When I got myself an iPad and the Apple Pencil I secretly hoped it would turn me into an actual sketcher. You know, those people who draw 'real things'? I have such admiration for people like that. But if anything, digital drawing proved to me that abstract nonsense is my jam.
It's not that I can't draw, it's just that I don't get half as much pleasure out of sketching and drawing real things than I do out of ....um...unreal things? Patterns, mandala's, doodles, mosaics, I just seem to live for those and that didn't change when I learned to work in Procreate, the drawing app that I mostly use.
In fact it made it even more attractive, because Procreate comes with a wide variety of drawing guides, so I can set up grids and isometrics and all kinds of stuff in any way I want and draw to my hearts delight. And even better: the guides are not part of the drawing, so unlike grid or isometric paper, the guidelines don't show in the final drawing.
Working in layers gives a lot of extra possibilities too and the amount of available colors seems literally endless. I can pick my color palettes from my own photographs for instance or from available online coloring sites. And then of course there are the many brushes that are available. From ink to pencil to crayon to whatever.
So here are a bunch of pattern drawings that I did in the first months of learning to use Procreate.
I want to point out that when I do these drawings it's important to me to 'do the work'. By that I mean that, especially in repeat patterns, it would have been quicker to use things like copy paste or just literally repeat a part of a drawing, but that's not where the enjoyment lies for me. So just like when I work on paper I colored in every little square, rectangle and triangle by hand.
Because Procreate allows me to make more elaborate grids than on paper this means that working on a pattern drawing takes more time digitally than it does on paper. Many hours go into one drawing. I think my personal record was 21 hours (not one of the above by the way). I know this because Procreate actually measures the time you work on a drawing.
I think what I like most about digital drawing is how you have an endles amount of possibilities and supplies on hand in one compact tablet. It's like having a full studio on hand without having to drag tons of supplies with you.
Hope you are doing well and enjoying your own endless possibilities wherever you are, and wishing you a wonderful and artsy day.