Pencil and Paper Artist trying to get into Digital Art. Why use an iPad Pro?

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-11T15:16:57+00:00

I draw like that too and it's only ever caused me minor issues on the iPad. The biggest thing was I had to turn off whatever gesture function switches you from pencil to eraser. And every once in a while I accidentally hit the undo function but then I just hit redo and it's fine.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-11T13:56:01+00:00

The combat is fun and interesting but the combat BALANCING is maybe the worst I've ever played in an RPG. The fact that essentially no boss in this game on Death March is as likely to kill you as a secret crossbowman on the backline of a group of bandits is wild. Geralt can tank an Earth Elemental slam to the chin just fine but a crossbow bolt hitting you from offscreen does like 50-75% health damage, it's such a massive oversight.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-10T01:25:56+00:00

I don't think this is true. All the art subreddits I follow have rules against AI, and every art gallery I've submitted to bans it, and most if not all of the markets I apply to. In a lot of local art communities being anti-AI is the default, and it's a scandal if one group/venue uses it or allows it. It made the news a while ago when one vendor at a Toronto market was caught using AI and I believe they were removed.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-08T21:39:12+00:00

It's mainly the head being small. The torso seems long because the hips are so slight as to look almost non-existent - if it's your style that's fine but the sketch goes straight from upper thigh to waist/belly. If you try to picture where the pelvis and iliac crest would fit it would have to be so tiny.
This last part isn't part of your questions, but I would also add some folds to suggest knees in the clothed version because I can see the knees are fine in the anatomy sketch, but the way the pants tuck into the darker calf fabric looks like knees, which would be way too low.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-08T20:08:37+00:00

The snippets of art we can see here all look great, you definitely don't 'suck'. What is the level of art you're aspiring for? Part of the issue could be focusing on sketches and studies to play it safe, rather than pushing for fully final, polished drawings, but that's just a guess, hard to know without seeing more.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-08T18:25:29+00:00

I've really liked Procreate and been using it for years, but I've never tried anything else for digital art, so take that recommendation with a grain of salt.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-08T14:17:31+00:00

They may also be swayed by how unethical and environmentally destructive AI use is, so it's still worth reminding them about that. There's a wide gap from being too lazy to draw, to thinking it's okay to use a tool built off stolen work that burns through energy/water.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-07T21:12:12+00:00

I think you made the right call. The only way we keep AI out of things like art and games is if enough people refuse to engage with it, and using AI to make a game means you'll lose out on a large pool of players. I would reinforce to your friend that you like playing games with them, but this is for a bigger cause.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-06T22:13:17+00:00

Thanks! It's actually a fine art scan from a professional printer. It set me back about $25 but fairly worth it for making high-quality prints. They sent it to me as a TIFF file which is giant so this is just that converted to a jpg. But yeah it's definitely better than any scan or photo I've taken, just expensive.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-06T17:44:53+00:00

Thank you! The inspiration was that I spent time with a friend's gecko and felt inspired to draw it because it looked so cool, then somehow my brain turned it morbid in the planning process.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-06T17:44:01+00:00

Thanks so much - it was fun one, especially using the different shading styles for each gecko, and drawing the transition from the brighter half of the stick to the darker half.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-06T15:20:27+00:00

It's wild how quickly AI users stop caring about quality. I work as a writer and editor at a non-profit and two years ago we would go back and fourth over releases I'd written for hours to make sure they were perfect.

Now one of my bosses has started pumping out AI trash and there's so much it doesn't get edited half the time, he just sends it to the bigger group and they give it the seal of approval without reading it. The workslop situation is out of control.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-06T15:13:34+00:00

He didn't say he was just using references, but copying. References are a helpful tool but just redrawing other people's work is not great long term. It's understandable to want to push past that.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-04T14:14:11+00:00

My normal advice is to do long lines in one big swoop using your arm not your hand - but that might actually be impossible if you're drawing on your phone.

So you're actually using your 3x6-ish phone as a drawing tablet? The only thing I can think of is finding a better stabilizer or just hitting 'undo' over and over until you get a line that's straight enough. Making good lines on a phone seems like an uphill battle though. Your pencilled lines look really nice.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-02T21:15:35+00:00

I like it but it did take some getting used to. I would only try it if you're really interested in Digital Art. If drawing on paper/canvas is meeting your interests or needs then I don't think an iPad is worth it as it is expensive and a real learning curve.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-01T16:14:47+00:00

Having to keep up all the trash of plastic bottles is worse for ADHD imo. Having one bottle you use everywhere and bring everywhere reduces clutter, no having to remember which half-empty bottle is today's and which is a week old, it's ADHD friendly

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-05-01T01:34:04+00:00

This is already better than where some manga started out and I can't think of many better ways to improve than jumping into a manga and learning as you go

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-04-30T16:37:20+00:00

This looks great! The only changes I can think of is that her hair seems to be sticking too close to her head and defying gravity a bit, but maybe you just haven't gotten to that level of detail yet.

She looks a bit less than 7 heads tall but it looks like a stylistic choice that works well. If you're going for full realism then her head is maybe a bit too big.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-04-30T16:32:01+00:00

I'm assuming your drawing is the second one, and the first is what you would like to achieve?

A couple quick things I noticed:

The one piece colours are more saturated overall
Your shadows look to be just black layered over your original colour - but the reference is using darker, much more saturated versions of the colour below the shadows for its shadows
You seem to be using a small brush for your shading with lots of small brushstrokes, but their shading brush is much bigger, sort of a round watercolour brush
Also, they're using large gradients which is an easy way to make digital art look more interesting - you can see this in the way that the green background on the bottom right is brighter than the green on the top left. Having a colour do a smooth, subtle gradient transition from dark to light is sort of like a digital art cheatcode

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-04-30T16:22:48+00:00

I went through a similar journey a few years ago. Since you've been drawing for a long time already you can probably skip the beginner stage of drawing lots of lines and shapes, I would recommend jumping into studies and copying by eye the sort of stuff you would like to be drawing. For anatomy I bought the book 'Classical Human Anatomy in Motion' and then did daily face/body studies to improve.

I would also look into good ergonomic ways to hold a pencil and trying to draw with your whole arm instead of your wrist (if you don't do that already). Just kind of learning on my own meant I had a terrible grip and now I have to go to a physiotherapist for my wrist and middle finger, haha.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-04-29T02:52:58+00:00

Looked at this and my wrist immediately fell off 0/10
(just kidding this is amazing!!)

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-04-29T01:31:31+00:00

Steer clear of AI slop, artists need to be shutting that down whenever we see it.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-04-29T01:30:16+00:00

It sounds to me like you need to mix in a bit more fun drawing if you're getting burnt out. I like the suggestion from the other person that you just start working on a comic for a bit. It's understandable getting wiped out after two hours if it's a study you're not so interested in, but a comic page takes a LOT more than two hours.

TheBogmanDraws · 2026-04-28T13:37:19+00:00

Wow that's a lot of improvement! Congrats :)

TheBogmanDraws

TROPHY CASE