I’m sitting on the couch, collecting my ideas for this blog post. My hands want to write something about digital vs. hand-drawn geometric patterns, but where do I start?

Sincerely I’ve been reluctant to digital drawing for many years until I realized that maybe I won’t burn in hell just for using my computer every once in a while.

It all started when I wanted to make a .pdf tutorial for you guys. Can you imagine drawing every step, taking a picture and then copy-pasting it all on Microsoft Word? No, me neither.

That’s when I had to bend myself to Lord Computer. It seemed like losing the fun part of drawing to me. What’s the use of Islamic geometric art if you can click a button on the computer and make the whole design? Yeah, that’s what I thought. But I was soooo wrong. Let me explain why

 

1. IT’S NOT ABOUT ONE CLICK

First of all, it’s not about one click but a ton of clicks HA! You have to construct the pattern in the same way you would draw it by hand, but it’s faster.

You can copy-paste a line rotating it around a point, or you can divide a circle into many equal parts without necessarily knowing how to do it with a compass. But be sure that when you set a line to pass through a point, it actually passes through that point.

 

2. IT’S EASIER TO CORRECT A MISTAKE

This is the best part of digital drawing. You can easily erase the mistake without starting it all from scratch. Oh I know this sounds like music to your ears. But keep saving your file so that if anything happens, you won’t lose hours of drawing.

 

3. EXPERIMENT

Digital drawing allows you to experiment both with patterns and colours. You can quickly draw different patterns using the same construction grid. You can also choose the colour palette that best suits your drawing before putting it onto paper. How cool is that?

That said I still prefer hand-drawn geometric patterns, but I have to admit that life is easier with digital drawing.

 

If you want to learn how to use Geogebra here is the perfect course for you.

And if you want to learn how to use Procreate for Islamic geometric patterns, here is the perfect course for you.