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iPad Pro Share Your Drawings with iPad Pro + Apple Pencil

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DaniJoy

macrumors 6502
Nov 19, 2015
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California
whg said:
Not all of us are artists, certainly not me! Nevertheless, I wanted to try/learn drawing on the iPad Pro with Pencil. After reading these forums I discovered Procreate as the favored app. As usual when I start a new "project", I looked around for some introductory books. The best one I found was "Learning to Draw on a Tablet" by Darren Cannell. He uses Sketchbook Pro on an older iPad.
As Sketchbook Pro is also available on the Mac I thought I start with that, using the iPad Pro as a Wacom Cintiq replacement with the Astropad app, mainly because the Mac version of Sketchbook Pro is much more powerful (with perspective tools, french curves, ellipses - all missing from the iPad version). Unfortunately, Astropad does not yet fully support Sketchbook Pro (mainly gestures are missing). I discovered that during my very first drawing exercise and it seems I have to wait a couple of months for an improved version of Astropad. The developers of Astropad want to support Sketchbook and other apps in future versions, it seems.
In the meantime I decided to use the iPad version of Sketchbook Pro. Just to give you something to laugh, here are my first results:
View attachment 608367
I really didn't like the iPad version of Sketchbook Pro after I looked into the Mac version. Maybe I need to try Procreate? What I liked in Sketchbook was the possibility to work on the same drawing on the iPad and the Mac, as far as I can tell from my quick test. I hate the idea to be locked into the iPad with proprietary file formats (I guess this is the case with Procreate?).
Click to expand...




nice work keep it up!

ipad is a fine light duty sketchbook, but lacks allot in the software department. its a procreate or nothing device for me. procreate is pretty nice if you can do what you want to do within its limits. it has basic perspective guides but nothing like sketchbook pro. i use sketchbook pro allot on my cintiq, its really nice software. i was shocked when i loaded the ipad version and all my favorite tools were not available :-/

consider also drawing in analogue. coordination and line quality is really important, and if you have a undo button, it will take longer to develop control. it can become a crutch. also, drawing digitally is much harder, IMO. Even the ipad pencil lacks the quality feel and accuracy of a real pencil. i do much better drawings working on huge poster sized sheets of paper- digital is just more convenient, and easier to fix mistakes or change colors later. it speeds up the workflow after you have been trained. not the best medium for beginning, you might learn bad habits.
 
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DaniJoy

macrumors 6502
Nov 19, 2015
394
333
California
doing some color tests for a big oil painting....

IMG_0124.PNG
 
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DaniJoy

macrumors 6502
Nov 19, 2015
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im not very good at these, but i really like the ipad pro for digital plain air painting. i can just sit in my car and paint whatever i see. no fumes! these take an hour or so to get to this point. i just do these for fun, they could be more finished but i get bored too easily. i have a hard time doing straight lines on such a small device. i should use the quickline tool more but im to lazy, sometimes its nice to just draw freehand.

IMG_0146.JPG IMG_0119.PNG
 
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whg

whg

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Aug 2, 2012
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DaniJoy said:
nice work keep it up!
....
i use sketchbook pro allot on my cintiq, its really nice software. i was shocked when i loaded the ipad version and all my favorite tools were not available :-/

consider also drawing in analogue. coordination and line quality is really important, and if you have a undo button, it will take longer to develop control. it can become a crutch. also, drawing digitally is much harder, IMO. Even the ipad pencil lacks the quality feel and accuracy of a real pencil. i do much better drawings working on huge poster sized sheets of paper- digital is just more convenient, and easier to fix mistakes or change colors later. it speeds up the workflow after you have been trained. not the best medium for beginning, you might learn bad habits.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your kind comment!

I see that you also have the SP4 m3 which I'm very interested in. I hesitated to buy because there seem to be some bugs (sleep mode doesn't work, waking up from hibernation could to be a gamble, battery drain even in hibernation). But may I ask if the full desktop version of Sketchbook Pro works as expected on the SP4 when used with finger gestures and the stylus (no keyboard attached)?

I'm fully aware on the issues with learning to draw on a tablet and I agree with your suggestions. I tend to go this way nevertheless because I really like to work with layers and refinement techniques. I found the Apple pencil not as alien as I thought it would feel. What irritated me most in the beginning was the thickness of the iPad Pro in comparison to real paper. The lack of a cursor (in contrast to the SP4) seems to be an advantage.
 
D

DaniJoy

macrumors 6502
Nov 19, 2015
394
333
California
whg said:
Thanks for your kind comment!

I see that you also have the SP4 m3 which I'm very interested in. I hesitated to buy because there seem to be some bugs (sleep mode doesn't work, waking up from hibernation could to be a gamble, battery drain even in hibernation). But may I ask if the full desktop version of Sketchbook Pro works as expected on the SP4 when used with finger gestures and the stylus (no keyboard attached)?

I'm fully aware on the issues with learning to draw on a tablet and I agree with your suggestions. I tend to go this way nevertheless because I really like to work with layers and refinement techniques. I found the Apple pencil not as alien as I thought it would feel. What irritated me most in the beginning was the thickness of the iPad Pro in comparison to real paper. The lack of a cursor (in contrast to the SP4) seems to be an advantage.
Click to expand...

Yes sketchbook pro works great. No keyboard needed. I use one because is much faster, but most people don't care about speed. Windows is buggy, but so is ipadpro. Just in different ways. Both are great, it just depends what software u like, and what you are used to. I like photoshop for painting, so I really miss more advanced software. I actually prefer a cursor, because of parallax on all digital devices. I'm much more accurate with one. But, YMMV. I actually made my iPad thicker because it was so thin and slippery. It's pretty but lacks the art functionality of the cintiq. I Love the Smart Cover and case. It's funny we all have different preferences

I've retired my sp4 , only use cintiq companion and iPad pro now. Cintiq is the workhorse that runs any program I want, I use it most of the time. iPad is for sketching, painting on couch or when I want ultra portability. I got the sp4 for portability, but iPad battery life is way better. I thought the pens were about the same. Maybe iPad is a little better, but not much, IMO. Gave sp4 to girlfriend. iPad file management is taking me a long time to learn though.

Nothing wrong with going digital, just consider keeping up some traditional , it'll really help u grow faster. I do nude life drawing every week with pen and ink for this reason. No undo, i have to be confident with my line and strokes. Confidence really shows in art. Plus working on huge art boards and an easil is more fun than drawing on a tiny little tablet! For me at least.
 
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Steve686

Steve686

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Nov 13, 2007
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DaniJoy said:
im not very good at these, but i really like the ipad pro for digital plain air painting. i can just sit in my car and paint whatever i see. no fumes! these take an hour or so to get to this point. i just do these for fun, they could be more finished but i get bored too easily. i have a hard time doing straight lines on such a small device. i should use the quickline tool more but im to lazy, sometimes its nice to just draw freehand.

View attachment 608535 View attachment 608536
Click to expand...
Reminds me of Park City, UT.
 
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Chrjy

Chrjy

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May 19, 2010
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jjrudki said:
I did a dragon in procreate :) the pencil is fantastic
Click to expand...
Nice job.

Apple Pencil is great especially with Procreate which is amazing!
[doublepost=1452107324][/doublepost]
Chrjy said:
Nice job.

Apple Pencil is great especially with Procreate which is amazing!
Click to expand...

TBH when I bought the iPad Pro I had quite low expectations but it's one of those rare occasions where it's far better than you realise when you start using it...I'd never go back to a smaller iPad now.
 
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bowlman2345

macrumors regular
Nov 9, 2015
113
124
bowlman2345 said:
This is literally the first drawing I've done in 20 years since I was 11 years old. Be gentle. Tried to replicate from the YouTube video, but drawn completely freehand in Procreate.

Here's the Procreate video.

Loving the Pencil so much right now. It was something I had the least interest in and is probably my favorite piece.
Click to expand...

The first drawing I did in 20 years was this eye.
 
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bowlman2345

macrumors regular
Nov 9, 2015
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124
Lips and mouth are also difficult. I've been watching tutorials on YouTube from Mark Crilley. He's really good at this stuff.
 
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