More fun with the iPad...

 

Almost every year, my fascination with Chinese Lanterns leads me to buy a bunch at the local supermarket floral department with the intention of sketching them or including them in a painting. And every year, I eventually tire of them sometime in December and discard them -- mission unaccomplished.  Not this year!! I am so intrigued with the Paper 53 app on my iPad that I sat down after dinner the other night and came up with this little drawing.  I'm learning as I go.  The short video tutorials included with the app cover a few basic operations and the rest is just a matter of experimenting.  I discovered I really like the pencil tool in the expanded tool kit: although it doesn't give quite the same control as a real pencil, the line appeals to me.

In the last drawing, I used the "loup" feature which allows you to create a magnified area so you can add text or fine details to a drawing. In this one, I discovered that I could reverse the areas that got a bit too dark by selecting the pencil tool and a cream color from the palette and cross-hatching the areas that I wanted to de-emphasize. Overlaying them with lighter color washes mellowed out the line work.  I'm still not happy with my handling of background washes -- they're a bit too splotchy and clumsy looking for my tastes. That's my next challenge.

My first iPad sketch...

This is a pretty simple little sketch -- my first try at Paper 53.  I just got my first iPad for my birthday, after dithering about getting one for at least a year. I downloaded Paper 53 (free) yesterday, then shelled out a grand total of $9 for the add-on tools and palette and started playing.

I also bought a neat stylus/brush that I'd seen in an art supply catalog recently. I got mine through Amazon and couldn't be more pleased.  It's a Sensu, made by Princeton Brush Co.  The brush isn't essential, but it does give a reasonably good feel of actually painting. The only thing I'd like would be a way to control the size of the stroke, but you just get a single weight line -- good for filling in some color, but not quite as sensitive as a real brush.  This is what the Sensu looks like -- it's like a travel brush, with the brush stored inside the handle.

Although there is a built-in palette with about 15-20 fixed colors, the Color Mixer add-on is a worthwhile addition. It was only a couple of dollars and it works much like the color controls in Photoshop -- slider bars let you control the hue, the saturation, and the value, so you have almost unlimited choices.

All in all, a fun app and the iPad is fantastic. Can't believe it took me so long to take this step!!