Another drawing using the Procreate app. This illustration shows Outsects exploring the bottom of the sea in a mini-sub. I had originally intended to depict a flying saucer but when I added the background, I thought it looked more watery than “spacey.”

I am letting the app stay in its default video record mode as I draw; this provides the bonus “animation” that you can see above.

Procreate works best as a pseudo animation tool if I draw and delete as I progress through the image. This process is pretty tricky as it means I lose my image history as I proceed. (Animation is usually done in a series of stills that can be individually revisited and fine-tuned.) Procreate animation is more “in the moment” and Zen-like!) I think it works best if I just animate a small section of the drawing. My brain can handle that demand; the more elaborate the animation, the more complicated the stages for each transition and if that flow is messed up it causes an interruption to the final product.

Here are two animation experiments. The one with the ball worked better than I realized but I was not attentive enough as I drew. I needed to keep the round shape of the red ball as it moves along the Outsect’s arms. The next animation is more complex, and the dancing Outsects work when I kept the movements small. You can see where I lost patience and let one Outsect throw the other out of the picture. The transition was too sudden. Still, every stroke of my virtual drawing pencil teaches me something, so improvements are promised!