work on comics there since the entire program is geared towards manga creation (although I draw in webtoons style). I have CSP (EX) on my laptop, which is what I used a year ago and then once I bought my new iPad last year, I've once again installed CSP (Pro this time) on my iPad. A few cons I have for CSP on iPad:

• Size and layers limit (because the iPad can't handle the amount of data)

• The subscription. On desktop, it's a one-time payment but on iPad, it's $4.99 (Ex) and $7.99 (Pro) a month. That's about $59.88 or $95.88 annually, whereas it's $49.99/$219 for one time payment on desktop. You can also get a huge discount during summer sales or black friday for the one time payment too! As much as it's more cost-effective to go back to desktop, I prefer the portability and direct screen time drawing on my iPad. Perhaps when I finally have funds for a Wacom Cintiq, I'll go back to desktop since it's not like my CSP license will disappear from my desktop anyways.

• The Gold + Clip tokens system - I don't mind the gold system where you pay users in gold to purchase their assets but I really dislike the fact that they added the Clippy token system recently. Some users lock their assets behind Clippy points so there's literally no way to access it unless you pay 200 gold per month and get the monthly 1000-1500 clippy tokens a month (no way to renew it manually btw! You need to wait for next month, post your own assets, have someone gift them to you or do the continuous login bonus to earn them and trust me, you can burn through the tokens FAST) At least with the gold system, you can still renew it by purchasing the $10 option

Pros on CSP:

• Stabilization feature

• Ability to download custom brushes from others

• Custom brushes in general! Oh my I absolutely love these and it cuts down my time to create effects by a LOT

• Endless supply of assets to use in your webtoons! Lots of Korean artists use these in theirs!

• The built in 3D modellers to help you with difficult/dynamic poses

• The 3D model to lineart conversion in Pro version is just- It's godsend trust me!

• ummm idk as much as i detailed the cons, i'm still pretty biased towards CSP either way haha!

[honeyandcreambutter]

I just posted about CSP below your comment XD but I can vouch for CSP on the iPad! I'd say if you have disposable income, go for the $4.99/month subscription on CSP! It's well worth it imo since it's main usage is for manga creation. If not, then keep with Medibang and ibis Paint!

[Jenny-Toons]

I use CSP for everything. It's pretty a pretty useful tool with helpful assets for backgrounds. Even more, once you've learned a lot more about the inner workings of the software, it's pretty fast to work in. I've been able to start my files with my folders already labeled, and copy/pasting whole folders and layers has been better for me. I've got a little gif of my process:

[TheGentleArtist]

I been using Medibang Paint Pro. I use it because I prefer it over the other art programs; that and it gives you the tools to do a good amount of things and useful resources.

[Llyrel]

I'm currently using Procreate + Photoshop + Clip Studio Paint for most of my pages.

I do the sketching in Procreate, then open the file in Photoshop to create the actual panel layout, then back into Procreate for inking, coloring and shading. Textures and special effects are added in Photoshop (and, occasionally, Painter), while the lettering is done in Clip Studio Paint. Export is done in either PS or CSP, depends on what I have at hand when I'm ready to export XD

I love Procreate because it's the one that feels the closest to drawing traditionally: I can turn the canvas with one hand and keep drawing with the other, controls are fast and super easy to learn, the default brushes are pretty amazing BUT in case I feel they're not enough, I can still import my favorite PS brushes into it, files can be exported in .psd format, the built-in speedpainting video option is a super fun addition... honestly, if they had better lettering options and less clunky features for technical drawing, I'd use it for 100% of my work, lol.

With Photoshop... it's more of a matter of being used to it than anything else, I'm afraid like others, I also used to use it all the time during University. I learned all the shortcuts and while most of what I do in PS can be easily done using other softwares, with PS I'm about four times faster, hence why I'm still using it. Plus, there ARE a few things I can only do in Photoshop that aren't as easy to do in other softwares (I'm mostly thinking of PS actions... some of them I actually paid for and I'd hate losing them D: ).

CSP is great for lettering if you, like me, don't want to spend a ton of money on Illustrator could never get much into it for actual drawing because, again, I much prefer Photoshop or Procreate for that, but I find its stabilizer tool to be super useful for inking. Also... assets, omg. I've got yet to explore them properly, but from what I could see, they're pretty damn amazing.

[Puck]

Sketches in Sketchbook, it´s the fastest and easiest to use program for me.
It loads in one second and you can start drawing with a pencil right away.
I can be very unpatient when I want to start a drawing, this feels closest
to drawing on a piece of paper with a pencil. Open the sketchbook and go.
It´s also a free program and you can finish your whole page in sketchbook.

But I do use clipstudio nowadays because setting up the page, inking with vectors, coloring
is better in that program. Photoshop is great for that too but that´s an overpriced program
in my opinion which is great though

[Puck]

CSP paint drives me crazy all the time though.
You draw a circle, just want to grab and move it and then grab the background instead.
That´s different in Sketchbook, you only grab stuff that´s on the layer you are on and can
easily move things around. Also the spacebar in Sketchbook can be used to rotate the
canvas and to zoom in or out, also something that is not possible in CSP as easily

[honeyandcreambutter]

That might be because you're grabbing the object instead of the layer! You'd wanna use the red one to grab what's on the layer

CSP is very much like a manual car to me. You need to adjust the settings by yourself and most of the time, you have to figure it out yourself by looking it up. For example, you can set spacebar to rotate/zoom in/out on CSP but you'll need to fiddle around with the preferences and do some manual button to setting thing yourself. Whereas I think Sketchbook sets it up for you automatically for convenience sake.

[Puck]

I just tried to draw a simple circle and none of the option in that button (move layer, grid, tone pattern) did anything with the circle

[Puck]

I figured it out, thank you, but that´s very much against my workflow because I want to move it and then transform it right away and that is 3 steps more than in Sketchbook. Then the transform tool short cut suddenly doesn´t work and I first have to open a menu to transform it. But I´ll try to set the program up in a way I can use it better. Everything seems to be overcomplicated in CSP

[honeyandcreambutter]

Yea admittedly it is a little more work than usual! I have both Procreate and CSP and as much as I love CSP, I agree that Procreate is a lot less complicated. The only higher difficulty program is probably Photoshop and everything else is just so much easier to navigate.

But, to each his own I guess! I started with CSP so I'm a lot more comfortable with the tools. It's probably just a matter of which program you're more familiar with ^^

[AmeGINGA]

I began by drawing my panels by hand, which I scanned, cleaned on Photofiltre. Then I discovered Photoshop which I used for a while, and for over a year I have been using Clip Studio Paint. I decided on it, because I find the tool really complete, the little extra compared to Photoshop is that it is really made for artists, with direct access to textures, backgrounds, frames, 3D objects.

[ninjashira]

I feel like Clip Studio is reeeeaaaally close to being a total Photoshop replacement for illustration. There are a few little things I still prefer to do in Photoshop, but if Clip Studio could 1) handle CMYK, 2) have ruler measurements in inches, and 3) beef up their text tool, then I would probably exclusively use Clip for creating my comics.