[dc]A[/dc]s I mentioned in the notes for yesterday’s comic, I sketched the comic on paper, snapped a photo with my phone, and traced (more or less) the photo in Manga Studio on my Surface Pro 3.
It’s an idea I decided to give a try after using a similar method for a couple of new designs in my Society6 shop (here and here). I wanted to recreate a pair of watercolor cartoons in Manga Studio, so I decided to try tracing a photo to see how it went.
The process went really well, actually.
I felt a bit weird about tracing my art digitally, but as one of my illustrator friends told me: any time you can save yourself work, do it.
I decided, why not try it for a comic? It really isn’t much different from how I used to make comics: I drew and inked the comic on paper, then scanned it. It’s the same amount of steps, just in a different order (and better, because I end up with a higher quality digital image instead of just a scan).
Here’s the original sketch for this week’s comic, Upgrade.
Here it is with the sketches I did in Manga Studio on top (in blue).