New iPad!

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After years of wanting to upgrade my iPad I finally did it, last weekend. My first iPad was an Air (as in the first Air model) and I used it as a glorified laptop, tablet, used for online group chats, eReading, etc. I even used it to design a few patterns in Paper by 53, but it was a model before apple pencils came out so I had to use a spongy ended stylus. It was clunky and then the Paper app had a complete overhaul and started a subscription service to access tools that I’d been using before. My new iPad is the current Pro and it has been so fun to play around with it each evening, on the couch.

The very first thing I drew on my new ipad after watching Amy’s Skillshare class

I listened to a podcast earlier this year where two artists were talking about working digitally and how far digital illustration has come in the last decade or two, to the point that art directors, agents or clients can’t even tell that the work wasn’t made with actual paper, pencil, pens and paint, and I think that is SO TRUE! While I know that there are artists who have looong been able to create amazing, realistic, and/or “passable” digital artwork, the accessibility, variety and efficiency to create work at that same level has made leaps and bounds.

I have wanted to try out an apple pencil for so long. We even went into a local best buy where I thought I might be able to try one but none of them seemed to work. Finally a month or so ago I got to try one that my oldest niece recently purchased. I was SOLD immediately. Simultaneously, my friend Amy from my peer group has been working on a Skillshare class to teach artwork on an iPad. I’ve had Procreate for years, but was too intimidated to learn it. Amy applied for and was selected to be part of an exclusive group chosen by Skillshare to teach their own class. I’m familiar with her work so I was excited to learn from her, but I was blown away at the amount of information she covered in the class and it took no time for me to move from being afraid of Procreate to being completely comfortable. The class is focused towards coming up with a greeting card design as a final project, but along the way familiarizes and teaches the ins and outs of all the different areas within the program. The class will be a 3 part-er with the second and third sections focusing on using the iPad for Adobe Fresco and Illustrator. I highly recommend it and know that I will be returning to it regularly as I continue to level up my digital art.

This is kind of embarrassing, because I’m still very green and learning, but here are a few things I’ve played around with in the last week.

I really love my new iPad. In the class Amy mentioned how great it is to be so minimal and not need to have a ton of supplies and be able to take it anywhere and work. It didn’t seem important to me because I LOVE all my art supplies. My heart can speed up at just the thought of visiting an art supply store, so there is zero chance that this tool will be replacing any of that. Now that I’ve had it for a week though I see it as an addition to all those other tools and supplies. I have loooong wished to be the type that could sketch or work on art while watching tv in the evening, but then I find myself precariously balancing a paint jar on the couch and losing colored pencils in the couch cushion. It’s just too distracting. Not anymore! I’ve found my couch art tool!

You know when you want to and need to learn a new skill and you have that fear inside and it can hold you back from actually fully diving into it. I have Amy’s class to thank, because for some reason, her class helped me dive right in to art on the ipad, where I would normally see myself hesitating. I mean, I owned Procreate for so long, but had not even explored much with it on my own because I was so afraid and overwhelmed. Thank you, Amy for your wonderful class!