Comics UK

MMi, aged 8..... +30.



No name for this guy, it's only a doodle, just wanted to share. Sharing is good.

Doodled on scrap paper with 3H pencil, with no skeleton, then decided to outline in gel pen. Heavy outlined with thick-headed mini-marker (not brush, not felt-tip, dunno what it was). Scanned at 600dpi in line-art and converted to RGB for colouring. Weird lines appeared in the thick lines after scanning, can't explain that, but decided to have a go at colouring anyway. Which is rubbish, but still used Photoshop CS4 to do it.

Down dpi'd it to 300dpi for the colouring (600 is unnecessary unless it remains in line-art), and I think I've excelled myself in the incompetency of colouring. Down dpi'd it again to 72 for uploading to here.

I just wanted to show that old(er) plebs like to doodle too, and how rubbish it can be as well. But how bloomin' brilliant it feels doing it. Woot!

(sets down wine glass, and heads for bed.... g'nite.)

Brilliant picture there! Nice cartooning!

Hello, I'm back again with more Wizzo artwork! This piece I'm about to show you took a week to draw on Adobe Flash CS5 with the mouse (I don't have a tablet), it's of my favourite Wizzo character Robert Robot being the champion of the Wizzo Shorts!

Hope you like it!

Keep 'em coming, Wizzkid---clearly you can draw-----have you ever thought about inking with nibs and scanning the drawings in, or using a tablet with stylus, which would offer you more flexible cartoonery?

The choice is yours of course----maybe you're happy with working the way you are.

Good use of clear body language of the robot at the 'top of the heap': this reminds me of the schoolboy Hitler's group school picture:

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:Keep 'em coming, Wizzkid---clearly you can draw-----have you ever thought about inking with nibs and scanning the drawings in, or using a tablet with stylus, which would offer you more flexible cartoonery?

The choice is yours of course----maybe you're happy with working the way you are.

Thank you very much ISPYSHHHGUY! You've been very kind to me!
I usually draw my comic strips on paper using a fineliner and sometimes a fibre tip, it's just sometimes I use Flash cos you can do some cool things on it!
I'm considering buying a Bamboo Tablet but I'd like some help on it I anyone could tell me what they're like, I've never really used a tablet before so I figured I'll buy a cheap(er) one than waste my money on one like the beautiful intuos4 which my friend has recently got.
Thank you for the comments again!

Bamboo tablets are fairly decent, I have one and use it for colouring or tidying up black and white art. I actually draw on paper though because I like the feeling! Using a tablet is a lot different as the pen "slides" more easily.
I had an older Intuos years ago but it broke after about 7 years of service, about 5 of those were 'constant' service becuase it also had a mouse XD. The old "expensive" Intuos was probably the same quality as the modern "cheap" Bamboo, though.

felneymike wrote:Bamboo tablets are fairly decent, I have one and use it for colouring or tidying up black and white art. I actually draw on paper though because I like the feeling! Using a tablet is a lot different as the pen "slides" more easily.
I had an older Intuos years ago but it broke after about 7 years of service, about 5 of those were 'constant' service becuase it also had a mouse XD. The old "expensive" Intuos was probably the same quality as the modern "cheap" Bamboo, though.

Thanks for the help! I'll probably buy a Bamboo Tablet then some time. Although I agree, you can't beat the old-fashioned pen and paper!

WizzKid97 wrote:

felneymike wrote:Bamboo tablets are fairly decent, I have one and use it for colouring or tidying up black and white art. I actually draw on paper though because I like the feeling! Using a tablet is a lot different as the pen "slides" more easily.
I had an older Intuos years ago but it broke after about 7 years of service, about 5 of those were 'constant' service becuase it also had a mouse XD. The old "expensive" Intuos was probably the same quality as the modern "cheap" Bamboo, though.

Thanks for the help! I'll probably buy a Bamboo Tablet then some time. Although I agree, you can't beat the old-fashioned pen and paper!

Even those tablets are old fashioned now. The current tech is to draw directly onto a rotatable screen which is a very expensive piece of kit. (Apparently the stylus gives the feeling that one is drawing on paper so there's no feeling you're using glass.) However, I still think developing your style with pen and paper first would give you a better knowledge of figures, perspective, etc. After all, the settings of tablet software are based on real-life pens and brushes so artists need to master the feel of the real thing before they go with the cyber version IMHO.

[quote="Lew Stringer"]Even those tablets are old fashioned now. The current tech is to draw directly onto a rotatable screen which is a very expensive piece of kit. (Apparently the stylus gives the feeling that one is drawing on paper so there's no feeling you're using glass.) However, I still think developing your style with pen and paper first would give you a better knowledge of figures, perspective, etc. After all, the settings of tablet software are based on real-life pens and brushes so artists need to master the feel of the real thing before they go with the cyber version IMHO.[/quote

I usually draw using pen and paper, it's just you can do some cool things in Flash so I tend to use it for either pictures or some mini strips. All 1 page or more comic strips are drawn with pen and paper.

I would miss sketching rough cartoons onto paper, Harry: it's the best part of drawing for me, so there's no way I'm forking out a grand or whatever for a Cintiq, which lacks the direct charm of instantaneous drawing onto paper! There's no way I will ever use a computer instead of actual inking. But if others want that, that's fine.

No need for electricity, either! Just paper and a pencil.....even more compact than a laptop!

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:I would miss sketching rough cartoons onto paper, Harry: it's the best part of drawing for me, so there's no way I'm forking out a grand or whatever for a Cintiq, which lacks the direct charm of instantaneous drawing onto paper! There's no way I will ever use a computer instead of actual inking. But if others want that, that's fine.

No need for electricity, either! Just paper and a pencil.....even more compact than a laptop!

I may just be a cheap, decent tablet so I can see if I like it or not.
I usually draw on paper with a pen, it's the best way, you can add in some beautiful details plus the movement always looks better.

Until you make a mistake, that is, particularly with inking. Just one of the many circumstances in which I have wished that real life had an Undo button.

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:I would miss sketching rough cartoons onto paper, Harry: it's the best part of drawing for me, so there's no way I'm forking out a grand or whatever for a Cintiq, which lacks the direct charm of instantaneous drawing onto paper! There's no way I will ever use a computer instead of actual inking. But if others want that, that's fine.

No need for electricity, either! Just paper and a pencil.....even more compact than a laptop!

You'll still need lecktrickery to send the pages to editors though.

The people I know who have used Cintiq screens swear by them. Apparently it "feels" like you're drawing on paper, you can make corrections easily, flip drawings or reposition them etc. Some just use them for inking and colouring, working from scans of their pencils.

£1000 is a lot of money, but with Bristol Board pads costing over £20 each, and the cost of brushes, pens/nibs you'd end up saving money in the long run. I know what you mean though. I'd rather draw/ink on paper too.

A few of the pros over on CCGB also swear by Cintiqs, Lew.....and I've seen some really impressive inkings done by computer artists on youtube.......it's fine for some folks who like to keep up with new technology. I personally don't fancy spending a long time on a computer, constantly clicking through menus, etc.....although what can be done in a computer, especially regarding the use of colour and special effects, is deeply impressive, if the artist can master these 'tools'. [well, they're electronic tools].

I'll actually be getting a Bamboo tablet very soon, for the first time.... [mostly for coloured lines,----which was never easy, even done with traditional inks]------ but I will try and keep the main inking done with metal nibs and bottled ink.


Swirlything: pro cartoonists know how to cover up mistakes, so there is no noticable problems after publication....some of the very best comics artists had loads of white-out/patches on their work. Although it was never descernible once seen in print.


You can also rub out flaws and blemishes caused by faulty inking after scanning them and using the eraser function in Photoshop or whatever.

ISPYSHHHGUY wrote:You can also rub out flaws and blemishes caused by faulty inking after scanning them and using the eraser function in Photoshop or whatever.

Yes, that's what I usually end up doing, too, but it doesn't make it less annoying. And lines drawn with a mouse are always discernible from those originally scanned, because of the lack of pressure sensitivity. Or at least, that's what it looks like to me. To me, just about everything I've ever created (cartoons, photographs, computer programs) is chock-full of glaringly obvious flaws, but I understand that's a common problem.

A bamboo is a lot better than a mouse for correcting inking flaws after scanning (if that's all you want a tablet for go for the cheap one!). I'm not sure I could ever get on with drawing entirely with a tablet even if it was one of the ones with a built-in screen.
I do a daily(ish) webcomic that I draw in a hurry with biros, that has a great deal of smudges and wonky lines that the trusty bamboo can eliminate!

Oh yeah, a word of warning, you might see even cheaper tablets in Tesco now and again which "only" have the "small penalty" of having to put a battery in the pen. Avoid them, they're terrible!