Digital Art and Disability

As a teenger I began drawing and painting as a way to express myself. I had so many difficult thoughts and feelings that I struggled to communicate through words. Drawing opened up a whole new world for me, it became a healthy outlet and a way to share what I was experiencing. I drew and painted constantly, I have shelves of sketchbooks that I would fill within a month! 

When I started to become physically unwell, art was a huge part of my life that I felt had been taken away from me. Pain and fatigue stopped me from spending hours sitting at the table drawing, I didn’t have the energy to set up paints, water and brushes and my body couldn’t cope with sitting at a desk for long periods of time. At times even my hands wouldn’t cooperate, they would feel shaky and weak and unable to hold a pen properly. Not only had I lost a hobby, I had also lost a mental health coping mechanism. 

How has digital art helped me?

Digital art has been a complete life changer for me. I saved up and purchased an iPad (not sponsored!) and procreate a few years ago, and it’s given me so much back. I can create artwork from my bed or the sofa on days that I can’t move much, and can even lay down while drawing if I need to. If my hands are particularly shaky I can turn on pen stabilisation so that my lines are clean and smooth. Painting is possible without needing to use energy setting up a workstation, and tools such as filling large areas with colour save so much time. Even the ability to zoom into my art makes a difference, I don’t have to bend my head down and a tiring angle to draw a detail, I can bring the artwork to me.

Although digital art will never fully be able to replicate the satisfaction and comfort of pen and paper, and I have to carefully pace my energy still, it’s allowed me to regain a hobby I thought I’d lost.

 

What products do I use to create digital art?

I use an iPad Air 3 and the Apple Pencil. I’ve been using it most days for about 2 years now and it’s going strong! The screen is a similar size to my paper sketchbooks which makes it feel comfortable and familiar to use, and you can even buy ‘paper’ textured screen covers so it feels like you’re drawing on real paper! 

If you would prefer to look for a specific drawing tablet or don’t want to buy an apple product, here is a list of recommended tablets for 2022: Our 10 Best Graphics tablet in The UK – August 2022 | BestProductsReviews.co.uk

I use the programme Procreate which I have found very user friendly and easy to understand and you only pay once so there’s no monthly fees Procreate® – Sketch, Paint, Create. . I don’t use it often anymore, but in the past I found Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop great for digital drawing on the computer with an external drawing tablet (if you’re a student you can get the entire Adobe Suite for a fairly reasonable price per month) Adobe Creative Cloud | Details and products | Adobe .

If these are outside of your price range, there is Gimp GIMP – GNU Image Manipulation Program and Krita Krita Desktop – Download (softonic.com).

Everyone experiences chronic illness and disability differently and face different barriers in life, so this definitely isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ solution, but I hope by sharing my own experience this will help or inspire someone who might be going through something similar. 

Evie x