The first month of my sketching challenge is done! Slowly but steady I can feel some progress on my sketches. Not that the quality of the results got much better but I feel more secure on doing my lines. This is great because I feel more confident while doing a sketch and I am more open for the result and not so busy on trying to correct every second line.

Time tracking my sketches gave me an overview on how long I will probably need for a sketch – but here I also recognized that I still tend to overdo stuff. My sketches are still more drawings than quick sketches…I also did not train techniques the way I wanted to. For the next sketches I will try to simplify everything and get things done in less time than I needed thus far.

Tools of the trade

I’ve also tried some different tools which gave me different results and have their own pros and cons. I mostly sketch with my iPad with Paper and Pencil by 53. This app makes really fun but the used technology with Pencil has some drawbacks too. The Palm recognition doesn’t work always as it should which results in unwanted interaction with the interface. Also drawing with the fat side of Pencil usually needs some strokes till it works, the eraser of Pencil is a nice addition and works great. Zooming in Paper and drawing is usually nice but sometimes it’s a mess too. I think the general problem is that Pencil is firstly recognized as a finger and the software has to figure out, if it’s really a finger or if it’s Pencil. If you get used to it after a while things get better and using Pencil gets much easier. But the biggest problem is the rubber tip of Pencil. As I read on Amazon a lot of people complain about the quality of the tip. I am using Pencil for some weeks / some sketches now and the tip already begins to get cracks. For such a high priced digital pen this is surely a absolut no go!!! I hope things won’t get much worse…

Sketching with regular pencils and ball pens makes a lot of fun to and feels great. I like it to get used to different pencil strengths and to try out how the affect a sketch. Most of the time I do some light strokes with pencil and after the rough sketch is done I redo the lines with ball pens. Techniques like cross hatching needed some time to get used to but gets better with time.

Yesterday I dust off my Wacom Pen & Touch tablet and did a sketch with Mischief – this was great! I had a very good time on drawing on my computer and it wasn’t that hard to get the hand and eyes coordinated right (you draw on your desk and see the results on your computer screen). The tablet sensitivity feels great and the drawing is very nice. As a drawback I needed a lot more time than on the last sketches which is because of the bigger set of possibilities.

For the next sketches I will try to focus to work more with traditional tools and use my digital friends for some bonus stuff! On the other side it is also great to use all these things to be productive and create something!