It is a tough decision, whether to draw on paper or on a tablet.

I personally love drawing on paper, it feels real and natural, easy and quick. I rarely make errors with pencils, unlike with a stylus. I’m definitely more accustomed to drawing on paper than on the tablet, which I seldom use. A sketch of a person would take no time on paper, while the same would take 5 minutes of erasing (it’s so hard to draw straight lines!!!) Gray tone shadows on paper are nicer, blending much more easily than when I try on the computer. On paint programs, the best I could get thick lines that abruptly switched to a different tone of gray. Paper is also convenient and cheap, something I can carry around anywhere, while tablets are expensive, bulky, and not independent. As it is also necessary for me to carry around a computer…

But tablets aren’t all bad. Since it is drawn on the computer, I can save the files on to the cloud, able to enjoy them in the future. However with paper, its future is uncertain. I love paper, and so I use it for everything, homework, notes, and origami. Paper is everywhere around me, littered my unkept desk, stuffed in my unorganized binder, piled high in a closet. So losing paper is naturally going to happen, as I have to throw away paper in order to not over crowd my desk and sometimes I’m just careless in checking whether that piece of paper is important or not. I could scan all those papers onto a computer, but that’s inconvenient and time-consuming, and usually, the drawing isn’t all that good. Also, I personally don’t like scanned papers because it feels…. outmoded. I don’t know why, it just doesn’t feel right. Furthermore, my drawings on paper are usually sketches, rarely with color (because color pencils are just terrible at shading, and there aren’t any alternatives, I’m not even going to talk about markers and crayons…), so when I draw on the tablet I can experiment with different colors and draw something in COLOR :). And if I don’t like that color? UNDO!!! Allowing me to be more creative, more experimental with my pieces.

The verdict

The best? Well, that’s easy. Oil painting. You work straight with the canvas, real and big. The oil dries slowly, allowing adequate time to mix and blend colors together. Erasing? No problem, just let the paint dry and apply over it! When you are actually painting, you look extremely professional, with a mixing palette in one hand, an actual brush in the other, deftly applying paint to the white canvas. It is what we all think of when the word “painter” is said. The canvas itself is thick and clunky, something that is impossible to throw away accidentally. It doesn’t bend or rip (easily) and best of all, it is truly awesome when you finish a piece and frame it.

Let me just draw a ‘quick’ picture for this post, hopefully finish in 5 minutes?

Not bad… that took 15 minutes, better :)