Drawing digital: A surprising new art tool.

 

I've had my Ipad for 4 months.  I love it.  I didn't think it would be anything but a toy, an accessory with which to access email and the web when I was away from my laptop.  

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Wrong.

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​This small little device has crept into my life and taken it over.  I start the day with my Ipad in my lap, sipping coffee while checking my email and playing WordFeud. I end my day reading a book on it using my nook app in bed.  In between, it travels with me from office to studio to kitchen and now, even to meetings where it has, on occasion, replaced my beloved pen and paper.  

I have always loved paper, pens, pencils, paints, pastels...ok, anything that makes marks on paper.  I have journals and notebooks and paper collections, too.  I love to write and draw.  

"Where is the world headed?" squeeks the old granny critic in my brain.  The world is in a new era and it's sitting in my lap, now, as I write this blog.  

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Now,  my IPad has become my latest sketchpad. 

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Thanks to the experiments and help from fellow artist, Terry Grant, on her blog, And Sew It Goes. Here's the link to her blog.  http://andsewitgoes.blogspot.com/2014/01/digital-drawing-day.html   I've discovered two drawing apps and drawing 'pens' specifically for Ipads that are amazing and fun.  One app, Artrage, is dense and multi-layered. I think of it more like a combo of painting and photoshop.  I like painting better than photoshop, so I'll see how this shakes out.  Another app, Sketchclub, is easier and much more fun for me.  

Sketchclub felt like having all the paper, paints, pens, markers and crayons I'd ever wanted all in one place.  There's no set up.  No clean up.  Just doodling to my hearts content.  I can save it or trash it with the touch of a button.  

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Here's a sketch I did while my husband and I watched the Seahawks game on last Sunday.  It was a challenge to get the shading by using the color slider tool instead of my hand or eraser.  

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The one at the beginning of the blog, I did playing with one of my favorite landscape formats.  I loved the discovery of blending colors using the layers provided which I've never used before.

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I used a stylus as a drawing pencil rather than my fingers on the screen.  It gave me much more control and felt more like drawing with paper and pen.  It's a New Trent Arcadia stylus.  My favorite tool from the program is the sketchy pen.  I love the quality of the  line and the movement of it. My challenge is learning to find the colors in my mind's eye from the selections on the color wheel program rather than being able to use a pastel pencil or mix a color up in paint.  

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I thought my iPad would be a toy, but I'm finding out it's a great new tool. And, although, I still love the feel of pen on paper, I have to admit digital drawing is a great for on the go especially when my iPad is already in my lap.

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