I started drawing with fine liner pens in 2018 at the beginning of my art journey. I had a set of Pigma micron pens, a pencil, a ruler, eraser, a mathematical set, and my paper of course. Give me these tools and I am in my happy place. My drawings grew from simple mandalas to intricate patterns that filled A3 and eventually A2 pages. Somewhere in 2021 I started seeing digital mandala drawings making their way on to my Instagram feed. I told myself I would never go down that route, it was cheating (I know I know, never say never…). At this point my drawings were mainly A2 sized and I was even starting to play around with color markers. This is where I started to change my perception of digital art though. After 3 years of seeing my art in black and white, adding color to my drawings was a daunting task. Even in the past when my husband digitally would add color to my drawings, I just did not like them. Color is very divisive, not everyone likes all shades of blue…like me! I would take out a day to research color combinations that worked with the set of color markers that I had. I did not have a complete set of color markers, so I had to make do with the colours I had. Investing in hundreds of expensive markers if I am still just learning to work in color, was just not practical. Then, once you put a color on the page, there is no turning back. You are now committed to that color palette, whether you like or not and usually I did not like it. Urgh! So, this color dilemma was the start of me even considering digital drawings because I can then experiment to my hearts content.
In April 2022 I purchased an iPad and an Apple pencil, and the experimenting started. I watched videos on Youtube and downloaded the app that I needed to start my digital drawing journey. I was following along some online tutorials, but nobody really posted mandala art tutorials and I felt completely lost. I was still busy with a few commissioned drawings and felt like such a beginner on the iPad that it was such a relief sitting at my desk and grabbing my fine liners. I tried to draw something on the iPad every day while I was coming to grips with this new way of drawing. My first drawings were awful (to me), but it was still fun just playing around. I played around with the different settings, trying to find my “new” style. But it didn’t quite work, and I was aching to recreate my usual style and what I was used to drawing. I used the few skills that I have learned from other artists online, but I had to teach myself. I made so many mistakes and even now, most of those drawings I completed in the beginning, I am unable to edit or use today, because I combined layers or made some other irreversible mistake. I decided to stick to my formula/ style instead of developing a “new” style, and eventually my digital drawings started getting more detailed, but not quite at the level that I was used to. Then one day I decided to commit fully to drawing a commissioned piece completely on my iPad. It took me FAR longer than it would have with my fine liners, but something clicked and it all came together. FINALLY!
It now has been well over a year since I have drawn on paper and my digital drawings are just getting bigger and more detailed. If I am completely honest, I do miss sitting down in front of a fresh, clean white paper and filling the page day by day, line by line. But for now, digital is what suits my lifestyle and what I have in mind for my art business. With digital, there is a lot less waste, it is far more cost effective and best of all, I can sit and draw anywhere. I am still learning every day and every now and again I go to YouTube to see how to solve a problem. I am super proud of myself for what I have been able to achieve on my own and I am glad that I have gone digital!