A long time between iPad paintings

I don’t know whether the rest of you are the same, but I seem to have bursts of obsession with particular media. I might spend a month making a mess with charcoal, the next, covered in pastel dust then weeks mixing oils. Today, I fell back into iPad painting with Artrage… and wondered how I could have neglected it for so long.

I’m still very messy, technique-wise, and struggle a little with the small scale but I can’t deny that it is addictive.

Here are a few screen shots along the way – complete with notifications from the many games my children have installed on my iPad.

I start with my usual pencil sketch, then block in flesh tones with oils. I still have colours used previously on my palette which saves me a lot of mixing time.

Fleshing out on the iPad

Establishing some darks…

Starting on the darks and the eyes

Background and shirt colour…

Working on background

More of the face and shirt

More filling in

Working on the lower face and the ear

Almost there… but the blue on the face is too prominent

Almost finished

So I go over it with a little flesh tone in another layer.

Finished

I’m happy with some aspects of this – I like the way the colours interact – but the different textures irk a little. I’ll have to think about more consistency with the loading of the brush next time. How long until I get it right?? 🙂