Hand Drawn Vrs Digital

[Industrialpowersart]

What is most important for me when reading a comic is that the artist is using the medium that he or she is most comfortable using. If you like what you're doing, it shows. I will say that I tend to gravitate towards hand done comics, though, because in general, they stand out more. Koad's work, for instance, doesn't look like anyone else's online. Neither does mine, so far as I am able to tell. Maybe you like it, maybe you don't, but it's not the normal stuff.

I've also seen very adept gradient and texture digital work try to disguise "wonky anatomy" so often that it's starting to be a pet peeve of mine. Now, most of us probably don't have a crew of models on hand, so a shoulder looking a little off, or a foreshortened leg being not quite right may happen from time to time (as they do all the time even in print comics) but when i see someone trying to disguise a lack of artistic training with a whole lot of photoshop trickery, it bugs me. That said, there ARE a lot of perfectly good digitally drawn comics out there.

As for creating art, I do not think I will be tempted away from traditional media anytime soon. I'd much rather loaf around the living room with a clipboard than be stuck at a desk. Also, there's something almost mesmerizing about the scritching of the tools on paper. I will confess that if I screw up, or ink drips, or I leave a big colored pencil thumbprint in the middle of someone's face, that's when Ed, the writer, goes in with the digital fixes. I try not to rely on his willingness to edit out smears and blobs, but it's good to have a plan B.

http://industrialpowers.comicgenesis.com/

[Wendybird]

Purely considering your art, I would say it might benefit from learning to use a tablet. However, it might benefit even more from a traditional medium with a variable line thickness, like a brush or brush-pen, or even a thicker felt-tip pen in combination with your current tools.

My general opinion is, if your priority is to keep your comic going rather than to achieve artistic perfection, do what you like to do and what you can continue to do. I definitely adjust my process and art quality in favor of my sanity and update schedule.

[Dotty]

In general I prefer hand drawn art. My definition of good digital art is one that fakes it well enough so it looks like it's drawn by hand

This.

[Industrialpowersart]

Wendybird. . . who said this was a crit thread? Did I offend you in some way that you need to beat that dead horse AGAIN? I do vary my line thicknesses, and have ever since it was pointed out to me that I should. Point taken, it looks better. Moreover, I did vary my line thicknesses before, but for some reason unless i make it VERY varied, it doesnt show up in the scan. I think i need a new scanner more than I need new pens. In the colored pages the color overwhelms the ink, so I do think i might need a thicker pen there.

Anyway, I'm still kind of learning the way of the land here, should I take this second instance of a crit of my work in a non crit thread, to mean that turning a discussion into a random "I'm better than you" is how things are generally done? Especially if people are repeating themselves about something I have fixed, I take it that I don't have a lot to learn here anyway.

[Mercury Hat]

I might be reading it wrong but I think wendy was talking to the OP, not you. Don't be so defensive that you fire off when you don't even know if someone's saying something to you or not :I .

Wendybird. . . who said this was a crit thread? Did I offend you in some way that you need to beat that dead horse AGAIN? I do vary my line thicknesses, and have ever since it was pointed out to me that I should. Point taken, it looks better. Moreover, I did vary my line thicknesses before, but for some reason unless i make it VERY varied, it doesnt show up in the scan. I think i need a new scanner more than I need new pens. In the colored pages the color overwhelms the ink, so I do think i might need a thicker pen there.

Anyway, I'm still kind of learning the way of the land here, should I take this second instance of a crit of my work in a non crit thread, to mean that turning a discussion into a random "I'm better than you" is how things are generally done? Especially if people are repeating themselves about something I have fixed, I take it that I don't have a lot to learn here anyway.

[Metruis]

Anyway, having looked at the OP's comic, I agree with Wendybird's judgement on it. It could potentially benefit from some more digital work. But I'd suggest the 'get a second, thicker pen' first, especially if you (OP) enjoy traditional work more. I myself hate doing comics entirely digitally. What I'm doing NOW is NEARLY entirely digital, but I'm not inking digitally. I'm still working from pencils. I enjoy this more than I ever enjoyed coloring inked lines, or inking digitally... it makes me feel a bit ill inside, inking on the computer. It bores me to death. I respect that some people enjoy it, but I like painting digitally, and drawing by hand.

What is most important for me when reading a comic is that the artist is using the medium that he or she is most comfortable using.

This.

I love when digital art looks traditional, but even moreso, I enjoy seeing an artist love what they're doing. Yeah. I threw lineart out the window. But I'm enjoying what I'm doing, even if my pages don't look like everyone else's pages. I enjoy painting over my pencils and every page, I make sure I enjoy doing. Otherwise I'd stop. Why should I keep going if I'm not comfortable with it and only doing it because someone else told me 'oh, you should ink digitally with this tool'?

I love both digital and traditional art. I love seeing it all, and doing it all. Right now, I'm doing a 100% digital page because what I'm trying to do is not something I could achieve by hand without hours and hours of painting with acrilics, it's the only way I'd know how to do it. Sometimes I do things I don't know how to achieve digitally--such as inking, which never looks as good when I do it on the computer. Etc, etc.

I don't think I'll ever be pulled away from experimenting with it all. It's what I do.

So, to the OP: no, you don't need a tablet. It won't make your art better unless you enjoy using it. If you enjoy doing digital art, by all means, I'd say try it... but if you enjoy doing traditional art, don't stop! I enjoy doing traditional art, as do many others. There are pros and cons to both... but traditional will never go out of style. It can do things no computer can do...

...And the computer can do things that me, inking and coloring with watercolor, can't do. So. (shrugs) Do what you will, neither of them are going out of style, no matter what anyone says. As long as there are artists, there'll be one who wants to finger paint, one who wants to vector, one who wants to use crayons and one who wants to use oils, one who wants to use Painter X and one who wants to use OpenCanvas, one who preaches the gospel of Adobe and another who yells GET GIMP.

Do what you will. If you love hand inking, then just work on improving that as best you can. I hate inking on a tablet myself, so I can certainly understand why you wouldn't want to, and by no means am I alone. But I completely respect the people who prefer it. I've got paper strewn over my room thanks to traditional art. It's certainly got its cluttery disadvantages.

Oh well. I like having sketches everywhere. It's all good. I like both as mediums, because they both have advantages and disadvantages, though, so it's well worth it to be comfortable with both.

But use what you prefer. It usually shows when an artist is doing something they're not really enjoying. And a webcomic isn't work. It's supposed to be pleasure. At least, for me it is. (I've never had the goal of making money in mind, just painting on a schedule. )

And finally, I like the rough/sloppy look anyway. I don't always like purely digital comics as they frequently look too sleek, circles too perfect, lines too liny... it's fun seeing the little variations that painting by hand brings out. There's always going to be a bunch of different people out there and we all like different things. I like rough lines, someone else likes sleek lines, and no matter what you do, someone's going to like it, as a general rule. Black, white, red, purple, high contrast, black and white, sepia, doesn't matter. Someone'll like it. That's what makes art fun, the varience.

[War]

Personally I think any comics not drawn with a quill freshly purloined from a peacock's plumage just isn't worth reading.

[Dr Legostar]

Probably discussed before but I can't locate the topic so here goes!

As an artist, as well as a comic fan, which art for do you prefer and/or think is better? Hand drawn comics or comics made digitally? My boyfriend has a hard on for his tablet and says my art would benefit from using one. To be honest I've always been better with my hands and while I do create digital art for fun (and sometimes for a living) hand drawing things feels so relaxing to me. I've tried to do some digital comics but they always end up taking me SO LONG to do that the comic dies after a few pages. When I hand draw comics it seems so much easier and I can go on drawing for hundreds of pages without breaking into a sweat. But as a reader, I do tend to favor digital comics, as hand drawn ones often look somewhat sloppy to me at times.

Your thoughts?

neither.

[Tentoumushi]

To met and windy: thanks for the crits! I know I can do a lot better, and I'm very comfortable working on singular digital works (with a mouse though, can't really get a handle on the tablet thing), just not when it comes to comic making. In fact I could do a hell of a lot better with my comic too, but it all comes back to me being able to continue on especially with a tiny fan base xD. So like many things in life, I cut quality to make it easier/cheaper to produce. The secret to this: Sharpee ultra thin markers...they are my bestest friend...maybe its the fumes .

If you all want to see some examples of what I can do digitally (with a mouse) feel free to check out my DA: http://matsuban.deviantart.com/gallery/ lots of random digital/traditional crap in there.

[Jekkal]

Whatever suits you.

I've been using Illustrator (at least for my lineart) exclusively since about, oh... page 20 or so. Speed has been variable. It suits my style because I like the thick, slick, cartoony look. (Also, I happen to find it faster / easier than sketching out pages, but YMMV)

Consider what feel you want for your work before thinking you need digital tools or not.

[Yeahduff]

I prefer digital mainly because I live in a small apartment, and working in my little corner with my computer and tablet saves a lot of space.

It also saves time as well. I can place my completed pages directly into photoshop for lettering and finishing without a need for a scanner.

Just say you prefer working digital. Those are nonissues.

How are they non-issues? Two of the things I like best about working with a tablet is not having to take the time to set up my scanner and not having a pile of papers taking up space. They may not directly affect the quality of the work itself but they are definite benefits.

I share a tiny apartment with another human being. A bottle of ink, a brush, some pens, and a pad of paper fit comfortably in it. After five years and maybe 500 pages, my entire archive fits into one standard sized box.

Scanning a page takes, what? Maybe five minutes, if I've been drinking?

We're talking minor inconveniences if we're using the most generous terms. You simply prefer digital.

[Phalanx]

In general I prefer hand drawn art. My definition of good digital art is one that fakes it well enough so it looks like it's drawn by hand

This.

The woman speaks truth.

There is no "right" or "better" way, whether digital or traditional. It really goes with what you're trying to present and whether it suits the context.

[CaptainClaude]

Personally I think any comics not drawn with a quill freshly purloined from a peacock's plumage just isn't worth reading.

powerfully poetic, my perspicacious pal.

[Fishies]

I was told this weekend that traditional art in webcomics was "dying out." Anyone have opinions on this? I don't believe it. (It was right before a panel were two out of three of the artists did traditional o_O ) I do think digital art is very popular, and I see more coloured comics use digital, but pen + paper and a scanner is still going strong, at the very least.

[Yeahduff]

Kind of a ridiculous statement.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

I haven't had my paper crash or get corrupted yet.

But I have had cats walk across it.

[Killbert-Robby]

Eh, I don't care. It's like writing off a song because "man, it's rap, rap sucks". And then you eventually hear it a couple months later and you're all "Well.... that was actually pretty good". Art should be judged on an individual basis. Because someone is better at hand drawn doesn't mean the guy who does awesome digital art is any less of an artist, the same way you can't say someone who works in charcoal is more of an artist that someone who works in ink. Art covers a huge variety of media, let people use whatever they want, its half of the artistic process.

[TellTaleHeart]

I haven't had my paper crash or get corrupted yet.

But I have had cats walk across it.

I've lost digital data as a result of my cat stepping on my keyboard. Trust me, cats can ruin anything regardless of the medium.

[McDuffies]

I was told this weekend that traditional art in webcomics was "dying out." Anyone have opinions on this? I don't believe it. (It was right before a panel were two out of three of the artists did traditional o_O ) I do think digital art is very popular, and I see more coloured comics use digital, but pen + paper and a scanner is still going strong, at the very least.

Ten years ago people were talking how comics and movies are dying out because of competition of video games. I still see films and comics produced occasionally, though. When tv was invented, and later when VHS spreaded, everyone thought that cinemas were dying out. Yet, yesterday I passed by the cinema. People have been claiming for years that books were dying out. And years and years.
Nothing dies out. It's popularity may fluctuate, but it doesn't die out. Well, shoemakers, perhaps.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

I haven't had my paper crash or get corrupted yet.

But I have had cats walk across it.

I've lost digital data as a result of my cat stepping on my keyboard. Trust me, cats can ruin anything regardless of the medium.

Oh, I know. I was just being cheeky.