Acorn Squash Times Three

1/7/17 Sketchbook Pro

You know it’s winter when I sketch the same squash three times. I did the same exercise just about a year ago, too – sketched once in water-soluble colored pencils, once in watercolors and once in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. I didn’t get very far with digital sketching last year because my Android tablet and the stylus that was compatible with it made me feel like I was drawing with a fat crayon while wearing a mitten.

I recently got a new Surface tablet/laptop, which comes with a stylus that I’d heard was much better for sketching, so I decided to give Sketchbook Pro another try. Indeed, the pressure-sensitive stylus is much more responsive and easier to use. I still feel like I’m wearing a glove, if not a mitten, and the app has so many tools and options that my head spins. Digital sketching will probably never be my thing (I love hands-on art supplies too much to give them up!), but I look at it as just another medium. Every medium I’ve ever tried – ink, marker, watercolor, gel pen, ballpoint pen, colored pencil, graphite – has taught me something new, and I’m willing to learn whatever digital sketching can teach me.

 

1/7/17 colored pencils

It’s possible that the only thing it has to teach me is that I should stop sketching digitally. 😉 In any case, it’s a good way to pass these cold, wet, dark days.

1/4/17 graphite