Digital vs Traditional (and/or combinations)

[kaetana]

Yup! I still keep sketchbooks and I'll use those to jot down costume design ideas occasionally, and when I do life drawing practice I'll do that traditional. But the majority of my stuff I work 100% digital now.

[prankishparty_67]

oh, yeah i work waay better digitally than traditionally. its quicker, saves resources, dont need ink. can upload digital art straight to tapas instead of scanning it and such

[Jenny-Toons]

As of now, I've gotten back to sketching comic layouts and panels traditionally. It's a bit faster for me to get ideas and layout down on paper. I do the rest (lineart, flatting, rendering, etc) digitally, but it helps to have those sketches side by side as opposed to on the exact canvas. Then, I'm able to see the layout as I put it and change it if I need to.

Though, I mostly do this for works I really want a certain vibe coming from? I like to sketch out the ideas first before being able to change them on canvas. And it works for me because I don't need to heavily ink over my sketches, so there's no real need for me to scan them other than me wanting an archive.

[Shanny8]

My work flow is faster, but I liked my traditional quality; my inks seemed really crisp. Right now, I've been working mostly digitally, but I do think once I get more room to do my "art space" the way I want then I'll start back working on some projects traditionally.

[HGohwell]

I do most my "proper" stuff digitally, it has major advantages like that undo button and layers and "why don't I have this colour I'm sure I had this colour" and "wft why is my pen running out now?!" and lots of other little cheats that can speed things up.

But, I still do a lot of doodle and screwing around and sometimes first designs traditionally. If I'm in a slump, sometimes I go back to traditional because there's something to be said for not having the undo button and all the little helping hands that sorta forces me to commit and own the mistakes work on them properly. And I still like to do things like Inktober traditionally of course.

[Llyrel]

I use a combination of both digital and traditional. For a long time, I tried to force myself to draw exclusively in digital, in part because I had no idea how to properly scan my traditional art (so it ended up looking like crap on screen) and in part because it was "what all popular artists do". However, despite all my attempts, I could never get myself to draw directly in digital, so I'd usually sketch things on paper and then do the lineart/coloring digitally. Still, I found myself spending AGES zooming in and trying to define all the tiny details, thus wasting a lot of time, more often than not ending up with something I didn't like anyway. This was especially true for cartoony drawings, which I could never seem to get to look the way I wanted them to no matter how many times I tried.

Then I finally managed to find a way to "scan" my traditional drawings without losing too much details (the trick apparently was taking photos, rather than using an actual scanner) aaaaand... decided to switch back to traditional, lol. I'm WAY faster with it (seriously, the coloring of a page with markers takes me... what, two hours, compared to the 4+ hours I spend on Photoshop?), I spend a lot less time nitpicking over all the tiny details AND I can get the result I want much more easily. Yes, it costs more, yes it's harder to store stuff... but honestly, it's a price I'm willing to pay, if it means being able to work faster and with results I don't hate.

I haven't given up completely on digital art: I still do it from time to time and now that I got myself a Cintiq and an iPad Pro I find myself enjoying the process a lot more than I used to (up until last year, my only tablet was a simple Wacom Manga with no screen). But yep, unless some sort of miracle happens and I stop being a freaking perfectionist at some point in the future, for my comic I'm going to stick to traditional art

[WhiskeyMadDog]

I am strictly traditional.
A lot of people use digital nowadays, and I've tried digital too. At first, I liked digital, but the problem with it is I became more perfectionistic when I worked with digital, getting the color palette and anatomy perfect. Digital doesn't feel right to me.
The pen is already a part of my soul, and an extension of my brain, so to throw it all away is like tearing out a part of my body.
When I draw with my pens and pencils, I feel a spiritual connection. That feeling is lost with a stylus and tablet. It feels artificial and my mind is numbed.
Yes, traditional takes a long time. But the results are worth it. Yes, you make mistakes. But those mistakes can become beautiful.

Plus, with everyone doing digital, digital loses its credit. You cannot touch or add texture in digital. You cannot experiment that much.

I am always experimenting with traditional. Every page is a new lesson. I ask myself "Have I tried collage yet?" "How about monochromatic?" If not, I try it. I like to try everything and add everything I can get my hands on. A candy wrapper glued into the pages? Let's try that!

That's why I will stay with my pen and watercolors forever. I am happy with these tools, and I don't need anything else.

Conclusion: traditional art takes a long time, but the results are amazing.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

No because I draw on my smartphone and use a free application

Many people especially younger ones are doing this, even though it is labelled as inferior and unprofessional by some people. I am no professional in any way so I don't care, they better buy us cintiqs if they really care.

I am too broke for wacom currently, would rather buy something else or save that money.

[CurryXSake]

I used to draw traditionally before going digital. I now plan things out traditionally because it's faster and fun. I then do the final parts digitally because of its flexibility. With that said, I always make sure that my brushes are able to mimic my favorite traditional tools such as pencil and watercolor. In the end, they are both great mediums.

[nostalgicroxas]

Figure out which you like. I realize that I hate coloring digitally. I've learned to like what I do, but I recognize that my digital coloring skills are very different and simplified compared to my traditional stuff. My digitally I can get better anatomy. My plan is to draw lines digitally, print them out, and use a lightbox to trace them, and then color traditionally. Haven't been able to do that much yet except for one older attempt where I traced just off my laptop screen lol

Tracing screen and trying to color akin to digitally with traditional means:: not good https://www.deviantart.com/watashiveracasan/art/chibi-Will-yellow-428780945

Traditional art being "redrawn over" for blocking from traditional to digital:: https://shimonstar.tumblr.com/post/167756654489/doodle-at-work-of-will-and-his-cat-fabio traditional, https://shimonstar.tumblr.com/post/167756693049/cant-figure-out-what-to-do-with-the-eye-balls-xx digital

And when I say my traditonal coloring is better. I mean it.

Summary

Overall the process of doing something traditional and then re-tracing it's lines or something for colorblocking digitally takes like 5x longer and a 1million times more patience for me. It just feels soooo tedious.

[Freemints30]

Since I don't have a scanner Im 100% digital. Thou for thumbnails when I just want to know how my pages will be structured, I scribble traditionally. Yeah so digital all the way just due to being too poor for anything else lol.

However I use different textures to give my comic a more papery feel and do my line art with a pencil tool and shade with a crayon texture tool from clippaint just to achieve my current style

[gempompadour]

I do all my sketches traditionally. Using pen and paper is so much faster for me because the screen of my drawing tablet is very small and I can't get a hang of proportions or what size a lower panel is compared to an upper one. With paper I can literally see the whole page. And I can whip out a sketch book and pen whenever I want. For a tablet I need to boot up my ancient computer, fumble around with the cords, wait for my editing programs to start... it takes a while to get started.

I scan my finished sketches and do the lineart and colors digitally. I'm so much faster on a computer and love that I can really zoom in and create little details that I couldn't do with my non-zooming eyes on paper. Plus copy+paste has been a real timesaver.

[EmmyPax]

@KaseyTheGolden embracing mistakes was a big thing for me too. I feel like a lot of my digital art looks "stiff" from overworking, compared to my traditional stuff.

@franzvanderlinde I think in terms of speed, you're going to be fastest at the one you like best, or at least, the most motivated to finish. I tried switching to digital a couple years ago and eventually, I realized I just didn't enjoy the experience of making art as much in digital to really "learn" it. I didn't love the endless fiddling it prompted, and sometimes, I think using watercolor is actually faster, since you can get a lot of cool effects from the way the paint naturally behaves, rather than spending hours adjusting gradients. They're just different.

I make all my art traditionally. My comic is all done with watercolor, with the linework in dip pen and india ink. I do a small amount of "tweaking" in Krita when I lay out the panels for tapas and webtoon. I can get rid of a few unsightly paint splatters that way.

I also do all of my lettering/balloons digitally, because I don't like the look of my printing AT ALL. My cursive is okay, but no one wants to read a comic in cursive.

I do like being able to blend aspects of the digital into my traditional art, but for now, I'm glad I've stuck to trad, because I love doing it and that motivates me to learn/get better/make the comic.

[franzvanderlinde]

OMG you use the exact same as me: Watercolor, Indian Ink, Krita to finish up!

Here is my series btw:

Abismos | Tapas

[franzvanderlinde]

I feel you about the spiritual connection!

[franzvanderlinde]

What is the application you use? Might try for doodling on the go...

[franzvanderlinde]

Yes, I got so tired of the endless boring work on digital, which in traditional feels like a pleasant activity. But nowadays I am concerned about efficiency so I can keep a good pace for my comics... Nevertheless it still feels like my current process is good.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Ibis Paint X it is.
Some people also recommend MediBang or AutoDesk Sketchbook. You might play around with choices and they are all free.

[L_e_fty]

Both are great depending on what you like and have their own learning curve..
I prefer to work traditionally similarly in watercolor and ink its just what I'm used to. I like the feeling of having the paper and tools in my hands I guess.
I have a really old tablet so I could do digital but it doesn't have all the fancy pressure in the pen that the newer ones have. At this point, its mostly used as a mouse when I clean up and edit my work in photoshop.

[franzvanderlinde]

Yes, I always wondered if my bad experience was for lack of good equipment, but then... good equipment is not cheap for something I don't know I will use that much...