Tv sketching on the ipad, part 01

The iPad is a great sketchbook. And like every other one of my sketchbooks, I forget about it for a few months, then rediscover it and it becomes my favorite sketchbook for a couple weeks.

I’m in the middle of those weeks right now and they’re coinciding with our finishing the tv series Unforgotten, which is sort of an English slow burn, cold case murder show we’re streaming in the evenings as the days slowly get shorter.

Tv sketching is a great exercise. Scenes are short with lots of cuts, meaning you don’t have time to get bogged down in the weeds. You get a few impressions, there’s time to get some gestures down, and then it’s on to the next scene. And with the iPad you can have the lights off and still see what you’re doing, meaning you’re not ruining the show with your scribbling.

In an average episode I sketch 10 or so pages, using one main line brush (which changed partway through these) and then one broader colour wash brush (which also changed once).

Procreate brushes are ridiculously easy to find and make, and I have way more than I need. Three is, for most of what I do on the iPad, plenty. If I was turning these sketches into proper paintings I might let myself use more, but the ideal situation is to forget about the brushes and just make sketches.