iPad Pro Inspiration

You may have heard me profess my love for iPad Pro once or twice, so it will probably come as no surprise to you that when Apple approached me to be a featured creator for the new iPad Pros, I eagerly agreed. I was commissioned to create two illustrations showcasing iPad's capabilities as a thinking tool rather than a tool for fine artists, which was right up my alley. All of the work was completed several months ago, but the products were announced in this week's keynote. 

Screenshot for proof that for a short period of time my work was featured on Apple's home page. For better angles of some of my doodles, continue reading. 

Screenshot for proof that for a short period of time my work was featured on Apple's home page. For better angles of some of my doodles, continue reading. 

I was very excited to see the latest hardware and software features of the devices, but what is even more awesome to me is to see the broad range of work that Apple commissioned to showcase the power of iPad, and the amazing creators they signed on. Much of the work showcased on the website was created by people I admire and have followed for a long time, like Seb Lester, Malika Favre, and Jean Jullien. 

**Note- you can see any of these creators featured on the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil sites that are currently live (as of June 2017) but Apple doesn't actually link to their websites or social media, so you can do that here by clicking on any of the artist images.  

Seb Lester is an amazing calligrapher who posts mesmerizing videos of his hand lettering on his Instagram account

Malika Favre's amazing bold illustrations are so inspiring, and can be seen everywhere including on many a New Yorker Cover

Jean Jullien's clever and comical figures always entertain and inspire me to be a little more lighthearted in my approach. 

Some of the creators were new to me, but feel like I should have known of them like Cecilia Lundgren, Jonathan Calugi, and Sarah Clifford.

Cecilia Lundgren has a very loose and expressive style, wihch is my natural tendency but sometimes I fight it and try to over polish. It's a good reminder that a loose brush totally works. 

Jonathan Calugi has a thing for continuous lines, which is fascinating. I love trying to track where you might start with the pen and where you might end, sometimes it's hard to tell! 

Sarah Clifford has a very classic sketchnote style, with a fascinating focus on scientific and biological subject matter. her work reminds me of old fashioned field guide drawings. 

Other creators featured use cases and styles for iPad that I had never once thought of, but now plan to try out, like Bec Brittain, Tim Leong, and Gemma O'Brien. 

Lighting designer Bec Brittain is a great example of how drawing on the ipad can be useful in unexpected ways. 

Tim Leong does a lot of work in print, and I am particularly intrigued by the infographics portion of his portfolio (of course) 

Tim Leong does a lot of work in print, and I am particularly intrigued by the infographics portion of his portfolio (of course) 

Gemma O'Brien's work looks is bold and large scale. I love the layering and depth she achieves with bright but simple color palettes. 

So after showing you the inspiring work of others, here are some of the screenshots from the 2.5 very distinct pieces I created for the project. 

For my first illustration, I wanted to focus on the theme of travel and adventure. We ended up going with a data sketch documenting the activities across a long weekend, and I created the final doodle in Procreate. 

For the second illustration, I wanted to create a sketch note style graphic that communicated the value of drawing ideas. I based the content off of a presentation on drawing data that I have given a few times, and did this one rather quickly in Paper. 

Thanks to the composition, you can't see the final sketchnote very well. Here's the full image in all it's glory. 

FinalArtwork_CatherineMadden_Proj1_Process_03 copy.png

One of the process sketches from this illustration was featured on the note taking apps section of the iPad Pro page. 

And that's it! Thanks for following along :)