THANK YOU for the Cintiq!

A couple weeks ago, my awesome DOTU readers on Discord talked me into letting them crowdfund the Cintiq 24 Pro I'd been planning to buy for years but kept postponing due to money-spending anxiety.  I want to give you guys a big thanks!  I know you've probably already heard me say it a million times if you follow me on multiple platforms, but I need to say it here too! :D

I gave my new Cintiq its first test run just a few days ago, and yesterday's new DOTU Patreon page was the first finished piece of art I used it for.

For those of you who don't know, most digital art is created using some sort of drawing tablet.  I've been using an Intuos Pro, a non-screen tablet, for almost my entire digital art life. (We won't talk about making art with a mouse in my pre-college days.  It's too painful to remember XD)

With a non-screen tablet, you're drawing on the blank tablet while looking up at the computer monitor, and it requires a whole lot of muscle memory and hand-eye coordination.  I've been using mine for so long that I'm very comfortable with it, but it can be really fatiguing to sketch on it, or to ink for long periods of time.  (I find coloring and shading easier on an Intuos.)  You also have to redraw lines a lot, because they don't always end up where you expect them to.

Cintiqs are screen tablets.  You draw directly on the screen.  And unlike iPads, they connect to your computer so you can run the full version of your usual art software.  I've used an iPad for sketching for the past few years, but not only is it tiny (12"), it can't run Photoshop, which is what I use for my pages.  It can't even handle my full size 600dpi comic pages, so inking on it was out of the question.  And there were other reasons why I just didn't love the iPad's pencil/brush handling.

The Cintiq was an entirely different experience.  I always knew Cintiqs would make my work *easier*, but I thought that was all it would do, so I was willing to take the harder route to save money. (~$500 for my Intuos, ~$2000 for the Cintiq Pro I wanted.)

What I didn't realize was that the Cintiq would actually make my art look better, and give me the means to handle my brushes in a way the Intuos wouldn't let me - for example, using a lot of feathery, chicken-scratchy lines.  The Intuos could technically do it, but it never felt as natural or responsive, so I ended up putting less detail and variation into my inks.  Oh, and I barely had to redraw any lines at all, even the huge long swooping ones that go across the entire page!

The difference in the end result might not be as noticeable to other people, especially when images are posted at web size.  And the main difference was in the time it took to do the art.  But here are some detail shots from a few pages. 

Spoiler warning for the $2+folks who haven't seen these pages yet - They aren't big spoilers or anything, more like previews. ;)  You'll also get the next 8-page scene compilation in December!

ch4p88 detail (Intuos inks) :

And Ch4p94 detail (Cintiq inks) :

The main difference is in the line weight, and the variation in the line weight.  With an Intuos, I ink a lot heavier and with less variation because it takes a lot of pressure for me to keep my hand steady on it.  But on the Cintiq, I'm able to use a lot more light, sketchy lines.  I was able to feel the difference the most in doing Merritt's hair, and some of the crosshatch details in Samsid's hat and neck.  It just gave me more natural, varied results in a lot less time.

So again, big thanks to everyone who's supported DOTU in any way, and especially to those of you who helped me get my Cintiq!  As most of you already know, I'm wrapping up a big November project that's pushing November Patreon rewards to mid-December.  But with the time I'll save using the Cintiq, I'm expecting to bring you lots more new stuff in December and onward!