25 Comments
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Jess Stride's avatar

I definitely prefer real materials. I love the magic of a wet page changing after it dries, I loved the feel of a pencil or a pen on the surface of paper.🥰

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Helen Stephens's avatar

Oh yes, you word that so well. The wte page changing after it dries. Exactly that!

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Michelle Lin's avatar

I'm a hands-on paper person, too! I have tried doing digital collage and there are effects you can make digitally that you just can't traditionally in cut-paper collage (like light and shadow) but I really enjoy the physical sensation of cutting paper and pasting it together.

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Helen Stephens's avatar

Yes and enjoying HOW you make the work is important. It shows in the work.

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Rachel Bevan Baker's avatar

I love that you're going pure paper Helen! Can't wait to see the results. You could direct a garden watering spray thing at your window when you reallly need to to get in the rain-on-the-caravan zone!

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Helen Stephens's avatar

That’s the answer! A sprinkler! 😂

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Rachel Bevan Baker's avatar

haha that's the word, couldn't remember!!

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Amber's avatar

I love hearing that this is possible and accepted. Analog feels so old school sometimes but it scratches a certain itch for me as an artist.

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Helen Stephens's avatar

Yes it scratches all the itches, and totally acceptable 😂😙

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Milena Milak's avatar

I like digital but lately I find myself missing the mess that comes with traditional techniques... Some people find it an obstacle, I love it. I'm experimenting in my sketchbook at the moment.

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Helen Stephens's avatar

Oh yes, a good mess and all that unpredictability

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Denise Dorrance's avatar

Hello Helen and fellow artists. I work on my iPad in Procreate and am missing paper too!

Please can someone explain what you mean by ‘scanning into Procreate’. I’d love to work on paper and get it into Procreate...but how? Am I being stoooopid? 🥸

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Helen Stephens's avatar

Oh sorry, I should have been clearer. I have a 25 year old Epson Stylus Photo scanner which is still going strong. I scan the painted artwork, open it on my desktop computer, then airdrop it to my iPad and open it in Procreate to fiddle with. Does that make sense? Hx

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Zoe's avatar

What does scanning the art work and dropping in to Procreate give you that taking a photo of it, then importing the photo in to Procreate doesn’t give you. Asking as I’m not sure if I need a scanner?

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Helen Stephens's avatar

It’s better quality if you scan, you don't get all the light/ shadow variation. And a scanner is pressed absolutely flat to the drawing, so no strange angles that distort the drawing.

If I wanted to put a sketch on Procreate then make a new layer and draw it again, and the new procreate drawing is the final artwork, then a photo is great for that.

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Zoe's avatar

Thank you so much, that makes perfect sense.

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Denise Dorrance's avatar

Got it! Many steps but that’s very clear now. Thanks so much x

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Christy Obalek's avatar

I used a combination for my first book The Thing About Birds - I got so frustrated doing backgrounds (my least fave thing ever) on procreate so I did them old school watercolour and scanned them in. I also really prefer the look of scanned-in pencil or ink lines than digital. Plus you can blow them up to infinity with a good scanner and they still look real, not pixelated. But now I'm all about analog. I'll still use procreate for adding spot colours to my sketches etc, especially for socials, but I'm LOVING using scratchy dip pens and biros again.

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Helen Stephens's avatar

Yes, I love Procreate for drawings I want to share on socials, it’s perfect for that. And it makes sense that they look good on screen because they were made in screen!

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Anna Leplar's avatar

Same here - back to paper. Doing a big book so do find procreate really helps with endless roughs. Are you keeping the option open for corrections with Procreate?

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Helen Stephens's avatar

Yes procreate is AMAZING FOR ROUGHS! A game changer! And no, doors are closed for corrections. No corrections allowed, just pure paper, including all the wonkiness.

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Anna Leplar's avatar

Wow that’s brave! 💪 But prior to procreate that’s how one used to work. I never got used to Photoshop. Also because I’ve never had a really good scanner I like getting pros to do that work. Trying to scan watercolour paper can be hellish. 😂

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Helen Stephens's avatar

Brave or stupid 😂

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Francesca Grech's avatar

It's so tricky to pinpoint exactly! I love worling in both, and try to make the digital as exciting as traditional, by limiting my number of layers and lines - It's so tempting to just press undo but we try haha 😄 Also, lately I've been playing the Wild Robot spundtrack on repeat, it's such a wonderful score!

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Sarah Lovell's avatar

I love paper, paints and pencils best. I like to add a bit in procreate after, but trying to do this less, as I love all the textures and hand made feel of using traditional materials .

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