strokes of colour and line add
a new excitement.
It is really hard for me to leave
my sketchbook at home, as it
has become second nature to
me to carry it everywhere I go.
However, on this occasion I
made a conscious effort to go
out with no alternative but to
work on my iPad – an experience
worth remembering. My direct,
painterly application of finger-
work, combined with a vibrant
colour palette, catches the
vitality of Manhattan, New York,
in the springtime.
I didn’t want to lose the detail
on the printshop I spotted on
this outing so, because my ability
to use my iPad was limited, I
resorted to my familiar brush pen
and sketchbook. To get a feeling
for this shopfront then and there,I felt more at ease making a quick
on-the-spot study with my brush
pen in my sketchbook. Later, with
more time to experiment, I went
ahead with my iPad and finger
to redraw the image and chose
the appropriate colours and
textures to bring out the best of
the old façade.
When I returned home to the
UK from New York, I couldn’t
wait to get out on locationwith my new digital sketching
companion. The first thing I
noticed was not only the very
different landscape, but the
difference in the light and the
colour, so my senses were
challenged once more. I had to
rethink my colour palette and my
approach to my drawing. I had
become used to my selection of
tools for urban scenes so it was
refreshing to try something new.Above, left: East 4th Street
Printshop, NYC. Close
observation drawn with a brush
pen. Above, right: Digitally
drawn and textured finger
painting. Below: Herald Square,
Manhattan. Digital texture is
used to describe observations.ARTWORKEAST 4TH STREET PRINTSHOP; BRUSH PEN, 2012ARTWORK:
HERALD SQUARE, MANHATTAN; IPAD, 2012
This extract is taken from Zen of
Drawing by Peter Parr, published by
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Digital drawing