✏️✧ October Sketchbook tour #2 ✧ having fun drawing in Procreate and finding a program that suits your needs

Hello! (.❛ ᴗ ❛.)

I'm back to making all my digital art in Procreate and am having a blasty blast! I notice I have fun when drawing digitally again and I feel like it comes across in the things I make. The program is just set up in a way that allows you to focus on creating. I can tell I feel more excited to play around, experiment, and direct energy into creative decision-making. It feels so different from the process I've been engaging with the past several years.

Since 2019, I've mostly used Clip Studio Paint and often felt at odds with the software. I spent so much time adjusting settings and hunting through sub-menus to find specific functions. It reminds me a lot of when I was using Photoshop for digital painting. For whatever reason, I was able to acknowledge it wasn't for me and quit much sooner. My relationship with CSP has spanned much longer and I gave it so many second, third, fourth, fifth tries in attempts to get into its good graces. I think I made a lot of good art with that program, but ultimately the process is overly complicated and cumbersome and so...it's time to part ways. so dramatic haha but really, it's been years of this back n forth!

Everything is simplified in Procreate and easy to locate, so it frees you up to draw and make things instead. It reminds me a lot of another long-time favorite program Paint Tool SAI, which I used for many years before Procreate existed. The bare bones layout and engine was straightforward and it felt so natural to immediately dive into sketching. A lot of what makes these programs so user-friendly is their limited capabilities. Programs like CSP and PS are packed to the gills with features and customization allowing you to get extremely specific with what you want to make, a massive pro in its own right. If you're like me though you just want to draw and not think too much about the specifics of tools you're using. In that case, programs like Procreate and SAI might be more up your alley. Technology has evolved so much in the past two decades, so at this point even "simpler" programs like Procreate have a ton of options for making art. When all is said and done, it just depends on what you're looking for to suit your needs. And in my case, I'm rediscovering that simpler is better. (o˘◡˘o)

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Thanks so much for reading, I hope you have a lovely day! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

Vicki

ps: I sent out a call in the patreon chat for silly pics of your cats for me to draw. if you had even a passing thought of contributing, march on over there right meow and send a pic! the sillier the better! >:3c I'll be drawing them this weekend so you have until then to get a sketch of your pet! ^^