How do you draw characters?

[GamerPrincessXI]

Geez that's a long time. An hour, I mean.

[Mari]

I use Paint Tool SAI, but I bought clip studio and one day will learn to use it.

I hardly ever sketch traditionally because of my rheumatism my hands can't handle long periods of traditional drawing.

[Maps]

I’ve really only used Procreate on my iPad Pro to draw my comic. I’ll save my art and move it over to Clip Art Studio where I add the text. Then I send to my email and upload from my laptop. I’m hoping that as I grow my art and my text bubbles look a little cleaner. I also want to download more brushes for my Apple Pencil.

I have also used an app on my IPad before that helps with body positioning and have used it as a reference. (I just googled and found Magic Poser. I haven’t used this, but it’s just an example of using tools for body-position referencing).

There’s a lot of helpful videos on YouTube that you can watch showing the different products/apps/tools people use to create their comics.

Here’s my comic in case you want to glance it and see what I’ve been able to do with procreate (I’m still very new to my iPad Pro).

A Second Chance at Fate | Tapas

It takes a couple of hours for me to finish even one panel currently.

I really loved this tutorial for drawing in Procreate. It’s pleasing to watch

[elyss]

Is it? XD I've never really thought about it. I'm still finding ways to cut corners, but in the end, I'm still too slow atm. It took me about a month to complete a 33 page chapter.

[GamerPrincessXI]

Wowie...33 chapters, that's impressive.

[GamerPrincessXI]

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Paint Tool Sai?

[elyss]

I meant a chapter that was 33 pages, sorry if I worded it weird omg if someone could do 33 chapters in a month then they are a god among men

[GamerPrincessXI]

That looks like a nice tutorial. I like the description of your comic summary.

[Mari]

@GamerPrincessXI

Pros : Amazing for painting. Pretty much the best there is.
Cons: Complete garbage at literally everything else.

[GamerPrincessXI]

Thats true. Only person I know who wrote 33 chapters in a month was the author of the DaVinci Code. And that book was 105 chapters. I own that book.

[GamerPrincessXI]

@Mari sorry to hear that. 🤣

[ryoko]

Both.

1. I sketch in pencil on deleter comic paper. It can take anywhere from 20-90 mins depending on how rough I draw, how many frames, how detailed the scene is, etc.

2. I scan and ink using my macbook and a wacom cintiq with CSP. This can take anywhere from an hour to several hours per page depending on how complicated the panels are. I do about 3 pages a week and try to have a buffer, but that doesn't always work out because of having to work extra shifts...

[GamerPrincessXI]

That's awesome. Never heard of deleter comic paper?

[DasIstWunderblyat]

I don't make comic but I do draw.

When drawing traditionally, I use pencil, colored pens, watercolor, marker, and colored pencils on paper. I scan or take a photo of it for upload.
When drawing digitally, I use Ibis Paint X on my Xiaomi phone. Sometimes I sketch traditionally and take a photo of it for digitalization.

This is my progess picture (old drawing, sorry):

[GamerPrincessXI]

My god, those are old drawings. I love them. They look so good.

[ryoko]

Deleter paper is used mostly in Japan and hard to find here in Canada, but I like it because it's got a great drawing surface and has ruled edges to make it easier.

This is deleter paper:deleter paper

[GamerPrincessXI]

Cool. Thanks for the info.

[VibrantFox]

All of my work from sketch to finish is done digitally in Medibang; though sometimes I'll use FireAlpaca but more for animation. As for hardware I use an old Wacom Intuos small on a laptop.
The process for me is usually rough sketch > lineart > colors > other details.

This gif shows the process for a recent character drawing I did with the only difference being a second rough sketch to rework some details

Another static example of proces I have is here:

Pawprints :: Nise Process | Tapas

When it comes to the who drawing process i think what helps is having a rough idea of the form/construction of a character like pose, proportions and balance. Something I've started recently to help with pose when I can't quite work it out myself is Magic Poser's desktop webapp linked below.
https://webapp.magicposer.com/

As for other things online tutorials can be a big help it just takes some looking around

[GamerPrincessXI]

That's so adorbs. I actually animate too. I'm self taught. One class in Adobe Animate, ten years ago and now I animate non-stop.

[Shanny8]

Both- traditional & digital. Right now I do mostly digital- due to convenience, but when I'm at conventions I draw in my sketchbook between sales.

Planning on moving to my own spot by next year; once I get my "studio space" set up I'm gonna try to get back to doing more traditional pencil/ink pieces.