This follows the post I wrote yesterday "what I see". I received a lot of appreciation, thanks and feedback on that post, as well as a few questions. I am very happy for people to ask me questions and have decided to answer a few of those which people have felt empowered to ask.
First off... how do you create your art?
My art has really taken off since I've moved to digital. This is possibly the only positive to have come from catching Covid - I was too ill to draw, paint or mosaic so I had to finally learn how to use procreate on my iPad.
The benefits I find in digital drawing and painting are two fold. Firstly I can create laid in bed or lounging on the sofa; perfect since I'm dealing with Long Covid and the need to rest most of the time. But more importantly, and the benefit I'm focusing on today, is that I can actually see what I'm creating without having to use magnifiers or photos or strain my eyes.
To explain I'm going to share three photos of a piece I created.
You might recognise this silhouette from a post I wrote earlier today. I painted this in short blocks of time as I had energy. It probably took 2 hours in total to create.
In this first photo you can see a screenshot of my iPad screen. The painting is in its complete form in procreate. I "know" this but I can't "see" this in its entirety.
This second image is a screenshot of how I work on my paintings. I have used the magnification to see two of the lines coming out of the silhouette.
In order to "see" the painting to review how it looks, both whilst I'm painting it and afterwards, I use the magnification available in procreate on my iPad. As you can see I can get into the detail which means I don't have to strain my eyes or move my eyes around the screen all the time. Instead I move the image around the screen all the time.
And for even greater detail....
This third image shows just how much detail I can focus in on when I add in the iPad accessibility magnification. At this magnification I am able to deal with one pixel at a time.
I create for me, so working at this level of detail is about finding "flow" in creativity and being completely mindful in the process. I don't always worry about detail but, when I want to, it is wonderful to be able to lose myself in the single elements.
I will also use this extreme magnification when I'm trying to colour match because I don't see colours very well and this allows me to match exactly.
So that's how I can draw and paint and create despite not being able to see very well.
Using these levels of magnification is also how I look at your photos or artwork which you share - I zoom in and move the image around my screen to "see" the various parts allowing my brain to join them up into a whole.
I hope this answers the question. If you have a question you'd like answered then let me know, I'm happy to share.
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