Procreate companion for the 'rest of us'!

Now, I just want to be clear at the outset that I understand the proper drawing of scrolls and leaves is something to be learned. There's no artificial mechanism that will produce the quality of drawings showcased on this wonderful board.

That being said, I'm finding it difficult to draw scrolls on the IPad. For some reason its much easier for me to draw on paper, but I'll get there. I find I spend more time concentrating on the scrolls themselves, and design sort of gets overcome by events.

For a quick prototype of a scroll design, I'd recommend a product named "ProtoSketch". It actually has a scroll function. It isn't perfect, but it does allow you to copy your work from there and drop it into Procreate. It also allows for layers and import of a photo, and lets you work with vector lines.

It's not perfect, but if you're looking to do something fast and have to spend a lot of time tweaking scrolls, it might help. Oddly enough, the math in the program seems to lend itself to the drawing of leaves, also.

Again, nothing but respect for those who have, from work and experience, learned to draw scrolls quickly freehand!

Bob

Bob: I haven't seen ProtoSketch but when I get time I'll check it out. I hate to see people get hung up on scroll tools though. You will never learn to draw a spiral if you use templates and scroll tools. That said, some engravers are hobbyists and have no desire to become artists, and to them I say go forth and have fun! If you're really serious about engraving though, learning to draw the spiral is paramount.

On the iPad, sketch very lightly with short strokes to develop the spiral. It can be very sketchy with lots of lines...that's ok. After you get it roughed out, create a second layer and draw over the first layer with your final line like you would do with tracing paper. Then turn off the sketch layer. That's the way many of are doing it. When you look at the finished work it appears that we draw everything in one smooth stroke of the pen. That's definitely not the case with me. My preliminary sketches are quite sketchy and rough.

that's the beauty of layers

Festivus for the rest of us!


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Sam, I hope you find the software as interesting as I did. No doubt there are applications where drawing directly on a piece will be absolutely necessary because a transfer is impossible.

I really appreciate your suggestions; it's slow going for me in Procreate, but I'll get there! I still prefer paper.

However, software will continue to improve. Moore's Law has found us, and is hard at work in our arena. There's no question that learning the "art" is important, but times are changing. Faster is less costly, and as discussed on many threads the "1 percent" customer is ever more elusive. Digital means may get us there in a more direct way, and cut out a portion of the preparation costs.

I think that architects probably resisted the change from pencils and T squares to electronic means, but today its pretty much the way it is. No one would pay for an army of draftsmen (women) on boards to create their project.

One of my favorite clips; enjoy!

https://youtu.be/62kxPyNZF3Q

I still love pencil and paper too! I'll check out your video link.

Amazing what causes thought! In thinking about the subject, it suddenly occurred to me... the "little line" suggestion Sam made certainly helps, but I still get lost in the overall scroll (it often comes out like a Speed Racer scroll; looks great from one view, but like a cartoon from another)

What if I didn't have to concentrate on a whole scroll at one time?

So, on one layer I drew a straight diagonal line and hashed the points where the scroll would intersect (7 times for a 2 1/2 turn scroll, for instance). this makes it easy to draw the proportion I wanted; even, or descending. I then set two lines to contain the exterior of scroll, and began hashing the parts of the scroll with little strokes like Sam suggested.

Essentially, instead of drawing a whole scroll, I was drawing segments and calculating the radii as I went.

It wasn't really working until I removed the smoothing effect.

Wow. Sudden progress. Just being able to concentrate on a segment of the scroll at one time made it so simple, and cleanup was a snap. Don't know that it would work for everyone, but working on one segment at a time and being able to mirror the curve on each side worked for me.

Rotating the canvas allowed checking from every angle, and no cartoon effect!

Thanks!