I’ve been trying to get some relaxation time in over this holiday weekend, and part of that (aside from soaking in the pool …) has been more drawing playtime with the Autodesk SketchPad Pro app on the iPad.
Eye One
They recently released v. 1.1.0 which includes a number of neat new features – particularly involving blending between layers. As I mentioned recently, I’ve never really played with electronic drawing other than CAD drafting. My drawing experience has all been with pencil, charcoal and paper.
So, it’s been interesting learning about combining layers, shading, blending, etc. I’m starting to “get” the whole layer thing. For instance, just today, I finally discovered a process of shading a drawing with two shading layers – one multiplies with a gray wash to darken areas and another screens with a white wash to add soft highlights.
Eye Two
I’ve also never really played around much with color, either. 99% of my prior work has been done in shades of gray. So, I’ve been fiddling around with how color works in this world as well – and it’s not like blending pencils or Conte crayon, that’s for sure.
But, even with the short time I’ve been playing around with this tool, I’ve started to understand how this all works. The biggest challenge for me so far is just figuring out how to make something look the way I want it to look. In the physical media world, I just plonk my thumb on to the paper and blend graphite and
John Spencer
charcoal and such – and I know what that looks like and how to achieve the blend that I like. As a beginner digital “artist” it’s been different – but then one would expect that, I guess.
Of course, the quickest thing I’ve discovered is that the digital tools don’t help the actual DRAWING much! I still get hands wrong and have a hard time getting the shading of things to look natural – particularly when the subject is dramatically or strongly lit. My drawings have always had a bit of a “cartoony” look to them, but that’s the style that I’ve developed over the years.
Super Hero
What’s really cool though is that with these tools, I can pretty much make things look like anything from a pencil sketch to a watercolor. The tools can look like paint, pencil, wash, Conte, etc. It’s just a matter of figuring out which settings to use for what.
Just like any artwork, the time invested in each piece of work is what makes it work. My best drawings have always been the ones I’ve spent days or weeks on rather than minutes or hours. The ones from today are the result of only hours and are, truly, sketches.
But as a learning experience, this whole digital drawing thing might work out in the end. After all, I’ve been drawing most of the day and my hands, fingers and shirt are all clean!
