Where we find ourselves
Today begins the hand-drawn section of our tour… Although I never really forgot, it quickly became re-apparent why I washed out as a comic artist nigh two decades ago. I draw really slowly. Of course with practice comes speed, but I never have really devoted enough time to it to become proficient. That was quite clear as I drew these two weeks’ of strips.
The Good
It helped that I was able to devote a whole week to each one, instead of a normal 4-6 strips per week rate. It also helped a ton that I inked on the computer, using the old HP tablet. Manga Studio is pretty awesome, it turns out.
The Bad
One thing I don’t like about inking digitally is that I don’t have the final output I can hold in my hand, but rather just the scribbly, smudgy pencil drawings. If I were cartooning by hand as a regular thing, I would have to evaluate that bit – I imagine it would be nice to have physical output to serve as a legacy, or to sell originals, or whatever.
Also on the bad side is the HP 2730P tablet itself. Don’t get me wrong, it worked really well, but there were some downsides. The pen calibration was never quite there, and in some parts of the screen, the cursor was as much as a quarter-inch off, no matter how much I calibrated. I minimized the effect using Manga Studio’s ability to rotate the canvas (rather than rotating the computer on my lap board) which was a Godsend.
The Ugly
Most of the 6 strips turned out fairly well. However, it’s not hard for me to find some aspect of each with which I’m less than satisfied. One strip, I found myself particularly displeased with. More on that on its day, I’m sure. 🙂
Maybe you can wax lyrical and write a blog post or something of that sort?