Up until last summer I had been using a mouse to do my digital drawings. Over the years I did try various inexpensive options from cheap stylus for an old ipad to a drawing tablet attached to my computer. Neither option was of any help to me as I would just prefer to draw on paper with a pencil and then ink the drawing and scan it in to photoshop and clean it up there. It felt as if I was just repeating a lot of steps. Simple illustrations seemed to take forever.
So, last summer, while I was working in Busan, I finally took the leap and bought a new Ipad Air with the Apple Pencil and it has been fantastic. It has cut out a lot of the in between work so now I can get projects done a lot quicker and most cleaning up is just easily done after inking on the ipad by just deleting a background layer. I have my eye on a cintiq in the future but for now an affordable alternative is the ipad Air (cheaper than the Ipad Pro) and apple pencil.
Procreate has a large selection of drawing, painting and coloring tools, but what I like most about it is the smudge tool as it is great for blending and feels like I am working with pastel on paper in many ways.
While a cintiq would be a dream drawing tool, it doesn’t have the mobility of drawing on a tablet. Being able to step away from the desk and computer and sit out in the garden or a coffee shop, or just anywhere you can find that creative inspiration, is a treat with the tablet. Now with the apple pencil and some practice it is like you are carrying your art pad and a whole lot of art tools with you but without the mess.