Tony Underhill
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
■ Dip a toe into digital art
■ Use out of register shapes and discord colours
■ Create a balanced design
Embracing digital art doesn’t need to be a wholesale change. You can use it to improve or expand what you’re already doing using traditional pens, paints and paper. Last month I demonstrated how to improve your traditional paintings by using layers to create flexible, visually striking tonal plans to make your work easy to read and, therefore, more effective. This month I want to show you one way you can expand your traditional drawings and sketches by adding digital colour blocks to give them a contemporary or perhaps retro twist and ‘new tech’ feel.
I used the Procreate for iPad app (£5.99 from the iTunes App Store) and believe other apps have similar functions. I selected and drew with a stylus, but with practice you can achieve similar results by using just your finger. Whatever you use, I suggest you familiarise yourself with the basic user interface and functions first, through online manuals and user forums, trial and error experimentation and YouTube tutorials.
Use my Market Place, Hitchin sketch (left) if you’d like to do your own version of my pen and paper line drawing and follow along step by step. Alternatively, scan or photograph it to use as a readymade digital image.
I hope my two demonstrations have given you a taster of what’s possible just by dipping a toe into digital art and that you’ll enjoy experimenting further.