drawing on ipad

Drawing on IPad

This year marked the beginning of a new picture diary - probably the only one of my New Years resolutions that is still going strong ! Unlike the one I kept in 2011/12, this is a digi-diary drawn on my IPad Pro purchased after the sale of “Ewe are my Sunshine” ( the subject of my last blog post back in July last year! ). A somewhat pricey addition to my studio, but I love it.

I downloaded the Tayasui Sketches app and use it to draw my diary cartoons with an Apple Pencil.
So far I have done 79 cartoons - almost one every day.
To start with I followed the style of my old diary, using only black and white, and then progressing to a touch of colour. Here are a few of my favourites......

A ewe and her wee lamb

I have been working on the ewe and her lamb for some time now, such an enjoyable woolly distraction that I lost track of time and missed a blog post in June. But now it's almost done, subject to a few tweaks, a signature and a name.

approx 30 x 60 cm in soft pastels

A WOOLLY DISTRACTION

I've been busy, finished one painting and started another. The gorse, or whins as it’s known locally, has been stunning – glorious clouds of coconut scented indian yellow. You may remember my previous depiction of the gorse, but this one is quite different and left me wanting to do more. 

"Gone with the whins" - available at Mission Hall Gallery, Melvich

However, as I was getting myself ready for the next one I was hopelessly distracted by a beautiful sheep and her lamb. The photo, taken by my friend, instantly inspired a new painting.

Copyright Shona McMillan 

After a long time away from the easel, I found “Gone with the whins” to be a little restricting, given the smallish size, so I had already decided to go a bit larger next time. Tempted to portray the fabulous contrast of light and dark in ink, I felt it needed to be in colour in order to portray the warmth of the sun and the lovely pink ears. The composition of the photo is perfect, but it was those legs, the strong diagonals and small splashes of colour that attracted me most. The long tall portrait format helps to highlight those aspects.

So, avoiding black and white altogether, I selected a split complementary palette of red, orange and blue-green.

work in progress!