Line Drawings with Procreate on the iPad

"Drawing Tool" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO3200
“Drawing Tool” Cedar Park, 2019

こんばんは。How’s it going?

My daily drawings have shifted over to about 90% digital with Procreate and 10% on paper in the 2 weeks that I’ve had my iPad. I guess that’s to be expected with a new drawing tool. It’s so fun to see what is possible using Procreate, but even though it is a different way to sketch, I still find myself on the same path of learning, and right now I am concentrating on line-drawing. I make progress little by little each time which is really encouraging, and using the iPad has sped up the process. Just the convenience of undo and multiple undo is game-changing – it’s like having a magical eraser. I love it.

I can see farther down the path of my learning journey now, which was kind of muddled before. It’s becoming clearer that I need to keep practicing line drawings (still a ways to go), and start expanding from just faces to more poses, and then maybe larger compositions, and finally, work on color. Not sure if color will work its way into the process earlier or not, but I am thinking it won’t be detrimental to dabble in it. At any rate, it’s exciting to think about all the things that can be created while learning, and that is good motivation to keep going.

I have some thoughts forming about digital vs analog art, and it kind of interconnects with decluttering, but I’m not quite there yet to put it down on “paper”.

In the meantime, here’s my latest practice sketch, and the timelapse drawing process. For the hand, I looked at a reference photo, but I didn’t like how it was turning out so I traced the photo. But looking back at the timelapse video, I think the non-traced version would have been fine.

I’ll keep this drawing as-is and move on to a new one, but in the future, I’ll probably come back to it to work on color.

I hope you had a nice day!

またね~

"2019-02-13 Drawing"
“2019-02-13 Drawing”

Pencil Sketch to Digital Drawing

The other day I sketched the following portrait in my sketchbook:

"Sketch" Cedar Park, 2019
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO1250
“Sketch” Cedar Park, 2019

It’s one of my daily sketches, in which I spend 10 minutes or so putting pencil or pen to paper. Occasionally I’ll take a sketch that I like and then make a digital version. In this case, I took the photo, dropped it into Adobe Illustrator and drew the lines (no tracing for me!), then added the colors. I’m pleased at how it turned out. ☺

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

By the way, I’ve been enjoying using the Ain Black eraser (and I erase A LOT!). It works so well!

またね~

Today’s Illustration (Sixteen, Clumsy, and Shy)

"Sixteen, Clumsy, and Shy" Illustrator, 2018
“Sixteen, Clumsy, and Shy” Illustrator, 2018

Here’s an illustration I did after listening to one of my favorite songs: “Half a Person” by The Smiths. On her headphones are the lyrics, “Sixteen, clumsy, and shy… that’s the story of my life.” Although Morrissey is referring to himself in the lyrics, I think many of us could relate.

Give the song a listen! 🎶

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

"Workstation" Cedar Park, 2018
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO500
“Workstation” Cedar Park, 2018

Red Qipao (Cheongsam)

Here’s a digital drawing I created the other day. I shared a sketch in an earlier blog post, and this is the follow-up finished work. I really like the Chinese qipao (cheongsam) dress… it’s very cool! However, I kept things simple and went with an all-red background and dress, just using black outline. The red is the same as the Chinese flag, and there are gold highlights in the eyes which also match the flag color.

After I thought I was finished, I posted this to Instagram but then I found something I didn’t like so I fixed it. However, you cannot replace images on Instagram, and I had already gotten a few likes, so I just kept it. I was able to replace it on Flickr and Artstation. ☺ Can you spot the difference?

The small edit was the small delineation of the neck. I knew something bugged me about it, but it took me a little while to figure out what it was.

To see all the sketches I’ve been working on, you can check out the Flickr album “My Sketching Journey”, or my Instagram account barron.sketches which I created just for posting sketches, watercolors, and stationery items.

I hope you had a nice day!

またね~ – B Barron Fujimoto