As part of this year’s Juneteenth celebrations, Apple had illustrator, comic creator, and scholar Ajuan Mance create portraits of historical Black figures using an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil. Apple shared details bout Mance’s project in a new post to its Newsroom.
Apple says Mance uses Adobe Scan and Procreate, plus Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Fresco to create some stunning images as part of the Juneteenth celebrations.
In celebration of Juneteenth, Mance is revisiting a series of digital drawings created on iPad Pro titled “The Ancestors’ Juneteenth,” in which she places historical Black figures in present-day settings to reflect on Black people’s journey from the 19th to the 21st century. In these illustrations, Mance draws ink on paper before she snaps an image in Adobe Scan on her iPad Pro. In Procreate, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Fresco, she colors her scanned image non-photo blue, simulating the process of creating comics, while using Apple Pencil to add layers of color — a workflow she previously completed using a light table and analog tools.
Mance says that iPad Pro and Apple Pencil make it easy for her to “draw, manipulate, and add color and effects at the micro level,” thanks to their ability to zoom right into images. That’s something that only digital art can really offer, giving artists a new way to create.
Throughout the post, Mance explains that she has been working with an iPad Pro and Apple Pencil for years, saying that she “can create a sketch and then ink over it all in the same app and all on the same device.” It’s that level of capability and flexibility that makes iPad Pro such a unique device for artists. Mance also believes that if it wasn’t for iPad Pro, artists might not be able to reach the same audiences that they can today.
You can read more about Mance and Juneteenth in the full Newsroom article, while her website shows some of the art that has been created.
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