A question about digital coloring

[oneiros51]

I'm just wondering, for those of you who don't have access to a decent tablet, or those of you who prefer to sketch your art on paper before scanning and coloring.... Do you find it easier to do some preliminary shading on paper to figure out your light source and such? Or do you wait until it's scanned?

[Mirana]

I think it probably depends on the sketch and what it's being used for. I do shade both ways. I'm not sure how that relates to digital coloring, though. Pencil shade + digi color is not something that often works well together unless you really know what you're doing (and the graphite is supposed to work as a texture effect).

[oneiros51]

I was wondering if people did it just to get an idea of where highlights and shading relate before starting on the colored product.
The more I think about it, the more it seems like a lot of effort for something you could probably do easily in the art program.
There's an infinite amount of ways to do coloring for sure, even through digital means; and I have a lot of trouble with light source, I thought maybe seeing how a few people did it, (especially without the aid of a pressure sensitive tablet, or with nothing much more than a mouse) would help me figure out what the heck I'm trying to do. :)

[Mirana]

Well...you can always do the sketch as line art, scan it in, THEN use the sketch to do your shade road map. Even use tracing paper over the top to do shade possibilities if you don't want to screw up the piece.

[pok82]

well, i've got a tablet, but i still do all my drawing on paper. i might digitally ink of the stuff. other stuff i just leave as pencils. i'm not too good with drawing straight from the tablet even though i can paint fine with it.