Drawing digital vs traditional

[Smitty]

Here's my concern: NOTHING will strip the life out of your art faster or more completely than overworking it (although tracing and inking come in as a close 2nd and 3rd) Nothing will allow you to overwork your art more than a digital tablet. Oops, try again, oops try again, oops...

Yes, you can work and rework every element till each is flawless, then you hold it at arms length and GAK... the Bonneville salt flats have more life. Being stuck with the stroke you've made is a feature, not a bug. It's where life in drawing comes from. For those going digital, learn to use the tablet without Command+Z. Every stroke of the UNDO button robs you of a little more life.

[Jcatlett76]

I would agree with you but I have an undo button at my drawing table. It's called an eraser.

[Anton Chigurh]

Axe Cop artist Ethan Nicolle said in an interview that he can finish 4 pages in a day, which translates to multiple 100+ page graphic novels in a year. He uses Manga Studio.

His webcomic: http://bearmageddon.com/

[Enigmanaut]

I work all digitially for a number of reasons:

1.) I can flip the image and work on it in another direction, thus making sure the image is balanced. Not that I do a phenomenal job of it still, but it's much better than without it.
2.) With the use of Layers I can build a sketch and remove lower layers without destroying more worked out linework.
3.) I really can't afford the space or cost of traditional art supplies... I live in a room the size of a closet and have only worked temp jobs in the last two years.
4.) I really hate the smell of India Ink.

What I don't like about working digitally is that you can't turn the page.

Yes you can.

[Bruce Lee]

The frazetta way!

[eeweathers]

I can't quit paper. I think only a cintiq would change my mind. Tablets never have the control I want. It's like somebody else is drawing.

[Anton Chigurh]

100% Photoshop original by Jake Bilbao

[Symson]

100% Photoshop original by Jake Bilbao

You're only supposed to post your own work. I doubt this is Photoshop, since it's on Marvel paper and I can see the "x" marks as I would with ink.

[E.J.Su]

I used to layout pages, penciling digitally then print them out full sized to ink traditionally, but the scanning and retouching the scan took so much it feels like I have wasted so much time when I could finish another page instead. There are, in fact, a lot of people paying good money for originals, so in a way the time was well spent.

These days, I have gone completely digital. I don't have large piles and piles of paper lying around taking up my shelf space (let's face it, I can't sell every single page I have), but I also feel like I am saving a few trees with the amount of doodling I do. However; I think every artist should go through traditional training before going digital, there are certain aspect of learning to draw you don't get from drawing digitally.

[Ace Corona]

Axe Cop artist Ethan Nicolle said in an interview that he can finish 4 pages in a day, which translates to multiple 100+ page graphic novels in a year. He uses Manga Studio.

His webcomic: http://bearmageddon.com/

Thanks for turning me onto this guy, I e-mailed him and he invited me to attend a webinar last Tuesday (the webinar should be posted to Youtube some time next week), and I learned some nifty stuff. I ordered Manga Studio EX 4 from Tiger Direct for $69.99 last semester (It went up to $79.99 since then, but still the best deal out there), and I never used it because I didn't understand the fundamentals.

Some guy at Digital Webbing turned me onto some tutorials at Youtube, and one of the tutorials showed me something that was earth-shattering (at least to me), the guy showed how to draw on a bottom layer in blue pencil, and ink on a layer above that in black ink. Preliminary art goes on the blueline layer, while finished art goes on the black ink layer. This really expanded my knowledge of Manga Studio by leaps and bounds.

In the webinar, a lot of other people were watching, and the people who ran the webinar were taking the viewers' questions and asking them to Ethan. One of them asked if he could demonstrate how to create a panel and sketch, and Ethan obliged by drawing a rough panel with blue pencil and a rough sketch of a character, then he used the panel creation tool (don't remember the "official" name of that tool), and that expanded my horizons also.

I just want to take a moment to thank you for introducing me to Ethan and his work. I'm on Spring Break now, so I have plenty of time to use my Intuos4 to test out my new Manga Studio skills!!!