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darthmongoose
Feb '23

Honestly all of these look good, so it's really hard to choose. I think you should choose which one to use based on the project. Generally most comic artists will do a bunch of different projects for different audiences, platforms and media, so having examples in different styles like this always pays off.

For a webcomic on Tapas, the fully digital look would probably go down well, because it's closer to what popular comics here look like; it's very neat, very crisp, feels familiar and more like a "webcomic for teens and up".

But the improved trad, or the trad inks with digital colouring would look really good in print (probably better than the digital one, which would look a bit flat in print) and go down great for projects like instructional comics, literary adaptations and childrens graphic novels.

Katzalcoatl
Feb '23

It has its charm, but in my honest opinion you are doing lots of extra work.
I would suggest you keep doing the lines by hand, scan them, and clean them up.
But instead of printing and coloring by hand you should just straight up color it digitally.

It just seems you are doing extra work by printing your work to scan it again.
Another option is to do everything by hand including the coloring before scanning and cleaning. I just don't see the need to scan two times.

FliosRegular
Feb '23

Personally, I'd prefer the fully digital one more strictly speaking as a READER. Don't get me wrong, I like the traditional combinations a lot, but I like cleaner lineart and colors. It just hits me a lot differently.
Anyways, the fully digital art style you have usually attracts more readers because it just looks so clear. Honestly, colors and shading don't have to be complex. It's the chemistry between your lineart, coloring, and effects that makes some art a better experience for the eyes.

KelheorRegular
Feb '23

I agree, all of them look good to me, but it definitely sounds like you're doing extra work... Maybe it's possible for you to make another layer of line art after coloring if you want it darker? Doesn't sound easier, honestly, but maybe it is.
Also the full digital is not a bad idea (but only if you want to go for it), if you want a more "traditional" look you just need to find the brushes that will imitate it better (maybe something like a hard round brush from Loish, I use it for sketches or painting, it lacks the grainness, but kinda has this marker look).

Katzalcoatl
Feb '23
1

I didn't mention it earlier but personally I liked the digitally colored character combined with the marker/water colored background.
I think that combination makes both the character and the background stand out from all comics I have seen.
But again that's my personal opinion and in a way it reminds me of old cartoons.

(Again this last post is just my personal opinion considering my likes and dislikes. It is not meant to be advice unlike my previous post.)

feuersichel
Feb '23

Thank you all for your advice. I had some time now to think about what to do and I think I'll do some testing with digital colors. As alot of you stated, it is extra work with all that scaning. So far the option with trad ink and digital colours sounds like a good compromise. Now I just need to get fast with digital colours ^^'

@Kelheor are those brushes downloadable via clipstudio? These sound interesting.

@Katzalcoatl Doesn't sound bad though, I'll try the digital chara trad. bg aswell.

@darthmongoose Jeah I think my main problem is, I don't have a set target audience. Like I wanna just draw and upload but then again, printing would be awesome aswell ^^' I'm currently putting together a portfolio so I hopefully get a publisher interested. I gotta start somewhere even if it doesn't work out xD

Shanny8
Feb '23

I'm gonna say either A) just pencil & ink traditionally then color digitally, or B) go full digital...that is too much, and eventually you are going to burn yourself out.

river121693
Feb '23
feuersichel

I personally prefer the fully digital version over the rest. The digital one is much cleaener and have more line variety. Something about the inconsistent color and line quality -- not as a result your skill, but the materials and scanning process-- makes it looks a little more amateurish. It has its charm but I don't think the trade off is worth it.

DarkSena
Feb '23

It's solely up to you. The drawings you shared are all nice in their own way. I'm mostly a traditional artists myself so I have those tendencies lol however if you feel like you wanna switch and go fully digital it'd fine too. Traditional has a very distinct texture, digital tends to be very smooth if you don't use textures. So whichever way you enjoy more :smiley:

darthmongoose
Feb '23
feuersichel

It's good to keep in mind that different works have different audiences. As a creator, especially with comics, probably more than novels, you don't need to target the same audience every time. A good method for finding where a comic will likely perform best, or where to pitch or sell it, is to look for "comp titles", which are other books or webcomics made in the last 10 years that have a successful following and a similar vibe to what you're making or want to make. They're really good for getting the sense of who will read a series, how popular it might be, how to market it, and you can point at them when pitching. On Tapas with Errant, my comp titles are things like Pandora's Devils and Hard Lacquer, while for the kids graphic novel I'm working on, it's things like Witch Boy and Lumberjanes.

Of course... this can make things tricky when what you're already making and passionate about is a sort of personal passion project. When rebooting Fan Dan Go into Errant, I had to consider a lot about like... how to keep stuff I liked about my old comic, and things I felt passionate about while making something that might appeal to the Tapas audience. In retrospect, due to unfamiliarity with modern webcomics, I think I leaned too far into "things I want to do" and made something that's not really optimal to ever be up there as a 50k+ subs makes me my income type comic. But.... it's not always fun or healthy to have to think of everything you make as a "product"... sometimes a little personal indulgence is necessary, and sometimes you need to just try things to see if they have an audience or not! :sweat_02: Still, if I were to try again, there are things I'd change about the style and pacing and things to be more "Tapas-friendly", because modern webcomics are practically as bad as print for needing to laser-target your audience, but without the advantage of an editor or agent to tell you how!

feuersichel
Feb '23

I'm lucky that I decided from the begining, that this is my "learn how to do comics" - project. So I don't have much pressure to actually gain much from it exept skill and knowledge. I did a small artbook about that story and went through the whole process including printing etc. I didn't sell many but it was a small batch anyways and I know so much more how everything works now (especially, how much time it actually takes ^^').

As you did with Fan Dan Go, I need to consider the audience more carefully for future projects. Currently I'm making this comic more for me and for people that like this kind of story but I think I'll keep on balancing future projects with stuff I want and stuff a potential reader wants. I personally preffer an okay readership rather than a super cash-cow story but I have no fun creating it. I had my fair share of such jobs outside of comics and it isn't healthy in the long run ^^'

feuersichel
Feb '23

Sooo, I tested out some stuff and I'm surprised on the results so far. I need to improve some tones but overall I'm happy with the traditional lines / digital colors approach. Some Backgrounds have a traditionally done watercolor picture to add some graininess. @Kelheor I found a really cool marker-like brush. I'll test some more but this one works surprisingly well for backgrounds (I used it on the mountains and bottom panel). I also did the shadows and lights with it.

The time saved with all the scanning and editing was refreshing. It seems like I was so used to the old method, I didn't realise how time-consuming it actually was.

test pg79.PNG613x878 899 KB

Katzalcoatl
Feb '23

That's great. And yeah doing so much scanning is just extra work not really needed. Plus it reduces quality once you print and scan again.

It's like cooking pasta half way letting it cool, straining it, and then adding more water to cook it again. Doing so will reduce the quality of your pasta although it would still be edible.

P.S. characters look cleaner than your previous methods without losing their charm.

RedLenai
Feb '23

Honestly, they all look good and there isn't much difference between one or the other.
So I would suggest to try to narrow down your creative process a bit, do the sketch and lineart in traditional, then just do the coloring in digital, there are several brushes, assets and even texture material to make it look more traditional if needed. Personally I like the bit of paper like texture, and can be re-created easily while looking digitally clean

Here are some brushes that may help you a bit with the coloring



Scanning is not only extra work, but an extra investment, you basically have to pay for more paper and ink.

thecrystalrook
Feb '23

I think both for you are equally good in terms of quality - so for you, I think it's probably a question of money: Do you want to keep spending it on traditional art supplies?

KelheorRegular
Feb '23

Looks great!
Don't forget you can also do some watercolor colored paper scans to add the texture in the program later :slight_smile:

1 month later

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