Trying Out Digital Art

I used to draw a lot when I was small. I mostly drew my favourite characters in cartoon shows like Tom and Jerry, Ben 10 and others. I was a fan of cars too (argh! I could never get the tyres right).

I was very casual back then when it came to keeping the drawings safely and just drew in any random sheet of paper instead of a standard drawing book, which is partly why I can't find most of them now.

For some reason I always feared drawing on a large sheet of paper. I guess it looked like too much effort and so I hesitated. I sticked to as small a sheet as I could find and drew in it, only to find everytime that there was not space to draw the head or the limbs of the character.

It has been long since I drew anything purely out of interest than for sole academic purposes. Time and again, and more recently, I noticed how effective it is to visualize and learn a subject or a topic at hand, and so I thought of slowly getting back to drawing again.

Somehow, regular pencil drawing doesn't feel as good now as back then. Maybe it is to do with how less often we use a pencil now in our day to day work than we used to in school. My brother's Pen Tablet had not been in use for some time and I thought of trying it out. I never thought it would be so useful!

It has been extremely handy for writing notes and journaling. It took me some time to get used to it. But over time it now feels like any other ordinary pen. It is very smooth and responsive. The best part is that since it's digital, there's no fear of losing your work. Besides, there's no need to go looking for your perfect drawing pencil, brush or other related tools. Everything is built right in to the software you're using and the pen tablet should support them out of the box with close to no configuration and setup. The whiteboard or the canvas always looks super neat and clean as there's no wear and tear or marks in paper through constant erasing or overwriting.

I came across few Youtube videos on getting started with Digital Art. Although, I had read and heard about it, I always felt it was something very complex (the software and tools used for it) and was only for serious and dedicated artists.

I installed and tried using a couple of free and well known softwares for creating digital art like AutoDesk SketchBook(Free) and Krita (Free and Open Source), and others. Krita is in fact more commonly used for 2D animation along with digital art. I got hooked onto them pretty quickly. It's amazing how much you can do with very little knowledge of the software.

For a start, I drew Bugs Bunny from Looney Tunes in AutoDesk SketchBook from an old website called Drago Art where I used to learn to draw when I was small. It gives a step by step tutorial for many drawings. You start with few basic shapes giving form and structure to the elements involved, and slowly end up with the final complete drawing.

It took me roughly an hour or so to draw it but it was a lot of fun that it only felt like a few minutes. I am looking forward to create more such digital art in my spare time.

I highly recommend buying a Pen Tablet if you're into drawing or animation or just note making and journaling. There's a lot of things you can do with it. You'll simply love it!