Comic making: Digital v/s Manual

[Lintjinks]

I apologize if this has been done before; I'm still pretty new here.

All the talk of art supplies and Wacom tablets and (ouch) mouse-drawing made me wonder everyone's take on the benefits or digital comic work compared to the benefits of manual freehand comic work.

My own take:

For a while I started drawing LinT entirely by hand, which I enjoyed, then those computer thingamabobs started seeping in again. My lettering wasn't neat enough, so I started using the font, My dialogue balloons weren't perfect enough, so I started generating those in Photoshop, and then my frames were too wobbly, so I started generating those, too. I dislike not having a tangible PAGE I can hold in my hand and say, 'this is my original page!', but I like the neatness and the detail that drawing the pictures separately, then assembling them on a page, offers. Now I'm thinking about going with the digital shading. It's kind of hard to pry those paintbrushes out of my hand, though.

Anybody been on both sides of the fence and have opinions?

[Caduceus]

I chose other; I do pencils for all my panels by hand, scan them in then ink and color and letter them in the computer. That's pretty close to 100% digital but not quite. I have done entire strips digitally, though, so I go that route on occassion.

[Christwriter]

I've done a lot in "all of the above", actually.

I started my comic with two really dismal strips. I did each panel individually, inked them, scanned them in and colored them all on one level (because I didn't know about Multiply), cut them into panel-sized pieces and pasted them over a black background.

Like I said, they were horrible.

Then I tried pencil-shaded pictures, inked only where nessary, scanned in and water colored in Photoshop, then cut into pieces and pasted on a black background. The color effects looked nice, but it looked even worse.

Then I got ahold of a tutorial on coloring in Photoshop (Thank. You. Phalanx.) and used it. The effects were better, and practice made them start to look nice around the same time I gave up and started the whole thing over.

Now I draw everything, panels and all, on one page. It takes less time than drawing, scanning and coloring individual pages for the maybe half of it I'll actually use in the panel, it makes it easier for me to keep the pictures consistant, and I like only having one step for flats, shading, highlights, ect.

I've always done all my lettering, word bubbles and sound effects in Photoshop. It's easier that way.

CW

[Esoterik]

I'd say my strip is about 50% digital. Oh, of course, everything you see is digital, since I ink, color, shade, do the borders, text and speech balloons digitally... but I use a ruler and space out all my panels and everything on one page, and draw the whole thing by hand.

Then I go in and ink overtop the scanned pencil.

So the base I build on is done by hand, but the finished product is digital.
I need something tangible to build on; to just start drawing on the computer is very hard for me.

[Cortland]

I like doing as much as possible by hand, mainly because I spend all day using Photoshop and other graphpics programs and getting paid for it, so I hate using them after work in my free time.

I put my balloons and text in digitally, mainly because lettering is a pain, and I can't put balloons in by hand until I can see how the letters fit inside of them. Everything else is all by hand, just me and my pens, and that's much easier on my eyes!

[K-Dawg]

I do mine mostly in Photoshop. I do it the hard way though; I in pencil draw everything for the page, I scan it then go over the pencil with the brush tool in Photoshop. After that I add in all the colour and words and stuff.

[[geoduck]]

100% computer, using mostly Paint Shop Pro.

And I do it with a mouse, not a drawing pad.

[Faub]

My comic arrives in several, well defined stages:
0. Script. Defining which parts of the script go to which pages.
1. rough out the layout, stick figures and general panel borders.
2. Firm up the panel borders and draw the edges of the figures and backgrounds.
3. Pencil and ink shading.
4. Scan, adjust levels, burn tool shading, touchups if necessary
5. Text and word balloons
6. Save for web and upload.

While roughly half the steps are done on the computer, more than 75% of the time is spent drawing by hand. That's the best part anyway, the rest is fluff, right? Well, it's not entirely true but I do spend considerably more time drawing than I do adding text. I will say that it took me more than 5 hours to CG 6 pages in one sitting.

[Ida]

I draw and ink my pages completely by hand, panels and balloons included. If I make any mistakes inking, they are removed in PSP, before the page is colored, using 'multiply' and 'screen' for shadows and highlights. I letter digitally as well, since my handwriting is absolutely impossible to read.

There might be a better way to do this, but I have yet to find it.

[YarpsDat]

Framing/touch ups on computer.
I wouldn't say it's 25% (25%??? Drawing the comic takes 4 hours, and then I just add 5-6 rectangles, and a couple of elipses on the computer) but I still voted for that.

[Phalanx]

My line art used to be heavily hand-shaded and scanned in, but now it's very sparsely penciled, to allow easy colouring. After levelling and some threshold treatment, my pencils can be mistaken for inks, which alone should tell you how they look.

I do most of the work on the computer. Colouring is more than half of the comic, and the frames and speech bubbles as well. I rarely pencil in backgrounds. Most of them I paint on the computer.

I'd say maybe 30% of my comic is pencil-work, the others digital. But As I have found, good, clean pencilling makes for easier and better colouring, so I take great care to produce good pencils. The adage: Garbage in, Garbage out still holds.

ps: Christwriter: You're welcome. I'm glad that was useful to somebody.

[Zhan_Dvega]

The only thing I do on the computer is add in dialogue. Everything else is down by hand, including all the colouring.

[Snoozer]

The only thing I do on the computer is add in dialogue. Everything else is down by hand, including all the colouring.

Why do poeple think if you draw on a wacom tablet into a computer it isn't drawing by hand? The computer doesn't draw the pictures for you, you have to draw on the tablet like you draw on a piece of paper.


CB
Alpha Shade

[Joel Fagin]

Why do poeple think if you draw on a wacom tablet into a computer it isn't drawing by hand? The computer doesn't draw the pictures for you, you have to draw on the tablet like you draw on a piece of paper.

The computer does draw the pictures for you, but it does so under very precise instruction.

Anyway, you know what they mean. Technically, colouring in Photoshop with a mouse can still be counted as "by hand".

- Joel Fagin

[Faub]

Why do poeple think if you draw on a wacom tablet into a computer it isn't drawing by hand? The computer doesn't draw the pictures for you, you have to draw on the tablet like you draw on a piece of paper.

Drawing on a Wacom is different then drawing on paper. Yes, you're drawing by hand but it's indirect. When you make a mark on paper, you've made a mark. It changes the paper. If you made the mark with ink that mark is permanent. If you white out the mark, you've changes the surface and you can't make the same mark you made before.

When you make a mark on the computer, Ctrl-Z removes the mark completely. There's also a different texture to the wacom surface than pen to paper. It's harder to turn the tablet to change the direction of your cross hatch than it is with paper because you can't immediately see where you last made your marks.

Tablet drawing takes different skills than ink drawing.

[Patch]

I

[Jackhass]

I draw all the characters, backgrounds, speech balloons and panel borders by hand.

I add the text and grey-tones on the computer.

So yeah...it's mostly hand drawn. I hate drawing using a mouse.

[Snoozer]

There's also a different texture to the wacom surface than pen to paper. It's harder to turn the tablet to change the direction of your cross hatch than it is with paper because you can't immediately see where you last made your marks.

You know you can simply but a piece of paper over the tablet and draw on that, or 10 pieces. You can even draw through a CD jewel case if you want to. I drew on a textured mouse pad for a while. I like that there isn't anything in the way of my drawing and I can clearly see if proportions and perspective are correct.

CB
Alpha Shade