old tricks, new tricks, dirty tricks

Well, it’s been so long since my last post that I almost forgot how to do it. They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but what about teaching an old dog tricks that he’s forgotten? Once the trick is forgotten does it become a new trick? Everything old is new again?

Speaking of tricks, I'm still working on the trickiness of drawing on an iPad (or in my case, iPawed). There is much to learn. It isn't completely different from drawing on paper, but there are some tricks, some advantages and some disadvantages. It is thoroughly enjoyable though, and I love learning new tricks, despite my age.

My friend Margi is creating a digital drawing per week (plus one) for a whole year using an app called Paper53. You can see her weekly drawings here. http://pinterest.com/margil/paper-53/

It’s a great way to really get to know the idiosyncrasies of a particular app or program. I can’t seem to maintain focus (or a schedule) to do this so I jump around from app to app whenever I have the impulse to draw digitally.

For my own edification and for your amusement (I hope) I decided to try drawing the same subject several different ways. The first example is on real paper in my sketch book. I did a rough sketch in pencil, then once I was happy with the lines, I went over them with a Pentel Pocket Brush pen which has a black waterproof  ink. From there I added colour with pan watercolours.

Sasha sketch in ink and watercolour on watercolour paper

The next one I did was using the Paper53 app. I've been playing around with a graphic style with this app, breaking the subject into blocky sections.

Sasha digital sketch done using Paper53 app

Finally I did another digital sketch using the Sumo Paint app. I particularly like the natural looking ink lines with this app. It’s very similar to the lines I get with my Pentel Pocket Brush pen.

Sasha digital sketch done using Sumo Paint app

Obviously I’m only licking the edges when it comes to all the possibilities for creating sketches. Life is just one big bowl of kibble and I’m eager to try all the flavours.

If you’d like to see more of my digital drawings, follow this link to my Clibe journal. http://myclibe.com/marketplace/journals/77613/spreads/1#0

Clibe is an app for creating and posting journals of any sort. Anyone can go to the Clibe site and browse the thousands of publicly shared journals there. If you have an iPad and install the Clibe app, you can follow the journals that you like and actually download them and read them offline, at your leisure. Whenever one of the journals that you follow is updated, it will automatically be synced to your iPad the next time you open the Clibe app when you are online.

On a final note, I must thank everyone who voted for my drawings in the Adonit contests last September and October. We managed to raise a total of US$800 which I donated to several animal shelters here in Portugal. Sadly, (and this is the "dirty tricks" to which I refer in the title of this post) it appears that one of the shelters may not be as worthy of our donations as I thought. It’s through no fault of the animals, of course. When I have more concrete news about this, I will post it. Let me just say that people can be deceiving, their motives can be hidden, their intentions can be less than honourable. With dogs, what you see is what you get. I really wish people were more like dogs. The world would be a better place.