This animation was produced on an iPad, with the app Procreate over the course of several hours. Several years ago, I brought my iPad to a fireworks display on the fourth of July. The restaurant was called The Fat Lady Cafe, and was a very chill Catskills place. While my family chatted, enjoyed dinner and drinks, I did my sketching. This was an experiment in narrative drawing. I wanted to capture the whole experience, including the transition from day to night.
The colorful drawing took 3 hours to create, and I continued to draw during the course of dinner. When the fireworks began, I was ready with a plan to draw this in a way that would reveal the fireworks with some excitement.
Creating the fireworks was the fun part. Everything is intended to be narrative and ever-changing. The sky changes color, the fireworks have movement. Try this yourself. Take your iPad out to an event and draw what you see during the entire experience. Erase and redraw. Change the colors. Make it come to life!