How do artists draw these days?

[mandarine]

By pencil or by computer?
If by computer, what applications are being used?
I'm just curious...

[cg_maniac]

I was also wondering about the creative process.

When you have an idea of the figure you want to draw, do you just have a general idea, and start to sketch lightly to flesh it out, sort of like chiseling it out of the pencil lines...

or is there anyone out there that works by having a clear picture in your head and it is almost like tracing from the vision in your head?

I usually sketch the general idea, and build on it.

oh, and I use the pencil to answer the original poster's question. I've used Autodesk SketchBook Pro for drawing on the computer, but using the Wacom tablet is too hard sometimes...wish I had one of those Cintiq monitors that you can draw directly on, that would be sweet (but costs over $2000.00 - so ain't happening)

[mandarine]

Someone mentioned an application called 'Poser' but I have no idea what its for...

[DanielSchenstrom]

Poser is a 3D anatomic model posing program, sort of having one of those wooden art figurines on your computer, but far more detailed.

Different artists work in different ways.

Most of the time I do thumbnail sketches of a page usually with a dialogue based plot in my mind or on paper, at about 2 by 1 inch for layout and figure placement, that's when I really play around with angles and page flow if I have the time. The size of thumbnails vary with artists, some do as small as mine, some as large as a finished printed page.

When I'm happy with that I use the thumbnails as a guide. Some who do more detailed thumbs, and includes perspective suggestion blow the thumbs up in a copier and then use a lightbox and have the thumbs underneath as they start drawing on the finished drawing, usually on bristol board. Some use manga studio and other 3d programs for background and programs like photoshop and painter for inks and colors. Some still ink by hand. And a select few draw directly to the computer using a tablet like a wacom.

Touch ups can be done in the computer or with whiteout and the like on the real page.

Some skip the thumbnails stage and go straight to the bristol.

[davidbovey]

Pencil and paper for me.

[mandarine]

Thats interesting. Do you use standard applications like photoshop and other graphics apps? Or is there like a particular application designed for comics?

[DanielSchenstrom]

There's no comics specific software I know of personally beyond manga studio.

For coloring, inking, putting in speech balloons I've used Photoshop and lately gimp. (The latter being free.) There's also Illustrator, Painter and Paint Shop Pro. There's lots of tutorials for each part a google away.

[chizel man]

This thread is very helpful, I'm glad you made it Mandarine.

[MartinRedmond]

Manga Studio is convenient because it's all black and white, so 720dpi runs real fast.

Personally, I think nothing beats traditional media for inking or painting. You can always tell computer brushes, the texture's always real repetitive or you end up having to scan a texture to fake it's traditional which is the same as making it traditional to begin with right? It's impossible to mimick at this point. However imo Painter is by far the best at mixing colors. The trick is to use the detail blender tool under blenders to mix your colors. Photoshop strenght's is selections and gradients so I switch between both alot. I'll do roughs in PShop and use Painter just to blend one color into another for organic shapes or detailed objects. Except I keep an overlay of gradients for light info on a separate layer which I only touch in Photoshop in color mode and that layer will be usually one color. It really helps unifying all the hues together into a happy familly.

Using 3D for backgrounds or objects is kind of secret but I got a feeling loads of artists have used it. You can use toy cars and guns and such too as reference but 3D is way more convenient since it's already flatened and all contained on a screen or piece of paper.

[SoulStar]

Well the process I always use. usually anywhays, is drawing on paper first scanning it i and then photoshop the sucker. However for something more specific like backgrounds or logos, I would truly suggest using illustrator program. Poser is a good choice too, but unfortunately i haven't had any experience with it yet. This christmas I will though... muhahhahaha.

[mandarine]

Thanks, I got curious when they were showing an article of that artist work studio and he had a drawing table and also a wacom tablet. I also saw a scanner so I assumed he would scan his artwork from paper and modify them through some application.

Im currently tracking down a free legal download of Poser but I can only find a german version of Poser 3. I did hear that the company offered Poser 5 free last year on the month of Sept but that was it.

[MaxofSteel]

A lot of the time, I used to scan my work from paper. I struggled with it though since I had trouble cleaning up my line art in Photoshop. I've recently figured out the right process to do it though, but I've also started experimenting with drawing directly into either Photoshop or Flash using my tablet.

The latter process is especially useful for animation. I skip the added step of scanning, and coloring is a breeze, since I can just paint bucket fill where ever I need to.

For illustrations though, I'd say hand drawn gives things a more authentic feel. I still sketch thumbnails of my compositions on paper whenever I have an idea for a drawing though.

[chizel man]

MaxofSteel, did you do that Superman in your avatar? I like it!

[originalJAM]

Hopefully ---Start with pencil---... the traditional way(old school), at least start out that way, only because you'll grow as an ARTIST entirely and appreciate the ART as a whole!

Remember... most schools, will start you out that way!

JAM,........................

[Supajoe]

I do 99% of my art on computer these days. I do still use a small travel sketchpad for thumbnails. But i draw my pages with a wacom intuos tablet and photoshop. and i use 3ds max in my day job, so i also use it to make simple backgrounds and help with perspective.

i do think it's important to have a strong traditional background before going digital, though. my move to digital was prompted mostly due to the fact that i'm left handed and am constantly smudging paper.

[SoulStar]

Hopefully ---Start with pencil---... the traditional way(old school), at least start out that way, only because you'll grow as an ARTIST entirely and appreciate the ART as a whole!

Remember... most schools, will start you out that way!

JAM,........................

This statement is sooo true it's not even funny.
I went to the College for Creative Studies in Detroit (where I live) and let me tell you something that's shocking for most people to learn.
Alot of animators don't have illustrational skills.
It's true. I've actually seen their sketches. And I mean alot of them.
Hell I was in animation before switching to illustration so I was right in the middle of it.
I'm not saying they don't know how to draw, but the skill was lacking in that area.
So yes it is very important to at least learn how to draw art at all. Hell anything. Do what ya gotta do, either teach yourself or get into a class and learn it.
But no matter what , one old saying remains true:
"PRACTICE."

[howyadoin]

By any means necessary.

[polystyleneman]

I'm really nobody but for me it's by pencils and inking by hand if at all possible, colors in Photoshop (if by hand isn't possible), some effects, borders and (of course) lettering in Illustrator (my penmanship sucks!!!)

[apotheases]

Usually how I work is I thumb out a few sketches until I get the pose and camera angle I want. You can take these little thumbs and then flesh them out. You can enlarge them to keep that sense of energy as well. As for doing digital coloring. I go with Painter 9 and Photoshop cs3 as my means of painting.

[originalJAM]

This statement is sooo true it's not even funny.
I went to the College for Creative Studies in Detroit (where I live) and let me tell you something that's shocking for most people to learn.
Alot of animators don't have illustrational skills.
It's true. I've actually seen their sketches. And I mean alot of them.
Hell I was in animation before switching to illustration so I was right in the middle of it.
I'm not saying they don't know how to draw, but the skill was lacking in that area.
So yes it is very important to at least learn how to draw art at all. Hell anything. Do what ya gotta do, either teach yourself or get into a class and learn it.
But no matter what , one old saying remains true:
"PRACTICE."

CCS in Detroit in one of the best ART Colleges in the United States...
my son(teenager) took a summer session in Automotive design and the boy learned so much!(only 11 sessions).
Though like I told him... you can go to the best COLLEGE in the WORLD for ART or and any talent, But-----------it's what's in your heart, what makes you grow and become the best and or sucessfull in your goals! It's all about heart!

JAM,....................................

[W.Blankenship]

Process of creating a page.

Read and reread the script. When doing thumbnails I usually go with instinct and what I saw in my head while reading the script. Make sure what you see is what is there though, so know your script. Right now I'm working on my own thing so I have the liberty to change and alter as I go, but when working from a script of someone else's I try to get as close to what they originally envisioned.
Thumbnail out the entire story and make sure everything works visually. If I feel there are any issues with the storytelling visually I'll doublecheck it with the writer and change where needed. Pin up a page of bristol to the desk with sticky tac and break out the 4h lead.

I layout the entire page starting with loose shapes and refining as I go. Sometimes I'll get the whole page roughed out tightly, but If I'm dreading a certain panel I'll do it first to make sure it's right and then it get's easier through the day, rather than saving the hardest for last. as I'm refining I work up to a 2h and erase everything down to where it's just visible to me without losing detail. I do this because I work from tight pencils to color, and a clean page now saves me from having to cleanup later.

I have two mechanical pencils I use in finished lines, a .5 and a .9 width. I start witht eh .5 and draw from right to left (as I'm left handed), going over my lines as swiftly as possible when possible to get that look I like. At this stage, even though I'm doing lines, I'm concentrating on defining shapes. Example, when I'm drawing fingers on a hand, I'm not trying to draw a realistic finger, but define the shape that reads best as a finger, if that makes any sense. If there are multiple figures on a page I'll usually pencil the most right area with .5, spray a bit of workable fixative (not too much as it get's less workable as it builds up) to avoid smudging, then thicken some of the lines with a .9 to add a bit of depth, usually thickening undersides and outlines to go with the shading. I use less spot blacks than most so I usually have more room to move in the coloring stage. I block off any areas I don't want fixative on with blank or sketched on paper, and also have a couple blank sheets handy to rest my hand on to avoid smudging when needed. Spray a bit more fixative over any lines I thickened and move left as I go. If I have to draw a BG first, I'll have a tight idea of the outline of the characters in 2h pencil so I can work in the BG first as that's where most smudging will occur with the cork side of the ruler If I'm drawing any perspective. Rinse and repeat.

I scan the page in halves, and stitch in PS, or if I have time I'll get copies made to avoid hassles or save the originals from a wicked bend in the middle. If I have to stitch I'll use guides to keep everything square on the final page, and mark one over the other in 'multiply' mode to match them as exact as possible. Move the top layer back to normal and cut a few mm off the top layer where the image warps at all from being smooshed into my scanner. Flatten and convert to greyscale, adjust the lineart to highest contrast I can get, cleanup, copy grey channel and make a lineart channel.

Flat everything and match the color as best as you can to help later in the coloring process. Figure out my color scheme, and copy and darken the flats to a comfortable shadow, usually moving them slightly opposite the color of the main lighting. Steal color from my original flats for shading, working in an underpainting method, and depending on what I'm doing (painterly or cel shaded) alot of refining of color and secondary shading. If I'm doing something more painterly, I'll work toward the color scheme I originally intended, getting warmer (or cooler) and more saturated in the base shade and less saturated toward the highlights. Secondary shading depends on the environment, If it's ambiguous I'll go with a lighter and less saturated version of the shadow, moving usually away from my main light, if there is a sendary lighting source, I'll move toward that at this point on the edges it would hit. Skin tones I'll usually throw some variables in the coloring and redden the blushed areas of the face a bit in the shade, bringing everything back to the same highlight, it just adds a bit of interest. If there is texture I usually do my best to define it in the coloring stage and usually pretty rarely do I use a lain over texture.
In the final stages I make a new layer and layer mask, pick the layer mask and load the line channel as a selection. Sometimes I'll use a copy of the final colors and darken and blur them before loading the line selection, invert selection and fill with black to only reveal the lineart. Loading the selection from a channel also helps as it preserves the gradients in the lineart as I'm not working with perfectly black lines and I like the subtle penciled look. Deselect and color any of the lines in the main layer that I want colored for effect. Apply layer mask, and your done. Remeber to step away from the colors at least once to come back and see them with fresh eyes, or keep some reference handy to look at as a contrast to what's on the screen. Oh, and work in RGB, but with a CMYK view to make sure it looks right in print and hit gamut warning every once in a while to see where your colors are out of CMYK gamut.

Hope that helps.

3!LL

[J.Hanks]

I am a huge traditionalist!!!..I was classically trained in the arts as a storyboard artist.Now you guys whom swear by the computer better cover your ears...I HATE CG ART!!!!...It all tends to look the same!!!!I know it has it's place and is a "tool" but,It is so overused today that I think traditional means of doing things will come back strong...I already see it happening.I am a pencil,paper,brush man!!!...I have been doing it this way for almost 10 years..15 yrs since i started studying professionally..I can get twice as much stuff done by hand than I could using a computer.Like I said ,I know they have there place and if it' your thing?Great!..I just think it is more of a crutch to depend on it so much.
I love the colors and all..maybe I am just to close to the whole thing.


J.

[polystyleneman]

I am a huge traditionalist!!!..I was classically trained in the arts as a storyboard artist.Now you guys whom swear by the computer better cover your ears...I HATE CG ART!!!!...It all tends to look the same!!!!I know it has it's place and is a "tool" but,It is so overused today that I think traditional means of doing things will come back strong...I already see it happening.I am a pencil,paper,brush man!!!...I have been doing it this way for almost 10 years..15 yrs since i started studying professionally..I can get twice as much stuff done by hand than I could using a computer.Like I said ,I know they have there place and if it' your thing?Great!..I just think it is more of a crutch to depend on it so much.
I love the colors and all..maybe I am just to close to the whole thing.


J.

Well I agree with you, for the most part I said "by hand" wherever possible. :)

[Supajoe]

I am a huge traditionalist!!!..I was classically trained in the arts as a storyboard artist.Now you guys whom swear by the computer better cover your ears...I HATE CG ART!!!!...It all tends to look the same!!!!I know it has it's place and is a "tool" but,It is so overused today that I think traditional means of doing things will come back strong...I already see it happening.I am a pencil,paper,brush man!!!...I have been doing it this way for almost 10 years..15 yrs since i started studying professionally..I can get twice as much stuff done by hand than I could using a computer.Like I said ,I know they have there place and if it' your thing?Great!..I just think it is more of a crutch to depend on it so much.
I love the colors and all..maybe I am just to close to the whole thing.


J.

i agree with you about cg art. i see those cg/poser comics and pinups and don't see the appeal.

that said, i do swear by the computer, but just because it's more natural for me. i don't smudge paper when drawing, and if i erase, i don't have to worry about eraser marks. lightboxing's a snap, and i can ink my own stuff in one step. getting a handle on using a stylus to draw took a while, but having a background working traditionally helped.

[mattx110]

Pen and paper, pencils, charcoal, and watercolor if I'm feeling adventurous. Really, there are so many kinds of pencils, and so many different papers, and things to draw, that I probably won't ever get to the point where I'll feel "I'm done with this" enough to became a more than competeny painter, let alone get to using Photoshop and Illustrator heavily.

And erasers aren't to get rid of mistakes, they're drawing tools. So are exacto knives (if you've got a thick toothy paper), compasses (the sextant looking ones with the pencil on one end of it), the paint that they use to coat staedler pencils, anything. There is so much to do with traditional materials, that on an artistic basis, I see no reason why I'd convert to computer work.

The only reason I would ever work on a computer is either to scan in and send something to a publisher (potentially, I'm not a working artist right now), or if it's for advertising work where I had to work on photoshop or not work. Personally, I'd never touch the stuff. I spend enough typing and interneting time on the computer.

[clayholio]

For line art, blue-pencil first for the rough stage, tighten it up a bit in pencils, and grab either a watercolor brush (W&N series 7 #2, of course) or a crow-quill pen (I use either a Hunt 102 or a Deleter one) to ink. Markers and technical pens are okay for sketching, but I can't/don't get the line quality that I want out of them, so they're out for "finished" work. For grey tones, I use whatever screentones I can find. Deleter still sells 'em in a wide variety, so I use them quite a bit.

Nearly anything that I do in color is done with Photoshop, although I do like to hand-paint (in acrylics) color backgrounds, scan it, and then digitally combine the computer-colored figures and the hand-painted background. I like the texture hand-painted bgs can give a piece, and seeing as how that's easy enough to do, it's not worth trying to mimic digitally to me.

So nearly everything I do is by hand, at least initially. I strongly prefer working traditionally, and as long as I'm working in black and white, I stick to traditional means. But when color gets involved, or when it's time to print anything, I end up having to do some work/editing digitally.

[howyadoin]

Oh, and work in RGB, but with a CMYK view to make sure it looks right in print and hit gamut warning every once in a while to see where your colors are out of CMYK gamut.Just outta curiosity, why would you bother working in RGB when you know it's gonna be converted to CMYK in the end? The only advantage I can see is the reduction in file size, and even that's not that big a factor these days.

[originalJAM]

Just outta curiosity, why would you bother working in RGB when you know it's gonna be converted to CMYK in the end? The only advantage I can see is the reduction in file size, and even that's not that big a factor these days.

I could be speaking out my arse, but.. I thought RGB is for TV, INTERNENT and CYMK is for printing(strictly).

H.Y.D How would RGB get converted to CMYK at the end, in what situations--would that happen?

JAM,.........................................

[howyadoin]

I could be speaking out my arse, but.. I thought RGB is for TV, INTERNET and CYMK is for printing(strictly).Yup, that's pretty much it.

H.Y.D How would RGB get converted to CMYK at the end, in what situations--would that happen?Basically you can switch modes any time, but CMYK has a much smaller colour gamut, so some of the RGB colours change when you make the conversion. How much they change depends on your colour settings (see attached image).

My initial point being, if your end result is gonna be a press-printed piece, working in CMYK right from the start will give you more control over colour.

[originalJAM]

Yup, that's pretty much it.

Basically you can switch modes any time, but CMYK has a much smaller colour gamut, so some of the RGB colours change when you make the conversion. How much they change depends on your colour settings (see attached image).

My initial point being, if your end result is gonna be a press-printed piece, working in CMYK right from the start will give you more control over colour.

Actually I wasn't talkin out my arse--- CMYK is for printing! No,.. really!
And RGB is for TV, INTERNET.
Actually(I think!) If you try to post your ART(as a CMYK file) in PHOTOBUCKET(to share) it won't take, but it will in RGB.

I agree you can change your colorfile(CMYK-RGB) any time! I don't think that's the issue though!
I thought we're talkin about, quality, color and the usage between RGB and CMYK and why one would use one over the other!

JAM,...........................

[W.Blankenship]

Yup, that's pretty much it.

Basically you can switch modes any time, but CMYK has a much smaller colour gamut, so some of the RGB colours change when you make the conversion. How much they change depends on your colour settings (see attached image).

My initial point being, if your end result is gonna be a press-printed piece, working in CMYK right from the start will give you more control over colour.

The proofing get's close enough for my taste and as I started out on an old comp that was fixed up (wasn't even working when I got it) it just seemed to take less memory. I've got a better comp now, but I also tend to have a video or music playing in the background while working, so It's really just a matter of memory, which cmyk seems to take more of to work in and while saving files, and I tend to save often more out of habit (as the old comp would overheat and shut down sporatically). Beyond that I intend to release stuff online that can be later compiled for print. I'd agree that if you have a good comp, and intend to go directly to print, CMYK is the way to go. Optimally I've seen people work on dual monitors, each formatted to one specific color profile, which seems like it's give you the best real time look at your colors and how they'll look in both print and web.

Frankly, I'm happy to be working on an LCD, as my first machine had a crap worn-out monitor, and I had to adjust the Gamma just to get a relatively close idea of how it looked in true color. This resulted in alot of really crap looking printing, even though I was happy with what I saw on my monitor. Just as well, when I first started out, I taught myself and learned photoshop just by working in it and reading tutorials, so color profiles didn't even pop up until I read about making prints, adn I realized where I was in error and why things looked far off from what I was seeing.

3!LL

[howyadoin]

The proofing get's close enough for my taste and as I started out on an old comp that was fixed up (wasn't even working when I got it) it just seemed to take less memory. I've got a better comp now, but I also tend to have a video or music playing in the background while working, so It's really just a matter of memory, which cmyk seems to take more of to work in and while saving files, and I tend to save often more out of habit (as the old comp would overheat and shut down sporatically). Beyond that I intend to release stuff online that can be later compiled for print. I'd agree that if you have a good comp, and intend to go directly to print, CMYK is the way to go.Fair enough. It just sounded like you thought RGB had some inherent advantage over CMYK, and that struck me as odd.