Sketching

Somewhere There IS A Light: Apple NOTES APP Drawing

| Patricia

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” ~ Desmond Tutu

Some followers may know that I have been battling with debilitating osteo Arthritis for several years which has thrown a spanner into my art practice. On those days when I cannot work with analogue materials, I often draw on my iPad. This Daily Drawing is part of a recent series of posts showing work that was created in the Apple Notes App (essentially a writing app) using just the basic drawing tools offered within the text-based app. The basic art is sometimes imported into Procreate 5 on my 12.9” iPad Pro and enhanced. 

Over the past year or so I have experimented with simple drawings made with these rudimentary drawing tools iPad Pro using a second-generation Apple Pencil as my sketching pencil, ink pen and paint brush. This exercise has been an effort to show that all the bells and whistles contained in dedicated paint applications are not always needed to create something interesting where there was nothing before. This piece is one of a number of works created for use as a greeting card series (paired up with some of my poetry verse as the inside message.)

If you try this experiment, sketching in the Notes app with its in-app tools, please post a link to your work in the comment section.

All artwork and creative writing is Copyright ©️ of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

Watery Orb – Notes App Drawing

| Patricia

“We forget that water and life cycles are one.” Jacques Cousteau. Oceanographer

Daily drawing created in the Apple Notes App using just the basic drawing tools offered within the text-based app. The basic art was then imported into Procreate 5 on a 12.9” iPad Pro and enhanced. I find this method fabulous for brainstorming and coming up with concepts for future analogue or digital works. Many make it into the manuscripts of stories that I write. Some of the imagery inspires a written piece—a story, a poem or a concept.

Watery Orb Notes Drawing July 20, 2024 Copyright©️Patricia White
Watery Orb Notes Drawing July 20, 2024 Copyright©️Patricia White


In this art I see breaking waves with white splashy foam rising up with the surf. As I continued to look at this piece, a sense of magnetospheric catastrophe emerged, perhaps with a geomagnetic shifting of the north and south poles, essentially wiping out much of earth’s living organisms, including humans. It‘s interesting how art can elicit a wide range of thoughts, reactions and conjectures, which are, after all, fodder for creative artists and writers.


All artwork and creative writing is Copyright ©️ of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

notes app drawing: SightLines

| Patricia

“Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.” ~ Jonathan Swift

Another of my daily scribbles using the simple drawing tools offered in the Apple Notes app. Edited in Procreate on my 12.9” iPad Pro. I dubbed this drawing “Sightlines“ to represent the volumes of information that we are taking in and processing every day. This is a particularly virulent time history, politically, environmentally and technologically. Trying to keep up with the latest news while dealing with the vagaries of life can be overwhelming. We artists and writers generally internalize the environment around us and these events can appear in our work—often unconsciously. How do current events affect your work?

The chronic arthritis in my shoulders complicates the making of traditional analog art. On days when it is particularly problematic, I often draw on my iPad Pro in apps such as Procreate, Adobe Fresco and other dedicated painting apps. Lately, however, I have been enjoying the simplicity of the Apple Notes app drawing tools as a vehicle for creativity. I generally use the Apple Pencil for navigating around the tablet to cause less stress on my hands. In this drawing I primarily used the Notes app pencil and crayon tools. If you are dealing with arthritis or another challenge, what are some ways that you continue to be able do your creative work? Would love to hear from you in the comments.

All artwork and creative writing is copyright ©️ of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

Squiggle World / Planet Unravelling: A Fanciful Story

| Patricia

“I think in circles; I speak in circles. I unravel my thoughts that way.” ~ Nathan Englander, Author

I am a creative writer as well as a painter/illustrator. Sometimes an idea for a story comes from a sketch, sometimes it’s the other way around, an idea for a sketch comes from a written passage. This is what I jotted down after creating the combination analogue watercolour and digital illustration:

“The green sphere raced through the atmosphere, flying in the wind through the cosmos, hurdling towards a who-knew-where destination. Arriving on an ordinary day in the imaginative life of the artist-writer, the work had only been in existence since the day before when It flowed off the pen of the ‘creator’. A character is tasked with unravelling the ‘squiggles’ to reveal what, if anything, is concealed by the quagmire. The painting’s occupant wondered aloud “who the hell does she think she is, anyway? Building worlds and creating inhabitants only to abandon them to the whims of time, wallowing in the ‘legions of forgotten ideas’. We deserve to know what happens to us! Finish the story, dammit!.”

What I like about writing is getting lost in these worlds of imagination. Who would have thought that a little squiggle drawing could spawn creatures with human-like abilities? These stories stretch the concepts of reality. Creating something in another dimension or space. The human brain is a miraculous thing. It can take us to the moon and back, as well as to the outer regions of the universe, in our stories. They can even take us inside a little scribble drawing, with a scribble hero who wants to free the world from its network of confining scribbled lines. I wonder if, at the end of it all, the hero finds out that the scribbled lines are all that there is, and that in trying to free the world, he or she actually destroys it.


All artwork and creative writing is copyright ©️ of Patricia White. No use of this content or concept may be used without the express permission of the artist/author.

Back to Daily Painting: A Wee Apple

| Patricia

“The apple cannot be stuck back on the Tree of Knowledge; once we begin to see, we are doomed and challenged to seek the strength to see more, not less.” ~ Arthur Miller, American Playwright

It has been a long, frustrating period for my creative practice. Chronic pain in my right hand, wrist and shoulder have been a challenge. After performing the regular tasks of living, there is often little dexterity left to make art.

That being said, after a lengthy sojourn away from daily sketching, I am back trying to re-establish this daily habit. Right now it’s in a tiny 3.5” x 4.5” notebook beside my bed where I scribble something in each day. I try for morning but sometimes the deed gets done in the evening. This is a small coloured pencil drawing of an imagined apple to add to my large collection of apple art. Do any of you have a daily creative practice? How do you motivate yourself?

All Artwork Copyright©️Patricia S. White and not to be used without written consent of the artist. Thank you.

Multiple media: A world of Hurt in those eyes

| Patricia

“The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart.”
~ St. Jerome

A World of Hurt in Those Eyes - Multiple mediums.

Today I combined my DAILY SKETCH with a bit of CREATIVE WRITING, a paragraph I jotted down for a story I’m writing.

SCENE: Madeleine is taking a walk up the main street of her town, trying to come to grips with the fact that her best friend, has just died under mysterious circumstances.

Madeleine was looking at her reflection in a store window, and momentarily wondered who that old woman staring back at her might be. “Oh, dear” she murmured. “I almost didn’t recognize myself” she thought. “Then again”, she realized “there’s something about the eyes”. Madeleine was right. There was a world of hurt in those eyes. An untold story of pain and loneliness, betrayal and despair; a lifetime of dreams put on the shelf for another day. A day that never came.” Multiple mediums were used to draw this sketch. It was then scanned and enhanced digitally.

Artwork Copyright Patricia White, March-11-2023.

concept development with MOLESKIN’S Flow App

| Patricia

In addition to my fine art work, I also do graphic illustration. So, I’m always looking for ways to quickly sketch out a concept or idea on my iPad Pro before it flits out of my head. These concepts are often used to provide direction for analogue works or digital brand development. Digital drawing apps, such as the native Apple Notes, or the newer Freeform apps also have sufficient drawing tools to scribble down a thought or image idea.

Ran across this concept from last year when I tried out the FLOW: SKETCH, DRAW, TAKE NOTES APP, which is part of the Moleskin Studio trio of applications, and found the tools to be quite good for marker rendering, pencil sketching, etc. The shape snapping feature was particularly useful for this quick concept. March 21, 2022

Check it out: Moleskin Studio

Angry Sky: Splashing Around with W&N, February 28, 2023

| Patricia

“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.” ~ Pablo Picasso

This is a quick watercolour sketch of a seascape, painted with a small travel set of Cotman Winsor & Newton watercolour half cakes. Testing a new watercolour paper to see how the paint flows, absorption, etc. I found the 90 lb. cold press stock too thin to stand up to the reasonably light wet-in-wet application in the sky area but handled the flowing liner brush strokes on slightly damp paper on the bottom half of the painting quite well. The paper was quite absorbent, grabbing the paint in some areas before edges could be softened.


These quick watercolour sketches, using a familiar subject I paint regularly, help me concentrate on the materials rather than the subject. I find that doing quick smaller sketches helps embed a sort of painting ‘muscle memory’ that gets easier the more often we ‘exercise’ it. While the travel set is great for tucking in your pocket for small on-the-road sketches, I still prefer using tube paint in studio.

Artwork Copyright Patricia White 2023

Sketchy Coloured Charcoal Apple, FEBRUARY 25, 2023

| Patricia

“The sweeter the apple, the blacker the core…” ~ Dorothy Parker

I’ve been using my DAILY PAINTING regimen to experiment with new materials, rather than working in just one medium or style. When testing new products, I generally draw a familiar subject so I only have to think about how the materials are working.

LOVED working with Derwent’s Coloured Charcoal pencils (included in their Derwent Sketching Collection).

Used a limited palette of Brown Ochre 5700, Terracotta 6400, Peat Tinted Charcoal TC18 and Burnt Earth Tinted Charcoal TC19 but I will definitely be checking out adding a larger range of colours.

Artwork Copyright Patricia White, 2023.