Drawing on the iPad
September 2, 2011 6:32 AM   Subscribe

Drawing with the iPad - tips, tricks, guides, and recommendations?

Recently, I've taken to doodling on my iPad using the SketchbookPro App and a Griffin stylus. However, my artistic skill is most kindly described as "developing" and I'd like to find some guides to drawing that work well for new iPad artist.

Cursory Googling shows many demos of how different apps work and how to draw on them, but they seem more geared for people who can draw to begin with. Me, I'm sub-Liefeld when it comes to feet and my hands either look like horrible spiders or hams.

Are there any decent guides out there for the beginner, preferably focused on comic-style figures? What about apps or tools beyond Sketchbook Pro and the Griffin stylus?

Also, any hints or tips for drawing comic/superhero/cartoon style characters would be appreciated. I have most of the classics of comic drawing, and a lot of the other books out there are a bit... uh... 90s for me.
posted by robocop is bleeding to Technology (2 answers total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Check out John Krisfalusi's blog for lots of great drawing instruction (and lotsa opinions!). He recommends drawing toy figurines in order to strengthen you understanding of form and construction.

For superhero characters, you're going to need to study proportion and anatomy. I think the best book is Gottfied Bammes' "Die Gestalt des Menschen". It's in German but that doesn't really matter.

The iPad can be a useful tool if you save jpegs (from an anatomy book or other reference) to your photo gallery and import them into a drawing program for tracing/copying.My ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE drawing program is Procreate. It has a great UI and is very responsive. I've tried the Griffin, Pogo and AluPen stylii but the best I've found is the 3M Smart Pen. It not "grabby" like the other rubber tipped options and it's more tap sensitive, - so it's much less fatiguing on your hand.

I love drawing and painting on my iPad (tumblr link in my profile) but if you're starting from square one, you'll likely learn fastest with plain old pencil and paper.
posted by bonobothegreat at 12:16 PM on September 2, 2011


Sadly -- and I say this as an OK artist who is having to step back a few notches in tool proficiency as I myself gear up to the 'pad -- the only thing that's really going to help is repetition. There's a saw about having to do something a thousand times to be proficient in it and it holds as true for fine arts as everything else: like maybe only music and athletics it suffers from an extreme public sense that its an intrinsic, unlearned skill.

If you're serious about wanting to draw you might consider suffering through a semester of beginning drawing at your local community college. Out here that tends to be the least expensive way of getting a fairly decent art education, or at least enough basics to be of real trouble. The school I attend for that very purpose piles

Nothing says you can't strike out on your own and do it that way, but having someone over your shoulder to both guide and prod you towards improving is an excellent way to get on the road...
posted by Ogre Lawless at 10:52 AM on October 10, 2011


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