I have also used ProCreate for sketching, and although ProCreate's brushes are nicer, I like the simplicity of Adobe Sketch. I start sketching out a composition in Adobe Sketch (1). It sounded like a more mobile version of a Wacom Cintiq (with the added benefit of apps like Duolingo, Skype and Transport Tycoon*, to name a few of my favourites) Here's how far I've been finetuning a workable vector illustration process using my iPad Pro: The reason I went for an iPad was Astropad's app initially, promising me to mirror my Macbook's interface to my iPad screen, where I am able to use all my Macbook apps (and brain) with the touch of my Apple Pencil. It was at this point that I started exploring pen-to-screen based hardware. Lately however, I have been searching for ways to add freehand shapes to my style because sometimes a character needs more than a circle for a head. I have added a human touch, an organic element, a bit of surprise in the past by printing out parts of my illustration on a small scale, scanning it back in and playing around with the levels to take the harshness from some of the vectors, giving the shapes a rough edge an a bit of grain. Putting together a jungle composition and copy-pasting the same leave or tree one time too often and your artwork looks cheap, or at least a bit too computerised. Illustrating something involving technology and squares feel fitting. Scaling it up and a big, perfectly circular head shape can look a bit too perfectly circular. Working on a small scale – spot illustrations for instance – it makes sense to keep the shapes and lines as sharp and straight as possible, if only for printing arguments.

It depends on the subject matter to decide if squares and circles are sufficient in telling the story visually or if I feel the need to bring in a bit of hand drawn, organic elements.

I have been playing around with an iPad Pro for a couple weeks and here is how it added a new direction to my style.Īs vector illustrator I am mostly building compositions with geometric shapes.

Illustrator in ipad