New pastel pencils today

I was tempted to try a few different brands. So, I chose a few useful colors in 2 different brands. You can see them in the photo below.

I just was trying out the new tools, and produced a landscape that felt like Parksville. I thought I might as well share it!

I like all of the new pencils. I chose two brands, and one is softer while the other feels a bit harder and faster moving on the paper. Conte a Paris is softer, and more slow moving (I'd say) as it is quite capable of laying down pigment on the page with little pressure. Koh-i-noor seems a bit harder, and more able to keep a sharp point. That could be helpful for slight edging on items you want to pop out of the background or to separate from adjacent objects.

I also purchased one soft pastel stick. I've never used one before, so it was just an experiment. You'll see it in the photo below in the sky and the sandy foreground as a bright sunlight yellow area. The Brand is Schminke and it too is very soft and grippy on the paper. It takes very little effort to get a lot of color onto the page. I will enjoy using these again although I only own one so far, because it will blend beautifully with pastel pencils or PanPastels.

FYI- PanPastels is both a brand and a description. The product is powder rather than in a stick form, and is sold in little plastic containers. You apply the powder to paper using sponges typically.

I will keep practicing with these pencils and you'll see my progress over time. I'll also try to figure out if I can turn this photo 90 degrees counter-clockwise without having to email it to myself from my phone.

Prissy Kitty coming along, even though I was busy doing a few freelance gigs today

Fiverr.com is keeping me really busy with app reviews. I love that computer geeky stuff, too, but I felt a little weird the past few days to not have much time to work on drawings.

So tonight at 11:00pm I blocked out a little time and no pressure to make a little progress on my sleek cat drawing idea that I started recently.

Cat looking a little more colourful after 20 min

I feel good that I made some progress. I still need to define in my mind how elongated I want her to be, and what kind of muscle tone I want to portray. I'm definitely leaning towards the clay sculpture look that I love so much.

Thoughts about transitioning from traditional to tablet drawing

While working with Corel Painter for this drawing this evening, I discovered a pastel drawing tool that feels very much like traditional Pan Pastel. It was Real Soft Pastel brush. I managed to get a real soft imprint as though I was using a sponge with Pan Pastels, especially when holding the pen in an overhand grip.

This pen grip doesn't always work with the graphics tablet, and works a lot better if you tilt the tablet so that the pen is making adequate contact at an angle. It effectively makes you notice how your whole arm is moving, rather than just your wrist. I prefer to not rely on my wrist, as I'm looking for soft, sweeping movements of course for my kitties.

I don't see any discussion online so far in my travels about how to transition from traditional drawing methods to a drawing tablet. I don't really want to give up my spontaneous and freely-moving arm gestures; a lot of comments online about Wacom tablets indicate the users are adopting a handwriting grip when using the pen.

I'd love to hear opinions on how people hold their drawing tools, whether pen, pencil, brush, or digital tools. Even my drawing books don't address this much, except for the one I'm currently reading. It's called Drawing Basics and Video Game Art by Solarski and it goes into some good detail about how to hold a pencil in various ways for drawing.

Finally trying out a Wacom digitizing tablet for drawing and photo editing

My first impression is that it's very easy to use. I didn't know what to expect. They were simply on sale, and I've always wanted to try one, so I got the medium Intuos Pro. I'm still waiting for it to charge so I can go wireless, then I'll give it a better look.

Meanwhile, it's still useable (of course) while it's plugged into the USB. However, my desk is very small so I plan to use it on my lap, thus also keeping my arm relaxed, so I'm prepared to wait. People online say it takes 6 hours for a full charge.

Some people on Amazon, etc, complained about the cord between tablet and USB. I agree it's a bit loose at the tablet end, but basically it works. The wireless feature requires plugging in a little USB wireless port to the back of my Mac, and I've decided to remove it when not in use, because I think it might keep the tablet in semi-sleep mode. I'm just not sure, and there's no instructions about whether you are supposed to leave it affixed to the computer. My rule of thumb is to unplug anything not necessary, to prevent wasting power.

Here's a sense of the size of the item - it's almost as big as its box, but weighs less than you might imagine. It's like having an oversized iPad on your lap. The specs say 12x15" and 2.2 pounds roughly. Check out the specs of the various sizes at wacom.com if you're concerned about this. Also note that the sensitive drawing area is only between the four little white 'corner marks' on the surface - not the whole thing.

I was shocked with delight when I started up Photoshop. The pen must contain something that the tablet can sense without the nib having to touch the surface. The mouse moved when I moved my hand (with the tablet pen in my grip) towards my trackpad! You can move the mouse as usual, without setting anything at all, or in my case a trackpad, PLUS whenever the pen is hovering above the tablet, it moves the cursor on screen.

Until I purchased a table, I had been wondering  how this works - how does the tablet and Photoshop know where the brush strokes are going to start. It's so obvious now. Hold your pen above the tablet and orient your position where you want it to start drawing, then drop the nib to the surface. Then your pen handling controls kick in. Right away I could tell that Photoshop brush strokes range from barely noticeable to quite thick strokes, depending on how firm I press with the pen.

That's all for my initial reaction to the product. I can't wait to sit back a bit, cordless in another hour or so, and try out some more features. I don't even know what the buttons on the tablet do, nor the button on the pen.

It's an exciting addition to my drawing tools for sure.