Handmade comics or on pc program?

[poleronepeix]

Hi everyone, so I just wanted to know how many of you guys makes his/her comic by hand because there's a few community who doesn't use pc drawing programs.
By the way can you give me some reasons to do it on pc please?

My handmade watercolor and ink comic: DISCOVERING THE WORLD.

[keii4ii]

Well, even if somebody uses a mouse and Photoshop to make their art, they're still holding the mouse with their hand. The output is still a reflection of their skills and creativity. So I prefer to say "traditional" versus "digital," rather than "handmade."

I make my comic digitally. But before I started drawing this comic, I actually wanted to do it on big 18"x24" paper using charcoal. Problem was, big art is a PAIN to scan, and charcoal is extremely messy. Not really an option for me as I live with a hairy dog that's literally bigger than me, and I don't want to deal with the charcoal dust getting on the dog, or the dog destroying the work while I'm not looking.

My other favorite traditional medium is oil paint, but yeeeah that's even more of a pain. Disposal is a ton of hassle, thanks to oil paint/ turpentine being considered hazardous material.

So it's largely a matter of practicality for me. I don't have to clean up after myself after each session; I just hit Save, close the program and put the stylus away. I don't have to deal with storing boxes and boxes of finished art (same reason I prefer to read comics digitally these days). I don't have to worry about my dog getting herself dirty, or worse, hurt because of my art supplies.

Personal preference is also a big factor. You say "why do it digitally" and I say, "why not?" I mean, what are the reasons you do it with watercolor? I'm guessing you like it. Some people like doing it digitally, just the same way you like doing it with watercolor. Different strokes for different people. I genuinely enjoy making art digitally, as much as I enjoy doing it with charcoal or oil paint.

[Kayke]

I agree that the terminology is important here. All art is handmade, the hands are just using different tools.

I work in a combination of digital and traditional. I sketch and ink on paper but color on the computer. Before I started doing comics, I used to do acrylic paintings and it was messy and expensive and didn't really make sense to do comics in that medium for me. Since my comics are either being posted online or printed from digital files, digital finishes made sense to me.

I still do some traditional paintings, but mainly as gifts for my family or significant other since then I can give them the original.

[isaacfriedman]

I've done both, even within the same comic and they both have upsides and downsides for beginners. For veterans of the craft however, digital is objectively better than traditional media. I am not one of these experts, however, so I have this contrast to offer you:

These are traditional, traditional with digital enhancements, and fully digital pages from one of my comics. Traditional has better natural texture (though long-time digital artists know how to fabricate these) and it's easier to avoid making the whole scene seem monotone. Digital tools, on the other hand, allow for smaller details, more controlled blurring and fading, and more ease of editing.

I'd recommend starting with traditional and then transitioning into digital as your skills improve and your needs change.

[shazzbaa]

I do a mixture.

I use pencil and paper for thumbnails, rough sketches, and pencils, but I use the computer to print out each stage in non-photo blue, rather than using a lightbox. I digitally lay out my perspective grids because it's a lot cleaner than drawing a grid of lines on top of my drawing using t-squares and rulers, and means I'm not limited by the size of my desk when placing vanishing points. I ink using ballpoint pen and paper, because I enjoy it and like the look of ballpoint pen inks -- and it's slightly faster and easier on my hand to ink on paper than to ink the same way digitally. I colour digitally -- for me digital colouring allows me more room to experiment without taking a billion years, but I definitely agree with the issues of space/expense/hassle, and the difficulty of capturing real-world-colours in a scan.
Since I do everything on laptop, working digitally also makes my comic work a lot more portable than it would be if I were painting!

[Migue]

It all depends on what suits the best for each artist.

I do most of my comic traditionally except for the lettering. I have tried to start working digitally but I can't get used to the feel of the tablet and looking at the screen, I feel like I'm learning to draw all over again. To be honest I haven't practiced enough and it is mostly my fault rather than the media's.

In the end if it works for you and you can tell your story efficiently it doesn't matter if you do it with crayons or a wacon cintiq.

[punkarsenic]

the undo button. thats your reason

but serious, there are lots of advantages and drawbacks of drawing digitally vs drawing traditionally. i few upsides to digital are

• the ability to tweak and edit your drawings, colours, everything, at any point in the job
• saving space and resources. i couldnt really do hand drawn comics rn mainly because i dont have the worktop space for them, but digital is all stashed on my computer, which i have already.
• cool lighting effects
• layers. layers are so nice.
• you can get some really interesting brushes that you cant quite replicated with your irl resources.

the downsides are that the hand-eye-coordination will take a little while to catch up, so therell be a... gap of some kind. not exactly 'my digital art is worse' (altho it can feel that way sometimes imo) but its just a very different setup, and youll have a somewhat different style of drawing from your traditional work. mainly, id say, because it cannot imitate physical drawing / painting tools; only very expensive tablets have tilt sensitivity, afaik, and they still lose a lot of the subtleties of a good graphite drawing (altho they are catching up)
it can also get pretty pricey, when you start adding up the nicest programs and nicest tablets and nicest computers. you dont need all that stuff, but youll prolly have to fork out for something at some point (for me, it was a £50 tablet, so not too bad)

basically, id say, digital art is more convenient, and definitely better suited to some, but is still lagging behind traditional in some aspects. handmade comics are still a really good thing, with a definite place in the medium, dont feel discouraged from making your comics by hand if thats what you want to do.

[indagold]

My tip if you're comfortable with traditional art and have no experience in digital, don't freakin' do it. Work with the medium you're comfortable with or at the very least practice for a while with a digital medium before trying to impress everyone with your brand new fangled computery drawing skills because it will look worse than your traditional work.

[ahhvecadoes]

For real though, I do my comics digitally because costs of ink + paper and my limited space don't allow me to do it otherwise. I already paid for my tablet, my computer, and my programs. If I do traditional ones, it's most likely for gifts or very short comics.

I do still do traditional art when I have free time (which is like... never). I stocked up on stuff while working in an art store last year and still do paint when possible and sketch a TON.

[MichelleAntisocial]

I used to do a combination of both with my comic. I would do the sketches and line work traditionally and then do the rest digitally, then I moved to only doing the sketches traditionally. Neither was working for me. Because I have such a light hand, whenever I scan my pencil art, I lose like 50% of what I originally liked about it to begin with. It ended up being a guessing game as to what lines I'd actually planned on using.. I was constantly unhappy with the output. About 6 months ago, I realized that I could get the exact thing I was going for by just drawing everything digitally..so yeah, that's why. Here are a couple examples.

This is a combination:

this is just digital:

[shaylafarley5]

I'm still traditional when it comes to drawing my comic(because its faster for me than trying to measure it out on the tablet) but I color it digitally because I can get certain effects I can't do with marker,pens, etc...

Plus is saves me alot of money not constantly buying supplies when all I need is a power source.

[shaylafarley5]

Your right, my fist time using photoshop was so bad XD. But after a few pages in I got a lot better. I even planned on redrawing the first few pages but decided to leave it. I like seeing my flaws.

[brittenymiller76]

I draw all my characters for my comic Albatross and associated objects by hand. Ink too.. then go to illustrator!
I will grab the line-art and add backgrounds/smoke and effects by Photoshop.