{"id":15332,"date":"2013-06-05T12:15:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-05T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/hameblog\/2013\/06\/05\/digital-drawing-stinks\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T07:50:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T10:50:12","slug":"digital-drawing-stinks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/2013\/06\/05\/digital-drawing-stinks\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Drawing Stinks"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I got the new replacement tips for my stylus today, so I figured I’d have another go at digital drawing.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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I hate it.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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There’s a great thick-thin some people can produce (see my previous post<\/a> on this), and lots of examples of masterful painting techniques that are possible on digital devices, but I just can’t do it. It feels like trying to draw with a vibrating tube of lipstick.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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So here’s an example: I decided to draw a dog to demonstrate. Here it is sketched out in non-photo blue pencil (which shows up in pictures and scans, but I’ve still taken to it as a way to pre-visualise shapes).<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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Then I inked it in with a fine Platinum Carbon Desk Pen filled with waterproof Carbon ink (loving both of these).<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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Oops: I used regular writing paper, so the results from here on out are bleedy — not the ideal to show the power of paper, but I can’t be arsed drawing it all over again. And when I draw something the first time, I often capture a certain spirit or feeling about it that I can’t simply reproduce. So this is this dog; another would be another dog.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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I then went over the outside lines with my regular pen (a Kaweco with its nib swapped out for a Tombow Extra-Fine nib, also filled with Carbon ink). <\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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Now, the real pros will ink with a dip-pen fitted with a G nib. I used to draw my “good” drawings with a dip pen when I was little, but the ink running out meant I could never get a consistent line. Still, the G is a very flexible nib which allows for that thick and thin variation that I try to fake by going over the outside line with a thicker nib. It’s not ideal and sometimes messy, so I’m working on that.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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Then I erase the pencil (or not, if it’s in my sketchbook). I didn’t wait long enough, so the dog got a bit smudged. (Again, bad paper, combined with impatience, as I was just doing this for an exercise.)<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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Finally, I paint it with water-brushes. With this cheap cartridge paper, that’s where it all really goes to hell.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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Still, as mushy and uneven as this is, trying to do this on the tablet was worse.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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I blued in a rough on one layer…<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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…Then went over the lines on another layer. To get that line variation, I have to vary the pressure and speed of the stroke, which makes the lines haphazard. Even going slowly, though, the lines have a wibbly wiggliness to them. What I intend is not what shows up.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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Then the “watercolour” paint:<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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Ugh! It’s baby poo.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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Yesterday I drew this fella, who I imagined was the Ambassador for the Free State of the Subconscious. This is exactly what I had in mind, and that’s exactly who showed up through my hand:<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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So, yeah, I’m giving up on digital drawing — yet again. Perhaps I could buy a Wacom Cintiq for \u00a32,000 and sit connected to a desktop, but I’d rather stick to my pens and paper for now.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
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Technology should serve us, not the other way around.<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I got the new replacement tips for my stylus today, so I figured I’d have another go at digital drawing. I hate it. There’s a great thick-thin some people can produce (see my previous post on this), and lots of examples of masterful painting techniques that are possible on digital devices, but I just can’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hame.ink\/blether\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}