Tips on How I learned to Draw on a Smartphone

I like to redraw over my selfie photos or photos of my sketches using a stylus and free art apps for the smartphone like medibang or even ibispaint~

If you’re smartphone has a touch screen then the bare minimum of what you would need to draw a webtoon comic on your smartphone is a compatible art app and your fingers!

You can of course use a basic pen stylus and I cover a few of my favorite art styles for mobile tablets over here.

But if you’re very new to the digital drawing world and want some tips on how to learn to draw on a smartphone then I went ahead and listed some pointers below~

Digital Drawing tips for Beginners?

If you’re used to drawing traditionally then the switch to digital can be a little jarring but here are a 3 tips that I have that might help you get more comfortable with drawing on your phone. 

I’ve also done these things too when I first starting drawing on my mobile tablet.

1. Tracing over my notebook sketches: Instead of tying to draw a picture from a blank canvas in the app, I take pictures of my webtoon comic page or of my sketchbook drawing and then upload it into the art app on your phone and I can use either my finger to redraw over it or a stylus (but I prefer using a stylus instead cause it’s what fits me best). 
2. Redrawing my selfie photos: This is what I did for the cartoon me hashtag event that was on instagram and twitter. I just took a selfie of myself and drew over one side of my face.
3. Reference Base images: Medibang paint ART Street has these fun base images that you can download from their site into their program and you can learn to draw your characters in different proportion sizes. Since the size of your smartphone is a lot smaller than a computer screen it might be a little difficult to get used to the proportions of things or depth perception so using bases like these and tracing over them or redrawing them can be great practice!

Beginner art apps for smartphone?

Now one of my favorite free apps to recommend for beginner webtoon artist wanting to draw on their mobile device is Medibang paint!

They have a new app called MangaName where you can draw thumbnails of your webtoon comic page directly in the app from your touch screen.

For the MediBang Paint app and Ibispaint App not only does it have a setting specific to stylus pen with palm rejection but also a setting to select if you just want to draw with your finger.

It’s what I use to draw my illustration or webtoon thumbnails on my mobile tablet and Samsung smartphone.

I have a list of other free and paid webtoon art apps that you can use on your mobile device to help you get used to drawing on your smartphone.

What should you do next?

If you have any more questions feel free to leave a comment down below and I’d be happy to answer them!

I also have a free ebook where I cover how to make, publish and monetize a webtoon comic for beginners!

Also if you’re looking for a wholesome, fake marriage trope, AMBW manga webtoon to read to pass the time then you might want to check out Catch Me! Fight Me! Love Me!