How a cartoonist makes digital art

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- I started doing web comics
about eight years
ago and my style now is almost unrecognizable
from what it used to be.
I drew with a ball point pen on paper,
scanned it and it looked like this.
Then I started drawing digitally
and it changed everything.
There's a ton of options out there
and with the right tools anyone can learn
how to do digital art.
So this is my main set up and this
is just a standard, entry level Wacom bamboo tablet
that you just plug into a laptop
with a USB cable.
And I've had this for a few years
and it has never given me any issues considering
how badly I treat it.
Wacom sells a ton of different models
ranging in price but the new 80 dollar Intuos should
have more than enough features
for anyone just starting out.
I recently got a nine point seven inch Ipad Pro
and Apple pencil.
Mainly so I can work while I'm traveling
but really I just use it to draw in bed.
I do wish I went slightly bigger
but it's not a deal breaker.
A lot of artists say that 10.5 inch is like the perfect size
'cause it makes all the toolbars accessible.
But I think this works just fine for me and also
the new 329 dollar Ipad works with the Apple pencil
so it makes portable drawing
more affordable than ever.
If you don't want to spend 99 dollars
on an apple pencil or you're older ipad doesn't support it
keep in mind there are other stylus options out there.
You just have to look for features like pressure
sensitivity, palm rejection, tilt support,
maybe some short cut buttons.
And this will make the move
to digital feel a lot more natural.
Let's take a step back and talk about the basics of drawing.
To draw this bubble head of Will
our art director, start with a rough sketch
laying out the proportions with simple shapes.
His head is an oval,
his body is more or a rectangular oval
and his arms and legs are like thick noodles.
Then I'll go back and add details like his eyes
connecting the ovals with more precise lines.
Now you can start
the inking layer.
This is basically going over the rough sketch in a more
precise way and you have to be
a little bit more careful
here as this is the final version
of the drawing that you'll color in.
For me the biggest advantage of digital art
is the ability to work in layers.
Think of it like drawing on tracing paper.
Layer allow you to stack the many parts of
your image on different levels
to form the whole drawing which makes editing
the final image easier.
So once I have the full outline of what I'm drawing,
I just fill in the colors on another layer underneath
and for shading I'll add a layer over that.
Shading can be daunting but it's pretty easy if you think
about light in the physical world.
First decide where your light source's
coming from and use that as your guide to determine which
parts are the shadows and which parts
will be the highlights.
So for the shadows I take a black brush
which allordo passe to darken one side
of the drawing and highlight the other side
in white where the light is hitting the subject.
The end result is this lovely drawing of Will
drawn in four separate layers.
If you're concerned about how
drawing on glass might affect you,
you can always look into matte screen protectors
that will mimic the feeling of drawing on paper.
I tried one out from a company called Paper Like
and it really helped bring some resistance to drawing
on the ipad. So once you have all your tools we're gonna
move on to software.
On my MacBook I like to use software
like Adobe Photoshop but on the ipad I use
Clip Studio Paint because it's most like a desktop app.
There's all these other
drawing apps on the ipad
like Procreate or Adobe Draw
but these apps kind of have a learning curve
because you have to learn each app's gesture controls
like double tapping to undo.
If you're not happy with
any of these apps there's always other options.
There's software like Astropad or Duet Display
that lets you connect
your ipad to a computer so
you can use it as a second display.
And if you're in the market
for a new laptop altogether there's always
two in one devices like the Microsoft Surface Pro
so everything's on there.
You can use the desk top version of Photoshop
and there's no transferring of files
like you would have with an ipad.
Since I'm most comfortable with the Macos interface,
using a Wacom tablet just make sense for me.
If you're in a position where you're trying
to decide what's best for you.
Think more about the apps you want to use
and for what purpose.
But ultimately,
making art is a personal experience
so play around and find your favorite options.
Thanks for watching,
this is from my new series work flow
and for more tips on how to incorporate
tech into your life check out
Youtube.com/the verge.
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How a cartoonist makes digital art

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