Comic Blog: Learning to Make Digital Comics

So, it turns out, getting my first comic panel (or is it technically an episode?) out into the world took way longer than I expected.

Part of the delay? I’m not a digital painter. Not even close. So most of my “art time” has been spent deep in the YouTube trenches, watching digital painting tutorials like I’m cramming for a final exam.

After the umpteenth video, I hit my limit. I closed the laptop, grabbed my favorite Moleskine Art Sketchbook, and went analog — watercolor, ink, colored pencils, the whole traditional-art setup. It felt good to just make something without worrying about layers, brushes, or blending modes.

Then came the next hurdle: scanning the art. Cue me googling “how to digitally clean up photo scans.”

Thankfully, I stumbled onto Walter Ostlie’s How to Make a Webtoon Using Krita

It’s a simple, beginner-friendly walkthrough that showed me how to create and edit comic panels directly in Krita. No muss, no fuss. It was exactly what I needed.

In the end, I used a hybrid approach: sketch in my notebook, scan it, drop it into Krita as a reference, then ink and color digitally. A little traditional, a little digital, and a lot of learning along the way.

But the best part? I finally published the panel. Starting really is the hardest part — and I’m proud I pushed through the messy middle to get here.

Next up:

• Read Comic 001: Harriett Has a Sweet Tooth
• Check out Walter Ostlie’s YouTube Channel