Is the undo button cheating, or is it a tool for creative freedom? Iris explores the strengths, nuances, and philosophies of the iPad versus the old school sketchbook within the world of urban sketching.
For as long as artists have sought to capture the world around them, it’s unmistakable that sketching has acted as the bedrock of their practice. It’s well known that sketching has long been a key tool for the observational and exploratory artist, a means to translate fleeting moments and complex forms onto the page. Nowadays, from the casual hobbyist to the seasoned creative, countless individuals are becoming attracted to the challenge of telling the story of the environment in front of them as they see it.
Having only been coined in 2007, urban sketching is a relatively new phenomenon, inspired by the ‘en plein air’ movement of painting outdoors popularised by the likes of Monet and Renoir. Bustling market squares, lofty tower complexes, cafes on the corner. It’s all there to be scribbled down while on location into a little sketchbook… or, indeed, onto the iPad screen.
Now we’re in that ‘digital age’ (we know, it’s thrown around a lot), the enduring practice of sketching has found itself at a crossroad. The rise of digital tools has introduced a new dimension to sketching, which ignites a compelling debate between those championing the tactile experience of pen on paper versus others armed with the limitless possibilities of a single app. Here, we’ll explore the two sides of this coin, and delve into the different philosophies behind this landscape.
So let’s meet our artists. Lyndon Hayes (@lyndonhayes) is a 25-year veteran illustrator who has remained a sketchbook traditionalist, so to speak. Originally from the East Midlands, Lyndon is now based in the heart of Ramsgate’s vibrant art scene on the South Coast. It all started for him with really intuitive, engaged art teachers at secondary school and from that point he says his mind has been focussed on nothing else.
“It’s a funny thing being a freelance illustrator because you’re working from home a lot of the time, and what comes with that is that you create your own bubble. Unless you force yourself to go out and draw people in the street, get to life drawing classes, whatever, I find you can get a bit rusty. I created my Instagram account because I needed an outlet to put back into my work.”
Rob Sketcherman’s (@robsketcherman) life as an artist began in Hong Kong, where he now lives, and he has also been in the illustration game for a little over two decades. However, instead of pen to paper, it’s pen to pixel for him.
“The thing I love with urban sketching is that wherever you go there’s always something new to draw. Whether in Paris, Buenos Aires, Manchester, back home in Hong Kong, wherever, my favourite thing to do is to ride the top deck of the transport and watch the city go by. The time of day, the weather, the activity, it all changes what you see and so there’s always something to draw. It’s made my life a lot richer.”
Rob made the switch to digital out of a necessity. Homes in Hong Kong are small, and so the tons of art supplies and materials he was accumulating began to drive his partner literally up the walls. But the arrival of Apple’s ProCreate app, a more powerful iPad and a modded stylus changed that, and Rob hasn’t looked back.
So let’s discuss. Since we’re on the topic, we might as well first mention the inventory issue – pencils, brushes, markers, fineliners, watercolour palettes… the list goes on. While Lyndon himself prefers to arm himself only with a few reliable tools and an A5 sketchbook, some of the ‘en plein air’ artists he has met find themselves going a little bit further.
“I personally don’t like to travel with a lot of that stuff. I have met people that are proper reportage artists, with the easel, the canvas, everything. They’ve got massive bags and they are there all day and getting in peoples way. I just couldn’t be bothered with that! I like their determination and the way they go about creating their own little worlds. It’s very admirable, but it’s definitely not for me.”
ProCreate, however, comes pre-packaged with over 200 different brushes. Rob praises how organic they feel, and despite being default options, many have become firm favourites in his practice. A set of 40 new brushes can cost as little as £15 too, which is much cheaper than traditional materials.
Another benefit to the abundance of different digital brushes is the broader potential to experiment. As an iPad sketcher with bags of different strokes and textures at his disposal, Rob has found that trying new things has helped to diversify his style.
“If I look at something and feel like being looser or bolder with my linework, or if something is telling me to be more painterly, then I can do that. People look at my work and they see a whole range of stylistic choices. If I only have half an hour then it’s going to look very line driven, maybe even a bit messy in places, whereas if I have a few hours to spend at a location then I can really get into the details and slowly build the illustration bit by bit. That’s the power of the versatility of working digitally.”
Despite being armed with only a small sketchbook and a handful of pens and markers, Lyndon believes that in many ways the opportunities to experiment within the sketchbook are equally boundless, and that you only ever create your own limitations. In his words, it’s all about being engaged in your work enough to go out and try new materials and techniques.
“I’m always trying to bridge that gap toward being more sporadic on the page. It’s a strange thing when you’re staring at the whiteness of a blank page, it’s not necessarily frightening, but I feel it adds a little extra anxiety.”
Combatting this, Lyndon paints blocks of colour on random pages in his sketchbook. When the time and location suits, he can hone in on a colour and get cracking: “It leads you in, even when you don’t realise it. It’s a simple opportunity to look at something in a different way and it’s helped me to push those experiments further.”
But what about that undo button. It’s of course at your expense on the iPad, and perhaps makes the unknowns of experimentation that little bit easier to deal with. One wonky line or a misplaced scribble and before you know it, the mistake is gone. But Rob says he tries not to use it, instead treating the undo function as ‘the power to change your mind’.
“I embrace the wonk, a little wobble, where all the lines are a little skewed. Sometimes I push things on purpose too, because I think with sketching it’s all about interpreting the time, the location and the story at present – we’re not trying to get photorealistic replicas of what we see. You’d just take photos if you wanted to do that. We’re responding to what we see in the moment and so it’s going to be an impression, not perfect.”
Obviously, the sketchbook has no such function. Lyndon, who as an artist has always been particular about the angles and compositions on his page, isn’t the sort that wants to make mistakes. Even now, he is trying to break out of this and is still learning to enjoy those accidental moments in his book. So it does beg the question, why not just switch to the iPad where you get that second chance?
“I’ve never been pulled into that world and I’ve had to question why that is. For me, it’s about using my platform and expressing that there’s something to be said about getting the pens out of the case and doing it naturally. There’s something more real and tactile about it to me. The iPad is a perfect tool for going out and doing the same thing as me but, personally, it feels different from putting pen to paper.”
And this appears to be the true proclivity of the sketching traditionalists. There doesn’t seem to be anything that quite compares to heading out supplied only with a few fineliners and marker pens and getting that tangibility from the page. Sure, the iPad is the ‘ultimate mobile digital studio’ as Rob puts it, but for Lyndon, he’s never had that urge.
Alas, there are things that the two agree on. Principally, it’s the power of a sketch to transport you back. It’s something felt across the board, whether you work traditionally or digitally.
Rob says there is a sensory experience that comes with the practice: “The very act of urban sketching means you pay attention to what’s happening. The sounds, the smells, all of that is encoded into the piece and it creates some really rich memories.”
Likewise, Lyndon often takes a look at the old sketchbooks he took to Italy or Turkey: “I can land on one page, one particular sketch, and it instantly takes me back to where I was sat, the couple that were the table over, the smell of the food, the heat in the air, it brings these memories back and I just think for an artist there’s nothing better. It’s that whole immersion in my practice that I’m still addicted to.”
Ultimately, whether the strokes are digital or inked, the heart of urban sketching lies not in the medium, but in observation and personal experience, and the practice is a testament to the adventure of capturing the world, one moment at a time.
