The Digital Era

Having completed eight months of Mariner Moles in my sketch pad, Claire felt it was time I upped my game. I was really enjoying it and really liked my greyscale art, utilizing a whole range of grey shades of markers. I even have a “Warm Black” and a “Black”. Can I tell the difference? Nope! 

My birthday was imminent and Claire invested in upgrading my iPad. I have used my Apple tablet every day since I got my first one, an iPad 2, way back in Christmas 2011. Literally. Every single day. I email, tweet, watch YouTube and Netflix, read ebooks, surf the web, skype, stream music, listen to podcasts, play games and more. It’s always in my backpack when I go out and it charges every night on my bedside drawer. 

I’ve owned an iPad 2, and then an Air and I’ve loved them both. With the launch of the Gen 6 iPad that was compatible with the Apple Pencil, I looked into upgrading to that, but having tried it out and talked to Apple Store staff and friends, it was clear that I needed the Pro. 

In the weeks before I got my iPad Pro and Pencil I poured over every tutorial I could find on how to use Procreate, especially this ten-part series from Art and Design. I learned all the shortcuts, strengths, and shortcomings and how to get around them. I learned how to draw comics in Procreate, how to colour and add flair to the images. I watched the videos over and over such that, on the first day I got the Pro at home, after installing all my apps, I opened Procreate and produced my first digital Mariner Moles that first night. 

This one was a lot of fun to do. As the first comic, I learned a lot about digital art. Mostly I learned that I never remember to start a new layer until I’m five minutes past the point I should have done it. I had to erase so much good work throughout this strip in particular because I put in on the wrong layer and couldn’t adjust it later. But in the end, I’m very happy with it. Those YouTube tutorials were amazing and allowed me to jump right in at the deep end, already knowing how to doggy paddle. 

I also learned how to make a Pallet in ProCreate and spent a very short time building a Moles pallet of greys and the colours I use for the sketch layers under the inks. The greys are just from 10% to 90% and then black. Easy peasy. 

Some of the comics are better than others. I find it tough to come up with a gag every month. I’ve developed even more respect for the creators who do this on a weekly or even daily basis. I hammer my head against nothing all month and then usually come up with something at the last possible second, drawing it from beginning to end the night before submissions are due. 

I’m not overly happy with this joke, but I do really like the fishy in the mole hole in the header. So there’s that at least. 

This is my most recent effort, and I very proud of it. The gag came to me while I was doodling the costumes for the moles, trying a few different things on. Once I drew Doug as a ghost, the whole thing kind of fell into place. Scoop makes a great Pac-Man, and the comic comes back full circle to the moles destroying the garden again. I also like the pumpkin at the side, and the skeleton arm in the mole hole. 

In fact, drawing those little suplimentary gags for the headers are a lot of fun in themselves, and they’re usually the last thing I do before signing off on the strip. 

I hope to keep drawing these two for a while to come and it’ll be fun to look back at those first sketchbook strips and see my characters evolve. Maybe some day Ada or Connor will draw one for me.