The Digital Drawing Hurdle
The Digital Drawing Hurdle
Finally better at the tablet
I’ve got all 38 panels of the Punkinz comic ready to draw up and I’ve been practicing more with Clip Studio Paint. I see folks half my age on twitter and such who can flawlessly draw with a stylus and iPad but I spent the better chunk of 30 years doing everything with pen and ink on paper. It’s hard to swap over and is basically relearning to draw.
I’m currently using an iPad Pro (the little one) and an Apple pencil. When I first got the thing I did my best with Procreate but found it difficult to adjust to. I knew that would happen so I kept trying and still ran into lots and lots of “undo” taps to get the line just right. Then when I started looking into drawing manga I noticed all the guys drawing stuff over in Japan were using a massive Cintiq tablet and a program called Clip Studio Paint.
Clip Studio looks like a knockoff of Photoshop, which totally helps because I can easily get to a billion settings where I know they should be. Procreate is nice and clean and empty but lord help you find a setting or even think about adding text to something properly. Clip Studio was designed to make comics - period. I can download free brushes that act like inking brushes should out of the box. Controlling the lines you draw is far easier and going from thick to thin with pressure isn’t a nightmare.
The first time I ever used a Wacom tablet was back in 2005, back when they were little 10 inch plastic tablets that you had to look at your computer screen while drawing to use. I never ever got used to that and quickly gave up on the concept of digital drawing. Everything I did at work utilized the pen tool in Illustrator which I just used a mouse for.
Fast forward a decade or so and I had seen those new massive Cintiq’s in videos for animators and the hardcore illustrators for games. Those people know how to draw. Those things cost the same as a whole computer and require a computer to use but they allow you to draw on the screen and see the line as you draw it. Luckily for me I don’t need any of that because Clip Studio works on the iPad. I can draw anywhere.
Anyway, that’s what I’m using to make the Punkinz comic. Should be done by the end of March if all goes well.