it's like olympic Athlete cut his own arms and legs than compete in the Paralympic

cooler than drawin with a finger cuz it shows youre real decent with hand eye coordination

Thats the same story as with me, funnily enough. I decided that if im gonna start drawing on ng i need to upgrade from the mouse i used to draw my old pfp, so i downloaded ibis. I had had a stage before this though: using a controller in lbp3

Going to bump this response because I cannot agree with it more, and opened the three as specifically to post it. Our wrists and hands are very fragile, and using a mouse in the way you would to paint/render/draw, if you’re not properly equipped with a wrist-rest, or proper posture you can really mess yourself up

I think drawing with a mouse is best when you drink alcohol, smoke ciggies, and eat candy

I will be honest, I'd rather draw with a diy stylus with no pen pressure support nor strict palm rejection than draw with a mouse.

I was watching a Same Does Art video and was disturbed when he mentioned that the profile piece he was working on took an hour. He spent only like half an hour on another day doing edits until he declared the piece finished. The way he described his process, he acted like that was normal for digital artists.

My last two drawing / painting / whatever-digital-art that's not "digital design" took closer to a total of 12 hours each not counting the initial reference prep. (The one that's in my Gallery is from an inked paper sketch while the most recent, not yet published, is based on a photo.) Some of this was because I had to relearn a bunch of techniques and figure out how to use program tools. But some of it was redrawing and making corrections.

All of the digital work was done with a keyboard and the touchpad mouse on my laptop. (My laptop's case is also damaged, so I had to deal with the mouse not working well the entire time. Making do with what I've got....)

Are other methods easier? Thinking back on working with acrylics, pastels, coloring pencils, physical pens on paper, vector art on a desktop touchscreen and with a wired moused, photo manipulation, and finger-painting on mobile touchscreens....

Yeah, probably, for anything that's not pixel art where every pixel matters.

The results are different depending on what's used. I like the grittiness from pixelation that come out in the "Gargoyle" piece. I don't have line precision on my phone. Non-digital art is a pain to keep intact, undamaged, and accessible for me these days.

But when I imagine sitting down and making what I want within only two total hours....

I'm going to look into ibis Paint X.

I draw exclusively with a mouse and, brother, it shows. I think that if you're truly serious about the whole art thing, I wouldn't really recommend it.

If you're in it for fun, then go ahead. Do whatever. Go crazy go nuts. It's certainly possible and some people even manage to do some really great work with it.

It depends.

If you are doing something like filters, it can be useful in that area if we're just talking digital art. In pixel art however I found that it's actually waaaaaay more convienent to use when I need to be using precise pixels to smoothe out my work.

Using it in combination with a tablet is actually one of the best things you can do. The reason being is because you can do rough drawings, cleanups and general shapes before using the mouse. You can get some pretty dope results if you're able to pull it off.

I think this is part of a larger question: As an artist, should you stick with methods you’re used to, or try something new that you think might improve your craft?

The answer is always that it depends. If you’re a professional, as many people here constantly assume everyone is, it’s probably better to try something you think will work better, with the two caveats that you 1) shouldn’t burn yourself out trying to improve and 2) shouldn’t fix it if it ain’t actually broke just because elitism happens to be rampant in any creative field. If you’re not trying to make money, or gain traction for any other reasons, then there’s no need to put pressure on yourself unless you’re fine with doing so or there’s a significant problem with the way you’re doing it (like what was said here about joint health!)

So yeah. My opinion is purely case by case.

All my artworks the past several years have been done with a mouse. I'd much rather use a drawing tablet, because it's a lot quicker and designed specifically for drawing with, but there's no space for it in my room at the moment...

Example of what I can make using mouse:

I've been drawing with a mouse for 6 years now. I did get a drawing tablet but I struggle using it so now it's just gathering dust. I do feel somewhat guilty though because it was gifted to me by a kind stranger from overseas who saw some of my work and was surprised I still drew with a mouse.

For doing pixel art is pretty good if you work on small resolutions and need to clean up the piece or add detail to it.

Drawing with a mouse to me is a last resort thing. I only do it if I lack access to a tablet or a strong computer. I can work with one, but it makes simple pictures far longer to finish.

Drawing with a mouse is hard, but its not Impossible! With a lot of Hours could be possible to draw awesome drawings, or not.

I have no doubt If exists artists

that can make realistic drawings with a Simple.....mouse.

But to me, draw with mouse is hard.

(At least its not hard like make a drawing with a video game controller in Mario paint)

NEVER AGAIN

based way of drawing

If you can do it and make smooth lines with it then good for you. I will never understand how some people do it

The secret is in using line tools then smoothing out where the lines roughly meet up pixel by pixel.

My latest example of a drawing done this way: https://art.ngfiles.com/thumbnails/3035000/3035919_full.webp?f1675902954 (The Mature rating was assigned because of "Some nudity" that's not explicit and actually child-friendly. (The ratings here are strange.))

this somehow makes me proud of myself, even though i'm definitely worse at drawing than a lot of people (in general) :P

I don't recommend drawing with a mouse, which mouse makes art horrible. I recommend buying a drawing tablet, I have a Wacom Intuos S drawing tablet, and it's a good tablet for beginners. Tad expensive but good.

I bought a tablet on summer 2023.

Can't abide it.

Hard

I make pixel art and everything I make with only a mouse is leagues worse than the art I make by drawing on a tablet/paper first and pixelating it.

The act of placing a pixel is slightly easier, sure, but you won't get dynamic, appealing looking imagry without a more traditional drawing first.

This is my experience with it anyway.

From my experience yes. I'm more accurate doing pixel art with a mouse than with a drawing tablet. In fact all of Painter Blazer sprites are done with a mouse.

an absolute hell

Drawing with a mouse makes my hand feel stiff and makes it numb.

Idk how people can draw with it.

Its good for pixel art, if I had to regularly use my finger or a mouse to draw id just go back to paper

I might have been drawing with a mouse for 15+ years.

sometimes when you get so used to a thing it's as easy as breathing. You can think of it as drawing at 10 times earth's gravity, lol

I switched to tablet for awhile during that time, and while i didnt dislike it, i felt i was smoother with my line art with a mouse.

i would rather stick the mouse up my ass