Your drawing (and writing tools!)

[Shanny8]

@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.

[PoquitoBird]

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

[BoomerZ]

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.

ExpressKey™ Remote

[allenT]

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)

[VividRunning]

Literally my favorite pen ever.

[choilyriel]

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

[ThunderChicken]

I’ve been bitten by Dell too. My current laptop is a Dell, and I bought the extended warranty when I got it. Sure glad I did, as I’ve had several repairs done including new hinges twice, a new motherboard, a new keyboard, several new charging ports, at least three wireless cards, and I’m sure I’m forgetting stuff. I bought my husband a Dell for Christmas in 2021 and didn’t bother buying the extended warranty because it was only cheap. Eighteen months later he went to close it and the hinge broke, which caused the screen to break. Bought him a new HP. No more Dells for us.

[Dei]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[vapidink]

It's so good for doodling too!

[RedLenai]

Personal computer info:
️Tablet: XP Pen Star G640
Processor: AMD A6-7400K Radeon R5, 6
Compute Cores 2C+4G 3.50 GHz
RAM: 6,00 GB
Graphic Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660
Windows 8, 64 bits
Monitor Screen: Bangho MBL1010w

Wired Device (Not using it very often now)
XP-Pen Star G640

Portable device:
Tablet: Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite (Model SM-T220)

Drawing Software:
-Clip Studio Paint Pro (PC and Tablet)
-Tayasui Sketches (Tablet)

[thepenmonster]

Magic corner

[HarryM]

I love these kind of threads! It's always so fascinating seeing other folks' work-stations. Here's a shot of my desk-space, though I might be moving soon:

I made a whole list over on my Ko-fi that breaks down everything I use, including travel kits and back-up tips! Too much for here, but it might prove useful for someone either starting out or wanting to expand, a bit!

Toolkit

[allenT]

My gaming/video editing/music making corner. I have a small form factor PC tower outside the shot. I don't draw here most of the time but have my early references on the window blind.

[Shanny8]

My issues weren't physical; physically, the laptop is holding up fine except for the cursor/touch pad area...my issues were the OS(Windows 10) crapping out and making everything else go bonkers. I had no issues with Windows 10 technically, but something would happen and make the OS plus my other programs wonk out. I bought the laptop for Black Friday in 2016 and it crashed(blue screened) in August 2019...got a I.T. guy to resuscitate it and added more memory but it hasnt worked the same ever since.

When I got my Huion tablet, it seemed like every so often something would happen that would make CSP freeze up when I was working on stuff- to the point where I would have to reboot the entire laptop; that was the last straw for me.

No more Dell.

[Shanny8]

I lean towards minimalism

I WISH I could. I keep post-it notes and a couple small paper tablets coz I'm always jotting down [not art] notes and other stuffs...then there's the pen cup, the coaster and my water bottle, lip balm, and chicken nugget/strips sauce cups

Oh and gummies...always some sort of gummy bears/candy at my desk.

[PoquitoBird]

My gaming/video editing/music making corner.

You make music too?? That's awesome! I'd love to see a thread with people here that make music on the forums with their song samples! That'd be so cool!

... Now I need to figure how to record off my iPad for GarageBand to post to Youtube...

[allenT]

I shared some of my ametuer music on this old thread.
https://forums.tapas.io/t/do-you-create-music-for-your-own-comics-share-your-music-here/56672

(sorry, not topic related)

[Shakyoo]

WOW!!!! O_O This is amazing!!! It's a whole project!
I really hope you reuse a lot of the drawings for the background to make the process of creating new chapters faster and faster, so it in the end is actually faster then only using one medium!

[ButterflyEmpress]

Having the keyboard on the left is a smart idea! I have mine to the right with so my tablet can be directly in front of my monitor. But I think if I move the keyboard to the left, it might be easier to type with both hands when needed.

[PoquitoBird]

Thank you! That’s exactly what I’ve been doing! I’ve been building an asset library of objects to be able to pick and choose them for scenes. Here is a portion of the watercolor objects that I’ve painted and used for scenes so far. (Sorry for the phone pics, original file is 66mb)

I can use generic objects like wood planks as doors, tables, boxes, etc. I just collage them together on different layers and then digitally shade them to fit the tone of the scene.

I can also distort 2D textures into a 3D perspective with the same object. The flat perspective wheel on top is the original painting while the 3/4 perspective wheel is digitally distorted and modified from the original.

I’ve been painting backgrounds and objects over the last 7 years and just digitally archiving them. The prep work took the longest, but now that I have a system, it’s made making pages so much easier.