Just Finished Sam’s Intensive IPad Design and Engraving Class

[Goldjockey]

A quick shoutout and big ”Thank You!” to Sam, and my classmates at Sam’s most recent IPad Design class. The instruction was top notch, the crew was great, we had a lot of fun, and every day felt like a breakthrough.

 

[John B.]

Congrats, great looking floorplate.

 

[Goldjockey]

Congrats, great looking floorplate.

Thanks, John.

I was actually a bit shocked at how well the drawing came out. I had gotten to a point with my work where I was feeling completely plateaued.

No longer though. Really pleased with the class, and excited to apply the newly acquired knowledge and skills.

 

[John B.]

Glad it is working for you. Sam's the Man, he's a great instructor.
Look forward to seeing more of your posts on the Cafe.

 

[GwenB]

What app or software did you use for drawing on the iPad? I have an iPad pro with a pencil, but probably too many software choices. My husband teaches at a design school so I have access to the full Adobe suite for example. I am wondering what you used and how complicated it was to learn? I used AutoCad for years at work for engineering drawings, but there are so many options now, I don’t want to make it any more complicated than necessary. Thanks!

 

[John B.]

Gwen, I believe they use ProCreate program and an Apple pencil.
But I will leave it for Sam A. or one of his students to verify that.

 

[Goldjockey]

Hi Gwen,

I created the floor plate design on a 12.9" iPad Pro using an Apple Pencil and Procreate as an assignment for Sam Alfano's "iPad Design and Engraving" class at GRS.

Like you, I have an extensive background in computer graphics and design, and had been working with my iPad with Autodesk Sketchbook using Sam's "Essential Guide to Drawing Scrolls" as a study guide. However, prior to signing up for Sam's class, I had no experience with Procreate.

After signing up for Sam's class at GRS I spent a couple of weeks learning Procreate basics from Youtube videos. Once I got used to it, I found Procreate intuitive, natural, and flexible.

Procreate is a raster based sketching program, with just enough vector functionality to allow refinement and fine tuning of individual lines, strokes, curves, rectangles, Squares, ovals, and circles on the fly. In addition to the forgoing, it's also got a bunch of easy to use functions for, layers, editing and transforming shapes, selection functions, masking functions, opacity,... the list goes on!

Despite its depth and breadth, it's very easy to learn, and if you're used to sketching you'll likely pick it up very quickly, and just as quickly you'll find yourself picking up your iPad and Apple Pencil instead of booting your PC or Mac to do design work.

Another program I've been looking at/playing with is "Concepts" for iPad. While I love Procreate's artistic tools, I also need a tool for precise 2D technical drawing, and of all of the IOS programs I've looked at so far, Concepts seems to be the best iPad option for creating 2D drawings within precise technical parameters. Unlike Procreate, Concepts is a vector based program, so lines and curves remain directly editable, which is particularly useful for the way I like to work.