Clattertron

[dc]I[/dc] drew, inked, and lettered all of today’s comic on my new Microsoft Surface Pro 3. After over two years of mainly working analog, creating an entire comic digitally in Manga Studio 5 was a crash-course learning experience.

It was fun though, don’t get me wrong. Some parts took longer, other parts were much faster–or in the case of lettering guide lines and scanning, non-existent. The learning curve meant slow going at first, but I’ll have it all figured out after a couple more comics, I’m sure. I tried to keep things simple this week, so I wouldn’t get bogged down with trying to do too much (an easy rabbit hole to fall down when working digitally).

Drawing the comic was a breeze and very enjoyable on the Surface Pro 3. Drawing on glass will take some adjustment, but it wasn’t a deal breaker by any means.

Picking the brush/pen size in Manga Studio probably took up most of my time, as the numbers don’t really correspond with my trusty Micron pens. Jason Strutz, who let me try his Motion Computing LE1700, suggested scanning a sheet with lines from each pen and comparing them in Manga Studio.

Good idea, that.

Spike Langwish and American Bear will probably return again, because drawing talking dinosaurs and bears is fun.¹ Sure.

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¹ As to why Spike Langwish wears clothes and Observant Raptor does not, well, he’s running for office. Duh.