Learning a New Hobby

Learning to "paint" pictures on my Ipad

I have found a new hobby - drawing with the Ipad application - Procreate. About a month ago I saw some digital paintings on the internet that were created in Procreate. I thought - I wonder if I could learn to do that? I did a little research and found quite a few tutorials on the internet that showed you step-by-step how to draw and paint using the app. I also found out that I would need to buy an Apple pencil - that looks like a plastic pen - that costs $100. I was a bit resistant to pay that much for a pencil, but after reading all that it could do and becoming totally bored with watching TV during the Covid pandemic, I thought I'm going to invest in doing something creative and quite possibly fun! I should probably mention that I'm not advertising for Apple or Ipads or Apple pencils or even Procreate - I'm just enjoying using these products as a creative outlet.

Then I found some basic pencil drawings that I liked, so I took a picture of them and then drew over the basic outline and then colored or shaded in the rest of the drawing, like this old ship drawing.

Then I looked at other things I had taken pictures of and tried making artwork out of them. Like this saddle that I recently bought. Again, I traced over (you can use "layers" in Procreate), so once you trace over something, you can turn off your initial layer and use what you have traced on your Ipad to color in your drawing.

Then I tried using a picture of myself on a horse and tried making artwork out of it. (Not too successfully).

I also had a picture of my brother's ranch that another brother took with his camera and I tried to create a "painting" from that picture as well.

I then found several other tutorials of simple drawings that I could do on Procreate, like this potted plant. The tutorials went step-by-step with the color palettes, which brushes to use, how to add highlights, shadows, etc.

Flower pot

I started using the tutorials to draw artwork that was a bit more challenging. This mountain drawing added a glaze and shadows and a background color

Sunny Mountain

Then I added a reflection and water and "dripping" to another drawing.

Moon Over Water

I liked doing the whale with sparkles and a glowing background and a shadow underneath the globe.

Whale in a Globe

Mountains and shooting stars, gradients and a night sky with trees.

Mountains with Shooting Stars

This one is my favorite so far - African Sunset - the giraffes were added from a brush set I bought from the artist who created the original painting on her Procreate tutorial. I learned a new technique - a "gaussian blur" which helped the colors blend in together.

African Sunset

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