Digital Kit

Earlier this year I finally gave in and jumped on the iPad bandwagon. I had been happy with just my iPhone, and thought buying a bigger version was a waste of money.

Since then the digital sketchpad has helped to focus me more on doodling.

Even though I tried I couldn't use my finger to draw. It just didn't feel natural and what should be a relaxing pastime was becoming more stressful.

So I thought I would give a stylus a go and ordered the two most popular. The Wacom Bamboo and the Jot Pro. A bit of an expense but I wasn't sure which I would prefer.

I've been using both these for a while now and initially the Wacom was the "go to" stylus. It's quick and has a good weight to it, plus its great for roughing out your lines. The only downside so far is not being able to see exactly where you are drawing.

This is where the Jot Pro comes in. The "Precision Disk" at the nib works well for focusing your attention and sketching in those smaller details. I am finding it much nicer to work with in apps like Adobe Ideas, where your cleaning up lines and inking.

The downside with this pen is you can't be a stealth sketcher. The plastic disc does tend to tap on the screen as you create.

Where both of these fall short is the lack of pressure sensitivity. You still need to fade your lines manually, or go in and erase the tips. That is until now, with the release of the Jot Touch, a new stylus which uses Bluetooth to sent pressure information from the pen tip to the app.

I have one of these on order so will share my thoughts when it arrives :)

Early Scribbles

I thought I would start things off with a quick look at a few early sketches.

I drew these back in the 1990's.

What's it all about?

Hi, and welcome to this little blog which I hope will turn into a much larger one over time.

I've been working in the digital art industry for twenty years now and before I moved from a pencil to a keyboard and mouse I wasn't a bad traditional artist.

I used to love doodling and sketching with pencils but sadly this is a skill which has suffered over time. As my 3D skills were growing my 2D ones were becoming neglected.

Every year I say the same thing, that I will focus more on my hand drawn skills, but life gets in the way.

Now I am determined to do something about it, and I thought I would share my journey with you.

This will be where I post my scribbles as well as share techniques and tools I pick up along the way.

So please bare with me, things will start off ropey, but over time I hope my skills will improve, and please feel free to comment as it will help me focus on this and not get distracted :)