I've been writing a novel for a while now,
Also I have past experience in technical drawing (hand and digital)
Jun '22
Jul '22
if you gonna do digital art, Don't buy a small art graphic tablet, it will hurt your wrist. Take breaks to stretch out hand, And Thumbnail your comics at the very least.
Before you do ANYTHING, go to your bookshop or library and get yourself a copy of "Making Comics" by Scott McCloud. Read the whole thing. It will teach you so many vital things about comics.
Do test pages or test panels first, or draw some sort of short, self-contained comic (say four pages or a 20 panel scroll) so you can get all your beginner mistakes out of the way and not have them messing up those vital early pages that will be the first impression a reader gets of your comic. You WILL make beginner mistakes, because comics are a really complex medium with so many moving parts, so make your mistakes in a safe environment.
You'll need to decide if you're going long scroll or page by page. I'd advise long scroll to anyone who isn't really keen to also learn about print specifications and making a print comic. If you want to make a print comic, you'll need to learn about trim, bleed, safety zone and make the whole thing at 300+ dpi, so it's a whole lot of extra fuss for a format that might put off some readers. Long scroll is a popular and accessible format I'd recommend for people starting now.
Now on the drawing... honestly it's hard to advise without seeing what your current level is like. Get a decent graphics tablet that works for you, and don't be scared to customise it. Some people like a shiny surface, others like a rough one, some people can't draw without a screen, others are perfectly fine without one, some people can only draw on a big tablet while personally I've never used anything bigger than a "medium" wacom in the 15+ years I've been making comics and have never had RSI or wrist issues.
I generally recommend Clip Studio as the software because it can handle all of panels, drawing, inking, colours and even speech bubbles and text or importing 3D reference, patterns etc. The more expensive Clip Studio EX isn't vital, but the page management is very useful if you draw page-by-page comics.
The key thing with drawing comics is to come up with an efficient pipeline for making your pages or episodes that balances "looks decent" with "I can make an update every week or two". It's easy to fall into the trap of making the art style way too fancy, neat and detailed and then not being able to maintain regular updates or burning out. In a contest between a comic that looks amazing but only updates every few months, and a comic that looks okay and updates every week, the one that updates more will end up with more engagement.
My advice for you: DON"T DESPAIR!
I swear, the first year after I bought a drawing tablet and started using it, I constantly had the urge to just toss it out the window or burn it in a fire. There was nothing wrong with the tablet but I wasn't used to digital drawing AT ALL. I even stopped using it for a while and went back to traditional drawing. Don't do that. It might be hard at first but if you continue using it, you will improve but keep in mind it will take quite some time.
Here, you can see the difference. The first image is one of my very first digital drawings in 2017, the second image is a drawing I made in 2019 and the last one is from this year made for my webcomic.
Of course, everyone's progress will be different.
@darthmongoose did a good job of explaining how to get the beginner mistakes out of the way! A short comic is definitely the way to go. Try to keep a schedule with it or else you'll never actually finish it. I think it's a good idea to post it online, that way you will feel a responsibility to keep updating for the readers. Keep in mind though that your goal with this comic should be to learn, not to gain readers. Also, keep it simple, keep it short and don't attach yourself emotionally to it as it will hinder your ability to look at your mistakes objectively.
Also: DON'T WASTE TIME REDRAWING THE FIRST EPISODES! You will never get anywhere if you keep getting stuck at the beginning. Make it and then keep going.
I hope this helped you! Good luck with your comic!
There's already some very useful advice in here, but I'll add my 2 cents anyway. I've been drawing digitally for a little over two years.
Since I don't think there is one right way or one right resource for everyone, I won't give you any concrete advice on how to practise or what resources to seek out. But the most important thing that I've learned is that you cannot digest and process everything at once. There's so much to learn, both about art in general (depending on your level as an artist) and about any new medium you pick up, and an overwhelming amount of information and resources out there. So what I will say is go at your own pace, seek out tutorials, feedback and advice when you're in a headspace where you can digest and process them, and if a tip or exercise or method or feature of your program seems overwhelming and impossible to work with right now, don't be afraid to ditch it and come back to it later when you've improved your skills a little. Some things won't be useful to you right away because they're too advanced and that's okay. Also, don't be afraid to ditch something if it doesn't work for you after giving it several chances. Sometimes another artist will swear by this one technique or method or tutorial and if it just doens't work for you at all, that's okay. It doesn't have to. Something else will, so don't waste too much of your time on trying to follow someone else's path.
Most people on here will cater their advice to your skill level if you seek out feedback so feel free to post your art if you want some input from other people.
Also, remember to have fun with your art. Improving any skill requires time and effort and sometimes doing things you don't particularly enjoy, but it shouldn't be just a chore. So remember to indulge in whatever you enjoy drawing too, without worrying too much about whether this is the most optimal way to improve or trying to make it perfect. It can be frustrating at first when you can't produce the images you have in your mind, but it'll get better, and you can still create pictures that convey a certain feeling or look nice and are hopefully fun to make.
CTRL paint is awesome.
Tonnes of free tutorials. Very simple and easy to grasp, matt khor is a great teacher. And a big focus on begginer digital art.
Its mostly photoshop, but its easily transferable knowledge to clip studio.
Familiar yourself with keyboard shortcuts. Photoshop and Clip Studio use mostly the same ones and have options to customize them if needed.
Some people will flip their pen to erase, but personally, I prefer pressing E.
closed Jul 7, '22
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