I've dabbled in digital illustration over the years, but never made a concerted effort until about a year and a half ago.  Most of my work has been in traditional watercolor.  Then I started working for a client for whom it was obvious that digital art was the smartest and easiest way to accomplish what they needed.  So I learned how to paint in Photoshop in a hurry.

What really helped me was Will Terry's course, "Digital Painting in Photoshop - Part 1" available through http://folioacademy.com.

I confess, I haven't watched the entire course, but I didn't need to.  That's how good it was.

Folio Academy has many other video art courses available too.  Their videos really work well to teach just what you need to know in an easy-to-understand manner so you can be productive right away.  They really helped me.

I took the leap and ordered an iPad this morning.  It's a gently used 3rd edition with the new Retina display.  I got it through ebay and it should arrive in a few days.

It's one of my first steps in learning how to create apps. (It's hard to know what the steps are, exactly, but this seems to definitely be one of them.) 

Next is figuring out which software to use.  I have QuarkXpress 9 with App Studio and I took their class on apps.  I love Quark, so it's a place to start.  Demibooks Composer looks promising too.  There are so many new programs, it's hard to sort it all out. 

Learning the vocabulary of apps and iPads is another challenge.  Swiping, pinching...

I attended the digital conference put on by our local SCBWI chapter this summer.  Last weekend I was at another SCBWI conference and learned more about apps from Will Terry--a most excellent speaker, http://www.willterry.com . 

This journey into app-land should be interesting and I'll attempt to record it in this blog.