Category: Art

A Lighter Touch

hand sketch
spire

I’ve been reading a list of ‘Five Essential Tips for Beginners’ in digital art and number one is: ‘Use a light touch when drawing on your tablet of device. This will help prevent unwanted pressure marks and smudging’.

That’s good advice. Having got through two PenTips 2 soft tips for my Apple Pencil in just a couple of weeks, I’m pleased that I’ve done better with the last remaining one.

I’m hoping that the lighter touch that I’m learning to use will transfer to my regular drawing with a pen on paper.

Another problem that I had with my way of drawing was that I was inadvertently changing the colour of my brush by resting a finger on the screen and invoking the eye-dropper tool. I’ve changed that in preferences so I can access the eye-dropper with a different shortcut.

jugs

Sketching by the Pond

Dalesman spread

I’m working on my July issue of my Wild Yorkshire nature diary for The Dalesman using Adobe InDesign and Photoshop to fit everything in.

Dalesman spread

Being pressed for space I’ve tried to fit the swarming bees into the margin and, to add to the drama, instead of my usual smiling mugshot, I’ve tried a cartoon of Barbara and I on bee alert, blocking holes with steel wool and masking tape. This might not make it into the final cut, but I like to experiment.

Bee alert
bee sketches

‘A *Noble* Failure’

Twitter post

My previous Twitter post got 83 views, yesterday’s Tweet has had 5,135. Thank you Scott McCloud, who re-tweeted it to his 327 thousand followers.

Scott McCloud's Twitter feed

And I love his comment on my comic strip workings-out:

A *noble* failure, at least!”

Scott McCloud

That like J K Rowling noticing a short story I’d written and saying ‘Not bad for a Muggle!’ or Raymond Blanc tasting my speciality, cheese on toast, and saying ‘Pas mal pour un cuisinier anglais!’

Understanding Comics book

I’m just ready to start a new book, so I think that it’s time to read Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics trilogy again 🙂

Non-sequitur

comic doodles

In Scott McCloud’s theory of comics, a ‘non-sequitur’ is a transition between panels where there’s no link whatsoever. These are random doodles in Procreate but I definitely haven’t managed a non-sequitur between the last two panels because they’re plainly taking place on a dark and stormy night in some gothic thriller. And I can believe that the feisty chicken is giving the man some pause for thought.

Some Rambling Advice

Rambling cartoon

Happy birthday to Huddersfield Town Supporter John (you can tell it’s him by the Terriers scarf).

Garden Painting Workshop

Hilary Cooper

I did consider taking acrylics and a canvas to today’s painting workshop at RHS Harlow Carr run by their current artist in residence, Hilary Burnett Cooper, but I stuck with my regular pen and watercolour and it was a chance to try my larger watercolour box on location. I recently updated it so that there are fewer strident greenish blues and earthy browns, replacing those with colours that would be more useful for flower painting.

Bergenia

Link

Hilary Burnett Cooper Landscape, scenic and figurative artist

PenTips PenPad

PenTips accessories
Procreate drawing

More PenTips goodies: glove, grip and, my favourite, the PenPad Shortcut Panel for Procreate on the iPad. I’ve used Procreate a lot and gone through dozens of tutorials but there are some shortcuts, such as ‘Cut’, that I have a mental block about. There they all are on the pad, so I don’t have to break my workflow by searching through sub-menus.

I’m still searching for my favourite virtual pen in Procreate. In Clip Studio Paint my go-to pen is usually the ‘Real G-Pen’ but in Procreate with dozens of virtual pens to choose from, I’m still undecided.

Perhaps drawing my chitted potatoes with a selection of pens from the Procreate ‘Inking’ section will help me narrow it down.

Pentips 2 Soft

Procreate drawing

I like the extra control that I get with the PenTips 2 ‘Soft’ rubber-like replacement tip for the Apple Pencil but I’ve now damaged two of the three that come in the pack.

Although most of the time when I’m drawing my touch is reasonably light, when it comes to adding colour or erasing it’s a different story. I find that it’s necessary to press on extra hard to squeeze a pool of virtual watercolour from a brush. If I’m using one of the subtler forms of the eraser I can find myself pressing hard to remove a stubborn line.

3 PenTips should potentially last 2 years but I’m getting through one a week! Perhaps I should have gone for their new tougher version designed for wiring.

The PenTip can then stick to the glass and split at the end, revealing the metal core.

Real G-Pen, Clip Studio, ‘Between the Covers’, BBC2.

The Hospice Team

Hospice team cartoon

A big thank you to all the team at the Prince of Wales Hospice, Pontefract, who did so much for Barbara’s brother John and always made us welcome. We’re so grateful to them, although not SO grateful that we’d sign up to be dangled from a rope from the Cow and Calf Rocks in September (see link below if that appeals to you).

Of course, some teams are greater than others . . .

Hospice visitors

But John really did enjoy their visit.

Link

Ilkley Cow and Calf Tyrolean Traverse and Abseil Challenge
Challenge yourself and conquer The Cow and Calf Rocks by Tyrolean traverse and/or abseil
Date: 09 September 08:00 – 17:00