Yeah..looking back I really didn't get the best art education - unfortunately I kept getting placed in the 'bad' art teacher's class and I think I missed out on a lot. College helped expand my knowledge, but didn't' quite disrupt the bad foundation that had been laid.
I love traditional inking! Lately I've created a digital sketchbook (technically just a folder) in procreate to try and mimic the practice of using a physical sketchbook but digitally instead I think it is starting to help blend the two practices!
Fair, I've never really struggled with that issue - but I usually have my pen pressure sensitivity pretty high
True - I think I'm also in a bit of an art lull right now which is just exacerbating the issue... I am so used to only having time to work on my comic and now that I am on hiatus - I do have a bit of free time here and there to draw whatever I want and I have no idea what to draw!
I can relate to this thread... I got my first tablet almost 3 months ago, and I'm still not used to drawing on it It just doesn't feel right. But it's kind of opposite to OP's problem; I actually can make doodles with it, though it doesn't feel as natural as it does on paper, and turning them into something more finished is extremely hard.
Keeping track of proportions, making fluid lines, adding details, etc. - all that is so much more difficult for me digitally, even though it is already plenty hard on paper... I go through multiple layers of rough sketching and it still doesn't look even half as good as it would on paper. Does anyone else have this problem? Like, not with doodling, but with doing "finished" digital works?
I spend many years wishing I had a tablet, and now I'm just frustrated with how the transition to digital art actually made my poor skills even worse
At first drawing felt differently. People would just say, "Just draw the same way you would draw traditionally" but it's really is a different mindset. I needed to respect the fact that it was naturally a different media, so I made a habit of leveraging layers a bit more than normal since it's the most obvious difference.
After that its just picking out personal tendencies and drawing habits that dont transition as well.
That is definitely one thing that I miss about my Wacom stylus... to my knowledge there is only one type of nib for the Apple Pencil. But you still can't quite match a good quality ink dip pen or brush.
Like any medium there is definitely a learning curve - I wouldn't be too worried about that yet - while there is a lot of crossover they are still different skills.
Yeah I guess thats a good way of putting it. Maybe I am just expecting too much out of my digital doodles at the moment.
Doodle a lot. My first arts with my tablet looked pretty bad. All of my coloring's looked pretty bad too, and I feel like they still look bad. I just can't color the same way I do traditionally. It requires too much effort to duplicate what a colored pencil or copic can do - especially when you're used to being able to make your pen point as fine as you want with pressure and digitally it's just like "I R ROUND EVEN IF YOU FLICK". me: gdi
Also: really? you can't swap out apple's stylus nibs? that's so weird to me lol what happens when it wears down!?
Yeahh this is something I've found really helpful as well. Like, traditional sketching, I'll just start with a single sketch and develop it from there / erase the guidelines and etc. With digital drawing I usually have a series of sketch layers like "super rough sketch", "less rough sketch", "clean sketch", "actual clean sketch for real" where I'll keep tracing over the different layers until I get to a level that I'm satisfied with xD almost like inking several times, but adding detail as I go and remaining sketchy (until I move to the actual line art layer, anyways)
I feel the same! I think it's mostly because I can't get into a creative state at a computer. When I can curl up in a blanket with my sketchbook, I'm relaxed and I can doodle a bunch of stuff.
The computer is where I ink/color, which I feel is not as creative of a process; the color scheme and stuff comes to me while doodling on paper.
oh yeah, i love tinkering with the settings to make things Feel Right, but thats the thing: you always have to code the intuitive actions into digital brushes, whereas with pencil and ink you can just draw and be like 'oh, i wanna do THAT' and then do it. i like working rough and splatty and with lots of random utensils, smth digital cant rly replace
though i also like experimenting with new digital brushes. its not one or the other
To the people who struggle with sketching digitally: are you using a screen tablet or a no-screen tablet? I couldn't sketch properly on a tablet until I got a screen tablet.
Once you have one, use a pen nib that creates lines that ease your mind for sketching. For me, I tend to relax more both when inking and sketching if I use bright clear colors and a maru inkpen nib. I think it's because it feels like I'm using red/blue ballpoint pens and just making little pictures in my sketchbook for my own use. Removes the whole stress of "this has to be representable!!!!!" (you know, that stress that ironically enough often renders the work less representable). What works for you will probably be different due to individual associations.
Use low/no stabilization for sketches, use stabilization for inking if you are aiming for a clean look.
Sketching digitally can be very beneficial, especially if you plan on publishing a finished piece because you can quickly fix any anatomy problems. As for doodles, it's once again nice to be able to do it digitally just in case you end up liking the doodle so much you wanna finish it up with some lineart and coloring.
I tend to use pen and paper when I'm travelling or away from a tablet. I use pen and paper more for mind maps and first character design idea doodles than anything else.
This was me when I first got my Wacom tablet...it took me at least a year before I really got comfortable using it.
I still have issues with this some days. As for the lines, mine was a case of finding the right brushes that I like to work with and help make my work look good. As for proportions, dont zoom in too much- I found that when I did, I'd lose awareness of scale, as well as some lines would be thin in one area and thick in another.
Learning to draw on a non screen tablet was a learning curve to me, but I've gotten used to it...for me the opposite is happening- I got an iPad, and at times it mentally messes with me looking at the screen. Planning on getting a Cintiq eventually(trying to use the iPad as something to draw on when I'm away from home), so I'm trying to "get used" to scribbling on a screened tablet.
Depends on how long you use the tablet and if you keep changing tablets or not. I have the same tablet when I started digital art over a decade ago. Because of that, I'm super familiar with it. The only thing that I can recommend is: if it's hard to do it, practice and keep adjusting. If you suck for 10minutes, keep drawing for another 20. It's a lot like an instrument - you don't get good at it magically by doing only a few practice sessions.
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