This week’s digital sketchbook highlight - on location Digital Urban Sketch of Market and 3rd Streets, Lemoyne, PA. Made with 12.9” iPad Pro using Apple Pencil and Procreate app. Digital brushes used were the standard Procreate 6b pencil for the initial sketch and the flat brush for painting. The weather was warm and sunny, making it a little difficult to see the painting on the iPad screen. I enjoyed the morning and look forward to my next outdoor digital sketching opportunity.
Willow tree sketch made with Sakura Pigmamicron pen.
Getting Back Into It
It’s been a while since I last posted, here’s what I’ve been up to lately. After going through a bit of a creative slump and artistic block during our move last year, I got back to the business of filling up sketchbooks and digital sketching. I tried a variety of drawing and painting activities and sketchbook filling ideas to get back on track. I took a summer landscape in-person drawing class this summer that got me into sketching and drawing nature with pen and ink. Specifically trees.
I find I’ve been spending more time working on a drawing than I did previously. I would like to get outside more to draw from life, but I’m still having a block in that area about where to go to sketch. Not to mention the terrible habit I’ve gotten into since the pandemic of not wanting to leave the house. But I do go out on occasion and snap reference photos for my drawings. My wife and I went to an antique steam engine show a couple of weeks ago but had to leave early, I had forgotten how hard it is to breath around the smoking coal-fired steam engines. I did manage to grab photos for reference for future drawings.
I’ve been out a few times over the summer with the local urban sketching group and my wife and I are planning a day trip out to the National Apple Harvest Festival coming up soon. I’ll be posting some of my sketchbook drawings in the coming weeks.
Classic Car Digital Watercolor Sketches
Recently I've been working toward digital urban sketching on a regular basis including creating classic car digital watercolor sketches at local car shows. I'm hopeful that I can pass the sketches on to interested owners of the cars during the show.
I've been using the Procreate app for iPad on my 12.9" iPad Pro second generation with some very nice watercolor brushes that I've received through my premium Skillshare account. I'm still working on my technique, but the process is that I make a blue line or pencil sketch in Procreate with direct observation, finishing the sketch later at home with color, using a photo reference.
I've been able to send a finished jpg file to interested owners via email. I've had business cards printed up to hand out with my information, and I write the owners email directly on the sketch layer in Procreate, since that layer won't show up in the finished file.