Hand Drawn Vrs Digital

[Tentoumushi]

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?

[Yeahduff]

Depends on the comic.

But obviously I prefer hand drawn and ink. I think too many people expect digital manipulation to solve all their problems but the reality is you still tell it sucks.

Tell your boyfriend to go to hell.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Whatever works. I like hand drawn stuff as well as digital.

Sloppy can be good, it just depends on what the artist is going for and what the content is. It can work if it's intentional, but not if it's straight up incompetence. Also, digital can look too sterile if it's not handled well.

[Fishies]

Yeah, either can be good. I won't not read a comic just because of their medium. I have been told traditional media is "dying out" but I don't quite believe it. There are still many webcomics that draw and even finish without a computer (except to scan obviously). In think digital is currently more popular, however.

As for drawing a comic pick whatever you enjoy most. If drawing your comic isn't fun it's doomed.

[Hanzou]

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.

[Cartoonme]

I agree that it depends on the style of the comic and how the artist uses it. I love both when done right.

[Yeahduff]

Sloppy can be good, it just depends on what the artist is going for and what the content is. It can work if it's intentional, but not if it's straight up incompetence.

Agree with everything but this. Doesn't matter whether it's intentional or not, just that it works.

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.

[McDuffies]

To each their own. Digital drawing is rather different from hand-drawing, and each suits a different artistic sensibility. The same way you can decide to ink with a brush, quill or a marker depending on what suits you, but neither of those means that you're inferior or superior artist.
I, of course, think that real art skills lie in knowing those underlying rules that are applicable to each drawing tool equally. But like the other Duff, I think that people often think that digital art will make up for laking in other departments and make you an instant artist - which of course doesn't happen. I mean, you can draw in Flash and have your lines smoothed out to hide the fact that you can't draw a straight line, but there's no easy tool to fix wonky anatomy.

[Jkandra]

Either works for me if it's good. Weak traditional or weak digital is still just weak. I can't do 100% digital myself. One-offs yes, but anything sequential has to be hand drawn. My one gripe about 100% digital cartoons is consistent line width. Things look too static if everything has the same line weight. Mix it up and things look much better.

[El352nd]

As many have stated I think its all personal preferance... Speaking from my own experiance I am much more confortable drawing out my pages and art by hand with pencil and then inking over it before it goes into the computer. I feel as if I have more control over what goes onto the page that way then just doing it all digitaly. Now as for the digital aspect, trying to do a drawing completely digital is too loosey goosey for me, although I do find it is a big help in that I can fix errors (inked a pencil line I shouldnt have) and then of course add in color, and text (my handwriting is attrocious ) So for me I would say they go hand in hand.

[Warofwinds]

I prefer drawing digitally. Saves me time, and I can work on a canvas that is larger than any size of paper I might use. One thing that always kept me back when working on paper was the paper boundaries. Drawing digitally, I can draw at huge resolution, as large as I need to, and can finally put in all the details I used to want to do on paper (but obviously, never could.) Perhaps if I had stuck with traditional media for a longer time, I would have worked around this issue, but now it is a non-issue. yay.

I think my art has improved quite dramatically after moving to a tablet.

[Td501]

Likewise I prefer digital. Less mess, less fuss, fewer tools, fewer steps, no more trips to the art store, easy and fast to fix mistakes.

[Tentoumushi]

Tell your boyfriend to go to hell.

Aww but I luvs him <3. And he has a comic made with a tablet (I would link it but now I'm a little afraid to ) and it works well for him. I hand draw 96% of my comic. The other 4% is typed text (because my hand writing is terrible) and minor touch ups if I made a drawing mistake or if the scan looks to light and some such. I think hybridizing can be good if done well. Comics that are obviously hand drawn but have obvious digital aspects like the boxes they're in or digitally, MS painty bubbles/text can be kind of tiring :/

[Webkilla]

Whatever works. I like hand drawn stuff as well as digital.

Sloppy can be good, it just depends on what the artist is going for and what the content is. It can work if it's intentional, but not if it's straight up incompetence. Also, digital can look too sterile if it's not handled well.

my comic is very good example of what TSL is talking about - simply because, while digital (i use a BIG tablet) then it retains a of hand-drawn characteristics + it does look quite rough/sloppy from time to time

examplox:



old comic frame (years old...) but its a good example none the less

[Bustertheclown]

The computer is a tool, just like a pen and paper, and I've certainly seen my share of great digital work. However, I'm still not a big fan of digital artwork. I gave up working digitally for Lent years ago, and never looked back. I work faster without a computer, always have. I am more comfortable working without a computer, always was. I am happier with my results without a computer, always will be. Computers just make the process of drawing, for me, a clunky experience. Sure, I can do anything under the sun with a program like Photoshop or Painter, but it takes twice the effort, and those programs simply can't replace the results I get using my Rapidographs and Prismacolors.

I certainly feel that it's a testament to the human hand that most computer graphics programs actively seek to digitize traditional processes. It tells me that things like ink and paint are where it's at. The biggest problems I have with computer graphics, more specifically computer ink and paint over hand-drawn pencils, is that it too often leads to lazy artwork. I don't know what it is about digital coloring over hand-drawn pencils, but it seems to lead people to think that a gradient is a substitute for a setting, making it okay to constantly draw talking heads floating in negative space. That, more than any other thing, is extremely irksome to me, and it was much less of an issue before digital coloring became the norm for comics.

So, it's the hand for me.

[IVstudios]

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.


But anyway-
Here's my ¢2. (All are my personal opinion, of course. Yours may vary)

Hand drawn: pros
• Control. It's a lot easier for me to control a Pencil than a Tablet Pen or a mouse, even after having used a tablet for some time.
• More tactile. The feeling form drawing on paper is more enjoyable and comfortable than a tablet. Each tool feels different, where as with a tablet you use the same pen for everything.
• Hand inking is just more fun.
Hand drawn: cons
• Hours of hard work can be destroyed with a slip of the hand.
• If you save all your work, it can start to take up a lot of space.

Tablet: pros
• Produces Cleaner lines with no worry of smudging.
• Can erase as much as you want without ghost-marks or paper tears.
• No need to scan.
• ⌘+z
• As long as you remember to save and do backups, it's much harder to lose your stuff.
Tablet: cons
• I've never gotten comfortable drawing circles on a tablet, and using the circle tool makes circles that are too perfect.
• When I draw, I like to be able to move the paper around. Unless you have a tablet with a screen in it, than you can't really move what your working on around to get a different angle on it. At least not in a convenient way.

Vector (Illustrator): pros
• The cleanest you can get.
• Small file sizes
• Can resize the image however you want without losing quality.
• Copy/past. If you use it to much though you'll look lazy.
Vector (Illustrator): pros
• Very Awkward to get used to. Drawing skills will not translate. (Not so much a problem with Flash, but I don't like Flash for making comics. I don't know why, I just don't)
• Very cold and mechanical feeling. Can get pretty tedious.

[Caduceus]

If you are using blacks lines to communicate your art then the tools available for the computer right now have only a tiny fraction of the nuance available to ink on paper. I say this as someone who has tried to duplicate ink on paper on a computer many times. It just isn't controlled enough for my tastes. It's like the computer takes your motions as a suggestion for where the line should go and how the thick/thin stuff happens.

Mind, my comic is done 100% digitally. If the comic were using cursive and calligraphic (meaning that the thickness needs to be controlled) lines to create the art I would brushes and pens in real life, though.

[Asarea]

Mhh ... for reading comics, it depends completely on the artist's skills. I know many digital artists that aren't able to use ink and paper or oil colors and canvas, but create wonderful digital paintings and drawings. And there are those working by hand with real skill creating stuff equal in quality and intensity. If the product is worth reading, I don't care if its hand-drawn or created by digital media.

For my own work I prefer hand-work. I'm much faster with ink and paper then with tablet and photoshop (or other programs), I use ditigal media only for coloring. The line-work is ink and paper only, and I prefer the feeling of doing something by my bare hands, by talent and not by clever use of filters and such stuff - that's something I think many digital artists never will get. There are so many digital artists telling their way of media usage is the better one, and privileged to the hand-crafters, but I don't think that's right. If you like drawing by hand, just do it. Your art is something that has to suit you, not your boyfriend, not other people, and if you feel bad while creating it with other media, it's not the right way for you.

[Koad]

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

[Redtech]

my comic is very good example of what TSL is talking about - simply because, while digital (i use a BIG tablet) then it retains a of hand-drawn characteristics + it does look quite rough/sloppy from time to time
examplox:
*Insert over 9000 joke here*

I'm a fan of traditional media, while on a pure aesthetic level digital looks neater, I think one of the problems I seem to notice is that it takes a lot more to define the personality of the art and the artist, hence being deliberatly sloppy verses me just holding a pencil too loose. I don't care what anyone says, there is no excuse for B^U dammit!

If one can use digital more power for them, but for me anyway, I can't help thinking that I seem to draw better when not depending on even digital colours (my best ever is in lines alone).