Animating with Sketchbook Motion

One of my favorite contributors to Procreate's free brushes and tutorials, Abbie Nurse, introduced me to a simple animation app, Sketchbook Motion, via her excellent Instagram posts.

The Sketchbook Motion app makes animating my sketches using Procreate fairly easy. Here's the first animation I made from a sketch of my handbag.

To make this animation, I imported a scan of my sketch into Procreate and then selected the handbag to copy and paste it into a layer with no background. Because I wanted the tied bandana to sway in the wind, I had to create additional layers with each side of the bandana on each layer. When bandana sways, the area under the handbag must be filled in with the color and paint of the handbag - also done in Procreate. Finally, in Sketchbook Motion, I added in each layer: the handbag with the bandana areas filled in and the (2) individual bandana layers. I then used the Wind animation for each bandana layer individually. 

Someday, I will need to film a tutuorial on how I did this. Hopefully, you get the idea. Here are some more animations I made from recent sketchbook sketches. 

Have you tried animating your sketches? Or tried more serious animations? I'll be posting about more animations soon!

A tour of one of my USK Chicago Symposium Sketchbooks

Before I went to Chicago for this year's Urban Sketcher's Symposium, I made two coptic-bound sketchbooks (here is a great how to video if you want to learn how to make one) from my favorite watercolor paper - Fabriano Artistico in both 140 lb. soft- and cold-pressed finishes. While both were about 8" x 11" in dimension, I made one in landscape format and the other in portrait format. I think I generally prefer landscape format as this was the one I finished first after coming back home. 

Here is a quick tour of the sketchbook with my sketches from the USK Symposium at the start - including sketches done on my own in Chicago, sketches from the group sketch crawls, and sketches from the workshops I took there with Marc Taro Holmes, LK Bing, Marion Rivolier, and Liz Steel. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts! Stay tuned for more posts on the individual workshops I took in Chicago as well as the demo from Stephanie Bower on Watery Reflections. 

Travel Sketchbook from Washington DC and NYC Trip

I recently took my daughter (with her friend and friend's mom) on our own 8th grade Washington DC/New York City trip. We had a great time seeing the Washington monuments and going to a lot of the excellent (and free!) National museums. I tried to sketch as much as possible on site, but being on a trip without other sketchers doesn't allow for a lot of sketching time. I was able to convince the girls, however, to sketch with me in their own little books whenever we had a few minutes of downtime at restaurants, etc. 

Here are my sketches done in my hand-made concertina sketchbook (made from a single sheet of Fabriano Artistico 140 lb. soft-press watercolor paper). I was forced to buy another sketchbook in NYC once I filled this one. Stay tuned for additional travel sketches in that sketchbook tour. 

Tour of Sketchbook No. 30

I made and started this sketchbook back in February and finally finished it the other day. It is composed of different shades of Canson Mi Teintes toned paper. I hope you enjoy this slower tour and the quicker one that follows.

Tour of Concertina Sketchbook no. 36

I created my first concertina sketchbook inspired by Lynne Chapman from her Sketchbook Skool Exploring klass. I made this using one full sheet of Saunders Waterford 140lb. cold press watercolor paper. 

Here is a narrated tour of the sketchbook followed by a quick tour.  

Your comments are appreciated and welcome! Thanks for watching! 

Here's how I make a concertina sketchbook from a full sheet of Fabriano Artistico 140 lb. cold-pressed watercolor paper. 1. Fold and tear the sheet into their DS lengthwise; 2. Connect the sections together by folding the ends with a 1/4" overlap and glue together with Modge Podge suitable for paper; 3. While waiting for the glue to dry, tape the ends together with Washington tape that can be removed after the glue is dried; 4. I cut covers from the backing of a watercolor pad and used a cute Daiso panda envelope to cover the covers; 5. Glue the first and last pages to the covers; 6. Put heavy books on top to set - done!