Drawing to Teach: Paper by Fifty-Three

An Elegant Drawing Program.

To date, Paper is the only drawing app I’ve used. The reason being Paper’s elegant simplicity. I’m learning how to draw and a complicated drawing program with a bunch of “bells and whistles" would be a hinderance. Paper has just five drawing tools, an eraser and a nifty color mixer. There are no options for any of the tools other than chaining color.

When you combine Paper with a pressure sensitive stylus, like the Pogo Connect, you have an incredibly easy to use drawing tool. While you’re aware that you’re drawing on a pice of glass, the program doesn’t get in the way. This is good not only for the beginner but also for the accomplished artist!

For me, the main difference between drawing on an iPad and traditional media is one of feedback. When drawing on an iPad, you don't get the vibration or sound of the pencil or marker scraping along the paper. Instead, you have a consistent smooth glide. For me, this consistency of feel is an advantage an iPad has over physical media. It’s been been fun to watch what happens when I’ve handed the combination of Paper and a Pogo Connect to an accomplished artist. In short – in short – “they go nuts.” They have to draw something – even the most technology challenged artists master the simple interface in about a minutes.

Pogo Connect

Another advantage is the portability of the iPad. Here’s a drawing toolbox and sketch book in one small, easy to carry package. No multiple boxes, no materials being used up or drying out.

I’ve invested about 12 hours in drawing practice and I can already see a large difference in my ability to draw. Though at this rate, it’ll take me 100 or more hours to work my way though “Drawing Textbook” by Bruce McIntyre. However, at the end of that time I expect to have a solid drawing foundation.