Occasionally, I try out some art apps on my phone. I began this in Autodesk Sketchbook on my Motorola phone. It has a 5 inch screen, just enough room to do a bit of sketching. I draw with my finger, rather than use a stylus. As on the iPad, I can expand the picture area to help with some detail work. However, with this one I decided to email it to my iPad before doing much detail. I then saved it into iPhotos.
NextI worked on it again in the Autodesk Sketchbook app, and then did a little more on it in Procreate. The very small screen creates certain limitations in how I use line, tone and colour. This can be a challenge; and like many challenges one I rather enjoy!
It also leads to some distortion (though I think I can improve on this) in the shapes I make… which I kinda like..
I try to draw daily, whether on paper, canvas or the iPad…or android phone! Practice – as in most skill learning – is so important in furthering skills in drawing.
*Just thought I’d mention to fellow bloggers who I’ve met up with over in Instagram land; I’ve now deleted my site there. I found it way too busy a place… at least for the moment, may try it again one day..
Back here after a long, lovely Summer break – family time, housework, art – all mingled well together, mostly does! Spent some time, whizzing about with: watercolour, coloured pencil, a bit of gouache and acrylic paint – and drew and and painted on my iPad. In my gallery below, I’ve added some media information on the captions.
Continued on with my experiments in mixed media: a work begun on paper, taken into an art app, worked on further, printed…adding more media on the print. Or begun a work in an art app, and finished it with traditional media on the print…and so forth. I didn’t do as much straight forward traditional media art as I thought I would. Got side tracked, with using my new “beaut” – as an Aussie, seemed just the right word – printer.
There’s more info, on my “Printing iPad Art” page, particularly in the section: “About prints I make at home”. The new printer takes thicker inkjet paper, and I really enjoyed trying out various beautiful papers: Bockingford inkjet watercolour 190gsm, Bamboo 170gsm, Canson Rag Photographique 210gsm, Hahnemuhle Fine Art paper, Epson matte heavy weight 167gsm, Epson Archival Matte 189gsm… *To enlarge them all, please tap on an image.
Each type of paper (love paper!) makes a difference to the final look. I’m still getting to know what suits a particulary image – a lot to do with what contrasts, colours, and mood I want to emphasise. I also bought some A3 paper, for my out sourced laser prints – called, Colour Copy silk finish, 200gsm, made by Mondi. Lovely look and feel to it.
Mixing up the media in the one image is a lot of fun; and fun I think, is an important element in all creative processes. Perhaps, I need to add a bit more of a smile to some of the faces I draw!
As is usual, a favourite “go to” subject matter when experimenting with media, is to draw or paint a women’s face. I also employ a “face” as a way to convey a mood or emotion. They are mostly imaginary. Sometimes I can see a inkling of a likeness to me, though mostly a younger and prettier version! I say more about all of this on a post, called “About Drawing Faces”. Below, are process pics for this one above. Further along is a gallery of more”faces”. Some I began on paper, then scanned them in with the “Scanner Pro” app – which I find more effective than taking a photo. Love the way the scanner, picked up the pretty nuances of the smooth “Arches” Watercolour paper. To enlarge all, please touch on one pic.
I often draw a “face” looking downwards, perhaps from looking down at my four boys over the years. Now I have to look up; they are all over 6 foot tall!.
I put a photo of me on my “About” page recently, where I’m looking down at my grand niece, though you can’t see her. Not keen on having my photo taken, they are scarce. I’ll get onto having more taken, because I think the kid’s would appreciate it. Here’s a “link” if you wish to have a look – I know I like seeing photos of my fellow bloggers. 🙂 May replace it with clearer one – eventually.
A Few Drawing Points
When I’ve taught drawing, I always stress, the importance of learning to draw from keen observation – to draw what you “see”. If (or when) you choose to move away from this, these acquired skills can still help and inform your work. When drawing faces, whether imaginary or not, I often make the common mistakes: of placing the eyes too high, and the space between them too wide, and the space between the nose and lips too wide… But I “know” and can see when I do this, but I often “choose” to go with it – sometimes because I’ve put too much detail in, too soon – and don’t want to redo it!
Some of the expressions on these pics, are a bit serious and glum – unintentionally. *I draw and paint with my finger, on the iPad – rather than use a stylus.
This is painted with my finger, using the acrylic paint, in the “Procreate” app. I prevented myself from tidying up the edges, and smoothing out too many of the lines/brushstrokes. This tendency, to “overdo” and “overwork” a picture to within an inch of it’s life, means, I sometimes lose a lot of the liveliness that I begin with. *Touch on a pic below, to enlarge them all.
I usually begin a drawing,with a lot of loose lines, shapes, and a rough outline of the overall composition… Something I was drilled in – and glad of – during my years of art studies.Something, I’ve tried to encourage others to do in drawing classes I’ve given.
Too tight and too careful – too soon, can restrict the fluidity of a line. Also getting caught up working in one area, of your picture space, can leave a lot of white space serving no purpose at all, and detract from the part you’ve so painstakingly worked upon. Continually, moving all around the drawing space, allows you to keep things in check.
If lines are intitially laiddown lightly drawing, then, problem areas can be corrected and reigned in, during the drawing processes – with barely a need for an eraser – or that handy go back button in an art app. As you decide on just the right placement of a line, then you can darken it further. If you add tonal work, and leave some lines visible; this can add a bit of pizazz to the final composition.
Although a simple linear drawing, is commonly used for a preliminary drawing – as a sort of a scaffold for additional media; it can be also be a “finished” piece. In this case, varying the depth of colour, tone, thickness…of the line work can add interest.
In painting – I’ve always drawn more than painted – I’ve learnt it’s often more suitable, to block in with colour, working out the basic shapes, and forms, and then begin to reign it in, defining and refining, one edge/colour with another. I often prefer to have some definite line work visible in my paintings. Perhaps this is best described as a boldness of brushstroke here and there; whether on a iPad painting, or a work on canvas – I have some delicious tubes of acrylics, waiting to be squeezed. 🙂
When I write a poem – or a sentence, I sift and weigh up words for sound and meaning. This sometimes reminds me of aspects of drawing and painting – the considerations of: light and dark, curved and straight lines, colour and tone… I see fascinating compositional correlations, between my visual art, and my writing…and in other art forms: music, dance…I looked a little at that, in one of my earlier posts on drawing.