The Past
Some projects in life are hard to start or never start. But this one has been bubbling away on the background for a long time, and I mean a long time. It started on the 243 bus out of Holborn nearly 10 years ago. It’s really funny seeing those early attempts, but that wasn’t the very first attempt. It was a single image on my I think iPhone 3G. That was in the days before the cloud and I have no memory of backing up my photos so majority of those early days are lost to the mists of time.
But over the course of the next decade I sporadically kept starting and stopping doing them. The tech grew better and the apps improved and multiplied but the method stayed the same. Just pushing a finger around the tiny screen. I tried out some different ideas but stuck with a panel of four images for a week. I never felt that it really worked well though. But couldn’t apply myself to do a daily single panel. Ironic no, as the amount of time I put in on each drawing is way more than those early primitive attempts.
I tried out many apps in those early days of the App Store and eventually landed on Autodesk’s Sketchbook. I stuck around on it for the next decade. It went through a number of versions that were both paid and free. I just like the interface and how it clicked with my way of working. But many apps came ad went, with varying attempts at either making them look like sketchbooks, or mimicking real sketching.
The Present
Forward to the more recent past and the advent of the iPad. This completely revolutionised my doodling and any graphical work. Suddenly it became possible to do much more detailed imagery. The pencil was so easy to use and naturally instinctive. In the way that one learnt art at school for the first time. It was finally something that just worked. Unlike the clunky attempts that many other had tried before.
The doodles took on a new life and I started producing something I was much happier with. Not that I was necessarily making it to display. But it just gave a much richer feel to them. After quite a long time of inactivity I came across inktober. This is a 30 day challenge to get people started drawing/painting/arting again. I took to it and it fired up my interest again. It helped having a theme. But most importantly it got me going doing a drawing a day.
In a very roundabout way we reach the current day and the reintroduction to my doodles. I have taken up the challenge of doing a daily doodle first thing before I get up and illustrates the previous day. I have put it up on Twitter and I have also decided to give Pinterest a try.
Also after years of ignoring the elephant tin the room that is the monster that is Procreate. Wow, if I had know how much I would have liked it I would have switched years ago. If nothing else the two finger tap to undo is worth the cost of entry. I barely scratch the surface of its power. But I am going to attempt to learn more about it online. Unlike mine and most peoples practice of just learning what one needs. I also like the integration of posting out to the socials. Something Sketchbook never really in my mind did well.
The Future
So moving on from here what lies ahead. Well to continue the daily doodle for a start. Also there will be another Inktober later in the year, which I am looking forward to. I also want to attempt a “real” drawing of the stickmandiaries with no undo! I am going to select a digital image that I really like and do more of a poster size. But that is for a later date.
I quite like the the idea of bringing it all together in an ebook at the end of the year, as I have never created something like this and the challenge would be fun.