For my birthday this spring, my husband got me a new iPad Pro, with an Apple Pencil. So I no longer have any excuse (not that I was looking for an excuse) to not join the large number of artists creating digital art.
Then, for the month of July, the Sktchy App offered a month long workshop with a number of talented instructors presenting daily lessons, all in Procreate on the iPad. I decided now was the time to leap into this new way of creating, especially as I'm not going anywhere anyway.
These 'paintings' are all done digitally. They are not 'traced;' each is sketched, then 'painted' just as they would have been done using any other media. Procreate has the capability to use 'ink,' as in the top three sketches. It can look (and act) like charcoal, gouache or watercolor, oil, or airbrushes. When using the pencil, the 'brushes' act very much like traditional media. It is pretty amazing.
What I find a bit distressing about creating digital art or illustrations is that it is much easier for an artist to strive for perfection. You can undo and redo to your heart's content - and I think we all tend to do that! So I tend to lose my characteristic 'messiness,' and I feel like the results are more generic than if I had used traditional 'analog' media, where all my work would show - mistakes and all. Also, in this search for perfection, a sketch I would do in my sketchbook in about 20 minutes is taking me an hour, or even much more. And then.... I have a digital image that I'm not sure what to do with, on my iPad.
But it is good to keep learning new things. And perhaps I will find this new media useful for design work, or for illustrating something someday. Who knows? In the meantime, I'm having a bit of fun.
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