My Attempt at Procreate: A Writer’s Perspective

I recently got myself an iPad and Apple Pencil because sometimes I just feel an urge to doodle and draw even though I haven’t really touched any art supplies since high school. I also had this wild dream that maybe someday I could do art for my stories or make a fun comic, so I figured… why not use my bonus money from to work help support that small local business called Apple during these trying pandemic-infused times.

A friend (who is actually a phenomenal artist) told me about Procreate, which is a high-quality digital art app. I decided to give it a good old $10 try (because that’s what it costs). It’s totally worth the cost, works flawlessly with the Apple Pencil, and just makes me feel happy as I’m using it! There were definitely some struggles as I tried to figure everything out–I still probably only know about 2% of all the features. But, as with anything, the key is learning what is actually possible/learning how to do it, taking advantage of the built-in shortcuts available, and practicing!

My first attempts at making things were pretty simplistic.

Luckily, there are so many awesome artists out there who are willing to share their time with teaching videos! BeeJay Del is a wonderful youtube teacher and helped me a ton with that more cartoonish look. The insanely talented James Julier is a master of teaching landscapes and realism–if this man commissions book covers, he’s absolutely the first place I’m going when I’m ready to publish.

Thanks to these fellas, I attempted some more advanced things.

I’m definitely going to keep playing around and learning because it’s just a blast to be able to draw again! If you’re interested in following my progress I’ll probably do additional posts here and there about this–and I’ll keep throwing things up on my gallery page just for fun.

Let me know in the comments if your on a similar artistic journey or if you want to be!