Here is my hand drawn comic.

I enjoyed creating my comics both ways, hand drawn and digitally. However, they are very different experiences. For example, hand drawing my comics was very simple, straightforward, and accessible. I only had to use a pencil and paper. There were no fancy tools or materials. This made the assignment much easier and more convenient, but less creative and fun. With only a pencil in my hand, I felt very limited in what I could do. 

Here is the digital comic I created via an app on my iPad.

With the digital comic, I had a lot more tools at my hands. I completed my digital comic by using my iPad and a drawing app, then uploaded it to my computer. The app that I used had an extensive amount of backgrounds, brushes, textures, and colors to work with. It was like you had every kind of art supply, all in one portable device. Although I didn’t use them all, I did make sure to use the tool where I could make my lines super straight and precise. It is just so much easier to use tools like this on a device, rather than having to use a ruler for straight lines or a bunch of colored pencils for color.

Despite these positives, however, using a digital tool definitely felt less organic as opposed to doing a hand drawn comic. I used an Apple Pencil a lot with my digital comic and it sometimes didn’t feel calibrated enough. It can feel awkward to draw on a glass screen too. Also, there is always the possibility of technical difficulties when using digital tools. 

Both methods have their positives and negatives. Sometimes it’s nice to go back to the simplicity of the hand drawn comic, and sometimes it’s nice to branch out with digital tools. 

Just like how drawing comics by hand and by a digital tool are different, reading them on paper versus on a screen are very different experiences as well. Although I liked using digital tools to create my comic, I prefer to read books and comics on paper; it just feels nice to be able to flip the page and feel the texture of the paper. 

I really enjoyed reading the first chapter of Scott McCloud’s book. I felt like it was very easy to follow along. Although it didn’t really influence my digital comic, I felt like it gave me a lot of information on what comics are and how they tell a story, which I think is valuable information for this class.