How difficult do you think it would be to learn to draw/start a webcomic on a phone?

[EncryptedWriting]

One of my aspirations in life is to draw, not professionally, just, I want to spend an hour on a character and be content with it. I want a style. I realize that traditional art is great, but I really want to start digital art. Now, my parents will not understand if I invest in a drawing tablet or even an iPad, and I am not sure if it is a great idea either. I really am not that great on pen and paper already.

I have a stylus for my phone, and I have tried to draw on there, but it is rather difficult, as you could imagine. I want to make a small webtoon, no idea of what yet considering my resources, but I am curious how difficult it would be on a phone. Would it be worth getting a cheap drawing tablet or a small/cheap iPad if this curiosity continues? Would you, in my situation, reach out and grab a tablet and start working on there despite knowing that the art that is produced (AT FIRST) is less than lackluster?

Would you step in and try to start a comic on your phone?

[Iris-Grimoire]

I'd say it's best to invest in a cheap tablet, or work traditionally then scan and edit/color. Comics are a ton of wrist work and eye strain, and doing it on a phone that's significantly smaller than an iPad could cause injuries since there's not a whole lot of comfortable positions to draw.

[drawnbyyannan]

If your goal is to just draw, I would recommend a small iPad because the learning curve for something like Procreate is much more manageable. If your goal is to make a webtoon, I'd suggest buying a cheap drawing tablet so you can start learning how to use Clip Studio Paint. That being said, if you aren't liking your artwork with just a simple pencil and paper, you aren't going to like your art that much more digitally, so in the meantime, continue to practice!

[DasIstWunderblyat]

I draw on mobile phone. I have drawn on 4.7 inch phone with no problem, it is just a matter of getting used to it if you do not have vision problem. I do not draw with stylus, so my wrist don't move at all. However, the limited space with many movements might be able to hurt it if you use stylus.

It is less-than-ideal many people say. It can be too small of space for eyes and hand movements. The quality of hardware also matter because you may need a powerful RAM and memory(depending on application you use). Software-wise you need one with numerous features to support comic making, and a versatile and transferrable file format which the application saves as (like can export as PSD).

I think if it is for "Just-for-fun" or testing the water comic it is fine. It is also sustainable for drawing comics with simplistic art. However, I do not recommend it for serious and/or complicated comic. There are many cheaper tablets like Huion and XP-Pen, and if you cannot afford a laptop like me they are able to be plugged into your phone as a drawing tablet!

[reddinggray]

I also draw on phone as well. When I was first starting, I draw on paper first and did the lineart and colors on phone. It is time consuming, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. The first ten episodes on my comic was drawn on paper first, then I switch to drawing directly on my phone when I ran out of paper. It's not as difficult as you think it would be, especially if you have a stylus. It might be a bit awkward at first with the small screen, but you will get better in time.

[RosesnWater]

My whole comic had been done on my phone pretty much, adding flat colours I do on my computer because of the software I use but otherwise I really like my phone! Plus a lot of people already read comics on the app so what you see On your phone is what most people will see on the app.

I use sketchbook on my phone for lines and shading-

[ReneVergence]

I started drawing digitally on my phone and got used to it, so I don't find it uncomfortable or difficult. Even when I was just starting out with it, it didn't feel too different from drawing normally. So if you want to go for it, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. Eye strain is definitely something to consider though, since a phone is one of the smallest screens you can draw on and you'll likely be staring quite intently at it for extended periods of time while drawing.

[Kaydreamer]

I'm going to be the oldie who swans in here to remind you not to take the physical health of things like your eyes, neck and wrist for granted. No, don't draw on a phone. Definitely don't try to draw a whole webcomic on a phone! It's probably the least ergonomic thing you could choose, and even a very young person could wind up with neck and hand cramps from that.

If you told your parents you were saving for an iPad/Apple Pencil because you like to draw and want to make more art with it, I'm sure they'd understand. Many people have some form of creative outlet, it's completely normal. Just tell them yours is drawing, and show them some examples of art made in Procreate to demonstrate why it's more versatile than pencil and paper.

The learning curve for Procreate is very small. It feels very natural, and is enormously intuitive. There are heaps of tutorials. And because you're drawing directly onto the iPad screen, there's less of a learning curve than there is for a tablet!

I'd definitely recommend the iPad + Apple Pencil option! It's also a great personal device which is good for so many more things than just drawing on. It's a wonderful piece of tech.

[Yulek]

if you do have a desktop PC

you could get the huion420. it was my first tablet that I used for years. it's 20€ .. so around 25-30 dollars?
it was not perfect, but absolutely did it's job!

if you don't have a computer but just a phone, there are cheapish graphic tablets that work with phones too (depending on what android version they have) the huion HS64 does.. and is at around 40€ so around 50$ ig??

I had both of them myself. with the phone one, I did animations on flipaclip and it does work!
(I'm giving that one away on ig and twitter rn, with less than 20 entries. so uhh. good chance if you're interested?)

on phone, you can also use traditional lineart, scan it, and just color it digitally.
mixed approaches have a lot of benefits

[Legendofgenii]

Life is short, and if you are passionate about it and willing to learn I would just go for it (a tablet).

I got my first (cheap) tablet when I was twelve. My parents looked at me funny when I asked for a 'tablet' for Christmas.

I'd only used traditional media before that. Tried drawing with a Mouse on Microsoft paint for a while too.
I used the tablet constantly, learning through trial and error. I've had lots of them since over the years and found that Wacoms are the best brand by far.

I can't imagine how frustrating drawing on a tiny phone screen would be, but I know some people do it.

[rajillustration]

Cheap tablet is what I had in High School (it was like 70 bucks, a Christmas present, and not a big brand either) I want to say it had a 5 inch surface area, but it got me through 5 years of doodling and learning to get comfortable with digital art before I got a Waccom in college. At the time I really didn't feel like I was missing out, instead I was just happy to draw. I highly recommend doing that, you don't have to splurge and get the highest end gear, and the type of tablet you can get nowadays will be better than my starting off tablet in 2002.

Holy crap am I that old? Holy crap that can't be right.

[Llyrel]

I draw stuff on my phone from time to time. Got Procreate Pocket for iPhone + a Mixoo stylus and you can definitely get some lovely results with it. However... yep, not sure about doing a whole comic with it D: strips and shorter stories might be fine, but for longer stories you'll probably want to invest on a tablet, at least to make things easier. Doesn't even have to be a screen tablet: if you already have a computer, a small Wacom Intuos costs about $80 and works amazingly (and, as suggested above, brands like Huion have tablets that cost even less). Before I switched to screen tablets, I used to do all of my art on my Intuos (and tbh, I still do a lot of stuff with it :D).

[Legendofgenii]

Holy crap am I that old? Holy crap that can't be right.

I feel your pain.