From concept to completion! This is SC’s process from initial idea with pencil and colour, to image search for reference, to digital art with an Apple Pencil and iPad, using iArtbook.

SC and I discussed the differences between creating with paper, pen and pencil, and drawing digitally. She prefers using the Apple Pencil for a number of reasons, the prime one being that she can achieve a better result and sooner, with digital tools.

Being able to zoom into the digital image enables her to produce finer details that are harder to achieve with pen and paper. Managing colour, blending and brush types are much more sophisticated with a digital workflow too. The range of artist’s tools available in the app outdo the many traditional options we have in our cupboards!

I asked SC if it was possible to reproduce the same result on paper and if it mattered, and she wasn’t sure. This author is not quite sure, either. I think it is possible to reproduce the same digital image on paper with the correct physical tools, after all that is how drawing and animation has been done forever, but does it matter if and when digital tools are as good or better? Does how we consume images make a difference? What are we missing if we choose to only learn one way and not the other?

SC certainly thinks digital is the way to go. What a great image! I wonder how manga and anime artists create their work today? What do you think?

Drawing digitally!

KM’s digital drawing