Drawing at Home

This is Bill Ramey, his photo is in the Sktchy app. Drawn on the iPad in Procreate, I spent around 2 hours on this. I used the 6B pencil brush. This month I'm doing a class in Sktchy Art School with France Van Stone - Draw at Home with France. She chooses a muse and the class draws together for at least an hour, 3 days a week. The classes are also available on YouTube to watch later. There are a few free classes on Sktchy Art School, but I don't think any are on Procreate. There are some paid classes on Procreate there. I believe all the classes are $30 each.

This is Dylan Sara, also on the Sktchy app. This drawing took 1 hour 45 minutes. The text is a quote from France. "The interesting thing about cross-hatching is where the lines intersect." She is suggesting hatch at a slight angle, not at right angles. The rough sketch was done with a 6b pencil and the drawing was done with a Rusty Nib brush, from True Grit. Procreate comes with a large number of brushes, but you can also purchase all kinds of interesting stuff on the internet. (Right now True Grit is offering a free sample pack when you sign up for a newsletter.)

I have an iPad Pro and an Apple Pencil. There are pros and cons to using a digital drawing program. I wouldn't use Procreate exclusively, but I would never give it up either. Right now I am trying to improve my mark making on the iPad.

Video of the drawing process. Procreate records your marks and makes these videos, you have to remember to turn on the setting the first time you use it. Here I started with the photo copied to the Procreate page. In the end I cropped it away. I also have the rough sketch on a separate layer that I turned off in the end.

Pros:
1. I think the erase feature is my favorite thing in Procreate. I can come back and draw into an area that is too dark with the eraser, making tiny white lines. If I use a colored background, the eraser uncovers that color. The eraser can be set to any brush, so if you are using a Rusty Nib to draw with, the erased mark is also gritty, like the Rusty Nib. This looks great.
2. The Apple Pencil works very much like a regular pencil, so it's easy to get used to.
Procreate comes with many brushes. A lot of them imitate real world tools pretty well. I like the 6B pencil, the hard and soft airbrush (great for erasing away backgrounds), the gel pen, and some texture brushes that imitate rusted decay, concrete block, waste land, heavy metal, twisted tree, etc. I don't use the last to make a twisted tree, but they are good for imparting gritty textures or creating a scribbly mess that you might see something interesting in.
3. There are also third party brushes you can order online. I favor the True Grit brushes, but also have some Tip Top,  and a few of Georg's brushes. It is possible to create your own brushes or tweak existing brushes.
4. A drawing can go faster in Procreate, especially if I know what I'm doing.
5. And of course there is less to carry around if you draw on the iPad. And minimal storage issues.
6. With some practice, you can imitate traditional media. Lewis Rossignol has a great youtube video here about how he does that. When I scanned an in-progress drawing and tried adding different things in Procreate, I wasn't able to get the same level of detail with my traditional media. For me it works better for collage, assuming you are careful to not change the scale of your parts. I need more practice.
7. It's easy to draw on your lap, no going upstairs to get an eraser or my favorite pen. Especially nice in the evening when I'm tired. Of course I keep a pile of art supplies and a sketchbook where I sit in the evening, so maybe this Pro doesn't count.
8. There is an undo command. I try to not use this, but do fall back on it sometimes. It is also nice to use the eraser function, which often looks more "real" anyway.
9. You can resize your canvas. Say you don't have enough room for all the hair - you can just make your drawing a bit smaller and move it down.
10. Procreate has many commands similar to Photoshop. The handbook is online - it will give you an idea of the versatility. I like to lower the opacity on my rough sketch layer if it's too dark.
11. You can use Procreate like a piece of paper and a pencil or pen. You don't need to delve into all the extra stuff until you feel a need for it. I is very intuitive.
12. You have the option of layers, which are handy sometimes. You could put a rough sketch on one layer, the final drawing on the one above. Your lowest layer is the background - you can assign any color to this.
13. If you have a "middle aged" iPad, you can probably still use Procreate. The very old ones don't work with the new version of Procreate. You won't have the Apple Pencil with the middle aged iPad, but you can find other styluses that work almost as well.

Cons:
1. Probably the biggest con is the cost. These things aren't cheap. I resisted the iPad until my son and husband bought me one years ago. It took me about a week to get hooked. Procreate itself is $6, which is a huge bargain.
2. The surface of the iPad feels very slick, something that makes it harder to draw on. I have a matt screen protector. It cuts down the glare, but still feels pretty smooth. I am gradually getting used to that.
3. I find it much harder to control lines on the iPad. Hatching is particularly difficult. I can't control the line length or darkness as well as in the real world. If I delved into the settings I should be able to make it a little less sensitive, I just haven't looked into that. And I'm not sure it would help. I think I just need more practice.
4. Because it's possible to zoom in, I can easily get too detailed and work the drawing to death. But then I can do that with real world tools too.
5. A few years ago I would have said a con was the lack of online tutorials. The manual takes you through each tool step by step, and is very thorough. But for me, seeing things being put to use works better for learning. Now there are more online tutorials. Quite a few are free.
6. Many people don't like the idea of digital, it's not "real." There is a certain validity to that, you don't end up with a single drawing that is fixed in size. Worse, there is a lack of tactile feedback. Or a different tactile feedback. I see it as a new tool to try. People resisted acrylic paints for years too. But they are very versatile and have gained acceptance.
7. Watercolors seem to be the hardest things to imitate digitally. I haven't really explored all the watercolor brushes, but I think some people aren't impressed. If that's important to you, you would need to do some research. Or if you have an iPad already, get Procreate and try some out.
8. A con (or pro?) may be the ability to make copies as backups and to continue working on one of the files. It leads me to fiddling too much. When I look at the drawing of Dylan above, I see several things I want to work on. (his beard looks like a furry animal clamped itself to his chin.) It's probably better to move forward.
9. I'm not sure this is a con - many of the sample drawings on the procreate folio page are pretty slick and finished looking. This makes them less appealing to me. There are some painterly paintings. I believe Karen Devine uses Procreate to mix together photos, drawings and collage elements to make dreamy images.

Sorry, I didn't mean for this to get so long. I do love Procreate. Are you using Procreate in any way? I'd love to see what you are doing.

Inktober

I'm nearing the end - a few more days.

My friend Karen on Sktchy. Black Pitt pen, Caput Mortem brush pen.

One of those days when I was unfocused and just doodling. Pitt pen.

Scribbling while watching a movie. Pitt pen. Can you tell I'm loosing steam? I hate to quit this close to the end.

From a photo on Sktchy. Pitt pen, white Posca.

Another from Sktchy, quick and easy.

This was an interesting photo - a collage of several images.

Another interesting photo. This particular security pattern is very hard to draw on. It has a strong diagonal that seems to accentuate the ink lines and make them hard to control.

A figure, a frog and a face

I realized haven't been posting in the same order on sktchy as I have here. I guess that doesn't matter - they are drawings in pen and ink.

October 18. This guy's face is long, but not quite that long. I had to scribble on the background with a white posca pen to cover the dark grey on the envelope. In the end I rather like this one. It's a little weird. I took his head into Procreate (drawing/painting app for iOS) and attached it to another body. I liked the size mis-match so left it that way. I also like the background doodles.

October 19. An awesome toad or frog from Sktchy. Pitt pen. My biggest complaint about Sktchy is that most people post the most boring selfies - looking straight forward, frontal lighting, grinning. But now and then there is some awesome interesting photo.

October 20. Another Sktchy drawing.

A doodled page, something I haven't really counted as a drawing. This was a dream, I woke feeling very frustrated about this. Done with a sepia Pitt pen. I like doing these pages of text now and then. I do figure it's still keeping the pen moving, and I am drawing shapes, as opposed to writing. I am still loving the torn envelopes, they have a nice irregularity. Getting tired of the smaller size. Getting tired of worrying about having a finished drawing every day. I had thought I would evaluate at the end of the month, but thing I'll take stock tonight, and again at the end.

This one was done with a black Pitt pen. I just thought I'd include these as part of the record. I do like doing this in my journals now and then. I don't record much about most days, am always trying to remember to add more.

So far, so good

I am sort of keeping up with Inktober this year. I did miss one day, but did two sketches the following day.

October 15. Experimenting a little with combining photos. I would like to be doing more content oriented drawings but realize it will take more time. I have been doing a lot of gardening, the weather is mild and rain will start soon. For a couple weeks Jim and I watched two episodes of The Good Place every evening. By the time evening comes around, I don't always have a lot of energy. So for now a quick drawing is good.

October 16. Done from a photo on Sktchy. This guy took a photo at the bank teller's drive up window. I like the composition very much.

October 17. This is from a photo of a friend on Sktchy. She's at a Yayoi Kusama exhibit, Infinity Mirror. I like this photo very much, another composition that appeals to me. I just realized I am a day behind, one drawing short. Better get to work.

Catching up - more Inktober

I have been drawing every day, just not keeping up with posting here. I'm trying to make drawing the top priority, instead of getting lost looking at other people's drawings.

October 7. This one was from a photo on Sktchy which was a mirrored image. Interesting challenge because I find exact symmetry hard. Most of the images are from photos on Sktchy. Not that there aren't a lot of interesting photos on the internet, but it is a nice place to go where you know people want you to draw from their photos.

October 8. I like the evil look in his eye, and the label seems to add a lot.

October 9. If you are looking at the dates you can see I am working ahead some days, falling behind on others.

October 10. Another where the stamps seem to add a lot to the image. This was a photo of a man with a plastic bird head. Other people interpreted him in a more realistic way, which is very effective. However this was a really quick solution. I am really enjoying this envelope sketch book and plan to make more.

October 11. I thought this profile would be an easy one, instead I spent a lot of time with the pencil sketch, trying to get all the relationships sort of accurate. Then I drew the basic shapes with a sepia Pitt pen in my left hand (I am left-handed) and a sanguine Pitt pen in my right. I finished the details with the sepia pen. I would like to get more sanguine in there.

October 12. I had brushed some hi-flow acrylic across this page, and used the mouth atomizer to add the spots. Then I drew on it. Maybe the grey acrylic is too strong. Or the image needs more contrast. Oddly enough this one inspired someone on Sktchy to make an envelope journal, so I was very pleased.

October 13. Looking thru my sktchy inspiration photos I noticed this guy's mouth was very much like the chicken's so I tried blending the two images. Not too successful in the beak area, but I like this one better than the next.

There are two for October 13 - they were done one after the other. I'm not showing you all my fails, but this one has something I like, something I don't like. This seems too polished to me, or maybe too cartoony? Something is wrong. I did the last two in the same evening, pretty quickly once I had the basic idea.

October 14. A friend sent me a link to Christophe Brunnquell on Instagram. I drew this inspired by his collage, especially the mouth.

I'm almost halfway thru the month. Pretty impressed with myself. I have regained my enthusiasm, am enjoying the quick sketches. After two weeks of doodling around I want to look more at content. Just reproducing an image isn't that interesting long term for me. Of course content is much harder to do. It's time to start on it! If you have any remarks about the drawings, or life in general, I'd love to hear them. I am always trying to improve in some areas - hatching, content, composition, finding inspiration. I am always open to thoughts.

I hope you are getting some drawings in this month, or writing or whatever creative thing you want in your life. For me it's always hard to find time, motivation and to break away from the pull of every day life. And, for me at least - I am so hooked by the news. One terrible thing after another. I am trying to not look at the news so often. It's probably better for my mental health.

Inktober 2018 October 3 and 4

The first three drawings are here. I did two for the first day, just because I could.

Above is the drawing for day 3. Ball point pen in my journal made from envelopes. Not done from a Sktchy photo, that's my niece.

And the drawing for day 4. Pilot pen with the ink they ship with the pen. It does bleed thru the envelopes a little. This is from a photo on Sktchy. I am not happy with this one, but am calling it good. I am in the mood for some distraction tonight, Jim and I are going to watch a few episodes of The Good Place. I have seen the first two seasons, but am watching them again with Jim since he hasn't seen them.

I hope you are finding time to draw a little. I would say even a quick rough sketch is good. It's surprising how ability to judge improves with practice. Not that I'm an expert on the subject, but I do see improvement in my drawings over the last few years. There are still plenty of duds, but some I am happy with too.