Okay, maybe this is my own paranoia. In fact, I KNOW it's my own paranoia...

Growing up, I started drawing like most people my age did before computers came along - Stealing printer paper and using a No. 2 pencil/Bic pen to get the job done.

As an educator in my mid-30s though, I've drifted a bit towards digital art.

I'm getting the feeling that in this community, pencil/ink art is favored a bit more than digital art. I can't help but think about say, South Park. Remember how the first two or so seasons, it was all done with cut-ups and a scanner? Now, if I'm not mistaken, it's done in Flash. I'm sure this helps the efficiency of making an episode - but does it take away from the mystique of the show?

Even Disney has dumped a great deal of artists in favor of digital specialists (Or sent their old school artists to Disney College to learn the software).

So now begs the question if it hasn't been asked yet - which do you all tend to gravitate towards comic-wise: PENCIL/INK ART -or- DIGITAL ART?*

*I do realize there is a grey area here given after effects, I know that even most pencil/ink art here is cleaned up with Photoshop...But still, I'm curious to see where most people stand.

My comic was never intended to be on the computer. I drew (and draw) it for my friends, keeping the pages in a three-ring binder. I was talked into scanning/uploading. Originally, I uploaded the pencil scans. They were too light, so I increased contrast. When people started actually looking at my stuff, they talked about illegibility, so I switched to computer font. I'd rather not do too much more digital manipulation, even if it means my pages always look rough and unprofessional. I still draw it by hand and keep it in three-ring binders for my friends.

I like looking at comics/art with any kind of media. Digital work, when done well, feels very professional and has a real appeal, but non-digital media has more soul. I think my "favorites" on DD are a pretty diverse mix. Unique styles of any type appeal to me most.

I should say that for South Park, only the Pilot and first episode were done with cut outs. They've been digitally animated since then.

Myself, I like drawing in Illustrator for the same reason I like writing with a text program. They both make it easier to correct my mistakes, and the stuff I produce doesnt take up so much space in my room. I used to DROWN in paper!

StaceyMontgomery
I should say that for South Park, only the Pilot and first episode were done with cut outs. They've been digitally animated since then.

Myself, I like drawing in Illustrator for the same reason I like writing with a text program. They both make it easier to correct my mistakes, and the stuff I produce doesnt take up so much space in my room. I used to DROWN in paper!

Thanks for the correction on South Park - I always thought it was just the first season and part of the second - cut outs and a scanner.

I've read your comic (Rocketship A Go-Go) - I made you for a pencil/inker. You have a great style there for being a digital artist.

usedbooks
My comic was never intended to be on the computer. I drew (and draw) it for my friends, keeping the pages in a three-ring binder. I was talked into scanning/uploading. Originally, I uploaded the pencil scans. They were too light, so I increased contrast. When people started actually looking at my stuff, they talked about illegibility, so I switched to computer font. I'd rather not do too much more digital manipulation, even if it means my pages always look rough and unprofessional. I still draw it by hand and keep it in three-ring binders for my friends.

I like looking at comics/art with any kind of media. Digital work, when done well, feels very professional and has a real appeal, but non-digital media has more soul. I think my "favorites" on DD are a pretty diverse mix. Unique styles of any type appeal to me most.

There are so many people that would say, "I'm a purist". I think of Todd McFarlane. I don't think he's ever used a pencil. I hear (someone correct me if I'm wrong) he's a hardcore ink man...or was in the early days.

Back to being a "purist" - As Used Books made the transition to a digital flavor, I'm sure it was a fun and enlighten process for you to give it a digital appeal.

I won't lie, line artists who do it up in ink and pencil are amazing to me STILL!

My comic's for fun. I use both.

I cannot produce anything near as good on paper as I can digitally. In fact you could compare what I did by looking at my Random Art section. It has stuff I did on paper then scanned in.

In fact, it was so tedious, so annoying to attempt to draw my comic on paper and scan/color on the computer I never finished a single issue and practically gave up for around 6 years.

As was mentioned, digital drawing saves space and time. You can correct much easier. Alter things, and use layers which are a godsend!

As for what I prefer when looking at a comic. The thought doesn't cross my mind. I either enjoy the comic or I don't. I never think about what a person may use.

I use both digital and traditional mediums for my comic. I draw and ink by hand and color digitally. When I'm not doing my comic, most of my pictures are either completely traditional or completely digital. I like both mediums - I love to use pens and color pencils and I love the effects you can use with digital art.

I think you shouldn't be pressured by everyone else's preferrences - use what's the most comfortable and fastest for you. It wouldn't make sence to work in a way that's harder for yourself to make others happy.

As for what I prefer, I don't really care what media something is done in as long as it looks neat and as if that person took their time to do it. Look at Panda Panda; it's construction paper! :D

I generally prefer art that looks like it's drawn on paper. Key words being "looks like." It's easy enough to fake when the artist is good with techniques.

I prefer the old school style myself.

For me, it's a simple matter of what I can do versus what I can't. What I can't do is draw a straight line digitally to save my life (I don't mean that literally, I just can't make digital drawing work for me.) I pencil and ink on paper and then color digitally. I just can't get the same feel from a computer I can from paper and my brain won't translate what I'm doing from wacom tablet to screen.

I simply can't draw on a computer screen (well, maybe if I got a Cintiq). It's harder for me to consider the whole page and I start drawing things disproportionately, etc. Besides, I like the organic feel of drawing on paper. :) I wouldn't mind inking digitally but again there's a hardware problem. A friend of mine just got a Cintiq and I can't help thinking now that sort of thing would be what I'd need if I want to do things entirely digitally. It would certainly speed up the process, but my time isn't quite worth THAT much money. :)

As a consumer, I don't really have a preference for digital or traditional art. However, traditional art is sometimes nice to see amongst so many digital-looking things. Even people who draw in pencil and/or ink often bring it into the computer to color. If I have any aversion to digital process, it's because some people use it so BADLY. They don't know how to use the programs, they can't color, etc (or it's just badly done in general and it happens to be digital).

It's a difficult question. For me, it's the visual style that makes or breaks a comic - what medium the artist uses to achieve his or her style doesn't really matter. It's all a matter of picking a medium that accommodates your style.

As for creating a comic page myself, I like both. I can do things easily on paper that are more difficult to achieve on the computer, and vice versa - and either way, I tend to prefer using traditional means when doing one-shot illustrations, but digital when I'm doing an entire page.

As was mentioned, digital drawing saves space and time. You can correct much easier. Alter things, and use layers which are a godsend!

I don't know about you guys, but I'm absolutely terrible when I work digitally and it takes me atleast twice the time to work on the computer than I do by hand... even with a tablet.

It's harder for me to consider the whole page and I start drawing things disproportionately, etc.

And I'm with skoolmunkee here. When I have a sheet of paper in front me, I can envision the size and scope of my project. On the computer, there's no way I can guage the size of my drawings without setting a billion different rulers, making the borders, and calculating how many pixels = an inch based on my resolution.

Also, my coloring methods are next to impossible on the computer. While Painter X has a lot of great tools, I find that digital watercolor painting doesn't have the same organic feel as doing by hand has.

I do mix both methods slightly. I started making custom fonts based on my hand writing for dialog and I often digitally write in my dialog using the stylus but the extent of my digital work is either coloring using an airbrush, touching up an image, or altering the levels. I can make patches and use liquid white out faster than I can click the erase button and digitally redo my work.

Even Disney has dumped a great deal of artists in favor of digital specialists (Or sent their old school artists to Disney College to learn the software).

Which has pissed me off to no end. I'm tired of seeing these generic CG animal movies. Disney's Enchanted was pretty much a HUGE cock tease because it started off traditionally animated only to go into real life with CG animated monsters.

I'm getting the feeling that in this community, pencil/ink art is favored a bit more than digital art.

I would think it's the other way around. Most people prefer comics that are vividly colored and there are few people (even in the mainstream comics world) that bother with traditional coloring methods such as watercolors or colored ink. I think the last comic that actually used traditional airbrush coloring methods was in the cover art for the Bone series...

I'm with Brock (yeah, we're a couple. Wanna make something of it?!). I work digitally for a living, doing very complicated, photorealistic illustrations in ps, but I can't draw with a damn with my wacom. I just can't get a smooth line to save my life.

I fill in the large black areas, add the tonal work, & type digitally, but the pencils & inks are all traditional.

I've only seen a few people pull off digital linework without it looking cold and lifeless. Bolland is the best example. It still floors me that he hasn't inked traditionally for years. But otherwise, I can spot digital art a mile away, & I tend to run the other way. It tends to feel to emotionless & cold.

I don't mind digital coloring (though it can look like pure "gradient tool gone wild"), but VERY few can pull of digital inking without losing all the wonderful humanity & impact of a hand-inked line.

That's my 1.75 cents.

Later,
Chip

P.S. Just wishful thinking regarding Brock. I can't help myself. He's just... hot!

I should mention that I have never used a tablet.

I got the cintiq so it actually seems like I am drawing on paper.

If I used a tablet I am sure I would have the same issues angry_black_guy mentioned.

In regards to cs3ink I never noticed digital inking looking much different.

Then again I was HORRIBLE at inking. I can't trace to save my life =P Never was good at applying pressure well or anything. I tried lots of different pens but it always looked awful after I inked it.

Now I know for sure I have yet to see anyone capture pencils as well digitally. I like how my pencils turn up digitally but I wouldn't post them up as penciled work for sure. They make a better base for digital inking though IMO.

And all I used to color with in school before I got a computer was color pencils haha :x

I prefer traditional and then tweeking a tad with digital, seeing as I don't have a scanner I have to lighten up a little cause I use a camera.

For me the transition came down to work-flow. The finished destination of the work was the computer screen so in the end it was a lot easier to eliminate all the transitional stages. Working fully digitally makes a lot more sense in my case.

There's no disconnect or difference in style for me whether I work with a tablet, pencil and paper, watercolour, ink, acrylics, oils etc. They're all exactly the same once you know how to use them, but some materials and techniques make more sense in certain situations.

cs3ink
I'm with Brock (yeah, we're a couple. Wanna make something of it?!).

You gotta tell me where to send the baby socks. I got the cute little pink ones with bunny ribbons that you two wanted.

JNP
Now I know for sure I have yet to see anyone capture pencils as well digitally. I like how my pencils turn up digitally but I wouldn't post them up as penciled work for sure.

I'm not sure what you mean but Mayshing's 2Masters is a 100% meticulously penciled work, until recently. Scorch, which I introduced to you recently, is also penciled.

Perhaps you mean that you haven't seen anyone skillfully fake pencils using digital means?

Ha! Speaking of digitally pencilling, whenever I show my digital line work, people always think it's done in pencil. I always say it's not... It's just a variable width "brush" in a mid-grey tone.

mlai
Perhaps you mean that you haven't seen anyone skillfully fake pencils using digital means?

Yeah. That's what I meant. I'm sure it's been done. I can just usually tell the difference. Probably for the same reasons cs3ink can tell the difference in real and digital inking.

I bet he's inked a lot in his days!

I'm a traditionalist out of necessity. Until I get opportunity to get a Cintiq, I will be using pencil and ink then scanning and doing the rest digitally. I will say I prefer computer coloring to markers, now that I've had a chance to experiment with both.

I'm a digital man, myself. Always have been. I like the smooth feel of a tablet pen upon it's surface. It allows you to draw in large arcs or small details (depending on how much you zoom in Photoshop) and I love that variable size. If I can't get a detail right on paper, I can't suddenly make the page 4 times larger so I can cram more detail in there, but with a computer I can.

Cintiq's are unnecessary unless you're a professional, imo. That much money to pay for equpment for a hobby seems unreasonable to me. The Intuos works for me.

I wouldn't say it is unnecessary. I mean we could be blowing money on drugs, or 100 grand rims =P

It's all in how much a person wants to invest in a hobby. IMO it has been well worth the $$$

I've been going through an experimental phase for many months now. That's the neat thing about amateur cartooning; you can do whatever your wish.

Now my art work would looked much better across the board if I would just go back to inking by hand -- and take a great deal less time to produce as well. I dunno, though; of late I've been fascinated by software application inking.

I honestly wish that I would go back to using the software just for minor clean up work for my hand done ink work, but I'm not ready yet. Sigh!

My comics all started out with me drawing them all in pencil and then inking them digitally. But through the year I just found it more convienient to just draw everything digitally instead of having to go through the whole process of scanning everything, inking and then coloring.
I have yet to figure out how to make pencil/ink linework clean enough for me to actually color it digitally without having to go through a whole lot of trouble. So I find it easier to just do everything digitally.

Of course everynow and then I draw in pencil. I enjoy the feel of pencil along the surface of sketch paper and lined paper. But all my coloring has always been done digitally because I fear making a mistake I can't erase and everything just looks cleaner if I take the care to do so.

As everyone has basically been saying, it's all about what you prefer and which feels better to you.

I have been doing paper/pencil/pens for a while now and am literally just starting to go into working entirely with a tablet. I'm not for certain that I will be sticking with it, but so far I'm assuming I will because I already had been doing so much editing and redrawing with a MOUSE on the computer...and this is naturally much easier. Plus it spares me a lot of extra scanning, running around, and rummaging through piles and piles of papers. As some people have said, it's more convenient. (Just back-up your files when you do it all on the computer! Rescanning isn't an option!)

It's more convenient in some aspects anyway. Pencil and paper of course feels more natural and smoother though, and from what I've heard some people can't make the switch. And some people make AMAZING things with just pens or pencils alone. No digital editing.

Doing stuff traditionally is nice every now and then for me...so I doubt I'll just toss out all of my old art materials now that I have a tablet.

I used to draw LOTS on paper and paint on the computer even though I have training traditional media, then because of work i had to go fully digital, three years later and i find it amazingly hard to go back to pencils >_<

I loved drawing on paper, but now its no longer working for me. Since i work as a children illustrator i no longer do much detail and is getting really hard to do detailed comic work digitally, like the computer is blocking a part of my brain or something.

For inking digitally I use Manga Studio which is really great and easier to work with.

Brock
For me, it's a simple matter of what I can do versus what I can't. What I can't do is draw a straight line digitally to save my life (I don't mean that literally, I just can't make digital drawing work for me.) I pencil and ink on paper and then color digitally. I just can't get the same feel from a computer I can from paper and my brain won't translate what I'm doing from wacom tablet to screen.

I have almost the same problem, also, i feel like i can put more of myself in my work when i'm drawing with pen and pencil than i will ever do digitally and it's not as rewarding.

Just for laughs:
I once scanned a piece of paper and drew something.

Someone
What I can't do is draw a straight line digitally to save my life

That one is easy, just take the "line" tool O_O :B.. (teasing)