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What App is That?

   A guide to the apps and tools I use to create illustrations
     * [5]How to Illustrate

   Planted about 3 years agoLast tended about 2 years ago

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     "What app is that?"

   [6]

I'm a Promiscuous Polytooler

   I use wide variety of different tools and apps for different kinds of
   visual creations. I'm not wedded to any one tool in particular – they
   all have their strengths and weaknesses. I'll use whatever fits the
   task at hand and move work between them liberally.

   Here's all the apps and hardware that might be involved in a particular
   creation...

   None of these are affiliate links - I'm just pointing you to official
   sites for more context
   [7]

Workflows

   And here's a couple of my common workflows for different styles of
   illustrations and visuals...

1. Illustrated notes

   Anything I make that has a painterly and loose hand-drawn feel was made
   in Procreate on the iPad or Photoshop on the Wacom Cintiq. Or probably
   a combination – it's easy to move files back and forth between the two
   and the tools they offer are very similar.

   Illustrations like these...

   Both of these applications allow you to draw in “raster” graphics,
   meaning you paint pixels onto a canvas. They require a decent level of
   hand-skills to make sure your lines aren't wobbly, although both
   applications have smoothing features to help with that.

   When I'm in Procreate I use a small selection of brushes I've gathered
   over the years. It's hard for me to remember where they're all from,
   and I've customised the majority of them to suit my personal prefs.
   Most of them were originally from Max Ulichney's brushes. I have the
   essentials set ($2), the painters set ($8), and the comics set ($15),
   and can vouch they're all great.

   I move these pieces to Photoshop if I want to work on a larger screen,
   or have accidentally enlarged the canvas to a 14000px wide sprawling
   set of sketches that Procreate can't open without crashing.

2. Polished vector illustrations

   Illustrations that look more “polished” are made primarily in Adobe
   Illustrator, with a touch of Photoshop at the end for lighting effects
   and texture.

   Pieces like these...

   These illustrations are all vector-based, meaning we use mathematical
   curves to define their shapes, rather than painted pixels. Vectors are
   great for create hard, crisp edges and working with perfect geometric
   forms.

   While I love vectors for laying down the foundation shapes of these,
   I'll move them over the Photoshop once they're 90% done to adjust the
   colors, add more subtlety to the lighting and shadows, and chuck a bit
   of texture on the top so they feel more tangible.

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3 Backlinks

Why You Own an iPad and Still Can't Draw

   The failure of drawing materials without mediums and meat

Frequently Asked Questions

   Questions I am often asked to answer

The Best Illustration Books and Courses

   My favourite resources for learning to draw and developing your visual
   thinking skills

Mentions around the web

   Tomiwa 😃
   Maggie Appleton - indieweb.social/@maggie
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   © 2023 Maggie Appleton
     * [8]The Garden
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