Answering your questions about working digitally
My ‘Illustrator’s boob’ has cleared up 🤪
Welcome to Pencil Pals!
Happy August! ☀️☀️☀️ It’s summer holiday time and it’s always hard to get much work done with Pie at home, so I have been getting up at 5.30am, nice and early, before everyone else in the house wakes up, and coming out here to my workspace in an old wash house in the garden, and working until 10am. It’s nice and cool that early and I think I get more done in those few hours than I do on a normal non-school-holiday day! I am knackered by 9pm, but that’s OK, I’m tucked up in bed nice and early.
Anyway, I won’t bore you with my bedtime routine any more, let’s talk about working digitally.
Back in June I wrote a newsletter all about my digital adventures and the response was more than I've had to any newsletter I have ever written.
There were lots of tips and tricks, and sharing of knowledge, and a lot of questions. So I’ve taken the most commonly asked questions and will endeavour answer them here. Here we go:
How many layers can I do?
It depends how powerful your iPad is. My ye olde (wooden) ipad will only do about 5 layers. But my new super-dooper ipad: a 5th Gen 2TB makes LOADS of layers. It depends how big the artwork is, but as an example, my new book which is 37cm x 24cm, and 400dpi has on average 70 layers. Read more about the specificas of my set-up here.
If I want to incorporate handmade artwork into digital shall I scan or take a photo?
You could do either. When I made my book, Saving Mr Hoot, I scanned each hand painted layer and built them up in Photoshop. And with a book I’m working on now, I drew roughs on paper, took photos of them, and uploaded them to Procreate. Then I worked in layers over the top, eventually getting rid of that original photo, the drawing was just a guide to get started.
A lot of people messaged me to say they felt like working on Procreate was somehow cheating.
Pah! No way, it’s still your hands and eyes. Your iPad is just another tool. It’s funny how we make these rules up for ourselves, or remember a comment from a tutor or friend at art school, then feel limited by it forever. Do what ya’ like! It’s your life. There are no rules when it comes to making artwork. Humans have been making art FOREVER, no one taught cave men humans a list of ‘art rules’.
Do I miss happy accidents?
No because they still happen! I turn off the wrong layer or use the wrong pen and ping! Something unexpected and beautiful happens and I am off!
How long do you think it has taken to learn enough in Procreate to replicate your traditional work?
It took me a couple of weeks to learn the basics, but of course I find new ways of working all the time and I will be learning forever.
At the moment I am discovering the world of making your own brushes. I will keep you posted on that.
I should add, I didn’t worry too much about recreating the work I make on paper. I don’t like to feel too bound by a rule like that. It just so happens that the digital artwork looks similar to my handmade artwork because it’s my eyes and brain making all the choices.
After chatting to you about my annoying left boob pain, caused my gripping my iPad too tight, and how I bought a granny table that pulls right up to the sofa, and an old lady breakfast tray so I can work in bed, Jenny Bloomfield sent me a link to this support thing and to this fancy ipad stand which she loves. Thank you Jenny!
I saw on Katie Chappell’s stories that she is using a baby breastfeeding cushion as an iPad support 😂🤱🏽
(BTW good news: as soon as I changed my digital set-up the left boob pain has gone.)
Get in touch! I love to hear your thoughts on working digitally. I am nosy.
Yes, I love the paperlike screen cover, so good. I sometimes wonder about trying the resistant nibs too… but haven’t yet.
I'm interested in drawing my own greeting card covers (blank inside) with simple line/cartoon-like kid friendly images. Can I just copy them onto card stock? They are just for me to send out to the children of friends on their birthdays. Any other suggestions.