I want to learn how to draw. Should I start digitally or traditionally?

[WOSTR]

For me, both.
You can make steady progress in both formats, see what feels right and don't have to set aside time to practice the other.
I'm still at stage 1 in both area's though.

[BreakingChalk]

Start with traditional as you have more control on what you want to draw and what you actually draw.
Once you've build up some confidence start digital; you'll notice it's harder to make your hand draw what you want to draw, so start with the basics and be constant (don't get let down if it takes you time to properly draw digital, it always happens).

[Rhonder]

I generally agree with the "Start with traditional" advice repeated a lot in this thread so far! The easiest way to start learning the basics is definitely to just grab a pencil and some paper and go at it. Look up basic how to videos and articles on the internet, ask questions here if you have them, etc.

However! I think in your situation you could probably make the jump to digital a little faster than a lot of artists who started younger tbh. Since you have the means to get the equipment and software needed, and already have a specific end result in mind (webcomics), I do think you could probably make the jump to digital once you feel comfortable with the basics. It feels, to me at least, similar to when I made the jump into marker art as a kid- once I wanted to start getting more "serious" about art in middle school (lol!) I invested in some art markers and started learning those tools in addition to continuing to learn about drawing in general. In this case it's more the learning curve of how drawing on a tablet differs from drawing on paper and the tools that your art program has at its disposal.

When you decide to finally get a tablet for the digital drawing I would definitely recommend looking into a screen tablet if money isn't an issue. The wacom varients (cintique line & etc.) is really nice but really expensive. I use a Huion Kamvas GT-191 personally which is a little more affordable and has served me well the last... 2 years I guess I've had it. Drawing on a screen like that isn't exactly like drawing on paper, but it's much much closer compared to the non-screen tablets. I used one of those sparingly for years and you definitely get used to it but it's definitely another hurdle to overcome. I've heard lots of good things about drawing on ipads with Procreate (software) as well, but I'm not sure if that software is well equipped to handle comics tbh... someone with more experience might be able to speak on the matter.

[MasterValkyrie]

So I just wanted to give a little progress update. I think I made a decent improvement in the time elapsed. So about 8ish days ago I went out and just bought some colored pencils and markers. Then I found an old sketch book in my closet. So... I just started drawin'. Using the advice from this thread and a bunch of others, I decided to start with the face/head portion. And I would work on hands and feet on the side (I show that progress some other time.) Anyways this was my very 1st attempt at a face.

(Ignore the random stuff on his face. I just drew over stuff that was on the page a long time ago.)

Afterwards I started to read more threads and using those tips I ultimately came up with this...

I tried to actually put effort into that one, unlike the first one. For the rest of that day I just drew hands and feet.

Move on to the next day, I started to look up step by step tutorials on Google Images. That's when I realized that all the tutorials had some type of darkening to the eyes and mouth. So I copied that and ended up with this.

After that I came to the conclusion that I'm going to ignore the shape of the head and simply draw facial features. Then these were born.

Since I was focusing on facial features alone, I decided to watch tutorials that were dedicated to the eyes. I didn't copy them step by step, I just got the gist of what he was doing and started to experiment with different shapes.

After I got a fair grasp of the eyes I moved on to the mouth. At first I just looked at anime frames and tried to mimic those. (At this time I completely forgot about shading.)

Afterwards I watched more tutorials. Then I had the biggest breakthrough yet. "Art is all about perception." -Random Guy on the Internet. So I drew these.

Combing the knowledge I gained. I ended up drawing this.

I wasn't satisfied with the head so I just went back to drawing only the face. And at this point I saw how nice female faces look when they don't have pupils. (It sounds weird I know. I really can't explain my thought process.)

Using everything I learned this past week. Today I drew an almost complete head. (No ears.) Also I didn't look up any tutorials on hair. I just scribbled until it looked decent, then I polised it with darker lines so it would have a hair-like look to it.

[Rhonder]

That's great improvement for just a week! Especially looking at the first attempts vs the last ones is awesome (although it makes sense considering the research that happened between then and now).

I have one tip to try out as you continue to refine your head shape This is just an assumption from reading the above, but I think one thing that is probably lookin "off" to you about the heads that you've drawn so far is that they have kind of an overly pointy "snow cone" shape so far where it looks like the triangular chin shape is coming directly off of the circular base for the head.

You might consider trying something more like this, where the lines coming directly off the circle are actually straight down, to define the area of the face where the cheeks go, and then from those you angle inwards to define the chin. It looks a little different in everyone's style, but this way your faces will have some width to them and give the mouth some room to breath (pun semi-intended). From there you can experiment with different jawline shapes and cheek shapes, but it's a good starting point

Can't wait to see another progress post in the future!

[MasterValkyrie]

Thank you very much! I really needed this. Besides the ears (the ears is a whole story in its own.) I think the head shape is the most difficult thing to get the hang of. (At least for me anyway.)

[scribesunlimited]

I would guess traditionally. It's much easier to do, you don't really need the hassle of a tablet and pen, not even a computer, and once you're done, if you need to go digital, it should be an easy scan into PSD or CLIP, etc Good luck! I suggest Posemaniacs.com as your first stop too.
.