I posted a link to this on Facebook last week, but for those of you who don't follow me there or might have missed it here, it is again. You can now pick up the Procreate Artist's Handbook on iBooks for free. I downloaded my copy last night and have not officially cracked the spine on it yet, but you can be sure I'll be going through it as soon as I have some time. If you're an iPad user and you haven't tried the Procreate app yet, I highly recommend you give it a try. It's one of the best out there.
Other Apps
I've worked my way through a lot of artists' apps on iPad, but for the most part, I remain unimpressed. Last week, however, I picked up a copy of something I think holds a lot of promise. I was talking about Clip Studio Paint for iPad and will be taking a more in-depth look in weeks to come. So far, I've only dipped my toe in, but it looks like a great option. Unfortunately, though, it's a subscription ($8.99 per month at the time of this post) so I'm not sure how I feel about that. Subscriptions seem to be the wave of the future which is great for the developer but not so much for users. The rates on most seem pretty reasonable until you start doing the math, then suddenly you realize all those little payments quickly add up. I should mention there is a six month free trial period on this app if you pick it up before December 20th, 2017, which I think is a smart move on the part of the developer. That should give artists like me just enough time to get hooked before the rates kick in.
I'll post updates as I learn more, but for now, the art you see in today's was done 100% digitally on the iPad Pro using only the Procreate app. Until next week, happy drawing.
Update to this article:
Today is April 25th 2020. Since I wrote this article, I am no longer using the Clip Studio program. The cost of one more subscription just didn't seem worth it to me. I found after the initial trial period, I wasn't using this program as much as I thought I would. I produce the majority of my finished artwork in vector. This program, while excellent for inking, did not allow me to export to vector. For me was the deciding factor. I already have a sketch program that I love and that's Procreate. It does everything I need it to do and more. Clip Studio is a nice program but for me it was redundant. In these times where every penny counts, redundancy is the first place to go when it comes to saving a little money.