EARLY ACCESS // buildings in procreate (Patreon)

Drew these sketches to try and tackle two of my biggest art frustrations! The first of which is my (in)ability to draw buildings. I have a really hard time capturing the detail, perspective, and sense of scale. I want to get better at drawing them, so I did a quick study of a picture I took in Porto, which only reminded me how much I struggle with this stuff and how much I dislike the outcome of my workflow. Then I did two quick studies of two african buildings, based on pictures I took in Mali and Burkina Faso about 10 years ago. These turned out a bit better but I still have such a long way to go!

My second frustration at the moment is my Procreate workflow. Painting tends to go fine, but I’m not great at using the tools that are meant to make the construction process more efficient and intuitive, like quick shapes and the lasso tool. So using procreate is a constant back-and-forth process of being frustrated with the workflow, and then looking up easier ways to do things, which helps me learn but also knocks me out of my creative flow. I also struggled with the setup, since drawing on a small ipad didn’t feel great and I can’t bring myself to memorize all the gestures. To fix that, I got a sketchboard pro and hooked up a little bluetooth keyboard so that I could have a similar setup to my cintiq. This way, I can access shortcuts with the keyboard and have an area for my arm to lean on as I draw. This is what that setup looks like:

This is a huge improvement, but I still need to develop a more efficient workflow in procreate, mainly because I want to make more use of textured brushes in it. I feel like it has more potential that I’m not accessing currently. 

So yeah, the process of drawing these buildings was incredibly frustrating and I had to resist the urge to throw my ipad out the window. Hopefully future sketching sessions will go better! Hope you enjoy these for now!