Way-in-advance preview time. I've drawn eight Biffo the Bear mini-strips for Beano Annual 2023 which will be out in August 2022! That's a long way off so I can't show any panels from it yet but I thought you might like to see a section of one panel when it was in progress.
Earlier this year I decided to take advantage of a cheap offer for Clip Studio Paint software and try my hand at digital drawing. I bought a graphic tablet at a reasonable price too, and set to work.
Frankly, it's all new to me, and it took me longer to draw digitally than it would with pen and ink. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually though, but I was pleased with the results of what I've accomplished so far. I drew two of the Biffo strips entirely digitally, and it took me a while as I'm still learning the techniques, but they turned out well. You can judge for yourselves next Autumn when they're published!
At the moment I've gone back to drawing traditionally, with pencil and ink on Bristol Board. I still colour digitally though (with Photoshop) and have been for about 20 years. I prefer colouring digitally far more than colouring with inks.
Anyway, at the top of this post you can see part of a panel I've zoomed in on, and my digital vector "inks". I'll use Clip Studio Paint again when I have more time to get used to how everything works! I don't think I'll switch to digital entirely though. I've always enjoyed drawing with daylight on my board, rather than staring intensely at a screen all day, but learning to draw digitally will definitely come in handy!
