Please know that I am foolish in so many ways, and that I do not expect people to “approve” of things I share my opinion about.

So many artists I know get very excited when they start using digital programs to create, and tend to overshare their process (again, my opinion only). I see incredibly talented analog artists often sharing digital work before it looks anywhere near complete, or strikingly different in quality than their previous work, with the intention to sell prints. I do understand the excitement, I promise I do, but as someone who was raised by an over-sharer, it sometimes makes me cringe when I see someone who is a fantastic artist posting something that truly does not represent them or their abilities yet, and trying to sell it. I know it seems judgmental, but I do hold out to see as they improve – and they do – and celebrate that success for them. I just hold a certain standard for my own art before asking someone to pay for it, and sometimes feel like people get swept away by the efficiency of it all.

I had a couple of cute line drawings that I made one summer, during a weekend of camping and debauchery, and held onto them with the intention of someday painting them in. Over the years, I would start to digitally color them, but never really liked how it was coming out.

When I invested in my iPad Pro, I decided that these two pictures were going to be the guinea pigs for me to get accustomed to not only the tablet, but the program Procreate that all of the digital artists around me were raving about. So, I started to work on them the way I would usually do in Photoshop in the past – creating the outlines, then coloring on the layers underneath. The brushes – oh, the brushes! – made what used to be a one-session creation into a two-week long experiment in textures, colors and opacity. Did I mention there is a LIGHT PEN?!

So, I’ve done it. I finished it – it looks and feels finished to me. It looks beautiful to me. Please let me know what you think – I would love some interaction on this blog!