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Aug 2023

What do you use to work yer magic!?

I for one use this round rubber stylus/pen, and some random art app called Sgraffito, which has a serious lag problem when you use it too long. The one next to it is what I use before posting a poem, as anything else is either from a stream of thought or copied from several years ago!

Now please show and/or tell what you do in the comments!!

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    Aug '23
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    Sep '23
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I use a mechanical pencil because I like the tip to remain sharp, regular printer paper, a scanner and GIMP to ink and colour.

For drawing I use a Microsoft Surface Pro 8 with active stylus for hardware. Krita, Paint.net, and good old MS Paint for software. I have downloaded Clip Studio Paint and even paid for it but I haven't had the chance (or the courage) to try it out yet.

For writing I use MS Word on an old Dell Inspiron 7786 2-in-1 laptop that I've hot-rodded up a bit to keep it usable (solid state drive, more RAM).

Eventually I want to replace both machines with a single 15" 2-in-1 laptop with a 4K screen and active stylus

For drawing, a Huion HS64 and Clip Studio. For writing, Google Docs and sometimes just a regular old notebook and black needle point pen because they feel smoother to write with than ball point pens. I really like the Precise V5 by Pilot.

I only use Clip Studio Paint or TVPaint for programs. My set up looks like this.

I make Engram on an iPad mini with Procreate and Apple Pencil. Nice and portable, fits into very small bags, goes everywhere with me.

For everything else I use my computer (about 10 years old so not super powerful now) with a bunch of different art programs, Scrivener, and an Intuos Pro (I have a Wacom One in the photo but I do not like it, so I've since returned my Intuos where it belongs). You can also see my painting supplies and boxes of pens and markers. And my kettle! Always need my tea. c:

Here are the Materials and Applications I use to make my comics! :smile:
Material:
- Old school notebook (for my draft)
- Mechanical pencil & eraser
- Huion Kamvas 13 & the stylus (Drawing tablet)
App:
- Clip Studio Paint
- Magic poser (Pose maker)
- Gimp (additional edits)

I use the program Clip studio paint for everything, and the fun thing about CSP is it has a cloud that automatically syncs your files with every device you're signed in on, so sometimes I draw using my XP-Pen artist 12 and other times, usually if i'm out or at work, I use my Ipad 10th gen and apple pen!

I use an XP Pen 16in display tablet and clip studio ver 1. If I'm feeling traditional I'll draw with Copic pens and markers. I write with google docs since I can continue on my phone or tablet if I'm not home

@BoomerZ I thought I was the only one who has their keyboard scooched to the side LOL. I unfortunately have no room for a bigger desk. I thought of building a keyboard tray, but I may end up destroying my desk in the process

I use a hybrid of traditional art media and digital art in my comic creation. I started making ‘Realms of the Fallen’ in 2016 and over the years got enough art supplies to last a very long time.

I start with sketchbooks & pencil for character/panel art and watercolors pencils/paints for backgrounds, objects and some magical spells or effects.


Once all traditional art assets are finished, I upload the sketches to my SurfacePro for the main bulk of the comic and watercolor asset pieces to my iPad for digital clean up (cropping/shading/distortion for perspective/etc.) in Procreate. For the main comic on the SurfacePro, I use Leonardo as my main program, but also use Flash 8 and CSP for some filter effects and dialogue text with a few fonts I made. I also use Powerpoint for the speech bubbles.

Cloud saving with Google Drive/iCloud have been great to file sharing assets. I also use a Google Doc for script writing, it makes it so much easier being out during the day and thinking of a really good scene and you can just type it on your phone and it syncs for later use.

Writing it all down is making me realize how much work I’ve put in it and how far I’ve come. Its nice to see progress!

I use Clip Studio EX to do most of the heavy stuff; I do have a [ARRRR] version of PS that I use to format pages so that when I go to print it's much easier. I also have a [ARRRR] version of Illustrator that I use for lettering and logo/design stuffs. Invested in a new laptop last year, a Lenovo Ideapad(not big on HP and my last laptop was Dell- which started going to shit 2 years after I bought it, CRASHED during year 3; I will never invest in their stuff again), which has been working perfectly.

I work on a Huion Kamvas 22" display; I also have a curved 32" monitor that I'm currently trying to get synched with everything else but for right now I use it as an extension screen to view separate stuff on...for my scripts, I use Scrivener; for scribbling notes or ideas I just use a sheet of paper and pen or pencil available.

All my work is either saved to USB sticks or eventually to my 3TB external HD...I dont use cloud storage unless I'm working mobile on my iPad- which is rare; in the case that I am, I use Dropbox.

Still trying to get my setup together...I have stuffs that I want to do the walls over my art station; bought a LED hexagon light display that I'll be putting up in the next few months- also invested in a cup/mug warmer last year(which came in handy at the end of December & beginning of January when I was sick to keep my tea warm).

I bought the smallest keyboard I could find so between that and the cintiq pad (on the left of the cintiq in the picture) I can use my left hand to use hot keys or type if I have to.

Whoa that's alot! I thought I was doing a lot back when I was just transferring files so I could put edit them in mspaint and Fire Alpaca....

But this, this is awesome!

@BoomerZ Bought a hot keys pad for my tablet, but have yet to use it. At the time when I bought it, I was in the zone where I was doing stuff that I felt like I needed one to transition from drawing to erasing or enlarging and reducing brush size(I was used to flipping my stylus on the other end like a regular pencil to erase) but as how I havent used it yet(also part of that is trying to sync everything which has also been a pain); my reasons are still valid, but I guess I just need to sit down and get this "synching" thing figured out.

I had a separate keyboard back when I had my laptop and cooling fan propped up on a monitor stand...still looking for a stand of sorts, but something wider that I'd feel comfortable with the laptop/cooling pad sitting on. Gonna invest in a lit keyboard coz I'm old and my eyes are shit to the point I want to see what I'm typing in the dark...LOL

Right now my best friend has been this ergonomic mouse I bought 2 years ago...my right hand(wrist) was going to crap with a regular mouse; this ergo mouse has taken away a LOT of the issues I was having.

Thank you! I think it got easier once I started to archive assets and organized everything to make work progression flow more efficiently. Its also nice because if I ever get stuck with art block or burnout with the digital creation, I can just go back to traditional to work on other parts. It helps to keep me practicing with different types of art skills.

I can also just play video games if I need a break from art, lol

I use the pad made for the Cintiq. It works fantastic. You can set it up for push so it doesn't change the tool permanently but just as long as you hold the button. The round part is a dial you can turn back and forth to adjust your tool's size.

Traditional inking: I love using pigment ink fineliners (I'm brand loyal to UniPin). I buy 4~5 of them every year, they're convenient & no frills.

I DIYed a wooden raised surface when I want to draw small/detail things on the page, so my head & eyes don't need to bend down so low to draw.

(not in photos: I have an old A4 scanner that still works.)

I don't need a precise tablet to do flatting & some minor line fixing, my 2nd-handed Surface 3 with stylus does the job well enough. I also use my current entry-level laptop for every other things (really old now, may want to upgrade some other time)

I usually draw and write using CSP. I created storyboard and then went straight to lineart and colour..I don't do sketch cuz it takes a lot of times.

Sometimes I would use Microsoft words if I'm outside, just in case I got inspiration all of a sudeen