Hurry up and wait!   Isn't that the annoying traveler's mantra as they set out for an adventure, bags packed, cameras loaded, ready to embark on a plane?   I used to shove in ear buds and start a movie.  Or, if traveling by car, watch the miles melt into occasionally boring landscapes.  But I have been taking on a new little hobby to pass away moments that prepare me for my next artistic endeavors.

Instead of bemoaning being wedged in the middle of two passengers in the already stuffed aircraft, I pull out my handy dandy iPad, and swipe over to my favorite app:   Procreate.   This is an intensely cool and intuitive application designed for the artist, incorporating the ability to use many different  brushes, colors and textures to create some pretty amazing artwork.  The program enables you to maintain the layers you create, making it easily sharable as a PSD or TIFF file (when you finally have wifi.) Within minutes,  using my Apple pen as a brush, I can create new content that will later be incorporated into a future image, all without wielding a bulky laptop (because, let's face it, THAT'S when the stewards strolls by with the snacks and drinks) The iPad, pen, and Procreate are my favorite travel "go to's". 

In this particular design, I experimented with twelve layers of content.  I painted with water color, spatters, and chalk, all on different layers with different opacities.  Admittedly, when you first start, it resembles a colorful mess. Working past this is the painful part. (At least it's painful for me!).   The more you experiment and plop different colors and let yourself be free, the more interesting designs you will get.   Simply upload this file into photoshop and you are ready to modify it further if you like.   For instance, you can snap a picture of your sidewalk concrete (yes, with your mobile phone) and import this into the image as well.  Layer it over the image you created and change the blend mode to soft light or overlay.   Viola!  A new look!  Don't forget to store your created designs in your Adobe Photoshop Library. (But that's for another topic. If you can't wait to learn this, or other cool tips and tricks,  check out the very talented Julianne Kost, whose knowledge of all things Adobe are enviable! To learn about libraries, visit her blog!)  

So buckle your seat belt and pull out your iPad (or any mobile device that can purchase this app) and CREATE!