#I’ve been trying to use procreate more often to get used to the app

[chromiollies]

I’m on vacation….here’s stuff I made on my iPad!

[steftastan]

Carian Stroll

“Tell Blaidd, and Iji…I love them.”

Before this piece, I had been wanting for a long time to create my own piece of Elden Ring fanart featuring Ranni. I had tried several sketches unsuccessfully, just wasn’t particularly feeling the ideas I had sketched up until that point.

One day of usual internet scrolling, I stumbled upon this gorgeous piece of art by Shimomura Kanzan.

I knew immediately I wanted to do something like this for my Elden Ring fanart. In fact, if you look at this piece, there is tons of inspiration that I drew from the original artwork, such as the style of the yellow leaves and the main subject matter being a prominent silhouette of the brightest value, placed at approximately the bottom third of the image.

The main character is cleverly shrouded amidst various layers of trees and foliage, giving us the impression that we're peeking into candid moment of their life. In the case of the fox, we caught it during a mid-day snack. In the case of Ranni and her party, we caught them in a leisurely stroll, while Iji outfits the dreaded Fingercreepers with their iconic rings.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to capture a happy moment, but Ranni goes as far as to ask us to deliver to Iji and Blaidd the message that she loves them dearly as her quest draws near its end. I would imagine they all must have had fun moments together as a family. Hey, maybe even the hands liked to be around them?

The process

I started this on my iPad using the procreate app. Sadly the full process is not captured on video, as I switched to Photoshop for the rendering phase of the illustration. This video is a fun window into my chaotic process and how I iterate on the fly on the same canvas. I probably wouldn't do that in a professional setting where you often need to have color keys and iterations to be reviewed and analyzed. I like to I cut myself some slack when doing personal art to keep things fun.

Trying and failing some more

This illustration was not a straightforward path. I haven’t been very diligent about personal art, and at some point I started deviating too much from my reference by adding too many levels of depth to the background and suffocating the piece. I got into a weird loop where I would randomly open the PSD, play around with the values, pushing Iji to the back, then bringing him back, cranking all the levers on Ranni, etc., decide it would look horrible, then begrudgingly determine I’d never complete this image and go on with my life.

As artists we likely have unfinished work sitting everywhere, be it in our sketchbooks, canvases, or hard drives. But it’s a different kind of sting when you feel like you can’t even nail the fundamentals.

Anyway, so a couple weeks ago, I decided to give it another go, but this time I would get rid of all the unnecessary stuff, even stuff that I had been trying to render for ages. I would not hold on to anything, I would try and recapture what drew me to Kanzan's beautiful painting to begin with.

After it became a matter of pushing and pulling pixels until the image was finished!

That’s about it. I didn’t go crazy in depth but lately I’ve been enjoying reading into artists’ processes and I’d be remiss to not share my own thought process also.

Thank you for viewing!

[pastelpaperplanes]

Howdy! I’ve been following you for 2 or 3 years (started on Instagram then moved here) and your art is always so crisp and clean. Have any secrets to share on how to post pieces at such high quality? I use procreate too but you’ve seemed to mastered it.

THATS SO LONG OMG HIIII ty ty for all the support 😭🙏💕��� you must be one of the OGs!

and oh boy what a compliment haha, I’ve definitely learned a thing of two over the years but I swear I am still learning new tricks everyday 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

happy to help 😤💪✨first and foremost, I think the most important part of getting your art to look less pixelated boils down to what canvas size you’re using! I do my best to finish my canvases off at 1400x1400 at the very minimum! The larger it is, the more smooth the piece looks—but as of course the larger it is, the less layers you’re able to add :/ I do wish procreate allowed for a greater range but oh well, do your best to keep those layers organized so you can mash em down later✨

I almost always start off each piece using the built-in Screen Size canvas option when starting a new piece (I don’t even toggle with the DPI, which if I remember correctly, is just set to 150 for that canvas) and then I adjust the sizing as needed

here’s a few finishing touches I like to give my pieces to make them look more crisp!

Another thing to note! Take advantage of the noise brush and the noise effect Procreate has! (Noise effect is found under the Magic Wand tool and I believe that the brush lives originally in the pre-set Materials brush pack) Just a bit of noise added to your background can often help the characters stand out from it as well 👍✨

Also! I’ve recently started shading things like the soft curves of muscle or rounded parts of metal using the noise brush to erase to make things look more blended/add some variation to my cel shading

There’s still tons of things I want to try out on procreate as well! I think that for as cheap of an app as it is, there’s a lot of potential to be unlocked and it’s just a matter of finding the right people to show you some tricks

I’ll link a few tiktoks as well that could help out or just add some fun tricks to the art process oml they’re sm better at explaining/showing than I ever could!!

Double Compliments coloring

Art Window Effect

Procreate Gradient Maps in Action

Procreate Perspective Grids

[catacamacat]

OMG your art is so good!!

do you have any tips? painting apps sugestion? I'll take ANYTHING!!!

have a nice day (er... night)

Heyy

Thank you so much! Means a lot <3

(Literally a lot, like… you ask me? Me of all people?)

I’ll try my best, pls keep in mind that i’m not a professional or anything, I’m talking about my personal experiences. I hope I didn’t forget anything

(Edit: IM SO SORRY IT’S SO MUCH, I’ve been yapping for the past one and half an hour since 4AM ToT you don’t have to read everything ofc, I still hope that everything makes some sense 🥲)

I’ll put most of it under a cut :)

Painting apps:

I have always used procreate for my digital drawings, but there are many good cheap/ free alternatives.

Since our school uses IPads to work it installed “Sketchbook” on our devices, and even though you can’t use all of the pens without paying there should be more than enough for free (I’ve never used a digital pencil that has been so comfortable to draw with for example)

But my favorite is and will always be procreate

Time:

I’ve been drawing for a bit more than 6 years, and sometimes I’m still very insecure about most of my drawings, I mean that when I look at them I’m just not happy or I think it’s not good enough…

But I always keep in mind how freaking horrible, like for real horrendously bad my drawings were in 4th grade when I started, and then I’m pretty happy with how far I’ve come ^^

Just know that this feeling will probably always be there, no matter if you’re a beginner or a pro, idk it’s just from my perspective, everyone has their own experience.

Inspiration:

For me one of the most important/ helpful things is inspiration. I personally am often very energetic when it comes to drawing something that plopped up in my head, it just brings the fun, you know?

For me my biggest inspiration so far to draw is TMNT. And I mean it, I don’t just say that because I’m hyperfixated to them. Ever since I’ve discovered the turtles far more than a year ago, drawing has been the most fun thing in the world.

For me the turtles are incredibly fun to draw, there are so many possibilities since there are so many different versions of them, and four of them. I don’t think I could ever grow tired of drawing them, and I think nothing has ever improved my art as much as them since they are so much easier and fun to draw than humans (imo)

There was a time period that last until around three weeks ago where I didn’t really was in the tmnt fandom anymore, idk how that happened but I hope it will never happen again. Anyway, I was trying to draw in anime- style or something like that, and as far as I can remember it was really hard and for me not really fun/ felt forced. The turtles always look how they are supposed to look, but humans… nah —~—

What I want to say is that you should also find something that’s fun for you to draw and that fills you with inspiration and energy.

Quantity:

A tip from me: draw every day

(but include breaks when you need it)

Of course it’s not always possible, but since I heard that tip somewhere on YouTube (also a really good way to improve) a couple of years ago, I was never able to forget it. I mean I didn’t do it of course, but somehow it still helped… in a way…yk?

I mean there are always times where you don’t draw, maybe over weeks and even months during art block or other reasons, but the more often you draw, the better you become at it.

(Btw I personally believe it’s impossible to draw every day, for me at least. But i don’t know, that sentence never left my mind and I think there has to be some reason for it)

People:

It can be really helpful to have people you look up to, especially in the beginning, for example was I a really big fan of Skottie Young (still am) and that guy who drew some of the TMNT idw comics (forgot his name rn), and trying to draw somewhat like them for practice really helped me to get better. It also can be good to have people around you that are artists. Can be

And now something somewhat more complicated:

Be careful about the people you are surrounded with, because according to what kind of person you are, they can really, really make you feel shitty about how you draw, or maybe bring you to a point where you don’t feel joy when drawing at all

Here’s what I mean:

For example take me. I don’t know how many people feel this way, but I’m for some unexplainable reason completely “allergic” to criticism. I know it’s not a good thing, but I also know it’s not really my fault.

Every time I’m drawing something, I just want to have fun with it, and for me it’s the most important thing when I draw. And having people around me all the way that have studied drawing, criticizing my work and telling me what’s wrong, maybe even make fun of it it something I really, really can’t live with. Of course it can be a really good thing to take those criticisms, but for me it was/is just annoying, like REALLY annoying.

For a long time I couldn’t really draw anymore when someone of that people was sitting next to me, and there have been quite a few of them. It completely took the joy of drawing away from me, no one should let that happen to them. (Luckily it’s better now)

Idk if that what I intended to say was said… 🤷‍♀️

One last, the most important thing:

Always have fun with and enjoy drawing <3

Good day/night/or whatever 💜💜💜

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

I’ve been a bit obsessed with the idea of creating a CAD package for the Mac recently. For the challenge of it is why, but it would only be doable in a decent amount of time with financial backing large enough to hire a few folks to pull it off.

There is a way to jumpstart the process. The Open Design Alliance has portable libraries for reading and writing DWG files as well as rendering and so much more. All in portable C++.

Imagine a beautiful CAD app created just for the Mac. And yes, I know many already exist. 😁

Oh, right, I have a Mac app I need to finish.

Well, let’s get to it! Enjoy the links.

NBC News

DNC 2024 highlights: Kamala Harris accepts historic nomination in speech capping Democratic convention

We have our nominee! Now, let’s push her across the finish line and get our first Madame President!

Marc Palmer • Shareshot

Today we launched Shareshot! We’ve been working on this app for almost exactly a year, and we’re so pleased to be able to finally ship it. Here’s a little backstory and behind-the-scenes for those of you into app development.

Congratulations, Marc! Shareshot is a beautiful example of iOS craftsmanship. Go give it a try!

Alex Gaynor

I am an unrepentant advocate for migrating away from memory-unsafe languages (C and C++) to memory safe languages in security-relevant contexts. Many people reply that migrating large code bases to new languages is expensive, and we’d be better off making C++ safer. This is a reasonable response, after all there’s an enormous amount of C++ in the wild.

There is an enormous amount of C and C++ in the world. Too much to simply replace. I like Alex’s pragmatism on the matter. He has some proposals to improve the language without taking it too far down the path to incompatibility.

Just this week my interest in Rust began to grow. I’ve been using Swift daily since 2014, maybe 2015, and I really love the language and its ability to leverage the compiler to fix many of the memory issues seen in C and C++, like dangling pointers, forgotten allocations, and object lifetimes. We also have Rust to provide us with a solid memory protection model and the ability to be used for high performance code that is cross platform.

Rewriting software is costly and can also cost you your company. So taking that on should probably be avoided like the plague.

What if you picked your battles? How about writing new code in Rust or Swift? Perhaps improve public access to API’s by fronting it with Rust? How about picking some code known to cause a lot of crashes in your app and rewrite just that bit?

We can use tried and true methods in C++ to improve memory safety but it requires developers to be extremely disciplined.

Simple things like filling new memory allocations with known patterns. I prefer to fill the memory with zeros. You can also do the same when you delete it.

Reference counted pointers — AKA smart pointers — help.

Modern C++ has introduced mechanisms to transfer pointer ownership, always a tough problem to handle and the problem that lead to the creation of smart pointers.

Anywho, the piece is an easy read with good ideas. Go give it a gander.

Jess Weatherbed • The Verge

Many Procreate users can breathe a sigh of relief now that the popular iPad illustration app has taken a definitive stance against generative AI. “We’re not going to be introducing any generative AI into our products,” Procreate CEO James Cuda said in a video posted to X. “I don’t like what’s happening to the industry, and I don’t like what it’s doing to artists.”

I can really appreciate this stance. Artists often have a deep psychological attachment to their work and the creative process — hell — they go through to bring it to life. Taking that work, that style, and using it to train an AI to rip them off is just slimy.

Caleb Newton • Bipartisan Report

A dozen individuals who served as lawyers in Republican presidential administrations are bucking Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and endorsing Democratic presidential pick Kamala Harris in a new letter that was publicized first at Fox News. The list includes prominent former judge J. Michael Luttig, who also served in the Reagan Administration.

Even with all of this at least half the country will vote for the Orange Man. It’s shocking, really.

Joe Brockmeier • lwn.net

The FreeBSD Project is, for the second time this year, engaging in a long-running discussion about the possibility of including Rust in its base system. The sequel to the first discussion included some work by Alan Somers to show what it might look like to use Rust code in the base tree. Support for Rust code does not appear much closer to being included in FreeBSD’s base system, but the conversation has been enlightening.

Speaking of Rust! Apparently Rust has found its way into the Linux Kernel and Microsoft has used it for Windows API development. It’s time for FreeBSD to get on board!

I wonder if Apple with push some Swift into Darwin or XNU at some point? Swift was written so it could be used for system level programming.

Carole Cadwalladr • The Guardian

Inciting rioters in Britain was a test run for Elon Musk. Just see what he plans for America

Musk has gone deep down the MAGA rabbit hole. His ketamine addled brain lives in its own world of conspiracies and white supremacy.

He’s unraveling in real time. Dumping his, often wacko, thoughts on X. He behaves more like a two year old than a man in his 50s.

Why do people still believe this man is some kind of genius? He’s a man child who throws hissy fits until he gets what he wants.

Money can’t buy happiness but it can buy politicians.

Matt Birchler • Birchtree

Why does Apple feel it’s worth trashing their relationship with creators and developers so that they can take 30% of the money I pay an up-and-coming creator who is trying to make rent in time each month? This isn’t a hypothetical, I genuinely want to know. Is the goal to turn into Microsoft, because this is how you turn into Microsoft.

Hate to say it Matt but Apple is today what Microsoft was in the 90’s. They are the 800lb gorilla in the room throwing their weight around.

I really love Apple products and their development tools and can’t see switching away from them. I just wish they’d be a bit kinder to the development community, that’s all.

Kelly Dobkin • Los Angeles Times

chef and co-owner Eric Park serves a black sesame misugaru drink that combines espresso, oat milk, the multigrain powder and gets topped with black sesame cream. It’s nutty, sweet and frothy, but not too rich thanks to the bitterness of the espresso.

Ok, now I really want to try misugaru. The one described above sounds incredible. 🤤

Alex Henderson • Raw Story

Reading through the Ohio Revised Code, Case Western Reserve University Law Professor Atiba Ellis couldn’t help looking for an alternative interpretation. Was there an error? Shoddy drafting? Because why on earth, he wondered, would a person clear that third bar, and submit documentation proving they broke the law by registering to vote?

This is just another GOP scheme to kick people off voter rolls. 🤬

Foone

ahh, another startup that burnt out trying to build some silly AI project on crap hardware. I wonder what they did? I check their URL: ahh. healthcare. great, great.

This Mastodon thread is an interesting read and a cautionary tale. Before you sale off old hardware make sure you remove its storage or at the very least wipe the storage with a destructive reformat.

Zarar

Around 2AM this morning I had a realization that this was the most stressed I have ever been. On verge of a complete breakdown.

Ahhh, the life of a software developer. I’ve seen and experienced this stress on numerous occasions. I don’t recommend it.

Daryl Baxter • iMore

This MacBook app generated $100,000 in seven days, now Stripe won’t pay up

This is a wild story and I hope the developer is able to get paid and save his company.

[not-xpr-art]

Art Advice #4 - A Beginner’s Guide to Digital Art

Hi all!

This weeks entry into my Art Advice tag, where I offer various advice for artists of any skill level, is about digital art! Now, I am by no means an expert at digital (I’ve been doing it for nearly 8 years at this point and that is almost entirely self taught), but I have picked up a few pointers in that time which will hopefully help anyone just starting out!

(this blogpost is a little over 2000 words long btw)

A Beginner’s Guide to Digital Art 

I know that the world of digital art has changed drastically in the 8 odd years since I started, but I’d still say that some of the options I started out with will be just as good for anyone who’s starting out now! 

As always, I’ll be splitting this into sections to make it easier for you to navigate this post!

Part 1 - Equipment/Hardware 

There are a lot of drawing tablet options on the market at the moment, and I’m not going to pretend that I know anything about half of them lol. But I think for a beginner, don’t worry about going for the most expensive option, even if the reviews are really good or your favourite artist uses it, especially if it is way above your budget! 

An important thing to know is that there are two types of tablet. One is the plug-in kind. These are essentially a pad which you plug into your laptop or computer and draw on that whilst looking at the screen (they basically work the same way as a plug in mouse works). The other kind is the screen variety, which is a lot more like what most of us know as ‘tablets’ nowadays. And you draw directly onto the screen. 

(a plug-in vs on screen tablet, both from Wacom)

Now, as for choosing between these, it is honestly a personal choice. But I’d say if you’re just wanting to try digital and you’re on a budget, a plug-in tablet can be really useful since it gets you used to the mechanics of what digital is like, and they are often significantly cheaper than the screen alternatives. I would say that plug-in tablets are a big learning curve, especially if you’re used to doing traditional stuff, but I do know a lot of professional artists who still use this kind of tablet when doing their work, so if it’s something you can get used to I would definitely consider it! Also, they’re often a lot more portable than some screen tablets! The first one I had was a Huion (a model so old that I can’t even find a link to it now lol), and I also know that Wacom are a well known brand that do some decent plug-in tablet. I’d recommend you do your own research on other brands and options, though!

Screen tablets are often a lot more expensive, but if you’re used to traditional art, they are a lot easier to get a handle of! But I know if you already have something like an iPad, or other general use tablets, then they offer apps that you can use to draw on (as well as things like the Apple pen, or other stylus’). The big difference between using these general tablets and ones specifically designed for drawing is pretty much purely a personal choice. I personally prefer the bigger screen of my XP-Pen tablet, along with a special screen protector that removes the shininess of the tablet screen and makes it feel more like ‘paper’ over when I used a general use tablet it draw. But if you already have an iPad, or something similar, then it’s honestly a really great starting point!

I think it’s important for me to mention that you don’t need fancy equipment to be an artist. The incredible Elicia Donze has revealed countless times how she has very basic equipment but still manages to produce the most stunning artworks! All you really need is some kind of drawing apparatus and a lot of patience lol! Getting good at any kind of art takes a lot of time and effort, but I would definitely say it’s worth it when you’re able to look back at your progress!

Part 2 - Software/Drawing Programs 

Much like with the hardware discussion, choosing which program to use is entirely down to personal preference. I personally have never really liked Photoshop purely because it’s really complicated, but I know so many artists swear by it. 

I think the main aspect to consider when you’re starting out is whether you want to pay for a program. Software like Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint and Procreate are some of the popular ones I hear about a lot of people using, but all require you to purchase or subscribe to them. So if you’re young or on a very tight budget, I’d honestly recommend the free alternative versions of these, such as Krita (Krita is quite a large program, but it has a lot of really awesome features and is very similar to Photoshop!), Gimp (this one is similar to Krita, but has slightly less options, I’d honestly recommend Gimp for anyone who does photo editing though!) or FireAlpaca (this is the one I use, by the way and it’s a pretty simple program, but has a lot of fantastic features and is perfect for how I work!). These don’t have as many features as some of the paid alternatives, but I honestly think all you really need to start digital art is some kind of ‘canvas’ and set of brushes!

Another great free program for beginners I’d recommend is MyPaint, which is great for doodling and just getting used to how digital art feels in comparison to traditional! It also has a bunch of ‘traditional style’ brushes, to make it look like charcoal or watercolour (which I’m sure the paid alternatives have too, but it’s always better when it’s free, I find lol...)

(this is an example of a drawing I did on MyPaint using the ‘charcoal’ effect brush!)

Most of the sites are pretty self explanatory, with sections dedicated to different brushes (I’ll go into the types of brushes later on in this post btw!), adjusting brush size, shape and opacity, a colour wheel, etc. You also have a section dedicated to ‘layers’ (another thing I’ll go into more detail later), and various ‘filters’ and editing options and effects you can add to your work to make it more interesting!

I’d really just recommend playing around with programs until you find your one!

Part 3 - The Pros of Digital Art!

I realise this section should probably earlier in this blog post lol, but I kinda wanted to go into what digital art can achieve in comparison to traditional art, and how beginner artists can utilise this!

I definitely didn’t take advantage of certain aspects of digital art when I first got into it, and they’re things that would have definitely made my life a whole lot easier lol!

Digital art allows you to tweak drawings as you do them. So if you accidentally drew the eye too far to the right, then you can easily move it to the right place. (I usually do this by selecting whichever area is wrong, cutting it out and then pasting it into a new area... And yes, there is probably a better and quick way of doing this but...I haven’t found that way yet lol...). And I honestly think that this has allowed me to look a lot more at a reference image in order to figure out where I’ve gone wrong with a drawing! Whereas with traditional art, I usually spend so long trying to get an eye right, that even if it’s slightly in the wrong place, I don’t want to completely redo that section. Digital allows you to completely rub out sections without leaving indents, which is honestly such a saving grace!

Another pro of digital is the Undo/Ctrl Z function! This means you can easily go back to before you made a major mistake with just a click of Ctrl Z... Though I have to say that this function has honestly ruined traditional art for me... Oh what wouldn’t I give for a real life Ctrl Z... But yeah, this is a great part of digital art and definitely something you will grow to love lol!

Another great thing about digital is that it allows you to flip and turn a canvas as you’re drawing on it. I spent a lot of time trying to turn my tablet around in order to draw certain parts of a piece before I realised you can turn the canvas itself without having to move yourself or your tablet!

Layers are another part of digital that can be super useful, and I have to be honest but I don’t really use them a lot. I know a lot of artists create layers for every section of their artworks (so, one for the linework, one for colouring, a separate one for the background, etc etc...). And there’s something really great about being able to paint without worrying about smudging into a previous section of the painting. This works well for my work since I do a lot of bright backgrounds. I also often create a lot of ‘versions’ of my works, so it’s useful to be able to change the background without affecting the main figure of the piece! (I have to say that I often work in one big layer when I’m doing paintings, just because I like how it feels more like ‘traditional’ art that way, but layers are such a brilliant tool, and definitely something you should play around with!)

The eyedropper tool is another one that is really useful! Although I never colour pick from my reference photos, I know some artists find this useful when they were just starting out (especially if you’re not sure what colour to make shadows or how to mix skin tones, etc etc). The eyedropper basically means you don’t need to mix your colours every time

Part 4 - Just some other things I wish I had known about when I was starting out lol...

This last section is just dedicated to a few things that I would have liked to have known when I was just starting out all those years ago. 

First one is fluffy/textured brushes! 

I spent most of my art life from 2013 until 2016 using ‘round’ brushes which are notoriously hard to blend with, so I’d recommend either downloading some fluffy/textured brushes (DeviantArt was where I got mine from a few years back, but there are probably other places you can get them for free too!) to your program of choice, since most of the programs I’ve used haven’t had fluffy/textured brushes as pre-set. 

I may make another post about how I blend in my artworks if that’s something people would be interested in?

(this is an example of textured brush blending vs round brush blending... I usually opt for round brushes for rougher blending styles and the textured brushes for more smooth and ‘realistic’ blending... for a lot of pieces, though, I use both brushes (the round brushes are good for details!) in the same way that you use different sized brushes for real paintings!)

The next thing I wish I’d discovered earlier is the Brush Stabiliser option. Some programs may do this automatically, but the one I use (FireAlpaca) requires you to manually change the amount of stabilising you have on your brush. This is particularly useful if you want to draw neat lines or straight lines (the stabiliser essentially slows down the ‘ink’ as you’re drawing). I only recently started using the stabiliser, and although I still like having it mostly turned ‘off’ for doing sketchy work, it does make doing line work a lot easier, and also gives pieces a more polished look!  

Next advice is to explore all the options you can in whatever program you use! 

I feel like with certain programs, you can get overwhelmed by choice and you end up just using a few of the functions. But I’d really recommend just playing around with these programs, trying all the filters and editing options to get used to how the program works. You can often find interesting ways to adjust your artworks this way! In a way I’d recommend this way of working more than finding tutorials made by other people... Unless there’s a specific function you want to learn how to do, just having fun with digital art is a major part of it’s appeal to me! 

~

There are probably a lot of other options I could go into, but this is already over 2000 words long, so I’ll leave it here for now lol! (I may do a part 2 though so... keep a look out for that!)

As always, if you have any questions to things I’ve said here, or are just looking for more advice, don’t hesitate to message me!

And if you like my work on here (art & blog posts) feel free to support me on my Ko-Fi! <3

[rellygc]

My Procreate Brushes

I often get DMs about the brushes that I use so I thought it will be better to share it with everyone who might be interested. I used to work on Photoshop but I made the switch to Procreate and I’ve been using it for 3 years now. Procreate is a great app and there are a LOT of brushes to choose from and it can be overwhelming sometimes. After years of trying out different brushes, my go-to brushes turn out to be the most basic ones.

1. Flat Brush. I use it to make the first pass. I rarely start with pencil sketching.

2. Wet Acrylic. I use this to add more details. This is like a mild version of Oriental Brush.

3. Oriental Brush. This one is great for impasto effect and I use this a lot when blocking colors on the hair and clothes. This also creates a sick brush stroke. I don’t recommend this for blending though, because it will look smudgy. Unless you’re aiming for that effect.

4. Jagged Brush. This was my primary brush, but I don’t use it much now. This is like Flat Brush, but with texture. This is great for painterly texture. If you don’t like changing brushes, this one’s for you.

5. 6B Pencil or Gloaming. I use either to refine some areas in my painting, especially the eyes.

These are VERY basic. No additional tweaking, whatsoever. If you’re wondering how I make it look like oils: it’s a matter of color choice and brush strokes. I explained the color blocking and brush stroke thingy on my previous post.

If you’re interested to see my process, you can check my Time-lapse highlight on my ig: @rellygc. Thanks!

[nikhilgraphic]

I'm a Procreate Illustrator: Here Are the 7 Tools I Can't Live Without

It wouldn’t be an irony to mention that Procreate has changed my life. Before the times of the double-finger undo, with ink-stained hands i might frustrate discard sheet upon sheet of paper, feeling like i used to be wasting both precious paper and time, learn graphic designing the most essential for company just find the best institutions which have provided the best graphic designing course in Delhi service and join them get started.

Or I’d carefully lay out twenty wet-paint illustrations on the ground , hoping a gust of wind from the balcony wouldn’t flip them over and stain my floor.

Then there was the scanning. Oh, the scanning, which I loathed.

Enter the iPad into my life, and with it, the Procreate app. i used to be amazed at how quickly I could create my illustrations, with such realistic-looking brushes! And once I added the proper screen protector (more thereon later), the experience felt just like the real McCoy . the method was quick, clean, and portable! My workflow was such a lot more efficient, and projects took half the time. i used to be hooked.

After a couple of years of trial and error, I’m here to share with you my seven tried and trusted tools that I simply can’t live without.

1. The proper Pencils

If you’re anything like me, you start any project with a sketch. And though you'll easily sketch with, say, a Procreate ballpoint pen- wouldn’t you agree there’s something perfect a few scratchy 2B? While I’m hooked in to the 6B pencil that comes with the default Procreate app, I’ve purchased quite few pencil brush sets, and consistently add my favorites to a Procreate brush set I’ve fondly named “Shelly’s Toolbox”. What makes an honest pencil in my opinion, you ask? For a pencil brush to tick all of the boxes on behalf of me , it's to reply well to the Apple Pencil’s tilt, has got to have good smudge-ability (that’s a word, right?), and be just grainy enough. i do know it once I see it.

2. Paper-like Screen Protector

The first thing i like to recommend people buy once they treat themselves to an iPad, is that the PaperLike Screen Protector. It’s a matte screen protector with an ever-so-slight texture that does exactly what its name suggests: it perfectly mimics that slight resistance you get from drawing on real paper. So if you’ve been sliding around on your glass screen and can’t understand why you only can’t seem to regulate your linework such as you can in your sketchbook, this is often the merchandise for you. It’s on the pricier side with an almost $40 tag , but the pack includes two screen protectors. I’ve found them to be super durable and straightforward to wash . In short, I’m never going back.

3. Paper Textures

One of the most important compliments anyone can give me is to say that my digital illustrations don’t look digital. There’s nothing wrong with digital art that does appear as if it’s been created on a computer, except for my particular drawing style, i really like that I can sometimes trick people into thinking my work is all analog. My most up-to-date discovery, one which I find brings my drawings from good to great, is digital paper textures. i prefer them subtle, but the proper paper texture just makes a bit more tangible.

Check out my quick illustration above, shown with and without a digital texture. You can find these during a huge range of textures and colours (kraft paper, anyone?). you'll find that applying certain blending modes creates the simplest effect – Multiply blending mode works best on behalf of me . fiddle and see which is that the best fit your illustration style. the proper combination of blending modes and textures can make your art come to life. Find a set that most accurately fits your style, like this Magic Paper for Procreate or these Paper Texture Brushes.

4. Portable Battery

In a perfect world, my iPad would have endless battery life and that i could spend all day under a tree drawing away. Alas, that it not the case. Always faster than i would like it to, my battery drained when running Procreate and that i was left with no choice but to get a cute little portable charger. Just charge it fully, and toss it into your bag- you’ll thank me later.

5. Beautiful Art Brushes

I’ve mentioned pencil brushes, and people are wonderful for sketching. except for my work, I often wish to achieve a textured paint-and-colored pencil search for the ultimate colored versions. Procreate brushes are engineered in such how that they believe a source file (imagine the form that defines the comb ’s tip) and a grain file (imagine the feel upon which you’d apply the brush strokes). When a brush is made well, those two elements-along with another really important settings- can create pure magic on your screen.

6. Texture Brushes

So much depth are often added to illustrations by layering some stippling, hatching, and shading to your work. In the spirit of saving time, I’ve also rounded up a couple of wonderful texture brushes that do this work for you! fiddle with a bunch of various brushes and see which works best together with your illustration style.

7. Procreate Grids

As a children’s book illustrator, I often pair my illustrations with lettering, oftentimes within the sort of a book cover. i will be able to often scour Pinterest for hours trying to find fun and artistic text layouts to inspire me. With the assistance of a handy grid guide, you'll create balanced, eye-catching lettering. Just use the stamp brushes to plan your lettering, and voila! Beautiful lettering designs in seconds!

I used a Grid Builder to fiddle with lettering layouts for a book cover sketch. And there you've got it. I’ve shared my Procreate tools with you, and hope you’ll love them the maximum amount as I do. Please share a number of your Procreate must-haves with me below! Shelly Las lo may be a children’s book illustrator living in Israel. She is represented by Christmas pudding Illustration Agency. She has worked with some wonderful clients including Penguin Random House, Osborne Publishing UK, and bravado Magazine. you'll find more of her work here and here.

[shrylia]

Hi! I wanted to get into digital art and I was wondering what you use/recommend for that? (For say, a complete beginner) I love your stuff!!!💕💕

Ohh that’s great!! Wall of text ahead, apologies haha.

If you’d rather get a feel for digital art before you fully commit, then I would recommend first trying out an app if you have a phone/tablet. For iOS devices, Procreate is by far the most popular one with the most features and I 100% recommend! There’s also Autodesk Sketchbook, Adobe Illustrator, etc. which iirc are slightly cheaper. 

A ton of artists make art to their fullest capabilities by only using Procreate + an iPad. It’s much more convenient than a tablet + computer and you can draw pretty much wherever, and Procreate has a super user-friendly interface when compared to the majority of computer-native art programs. I make a lot of art by just fingerpainting in Procreate Pocket on my phone, and the app was like six dollars, so you don’t need to break the bank or anything just to get started.

An art program that you install on your computer like Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint offers way more features and storage space than tablet apps, however, and (I think) it’s still what most digital artists use. You would need to buy the program + the drawing tablet, which are typically in the range of a few hundreds of dollars - so definitely an investment, but also cheaper than buying a whole iPad. I use a Wacom, which is highkey the most popular drawing tablet brand out there, but I’ve seen a lot of people recommend Huion which afaik is cheaper but the same level of quality. 

For programs/software, it really comes down to personal preference!! I personally use Photoshop CC. It’s the most powerful program with the most features by far and it’s considered the standard, but it’s not really art-friendly/intuitive and the subscription is like straight-up extortion, so. I used to use Paint Tool SAI which I def recommend! It’s lightweight, user-friendly, and cheap, so IMO it’s great for getting started. The program you get also depends on the type of art you want to make; for example, it’s harder to make textures in SAI or Clip Studio Paint but blending “paint” naturally is almost non-existent in Photoshop, and Clip Studio Paint has tons of features geared towards drawing comics that PS and SAI don’t have. Artists who mainly use lasso/layers/masks/paths/whatever to make their art more or less require Photoshop for their workflow, but a lot of my more “painterly” pieces were or would’ve been done much more effectively in SAI, for example. Other than PS and SAI I know Clip Studio Paint is really effective, and goes on sale for $25 often + other programs I’ve seen people recommend but I haven’t used include Krita, Medibang, and FireAlpaca (which are all cheaper than Photoshop haha).

Tl;dr/conclusion: I recommend just trying out a drawing app first, and then getting a tablet - whether it’s an iPad or a specialized drawing tablet, and the specific art program, is up to your preferences! From there on, it’s a lot of trial and error and looking up lots of online tutorials :)

[the-art-of-animated-gifs]

Interview with Miena

Miena is one of the more successful gif artists I have observed in my year of writing this blog and posting gif artists to Cross Connect, and so I asked them some in depth questions about life as a Gif Artst, and Miena was generous enough to respond with honest and in-depth answers.

Your work seems to be quite popular, and I see you take commissions.  Are you able to make a living doing that?

Thankfully I have been able to make an income by making illustrations and animated illustrations for others, but not quite yet as to completely make a living out of it. I would certainly love to, and I already feel so honoured and beyond blessed to be able to do what I love now, but I’m still relying on other things and other people to be able to do this, so this aspect of my journey is still a work in progress.

I think about a year ago you had a fairly small presence on Instagram, but now you seem to be doing quite well.  Was that a difficult transition?

It honestly was a tricky transition! I actually grew up using Tumblr - I’ve been using Tumblr since 2011/2012, and I have a few other blogs besides ‘mienar’ currently, and am in a fandom myself. I also don’t really use other social media as often as I have of Tumblr too, so having to learn and understand Instagram as a platform, learning about the community, and learning different ways to interact with others definitely took me way longer than I’d like to admit.

Do you display your work on just Tumblr and Instagram?

I display my works both only on Tumblr and Instagram, but some contents can be more or less suited in one platform than the other. For example, I find Tumblr to be more suitable for completed and polished artworks as well as finished commissioned artworks, while I’ve found Instagram to be more suitable of quick, regular paintings with the occasion of completed artworks.

What changes did you have to make to adjust to Instagram after being on Tumblr for a long time?

There are a few changes that I needed to make while adjusting to Instagram.

Technically speaking, the biggest change would have to be converting my animated GIFs into videos. Unfortunately, Instagram doesn’t give you the ability to just post GIFs, so my workflow now includes having to convert my animated GIF into video via a mobile app, add sounds and SFX (which is something that helped elevate my works actually), and sharpen my final artwork because my gifs tend to get blurry after all the final conversions and editing.

Another change is a mentality change, which was somewhat fascinating, though in a negative way, is how I’ve been treated by other people due to the number of followers that is displayed on my account. I didn’t really have to go through this problem on Tumblr since Tumblr never shows your follower count, unless you install a widget for it, and I was treated all the same from when I began up until now.

On Instagram though, I have been a target for some people to look down upon me and my worth due to my ‘smaller’ audience more times than I’d like to speak of, and when my audience grew, the same people have begun treating me ‘nicely’ and as ‘equals’. Fortunately, it’s not something I’m that fazed by nor that I care too much of, but it was certainly something unpleasant that I just had to get used to.

Did moving to Instagram really help you gain commissions and followers?

I do believe moving to Instagram has helped in gaining more commission requests, but not so much at a bombastic and drastic rate. It more so just felt like ‘a gradual and natural increase of commission requests as my audience base grew’ kind of thing.

Are your followers on Tumblr the same, or have you seen that drop off at all?

Admittedly, there actually has been a drop off, not in followers, but in activity and engagements.

Last year, Tumblr announced and made a huge and very drastic change in their policies and rules as a platform, which caused a lot of anger, discontentment and platform-migrations from so many of the Tumblr users. This has actually impacted my blog too - although the number of followers I have has maintained/increased, many of my older followers' blogs have been abandoned due to that outrage, which results to my posts not getting as much reach.

This has actually caused an internal turmoil if Tumblr was a strong enough platform for me to continue on (and this was also what led me to expand my Instagram in the first place). It was something that I had to debate internally for a really long time, but I came to the conclusion rather recently that although there aren’t as many people engaging in my posts, I realised that what matters most is that there are still people on Tumblr who are present, have chosen to stay and engage in the content I share, and I want to stay on Tumblr with them and for them.

What have you been trying to do as an artist to grow your gif work?

One of the things that has been really helping me a lot in terms of elevating my works, both in terms of illustrating it and animating it, is by watching more movies, TV shows and basically consume other forms of media. I know it sounds like an excuse for me to watch more movies and shows, but I promise you that most of it is for research purposes!

Through the consumption of different media, it actually helped me build newer and fresher understandings and ideas for lighting, colour schemes, different moods and atmospheres.

Besides that too, learning what techniques actors, directors, cinematographers, editors, etc. do and use to create a particular scene and what they’ve done to achieve a certain feeling helps me put more thought into what I do rather than just ‘hoping for the best’ or having to always rely on trial and error, like for most of my older works.

I’m not sure how prominent this new change has been translated through the final look of my recent art, but I know for sure it had helped me a lot in regards to the process and the behind-the-scenes upon making them.

Have you used the same tools?  Or have you tried new techniques?

The tools I use have still been the same from when I began ‘mienar’ until now. (Devices: Wacom Intuos Pro Medium and iPad Pro, Softwares: Photoshop CS6 Extended and Procreate.)

Though I have been using Procreate so much more now as I nowadays prefer to work directly on a screen tablet, but besides that, nothing has changed.

How do you feel about the future of gif work?  Are you confident moving forward that you will be able to keep making a living (if you are) or do you feel like you will need to expand into other areas?

I really can’t say much about the future of gif work and gif artists, as futures are really unpredictable in itself, but what I would like to say is that I’m always so amazed, and in a way, really touched, at the responses that gif artists get of their works, despite their works being intangible towards the viewers, especially of those who have chosen to get one of their own (via commissions).

I’m admittedly not the most confident that my gif work future, or just the future of gif works in general, will be solid or that there’s a guaranteed increase of works or engagement, but I want to hope so and I want to believe that it will be more recognised sooner or later, but I’ve also learned to just enjoy and experience as much as I can in the present, and also observe and learn as to why gif works are received in the way it does.

[emilyplaysotome]

Chapter 20 - Hard Choices

Catch up on all Chapters here: http://emilyplaysotome.tumblr.com/post/173554646607/down-the-voltage-rabbit-hole-the-sequel-master 

It was nearly impossible to concentrate at work considering the morning I’d just had. Here I was, supposed to be excited about seeing Zyglavis and my heart kept aching at the thought of Hijikata.

On top of that I heard my own nagging negative ego spoken in Meg’s voice echoing my head, playing devil’s advocate.

“Why do you even care about either of them? If you weren’t so insecure you’d try to find something real instead of falling into the same otome traps over and over again.”

I glanced up, through the glass walls of my office and looked at the activity beyond it.

Young men and women milled about, living their lives - no doubt dealing with all the difficulties this world presented while for the past few years I’d retreated into a fantasy land. I wondered how they’d been strong enough to do it. I wondered if it had been luck or perseverance that had brought them theoretical happiness and as I judged myself for having neither and not really trying these past few years.

In a sense, the games coming to life bled into my instinct to avoid “real” men in this world on apps or through other means. They provided a perfect excuse to erect walls around my heart and never leave seeing as how inside my world I happy and safe. Before I’d even landed in the otome-verse I’d used the games to avoid putting myself out there for years and so in a sense my prayers were answered when I’d been inexplicably thrust into this strange but familiar world.

However at this point in my life, I was being forced to ask myself what I really wanted.

I’ve never thought of myself as a cowardly person, but I’d recently come to realize how fearful I was in my personal life. I had a narrative that it never worked out with the people I liked, but when I thought back on who those people were I realized that these relationships were often doomed from the onset.

There was something about choosing people that deep down I knew would never be right as a way of protecting myself. This wasn’t about me having bad taste or liking the wrong things - it had to do with me running away from success and failure. Time and time again I reached for the man who was emotionally unavailable and when he disappeared it hurt, but not as much had been ready and decided to go with another.

In a way, dating and living within the otome world was no different and Meg had brought that to my attention. Both options kept me sheltered from putting myself out there in a meaningful way and thus, feeling the sting of rejection that came with someone knowing you for exactly who you are.

Yet, having lived this way for so many years it was going to be hard for me to just reject what they provided all of a sudden. Beyond being comfortable for me, it also felt hasty and when I really searched my feelings I couldn’t say honestly that the things these otome men made me feel were less real than what my experience might be with someone of this world.

If anything, it wasn’t about feelings or success or failure when it came to my current situation but this question of choice that Meg had harped on.

She had me questioning if it was possible to pursue a relationship with an otome man all the while understanding that the nagging voice in the back of my head might never be quelled? That years from now, should I marry and procreate with them would I wonder if for not this miracle if I would have been strong enough and worthy enough to find happiness with another...

“Naomi!”

The voice shook me from my thoughts and I saw a concerned looking Toma standing in front of me.

“Sorry - what’s up?”

“Are you alright? I was calling your name again and again...”

“Just thinking about stuff. Do you need something?”

Toma gave a brusque nod and slid an iPad over to me.

“Oh nice. The mockups look great.”

“Yeah, I worked with Cara and Roxie on the visuals. We have a few copy placement options for you to pick...A,B, or C.”

Toma flicked through the different layouts as he spoke. There were several options of each.

“More than a hotel,” had become our main tag and then depending on the image there was additional copy. “An exclusive fitness club for NYC VIP” was overplayed on an image of a boot camp happening on the roof, under the stars. “An oasis in the city” fell over images of the luxury spa - our option for Nee Yorkers who couldn’t necessarily afford a membership but wanted the occasional pampering. “A restaurant worthy of New York” showed off some of the delicacies from the flagship hotel eatery - mouthwatering images of truffle gnocchi with fresh chickpeas and perfectly presented filet, still tender with potato whip and garnish.

“Toma - these are amazing,” I finally said. “I defer the placement to what the team likes, but I’m leaning towards B if you really want my opinion.”

Toma brightened at my praise and retrieving the iPad said, “Us too.”

“Great! B it is. I’ll confirm with Anita what time the presentation tomorrow is but we’re in a great shape.”

“Are you sure?”

“What do you mean? Is there something you feel I’m missing?”

Toma flashed me an abashed smile and shook his head, “I just feel like there’s a catch...it’s not even lunch and we’re feeling good about this stuff. I’m used to a guaranteed late night before a presentation of this magnitude.”

I smiled and shrugged, thinking of my time at Addison & Rhodes and how often I saw the people around me putting in crazy hours.

“I don’t give feedback for the sake of feedback. If you feel like there’s more to do by all means, I won’t stand in your way. I love what the team has done though.”

Toma blushed a little at the mention of “love” and saw himself out, feeling good about being to relay such positive feedback to the others. With the knowledge that the LT Hotel account was in good shape, I tried to refocus on my other work that needed attention.

For a solid hour and a half I managed to put emotional blinders on and commit to my work and when I’d finished I realized that the clock read 3 pm and I’d forgotten to eat. On top of that, I grabbed my phone and saw that I had a missed call and voicemail from Terek Bishop, the NYPD officer who’d arrested Soryu.

I was curious as to why he’d be calling and put his voicemail on speaker in my office as I got ready to grab a quick bite.

“Hi Naomi, this is Terek Bishop of the NYPD. I got contacted by a Jin Namba who is trying to locate Soryu Oh and said he was working on your behalf. If you could give me a call back I’d like to discuss this with you directly rather than go through a proxy. Thanks.”

I figured Terek wanted to confirm that Namba was indeed working on my behalf so called Detective Bishop back immediately. When I did he advised me against working with a PI and informed me that he was concerned that our meddling might affect Soryu’s case.

He admitted to not knowing Soryu’s whereabouts but confidently relayed that he didn’t think he would pose any threat to me. Having missed his court date, Soryu was now a wanted man and would have a hard time flying under the radar let alone committing another crime.

“I understand and respect your desire for justice,” Detective Bishop said, completely unawares as to the real situation, “but please leave this matter in the hands of NYPD professionals.”

“But Mr. Namba is ex-NYPD!” I insisted. “He used to work at the TriBeCa precinct. If you don’t believe me you can ask Patrick Fitzgerald. He goes by ‘Fitzy’ - he’ll tell you there’s no better person to help you.”

There was a pause and I could tell Detective Bishop was slightly taken aback by my passion before he said, “Alright. Usually we advise against this but maybe we can figure something out. I’m doing this for you though…”

Perhaps I’d been around too many otome men the past couple of weeks but there was something that last statement that made me wonder if there was more to what he was saying. He agreed to talk to Jin so long as we didn’t get in the way or derail the NYPD’s investigation and we hung up shortly thereafter with a promise that he’d update me in a couple of weeks.

I didn’t think much of it, but figured I might as well stop by Jin’s office before picking up lunch just to let him know I’d spoken with Detective Bishop.

“What can I do you for little bird?” Jin asked plainly.

He was looking through various letters that littered the surface of his usually clean desk, sitting casually on the edge rather than his office chair.

“I wanted to let you know I spoke with Terek Bishop - the officer who arrested Soryu,” I said only a few steps in from the door, feeling as if I’d interrupted something.

“Ah yeah. I left a message for him.”

“He said he’d be willing to work with you so long as we didn’t get in the way. I guess Soryu skipped his court hearing so he’s in more trouble than I thought.”

Jin nodded at me and I instantly saw that there was something different about his demeanor today.

He was wearing a nicer dress shirt than usual, but he’d rolled the sleeves up and unbuttoned a few buttons making it feel less dressy than it actually was. The light blue of his shirt was complimented by fitted navy slacks, and resting on the corner of his desk was a folded up tie that he’d obviously removed before my arrival.

He didn’t seem as lighthearted as usual, and I couldn’t tell if this was about a different case or something personal but reading the room it made sense not to wear out my welcome.

I smiled at him and quickly said, “That’s all. I figured he’d be in touch soon but I might as well swing by.”

I turned to leave but Jin called out, “Hey wait. Can I ask you something?”

I paused and spun back around only to see him looking at me with a conflicted expression.

“Fitzy and I got lunch today and he asked me how it was going with all this,” he said gesturing between me and him. “I…how come you won’t tell me how we knew each other?”

The question was asked in earnest, but I was unsure how to answer it. He was clearly searching for something specific but I was unsure as to what that might be and I didn’t think the king would appreciate me telling him the truth.

I thought about the history we had back in his world, as well as the memories we’d made in mine. I thought about the last time together in the onsen, and the look on his face in the penthouse suite when I told him that I was choosing Zyglavis.

I kept returning to this idea of choice that the spirit of Meg had been torturing me with, and how it felt that out of all of the men Jin always had the emotional maturity to make it clear that he always choose me - no matter how free his will actually was.

Not wanting him to hear I’d broken his heart time and time again, I felt like all I could do was smile and say, “Someone once told me it’s best to let memories return as they’re meant to, but if there’s something specific you want to know and if I can help I’m happy to try.”

It was obvious by the way he looked at me that he could see through me. His eyebrow twitched slightly and with a scoff he said, “This city is filled with beautiful women, you know?”

Unsure as to what he was getting at I stood uncomfortably near the door and nodded. He ran his fingers through his hair as he spoke, and his movements made it all the more evident that his muscled physique was still very much intact from what I remembered back in the otome world.

“This weekend I went out with one - smart as a whip, sexy as hell, and kept throwing compliments my way the whole date.”

The comment took me completely off guard and left me taken aback to say the least.

This was the first time I’d heard about the secret lives of these otome men, now that they were away from me. If Jin was going out on dates I had to assume the others were as well. It was a strange thought that some woman unbeknownst to her would go out and not realize or understand who she was actually with.

It was selfish of me to feel possessive over them all when I’d made my choice all those months ago but I couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness as he spoke. I did my best to hide what I was feeling from him but as a result I felt as if my smile was plastered on, and I was too afraid to move for fear he’d see how much the thought of him on a date bothered me.

“Yet the whole time I was with her I was thinking - why do I feel so indifferent about her...about this? She was everything anyone would ever want from a partner. When we said goodbye, she kissed me and I was surprised at how little I felt. I’m a man, you know? Most men are wolves.”

He said the last bit in a tone that I was more familiar with. He was flirting with me, being playful and goading me to see what my reaction would be. I responded by daring not to move as he continued speaking.

“And then today at lunch Fitzy brought you up and ever since I can’t shake the nagging feeling that...well, that I was never indifferent about you.”

The way Jin delivered that statement made me momentarily weak at the knees.

It was self-assured, fearless, and direct in a way that provided the type of validation any woman would want. No matter what I may have felt about him he was secure enough to let me know that his feelings were steadfast and true. It took real bravery and a complete lack of ego to say such a thing to a woman you barely knew and hardly remembered and it made me recall why I’d been so drawn to him in the otome world.

This was a man in the truest sense to me and under his direct gaze I felt as if I owed him some sort of transparency shy of the whole story.

“You’re right. You never were.”

“Then?”

“I was engaged.”

“Was?”

I nodded, my eyes finally falling from his.

“I see.”

I found the silence that followed that statement to be awkward but couldn’t find the right words to say. As I struggled to form a reply I failed to notice that Jin had gotten up from his desk, and gently taking my hand said, “So I guess this is the part where I go for it, eh Little Bird?”

He lifted my hand to his lips, and gently placed a kiss on my ring finger.

“Jin…”

He gently lowered my hand back to my side, and placed his hand on my waist. Gazing into my eyes our faces drew closer together until his passed my lips and instead came close to my ear as he whispered, “Oh no. I’m not that easy. If you want me, you need to choose me.”

Choose.

There was that word again.

I stood stunned, frozen and stammering as he pulled away, chuckling as he took a seat behind his desk.

“I’m a PI Naomi Lee. I know everything that I could know right now…and while I’d love to take you right here on my desk and pleasure you until you can’t think straight, I don’t mess around with women who juggle men the way you’ve been doing. Let me know when you’re done with all the others and I’ll consider taking you on the best date you’ve ever had in your life.”

My face must have been bright red, but Jin was no longer paying attention to me. Instead, his eyes were on the papers in front of him and he went back to work as I slinked out of his office and onto the street, realizing that choice was something that went both ways.

If you’ve enjoyed the story, please show your support by sharing it with a friend or buying me a coffee (https://ko-fi.com/emilyplaysotome)!  

Thanks for reading :)

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[gryndboxstudios]

Artist Profile: Boton de Rosa

I have been following Boton de Rosa, (or Mirsa, as I know her) since we were both in high school and I can say with confidence, she is one of the most talented artists I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. Seeing the evolution of her art has been awe-inspiring, and I have no doubts that we’ll be seeing her art everywhere in a matter of time. I had the pleasure of asking her a couple of questions as part of our first ever artist profile!

First off, do you prefer Boton de Rosa or Mirsa? Where’d you come up with that name?

I like Boton de Rosa! It’s a nickname my mom gave to me when I was little, it’s Spanish for “rose button”.

I know you’ve been drawing since before I met you in high school, did you ever see yourself making prints, stickers, commissions, etc. Did you see yourself becoming a professional illustrator?

To be honest, I saw myself being a zoologist or something in the veterinary field when I was in high school. I completely put the idea of ever being a professional illustrator aside. I knew I was a decent artist, and most of my friends encouraged me to do something in the animation field or have a career with art. I just didn’t think of that as a possibility. When I took my gap semester in between high school and college, I started to reevaluate what I wanted, and since I wanted to go through a technical college instead of an actual university, I looked at their course curriculums to see what they had to offer. Digital media was the closest thing to anything I like, so I took that route. Best decision I ever made. It was until I moved to Brownsville that I actually started to get a small following, and my partner at the time was very pushy about “getting me out there”.

Would you say you have any overall themes in your art, any parts of yourself you like to put in your pieces?

I think a lot of my pieces just reflect emotion. For the most part, I tend to create bigger, significant pieces when an emotionally important part of my life has occurred. Theres a few undertones of heartbreak, betrayal, things like that.

What artists inspire you or taught you how to be better?

I started following Audra Auclair a couple of years ago, she’s one of my biggest influences. She is actually one of the main artists that got me into doing this again. Corpsetits is also amazing, Matt Bailey, Alex Pardee. I’ve been following him ever since he did an album cover for The Used, the bright colors and the grotesque. I live for it haha. Gabriel Picolo is also someone I started following more recently.

How has the criticism you gave yourself when you started different from the criticism you give yourself now?

I’m always criticizing myself, but I will say it’s gone down quite a bit. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I’m a lot happier with where I am now compared to where I was three years ago. I can see that reflected a lot in my art, I do always push myself to do better.

Are you happy with your art? Are there older pieces you wish you did better?

So far, yes! To be honest, I am very much a people-pleaser. As much as I do this for myself, just the feedback I get is more than enough. And yes, there’s a Bee and Puppycat fanart sitting on my old laptop I want to redo completely. Plus a million other sketches I have in my old sketchbook, all in due time haha.

What do you think about people buying your art? Would you buy your art?

It blows my mind! It makes me so, so happy, I put a lot of love in my work, so it means the world to me. I think I would, I always try to draw things that I would like to have. Not gonna lie, I have three of my stickers on my car and a few others in miscellaneous places.

What frustrates you while drawing?

As I mentioned before, I tend to draw some pieces when I’m in a certain emotional point in my life. Sometimes I run out of that “juice” and I have things sitting on my mac for weeks. I have a piece I haven’t been able to finish for the past month, I just haven’t found myself in that mindset anymore. I’m also somewhat of a procrastinator, so that always sabotages me in the worst of ways.

How often do you draw, be it doodles or projects?

Multiple times a day, I have a scratchpad full of doodles in the office where I work. Plus sketchpads scattered across my apartment and in my car for whenever I get some inspiration.

Would you ever consider any other mediums?

I really would like to! I’ve always wanted to have an anime series or something of the sort. When I lived in the valley I started writing rough drafts of a zombie apocalypse short called “Maya-Pocalypse”. Basically, it would be a small dog (inspired by my own Maya) surviving the zombie apocalypse and trying to find her way back to her owner. It was great, but I never set time aside to do research on how to animate or maybe have it set into a comic.

What are some of your other hobbies?

I love to take my dogs out on hikes, write poetry, play ukulele (albeit badly), and occasionally play video games.

When do you know when a piece is finished? 

I don’t think I’m ever finished, haha. Even when I send something out to print, I sometimes add little details here and there. There’s always something changing.

I know you do both traditional and digital, what’s your setup for digital look like?

Digital art consists of my iPad Pro, Apple pencil, my Mac and the magic mouse. I use Procreate and Illustrator Draw on my iPad, which is really useful. I really recommend the iPad Pro, it lets me start off a drawing in the app, then I can transfer it over via the creative cloud and I can finish it up on my mac.

Where do you start when starting a piece?

The eyes, eyebrows and eyes help me set the tone to what I’m drawing.

Where can you see your art going?

I’m hoping to get it on an album cover someday, or even on a movie poster.

What are you working on now? Any big plans for your art, have you considered entering shows?

Yes, I’ve been invited to do two shows, one in February and another in March, so I’m hoping to have something really neat ready for those two. I want to sell my work at a vendor spot sometime this year. Just to be able to get over my shyness and talk to people and sell them my art would be cool.

That’s about all the questions I have for you, anything else you’d like to add?

I would like to say that no matter how many times you get stuck, don’t ever stop! We all have our own creative processes and just take a little while to get where we need to be. Trust yourself and just keep going!

You can follow Mirsa on Instagram to keep up with her art here! Follow Gryndbox Studios as well for cool shit here and there! IG TWITTER

[keeppiner]

Ipad artstudio pro

Ipad artstudio pro full#

Ipad artstudio pro pro#

Ipad artstudio pro Pc#

Heard about this through an artist in my circle- young, internet freelance artists working in character and design.

Ipad artstudio pro pro#

Max Banshees's Review of Artstudio Pro Reviewed on 8/29/18 11:31 AM Goes above and beyond star star star star star I’ve also been telling/yelling everyone to try out this app on instagram, (If you want to see some of my work done on ASP, i’m soyeyoh on insta) because although it’s not advertised as well as procreate, its functions, I think are superior than procreate.again, IMO.Īnyways, thank you art studio pro. All I use is Art Studio Pro, and it’s really all you need.and it’s only a couple more $$?! Like dang. Procreate? Well, let’s just say procreate is “dead” to me now. It is a smaller version of photoshop, and it is freaking AMAZING. These are only some of the features I mentioned, but Art Studio Pro is far, far ahead of procreate in terms of customizing and editing. Art Studio Pro supports kyle webster + your custom photoshop brushes, elastify/liquify, CROPS, has screen recording (duh), unlimited layers, the ability to change the image + canvas size AFTER you created the file, and it has CLIPPING MASKS. HOWEVER- I found out this app through a twitter post a weekish ago. So, before i bought this, i was on the fence to buy this app or not because i already bought procreate, and tried other drawing apps (such as medibang, csp and a couple more) and I liked procreate best. The meh's Review of Artstudio Pro Reviewed on 8/5/18 4:13 AM Overall even as is I really enjoy using the app and have been recommending it. It would be more convenient if it were picking up colors right where my finger is or very close to it. The last thing that kind of gets annoying is the offset of the color picker. It would also be extremely cool to have 3-4 small fave icons near undo for brushes you want to switch between often. It would be so much more useful if I could import a palette there or add on the fly. The colors on the side are a fantastic idea but kind of useless as I haven’t found a way to save colors I want there. I wish it happened it the background without bringing attention to itself. I’m glad it’s there but it’s annoying for it to pop up and halt everything until it finishes. With that said my biggest annoyance has to be the auto save. I love having a familiar interface to work with. This is probably one of my fave art apps on the iPad Pro. I’ve been recommending this to all my artist friends.

Ipad artstudio pro Pc#

Any chance we pc users might get some love too? Would love to move from iPad to pc in the same environment and keep my video recording. You all have been nailing it with these updates lately. ::Jei.'s Review of Artstudio Pro Reviewed on 9/14/18 5:53 PM Nailed it! PC version? star star star star star It would be nice to use a finger to erase for example. I could not find anywhere the options to customize touch controls. Also, this doesn’t affect functionality but it would be nice to have a black interface option.

Ipad artstudio pro full#

It would be nice to be able to position little buttons for our most used actions and tools in the toolbar, at least in full screen mode where you have no access to the menu bar. Having to menu dig to deselect or transform for instance is cumbersome. This app would be amazing if it gave users a bit more control over the interface. This doesn’t occur in Procreate or CSP for example. This occurs even with no cursor offset turned on and is particularly apparent when using a brush with a tilt dynamic, such as a pencil brush. The first thing is likely a bug, but I noticed that the offset between where the Apple Pencil is placed and where the mark is made seems much more noticeable in this app compared to others. It’s just missing a few important things in my opinion. I really like this app and I could see it becoming a go-to on the iPad. KH1986's Review of Artstudio Pro Reviewed on 9/16/18 11:34 PM Really Promising star star star star star_border

[acaseforpencils]

Jason Chatfield.

Bio: I grew up in the far flung suburbs of Perth, in Western Australia, and used to spend my paper route money on MAD Magazines (I cheaped-out and stole my dentist’s waiting room issues of the New Yorker. I think I was the only kid who looked forward to going to the dentist).

I moved to New York in 2014 and started pitching to the mag in person. I’m not sure Bob liked me, so I went back to pitching via email. Then I went in on his last day and finally sold my first piece. I feel like it was his final f—k you to the magazine. “Here! Have a Chatfield!” 

Find this print here!

The cartoon was a goofy play on Vlad the Impaler. 

I didn’t sell to the magazine again until last month, but I’ve had a handful sold as dailies. And I’m published in MAD often, so they’ve clearly done away with any of their standards.

When I’m not drawing gag cartoons I write and draw a syndicated legacy strip called Ginger Meggs which I took over 10 years ago. It’s been around since 1921 and now appears daily in 34 countries. He’s kind of an Australian version of Dennis the Menace, except he predates him by about 30 years.

Tools of choice: For drawing/roughs, I use a Prismacolor Turquoise clutch pencil with a red lead and try to find some paper with a little bit of tooth. The mixed media pads at Blick do the trick nicely.

I ink using a Uni-ball Vision Elite Stick Roller Ball Pen… or a Pigma Micron 03. 

DO NOT use the Uni-Ball Vision Rollerball Pens, Fine Point (0.7mm) if you’re traveling. They explode on planes. And ruin your copy of The New Yorker.

For a wash, I just use watercolor and whatever brush is lying around. Nothing fancy. There’s a scanning app on my phone called “Adobe Scan” which does a nice job of scanning line-art into a PDF when I’m out of the studio and need to email in a quick rough.

I use a Wacom Mobilestudio Pro for finished artwork. I like to get out of the studio and work from a bar or restaurant, so it helps that I can take that with me. I use a little glove that I got on Amazon so I don’t grease up the screen, and the felt-tip nib that comes in the pen-holder makes the friction between the stylus and the screen more like pencil on paper. Unfortunately, they’re not waterproof, as I found on a recent vacation…

My wife plays piano and sings at bars around the city so I’ll often sit at the bar during her sets and draw. Digital/Traditional depends on what deadlines are most pressing. (She has a weekly residency in Astoria —if anyone’s interested in going, let me know!)

A lot of people email me for advice about tablets —I’ve been trialling/demo-ing Wacom products for 15 years— I think they’re great. If you’re married to doing stuff by hand but want to colour digitally, you can get a decent tablet without going broke. Depends on your workflow.

Writing Desk: My wife and I were living upstairs in 5A when my neighbour in 4B died. He was a brilliant poet and had an incredible old writing desk. It’s the only thing that was left in the apartment, so I’m looking after it ’til his grandson moves in at the end of our lease. I work for countless hours at this old thing. It’s beat up, but I’ve patched it together enough that it won’t collapse and bury me mid-brushstroke. I’ve stuck a few of my favourite toons on the top of it.

Tool I wish I could use better: My brain. It really is a sack of cats. Whenever I want to sit and do work, it clocks off. Then it comes up with a pearler of an idea at 3 in the morning when I’m trying to sleep. I write it down in my phone, but autocorrect makes it indecipherable by morning.

I like working with my writer friend, Scott. We both do comedy at night and have developed a nice short-hand. We also seem to have the same library of references and can build on each others’ premises, which tames my sack-of-cats.

Tool I wish existed: The Deadline Extender.® I’ve never missed a deadline, but that said… an extra 3 or 4 minutes to allow for a terrible wifi connection, or a errant scanner wouldn’t go astray.

Also: The Deadline Extender® PREMIUM: Let’s you go back in time to when you were procrastinating and slap yourself in the face. $30 p/month.

Tricks: Ok, well. This is going to sound a bit Dalton Trumbo, but bear with me: I do my best work…in the bath.The most productive 3 hours of my week are during Scotchbath Sunday; an immoveable chunk of time on Sunday evening whereby I lock myself in the bathroom, run a bath, lug my drawing stuff onto a bit of wood that sits over the bath, and just write and draw. Nothing else. I write weeks worth of my syndicated comic strip (Ginger Meggs), I write New Yorker cartoons, scribble up roughs for dailies— and when I feel like I’ve earned it (usually 2 hours in) I tap the side of the bath three times, and my wife peels herself from her piano and I unlock the door to a nice big glass of scotch. It’s a hell of a carrot on a stick to work towards when you’re stuck. (PS. Lest you think I’m some kind of Don Draper-era misogynist; the scotch reward part was her idea. I think she realized it keeps me in the bath and out of her way.)

Anyway. It’s a great way to switch gears creatively. It’s like being on an aeroplane. No wifi, no phones — just the work you need to get done. Get involved. #ScotchBathSunday.

Oh! And if I get my deadlines done for the week, I have a small budget for a solo lunch somewhere where I can eat cheese and draw. I really didn’t know cheese ’til I moved to America. (And yes, I’ve already been to Wisconsin. Good Lord.)

Tips? I always tell younger artists to not even think about touching a drawing tablet until they’ve learned to draw by hand first. Otherwise they’ll always be drawing away, knowing they have the insurance of the CTRL+Z key at their disposal if they screw up a line. That’s not a good habit to have when you’re working to a deadline. But, once you do know how to draw, by all means dive head-first into the digital realm. It’s incredible. Procreate, Sketchbook or Photoshop are all great.

Misc: One of the hangovers from working in advertising illustration is that I’ve had to be a bit of a chameleon style-wise for the last 15 years and haven’t allowed myself to just settle into one style. Lately, I’ve just decided to say “Bugger it!” and try and find a loose, consistent style that I’m comfortable with, that’s an apt conduit to my silly ideas.

I always loved George Booth’s line, and his ability to create a scene with so much movement but just at the right moment in time. Also Sam Gross’ dark, hilarious cartoons with perfect line-economy. And I’d give my left arm (I draw with my right) to know how Barry Blitt has so much control with his washes…

Chatfield’s portrait of Sam Gross

While I’m geeking out, I love seeing younger cartoonists find their feet and thrive in a style that just feels like they’re speaking to you— Ellis J. Rosen, Sofia Warren, Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell, Jason Katzenstein, Amy Kurzweil, and a seemingly endless list of talented younger artists who are putting in the work are a big inspiration. 

I know it should be Steig or Thurber or Addams, but my favourite cartoonist is Sergio Aragones.

I was always so enamoured of MAD growing up and studied the lines of Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Al Jaffee and the Usual Gang of Idiots. I remember being so frustrated I couldn’t even come close to getting my work to look like theirs, but I think I found a style somewhere in between when I fell short. 

I think Wil McPhail’s poses are masterful, and I wish I knew how how the hell he did that. One day I’ll trudge up to England and knock on his door to ask him. I find myself doubled-over at John Cuneo’s Instagram, and Ed Steed’s absurdly funny gags. I have a slew of toons I’ve torn out of years’ worth of magazines and taped to my studio wall, or my zillion year-old writing desk. I’m constantly humbled by how generous and welcoming the existing crop of New Yorker cartoonists have been to a goofy Aussie immigrant — Joe Dator, Matt Diffee and Pat Byrnes, Mort Gerberg and an ever-growing list of prolific, talented cartoonists who make the 99% weekly rejection tolerable.

I’ve made some of my closest friends and have been lucky enough to meet my cartooning heroes through the National Cartoonists Society. I got to spend a lot of time with Sergio at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival in the UK last year which made my year. We were signing together for a whole afternoon and I spent more time geeking out with him than signing.

Okay. Enough drooling. Sorry.

I’m a fan of cartoonists.

Website, etc. I have a weekly podcast where I throw around ideas for New Yorker cartoons with a fellow comedian and writer, Scott Dooley. It’s called “Is There Something In This?” It’s a bit of fun. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the art of writing gags very seriously. It’s an extremely difficult skill to master, and we’re virtually zygotes at it. We have lots of listeners now, which is bewildering. Talking about drawing is like dancing about architecture, but here we are. Anyway you can find it on iTunes or wherever you waste time listening to podcasts.

My website is jasonchatfield.com and my comedy stuff is up at jasonchatfieldcomedy.com  ( I’ve been doing stand-up comedy for 11 years. If anyone wants to come see a show, hit me up! I’ll put you on the door). My instagram is @jasonchatfield. I’m still trolling the British chap who has the @jasonchatfield handle on Twitter to no avail. To that end, I’m @jason_chatfield on Twitter.

If you want more art supplies in your life, A Case for Pencils is on Instagram and Twitter.  You can also find me, Jane (the person who created/edits this blog), on Twitter here, which is where I stick the paintings that I’ve been doing instead of interviewing people consistently (I needed to balance working on other people’s work and my own work!). Oh, and If you’d like to support this blog, which is always very appreciated, there are many different ways to do so, which you can find here!

[itswomanswork]

The 3 Most Profitable Online Niches To Make Money From

Do you know how to find profitable online niches for your business? 

If you don’t know, you’re not alone. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and confused because there are so many niches to choose from.

However, if you aren’t crystal clear on who you want to help and what you want to help them with, your business will flounder. Your prospective customers have goals, needs, and desires that are waiting to be met by you.

It is your role as an entrepreneur to create quality products and services that help solve people’s problems. It’s as simple as that. Are you ready to learn the 3 most profitable online niches to make money from?

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

(Podcast Coming Soon)

Do you want to learn which online business is right for you? CLICK HERE to take my free quiz!

There are millions of different online niches that exist on the Internet today.

Some of these niches are more profitable or competitive than others. I believe that there is a niche for everyone, something that aligns with each person’s passions and unique gifts. 

A lot of entrepreneurs get themselves into trouble because they try to be an expert at everything. I’m telling you right now that it is impossible to do this. If you go too broad, people won’t be able to find you online. This is what dabblers do. Trust me when I say that dabblers never achieve success.

Any business that exists online, whether it’s software, apps, self-publishing or affiliate marketing, exists within a certain niche or market. Whatever niche you choose, you need to go deep with it and then create your entire online business around it. 

Here are the 3 most profitable online niches that have been around since the beginning of time. Keep in mind that, within these broad niches, there are many sub-niches that exist as well. A sub-niche is a great starting point. 

1. Health

Human beings want to improve their health in some way, shape, or form. Yes, this is general and broad, but if you break it down there are thousands of small sub-niches that exist within a niche. For example, health could be broken down into weight loss, ketogenic diets or cleanses.

The reason why the health niche is such a big market is that there is a high level of urgency associated with it. People are always willing to try and find solutions to problems related to their health.

For example, if people are obese, there is a level of pain there that they cope with on a daily basis. As a result, they are willing to spend money on weight loss programs or eBooks that will help them improve their lifestyle.

2. Wealth

Money is such a big part of our society, especially in the Western world. Everybody needs it in order to survive and live.

People want to know how to make more money, save more money, get out of debt, or invest their money. Specific sub-niches in this niche may be products or services that teach people about options trading, stock investing, how to start an online business, or how to sell on Amazon.

There are a lot of people in this world that are suffering from debt. They may dream of financial abundance but don’t know how to achieve it. People are willing to spend money in order to find solutions to their financial problems.

3. Relationships

As human beings, I believe that we have an innate desire to procreate with others. It is biologically built into us. In my early 20’s I was heavily involved in this niche.

I didn’t care about anything other than finding a girlfriend. I bought any course or product that would help me attract someone into my life. Interestingly enough, a lot of people invest in products or services in the health and wealth niche for the sole purpose of doing what I did.

Learn as much as you can about profitable online niches.

If you can identify the niche that aligns most with your interest and passions, your online business will flourish. Become an expert in a niche. Be someone that understands that market and the people within it. I’ve built my online businesses in the health, relationship, and money niches because I was once involved in these niches as a student.

When I was in my early 20’s, I was in a desperate place in my life. These niches helped me learn that there was a way out. I had a strong desire to be the best that I could be. That is why I am so passionate about mastering every area of my life.

Once you go deep into a niche, it gives you a higher level of credibility.

A friend of mine once said, “Whatever niche or market you want to be in, go to the bookstore or the library and get all of the magazines on that niche.”

When you engage in market research, you gain a solid understanding of who your target customers are. This is what allows you to determine if there is a demand for the product or service that you want to create in your given niche. If you can find a way to provide more value than anyone else, you are winning.

There are many ways to create an online business around a niche, whether that’s creating courses, developing software or apps, publishing books on Amazon, or selling physical products. I encourage you to choose a niche that has the potential for you to create multiple streams of income from it.

When you find your online business “sweet spot” that aligns with your passions, values, and strengths, you know you’ve hit the jackpot.

The key to online business success is finding and choosing a niche. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Successful people live well, laugh often, and love much. They’ve filled a niche and accomplished tasks so as to leave the world better than they found it while looking for the best in others, and giving the best they have.” 

Find your niche, master it, and use your knowledge to add value and help others.

Do you want to learn which online business is right for you? CLICK HERE to take my free quiz!

The post The 3 Most Profitable Online Niches To Make Money From appeared first on Project Life Mastery.

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[officialvalbarnes]

Adonit Note+ Review

If you guys listen to my podcast, Oh My Allergies! (subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t done so already), then you know how I’ve been wanting to get more into graphic design, drawing, and digital illustrations. This led me to wanting an iPad and then actually going through with it and purchasing the iPad.

Here’s a little back story on why I purchased one: I had been wanting to get a new iPad for a while now. I’ve had my first and only iPad for 8+ years now and it was honestly time for an upgrade. My first iPad is the iPad Mini and at the time I had gotten it, I really loved the size of it. As the years passed, the little guy was getting slower. Once it stopped getting software updates and app updates, I knew it was time for a new one. Since I wanted to get more into all things creative with the digital illustrations, drawing, graphic design, etc., it made sense to get one with a much bigger screen. Therefore, I ended up not going with the iPad Mini size. PLUS, I got all A’s this past semester in college, so I wanted to treat myself for all of my hard work this past semester and school year overall. I’m actually really proud of myself since I rocked both semesters of college this past school year. With that being said, all of those things combined gave me that extra push to just get a new one. 

Once I got an iPad, I knew that I wanted to get a stylus to use not only for its creative and artistic abilities, but also for note taking. I use it to take notes for the podcast, to-do lists, and other business and personal things. I know there’s a stylus that a lot of people recommend to get for the iPad (cough cough *Apple Pencil* cough cough), however I wanted to try a more economical option that did what I wanted the stylus to do but at a more affordable price point. Here’s where the Adonit Note+ enters the chat. 

So for the past 4 or so weeks, I’ve been playing around with and testing the Adonit Note+ stylus and today, I’m going to be doing a product review on the Adonit Note+. 

If you’re not familiar with the company Adonit, they are known for offering stylus products for all devices such as iPad, iPhone, Surface devices and Android and On-The-Go mobile technology products that fit every lifestyle. I’ve become a fan of their products as I have the Adonit Ink Pro for my Surface device and I actually talked about my thoughts on this stylus on the blog, so you can click here to check out my review of it.

ABOUT THE NOTE+

The Adonit Note+ is an advanced, pressure sensitive stylus that is compatible with the following iPad models:

iPad Pro (11 inch or 3rd generation 12.9 inch)

iPad Air (3rd generation)

iPad (6th generation and 7th generation)

iPad Mini (5th generation)

I really like how the Note+ is compatible with a lot more devices than the native Apple stylus, the Apple Pencil. I know when it comes to the Apple Pencil you have to get a certain one depending on the iPad model you have, which can be confusing. I’ve heard so many stories of people purchasing the wrong pencil for their device, so I really like how Adonit wants to keep things as simple as possible and cut the confusion out by making the Note+ compatible with multiple devices. This can be helpful if you have an iPad Mini and a regular sized iPad because you can use this stylus on both devices. Neat right? 

WHAT’S IN THE BOX? 

When you get inside of the box, you’ll see the stylus, the quick start guide, and a USB-C charging cable. 

LOOK AND FEEL 

The Adonit Note+ only comes in black and weighs 15 grams, which is less than the *cough cough* Apple Pencil *cough cough*. 

On the end of the Adonit Note+, there is a USB-C port to recharge the pen. The stylus comes with a USB-C charging cable which is great but I rarely use it. This is because the majority of Apple’s latest products like their iPad Pro models and their MacBooks charge via USB-C, so I already have USB-C chargers laying around the house from my other devices. 

PERFORMANCE 

When I first turned on the stylus, there weren’t any issues with connecting it to my tablet and I was able to use it immediately. I didn’t have to hassle with connecting the Note+ via Bluetooth or anything like that. All I did was just push button A to turn it on and then once the LED light turned blue on the Note+, it was active and ready for all of my note taking and drawing needs. 

One of my favorite things about the Note+ is that it doesn’t feel like I have a stylus in my hand. It feels like I have an actual pen in my hand and it doesn’t lag when taking notes. When looking at my handwriting on paper versus my handwriting electronically, I feel like the Note+ does a pretty good job at matching my handwriting. The stylus did a pretty good job at the natural hand/palm rejection. 

If you’re not sure what natural hand/palm rejection is, it basically means you can rest your hand on the screen of your iPad without accidentally making a mark with your palm. This feature always saves me because I guarantee my notes and drawings would look a HOT MESS if this feature wasn’t on this stylus. Haha. 

I use the pen a lot to jot down ideas for future podcast episodes, talking points for the different segments of the podcast, journaling, church notes, notes for personal reasons, etc. When it comes to drawing and illustrations, I use the app Affinity Designer and so far I really love this app. I have been just drawing and creating away with that app and I’ve been using this quarantine time to do just that.

I’m still getting acquainted with the app, but so far so good. I also have used the Note+ with coloring book apps on the iPad, which have been quite the stress reliever when quarantining. Haha. 

When it comes to taking notes, I like to use OneNote because I can access my notes on multiple devices. I can access them on my phone, my laptop, etc. The Note+ works really well in this app. I also use the Notes app that comes on the iPad with the stylus and it works well in this app too. 

Here is a sample screenshot of what it looks like to take notes using the Note+ in my favorite app, OneNote:

I know that this stylus has it where you can program shortcuts into the buttons on the side of the pen. For an example, you can program one of the buttons to act as an eraser, but this only works with certain apps. This is a little annoying, I will say. Not only do the program shortcuts work with certain apps, but advanced features of the Adonit Note+ like tilt support (tilting the stylus to create a shading effect when sketching, drawing, etc.) and pressure sensitivity only work in certain applications as well. The Adonit website states that the following apps support the Adonit Note+: 

Concepts 

Zen Brush 2 

KDAN Noteledge 

ArtStudio Pro 

Procreate 

Adobe Draw 

Adobe Sketch

GoodNotes 5 

Notability 

...and much more! Click here to see what apps support the Adonit Note+. 

BATTERY LIFE 

I don’t find myself charging this stylus that often. Since I’ve had it, I’ve only had to charge it only once. The battery life on the Note+ is 10 hours of continuous use, which isn’t too bad. This will come in handy if you are going to be using this stylus a lot during the day for school, work, personal matters, etc. The battery can easily be charged using the USB-C charging cable that came in the box and it will take 1 hour for the Note+ to charge. I like how it doesn’t take too long to charge. You can charge it while you’re getting ready for bed, while watching a TV show, while cooking dinner, or something along those lines. Whenever you wake up, it’ll definitely be ready for use in the morning (*sings in Kylie voice* rise and shine). I just couldn’t help myself there. Haha. 

OVERALL THOUGHTS 

Overall, I really like the Note+ and I find myself using it a lot for day to day tasks such as making to-do lists and planning out podcast episodes to coloring in coloring book apps and doing digital illustrations. I highly recommend the Adonit Note+ if you are looking for a great stylus to draw, take notes, mark up PDF files, etc., on your iPad. It’s very easy to use, it’s comfortable in the hand, it’s light, sturdy, and most importantly it’s affordable. 

The price of the Adonit Note+ is $69.99, which is a lot less than the native Apple stylus. I am a big fan of how flexible the Adonit Note+ is in terms of how many devices it’s compatible with when compared to the Apple stylus. You can just get the Note+ and it can work with 7 models. It works the 11 inch iPad Pro models, the 3rd generation iPad Pro, the 6th generation and the 7th generation iPad, the 3rd generation iPad Air, and the 5th generation iPad Mini. However, the Note+ can be limiting in terms of what apps support it. 

Third party app developers have to add support for the Note+ to their apps in order to fully take advantage of the advanced features of the stylus. Therefore, this fact makes the Apple stylus more broadly supported when comparing it to the Note+. It’s just something to think about. For an example, I’ve been looking into maybe getting the apps GoodNotes 5 and Procreate, so I’m very excited these apps support the Adonit Note+. 

Honestly, it really just comes down to if you are looking for a stylus that is much more affordable than the native Apple stylus and if the apps you want to use support the Note+. This is so you can take advantage of its pressure sensitivity, natural tilt support, and the natural hand/palm rejection features. If you use any of these apps listed above or the apps that the Adonit website says support the Note+, the Adonit Note+ may be the perfect match for you. If you prefer using other apps that aren’t listed, you may want to look into other stylus options as they may be a safer choice. 

Overall, you get such a good stylus experience with the Note+ and it’s perfect for students, for work, and even just for day to day tasks. The Adonit Note+ has your back!

Disclaimer: I worked with Adonit on this product review. However, all opinions are my own and are straight from my own noggin’. Find out more about Life of a Vegaholic’s blog policies here.