Gadgetory

I started doing web comics about eight years ago and my style now is basically unrecognizable from what it used to be I drew with a ballpoint 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 to draw so this is my main setup 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 has never given me any issues considering how badly I treat it Wacom solves a ton of different models ranging in price but the new $80 into us 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 could 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 the ten point five inch is like the perfect size because it makes all the toolbars accessible but I think this works fine for me and also the new $329 iPad works with Apple pencil so it makes portable drawing more affordable than ever if you don't want to spend $99 on an Apple pencil or your 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 it's some shortcut buttons and this will make them move to digital feel a lot more natural let's take a step back and talk about the basics of drawing to draw this bobblehead of will or art director start with a rough sketch laying out the proportions with simple shapes his head is an oval his body is more of 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 layers allow you to stack them and 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 is coming from and use that as your guide to determine which parts will be the shadows and which parts will be the highlights so for the shadows I take a black brush with a lowered opacity darken one side of the drawing and highlight the other side and 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'll mimic the feeling of drawing on paper I tried though not 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 like a learning curve because you have to learn each apps gesture controls like double tapping to undo if you're not happy with any of these apps there's always other options there software like Astro pad 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 all together there's always two and one devices like the Microsoft Surface pro so everything's on there you can use the desktop version of Photoshop and there's no transferring of files like you would have with an iPad since I'm most comfortable with the Mac OS interface using a Wacom tablet just makes 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 in 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 our new series workflow and for more tips on how to incorporate tech into your life check out youtube.com slash The Verge