a little more juju

As a graduation from nursing school gift, my family bought me an iPad Pro, something that I’d been wanting for years but just didn’t have the money for, and for the first couple of weeks after I’d turned it on, I played with it and tried my hand at a few of the Apple products I remembered from when I had an iPhone and Macbook years ago, namely Photobooth and Garageband. What’s sad is that neither of those apps were what I wanted the damn thing for: I wanted to do art on it.

I love painting and drawing, but half the time, I’m worried about messing up my supplies or running out of them or whatever, so the idea of painting digitally just spoke to me. But when I finally sat down to take a stab at this new medium, I felt incredibly overwhelmed.

And what do I do when that happens?

I just put it aside and figure I’ll come back to it whenever … you know, when I’m not too intimidated or frustrated with my lack of perfection to keep plugging on.

I blame being a “gifted child.”

Anyway, last week, I decided to go pick it up and actually watch some tutorials before jumping in blind, and it’s honestly amazing what some quick training will do:

Now, this is nowhere near the caliber I want to be, but look! I did an art!

For the first time in a while, I actually feel impelled to experiment with things because this is completely all new territory for me: brushes and color wheels and select tools (still haven’t figured those out yet but it’s about progress at this point) and … well, there are plenty more but I don’t know them all yet. I’m not gonna be Tula Lotay level for a while, but I’m actually okay with that. This is completely about the enjoyment of the medium for me, and the challenge this is providing for me is just giving me life. Plus, I can bring the iPad to work with me so I have something to do on my breaks! Enrichment!

Like … this just enthuses me. Should I try new styles? Work on a small comic project? The iPad is literally my entry into another world, and I am so excited to join it.