I’ve noticed my laptop and iPad being phased out over the past few years. It was slowly, at first, and I convinced myself I could wait to upgrade just a little longer. More recently, with increasing frequency, I’ve been getting bombarded with warnings from apps and internet browsers that my operating systems are no longer supported. I tried ignoring them. I even made up some complicated equations to figure out how long I had before all of my electronics burst into flames. But this weekend, I surrendered after a failed app update left me unable to catch up on some of my favorite TV shows (obviously, my priorities are in order).

So I’m now the proud owner of an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. I justify my purchases by saying, “this will replace my eight-year-old laptop!” to anyone who asks. After once again marveling over how great Apple is at minimalist packaging, I considered what to do with my shiny new educational tools. I downloaded the necessary entertainment apps then moved on to some marketed to creative professionals. After a lot of scrolling back and forth, I ended up opening Adobe Photoshop Sketch, as I read positive reviews about how well the app works with the Apple Pencil.

Disclaimer: I am not a graphic artist/designer. I can barely figure out what I’m doing on this computer as I type. This was my first time drawing on a tablet, ever. But the app was SO EASY to navigate. Considering the Apple pencil looks just like a regular pencil, it was pretty self explanatory how to use it in conjunction with the app on the iPad. Sketch offers different types of “natural media tools” to create marks that look like paint from a watercolor brush, or shading from an actual graphite pencil, among other things. I decided to make some little drawings of my plaster forms to play around with these features. So while I’ll probably be using my iPad mainly for streaming Netflix, it’s nice to know I can document some strokes of artistic genius in between episodes.

Featured Image: Jill Sibio, 2018