Category: Technology

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Welcome to the Wacom Intuos5 Touch

One of the things that sometimes irks me about product reviews is that they can often end up being many pages long and nobody really has that kind of time anymore.  With that in mind, I thought I’d talk about my new Wacom Intuos5 tablet in a few different blog entries, this being the first, partly because I need to use it for a little while before writing about the new features in detail.

Anybody who reads this blog, has watched my DVDs or heard me talk about my work knows that I’m a big fan of Wacom tablets.  In fact, without a tablet, I couldn’t paint the way I want to paint.  I’m usually pretty ‘live and let live’ when it comes to painting software and when people ask about Painter vs. Photoshop or other choices out there, I’ll usually say to try a few of them, and see what you like best.  But when it comes to hardware, you absolutely need a tablet to draw or paint digitally, and Wacom is the gold standard.

I’ve had a number of different tablets over the years, my first one in the late 90’s.  That was the first generation Intuos 4X5 tablet, and it worked so well, that despite changing nibs and a couple of transparent overlays, the only reason I upgraded was because I’d bought a new computer.  The original Intuos had a 9-pin connector and the new computer only had USB ports.  But that original Intuos tablet never failed me over many years.

In addition to that tablet, I had a 4X5 Graphire for my laptop.  Since then, I’ve had a medium Intuos3, a medium Intuos4, a small Intuos4, and a Cintiq12wx.  The Cintiq12wx  may be smaller than the latest massive 24″ HD Cintiq (which I am currently saving up for), but it’s a great tablet for live painting demonstrations.  Sometimes, when I’m tired of working in my home office, I’ll often set up in front of the TV in the living room with the Cintiq and paint while watching a movie, too.  The small Intuos4 has always been a great travel tablet, and since I worked on that size for years at the beginning of my career, I’ve never felt hindered by the smaller work space.  If I needed to, I could still do all of my work on the small size tablet today, even the paintings.

But the tablet that fits right into the Goldilocks zone (just right!) is the medium sized Intuos.  A few years ago, when I heard they were launching the Intuos4, I remember thinking that my Intuos3 was just fine.  Why would I bother upgrading?  Of course, once I saw the  new configuration of the Express keys and the Touch Ring, not to mention those pretty blue LED lights, I knew I’d be getting one.  The Intuos4 medium has been my day to day tablet every day since it was launched in 2009 (has it been that long?) and to be honest, I’m a little sad to see it go.  It has now been relegated to my laptop bag, and I’ve donated my small Intuos4 tablet to a graphic designer friend who didn’t have one yet.

I’ve been watching videos online and read some reviews about the Intuos5 before mine arrived, so there were really no surprises about the new features.  However, hearing about it and watching somebody else talk about it pales in comparison to actually using it.  Even though I’m not going to show pics of me un-boxing the thing, because it’s already set up, one of the things I do like about Wacom products is the packaging.  The devices themselves have always felt sturdy and I’ve never questioned the quality of the materials.  But when a product arrives in slick looking packaging, it makes you feel just a little bit better about your purchase, and this tablet came in a very nice, well designed box that almost looks like a case.

All of the individual pieces, as few of them as there are, were well wrapped and configured inside.  The tablet, connection cord, pen, and pen holder (which contains ten spare nibs of different design), along with the documentation, are all that you need.  The physical look of this tablet has changed, as should be expected, but the texture of the materials is also different, although the pen itself feels pretty much the same.  The main body of the tablet now has a bit of a rubbery feel to it.  Not as pliable or spongy as the pen grip, but not the typical hard plastic of most computer components either.  This rubbery surface now completely covers the express key buttons and most of the touch ring, and the LED lights are absent.  A little disappointed those are gone, because I kind of liked them, but I really like the look and feel of this new design.

The main drawing area feels different to me as well, a little more textured, but still smooth enough for easy pen movement.  Not that I’ve ever disliked a tablet surface, but I think I prefer the way the pen feels on this surface over any that I’ve used before.  I’ll reserve my final opinion on that until I’ve spent some real time painting with it.

Apparently I’m a slow learner.  When Wacom first announced the Intuos5, I once again thought, “What could they have possibly done to make it better than the Intuos4?”

Well, they added touch features.  In my mind, that changes everything.  After downloading the new driver from the Wacom site, and restarting my computer, all of the new touch features on this tablet came to life.  I’ve never really liked track pads on laptops, as I found them too small.  What the touch features have done on this new tablet, however, is turned it into a BIG track pad, and it’s great.  I normally use the pen to navigate my way around the computer, no matter what program I’m using.  Now, I’ll only need to pick up the pen when I’m drawing and painting.

After an initial exploration of what each of the touch features does in the Tablet Properties and testing them out in Photoshop, I don’t mind admitting that I might have giggled a little.  I’m such a nerd for this stuff, and I can see having a lot of fun learning how to incorporate these new touch features into my workflow.  The whole goal with a tablet, at least for me, is to eliminate using the keyboard at all.  I’ll have to spend some time configuring and using the new features, but that’s what I’m aiming for.  I’ll talk about setting up those features in the next blog entry on this tablet, and I’ll include some video.

First impression, I love this thing, but I never expected not to, having never been disappointed by a Wacom tablet.  More later once I get a better feel for it, but right now, I want to get painting.

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The proof is in the printing

Spent a couple of hours at ChromaSurge in Calgary yesterday morning.  This is a small business print shop that handles all of my canvas and matted paper prints.  Kelly (the owner) was recommended to me by another Canmore artist.

There’s a lot to learn about printing, even when you’re not doing it yourself.  There are so many different types of machines, canvas, paper, coating, stretcher materials, and frames.  As I have no interest in trying to be a jack of all trades, I don’t do any of my own printing.  Recently, my printer (the guy, not the machine) bought some new equipment, canvas, paper, and inks.  Part of me, the part that doesn’t like change, was thinking, “Hey, my prints looked great, why are you messing with the formula?!”

The other part of me, however, was thinking, “He who refuses to adapt, dies!”

That is true of so many professions these days, and I plan to be doing this for a long time.   I made an appointment with the printer (again, the guy, not the machine) to reproof all of my current prints, and set to seeing how I could make them better on my end, in preparation for them being better when they came out of the printer.  One of the things I noticed with my prints was that some of the shadows were a little too dark, not something many people would notice, but when you spend as much time painting the details as I do, you don’t want to see them lost.  So I lightened them all up a bit, just some simple adjustments in Photoshop.  The lighter versions don’t look the way I want them to on the screen, but they look just right on paper.

Many digital artists and photographers become frustrated that their images don’t look the same in print as they do on their screen.  No matter what they do, they can’t make it happen.  Even with a professional color calibrator, the right printer profiles, and technical adjustments up the wazoo, it never quite gets there.  The reason is that a screen is back-lit while paper and canvas are not.  Therein lies the difference and it’s a HUGE difference.  Took me years to make peace with that.

As in all things, you do your best, and you make compromises.  You get your images to look as good as you possibly can and let go of perfection.  Those of you who know me well probably don’t believe I can do that when it comes to my paintings, but when it comes to prints, I actually can.  I know that nobody sees the imperfections the way I do when it comes to my own work, and that’s true of almost every artist I know.  We’re our own worst critics.  That’s a good thing, because it means you’re always going to try to become better at what you do.

One of the ways I try to compensate for the back-lighting  issue while painting digitally is that I have two monitors.  For Photoshop, one is my painting screen, and the other is for all of my tool palettes.  My Wacom pen is set to just go between them, so it actually acts like one big monitor.  The painting monitor is calibrated.  I use the Eye-One calibrator but there are others out there just as good.  The brightness on the monitor is also set to 13.  Yes, that’s 13 out of a possible 100.  If that seems way too low, trust me, you get used to it.  It minimizes eye strain for long periods of computer work, and also allows me to paint in more subtle shades and tones because I’m not dealing with harsh contrast.   When a painting or cartoon is done and looks good, I’ll often move it over to the other monitor, which is set a lot brighter and is NOT calibrated.  This way, I know how it’s going to look on other screens.

It’s a cheat, and one that works very well for me.  Because of working this way, there is much less of a screen vs. print shock.

My printer (the guy, not the machine…do I need to keep saying that?) takes the time to make sure I’m happy with the product he’s delivering, and good service is worth paying a little more for, especially now that it seems so rare.  When I told him that I wanted to reproof everything, and that I wanted to do it while I was there in his shop so we could talk about the results and I could ask some questions, he was fine with it.  I had all of my current paintings copied and pasted to one image that measured 18″X36″, which meant each image was around 5″X7″, just large enough to see what I needed to.    First it was printed on canvas, after which Kelly spray coated it so I could see what it would really look like when it was done.  Then he ran the same file on paper, because I sell matted prints in the galleries as well.

The difference between the two materials is that canvas has a natural texture to it.  It’s bumpy because of the weave of the fabric.  That adds a little more light and shadow, as does the protective coating.  The colours appear more saturated and richer, and there appears to be more depth in the image as a result.  I love my work on canvas, even more than on screen.  The paper prints have a flatter look, and although there isn’t a ‘shine’ to them like canvas, the quality is great, the colours are very nice and I’m very pleased with them.  With a sharp looking black mat, they pop.  But canvas is better, which is why it costs a fair bit more, both for me to have printed and for the customer to buy in the gallery.  And neither of them look like the other or like they do on screen.  Not better or worse, just different.  This photo doesn’t even capture what the canvas really looks like.  It’s just something you have to see.

I was very pleased with the prints and glad I took the time to go in and get the proofs done.  Cost me a bit of money for the ink and materials, not to mention taking the morning off from drawing and painting, but in the long run, it was a valuable use of my time.  My printer (really?  again?) also knows for a fact that I’m happy, so that likely makes him feel that he’s done right by his client.  Even better, he printed off a copy for himself so that whenever I order prints, he now has an approved standard to compare against, and so do I.  We have a baseline with this canvas, paper, ink and machine.

Like I said, I was already happy with my prints, but these new ones have just a little more spark in them.  I doubt that others will notice it, but I do, and that matters because it makes me feel better about the product I’m selling in the galleries and to my commission clients.  When new and better materials come along, we’ll have to do it all over again, and it will be worth it.

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Wacom’s Inkling – Lowering Expectations

Anybody who knows me or follows my work is well aware that I’m a big fan of Wacom tablets, so when I had the opportunity to put the new Inkling through its paces, I really wanted to like it.  If I drop all pretense, I’ll admit to being a little apprehensive about writing an honest review, as I really enjoy working with these folks.  But I also didn’t want to mislead any artists into buying the device and have them hold me responsible when it didn’t live up to their expectations.

The purpose of the Inkling is ingenious.  Attach a small clipped box to whatever page you’re working, use a pen device that draws just like a ballpoint pen, albeit a little larger in size, and whatever you draw is saved as a file, ready to be imported into your computer.

Let’s start with what I liked.  The device itself is elegant.  I doubt I could come up with any improvements in the case design, as everything fits together nicely, the pieces feel solid, and the case itself has a nice weight and construction.  Definitely doesn’t feel like a cheap piece of plastic that will break in a month.  While I’m normally a pencil sketcher, I did enjoy drawing with the pen.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot more that I didn’t like about the experience.  Frankly, the software is clunky.  While I’m not an engineer and can’t quite give a lot of specifics on where the shortcomings lie, it just didn’t seem comfortable to work with.  While it has a feature that records all of your strokes, enabling you to scrub or play them back, I didn’t really see the point.  Additionally, the layers didn’t really seem to work well for me, either.  I never felt the need to separate my sketches into components.

The biggest issue I had with the device is that it has serious accuracy issues.  In an effort to test this, I created a pencil drawing in my sketchbook, erased it until it was faint, and then traced over it with the Inkling pen, trying to get as clean a drawing as I could.  I created a total of four new layers, going over the same lines in places, just to test the accuracy.  Here is the result of that particular drawing experiment.

As you can see, the layers don’t line up and the recorded lines aren’t very accurate.  I repeated this experiment a few more times over a couple of days, just to make sure I didn’t bump the device or accidentally move it the first time out, and judging by the similar results, that wasn’t the case.  Even with only using one layer, the accuracy had noticeable issues.  Having imported the Inkling sketches into both Photoshop and Illustrator, I can verify that bringing the sketch and layers into both programs works as advertised.  It was a smooth import and looked the same as it did in the Inkling Sketch Manager, layers intact.  The problem seems to be in the capture itself.

In an effort to be fair, my expectations for the Inkling were pretty high, and I think the disappointment lies primarily with that.  I was expecting the same level of accuracy I get from an Intuos tablet.  If you look at the Wacom site, it says that the Inkling is  “Designed for rough concepting and creative brainstorming, Inkling is ideal for the front end of the creative process. Later, refine your work on your computer using an Intuos4 tablet or Cintiq interactive pen display.”

Using this device for solely that purpose, it works as advertised.  I did a page of rough sketches using the pen alone, the results you can see here.

If you weren’t being a stickler for accuracy and comparing it to the original sketch line by line, the Inkling does what it was designed to do.  For rough sketches and concept ideas, to simply record something you can throw into your laptop and email to a client or collaborator, it works just fine.  It just wouldn’t do what I wanted it to do, which basically was to replace my scanner.  I know a number of other artists that were hoping for the same thing, and for this purpose, the Inkling is not the right tool.

When it comes to creative tools, the goal should be to find ones that will make your life better and fill a need.  When it comes to the Inkling and my own personal workflow, I find myself struggling to invent a use for it, in order to justify having it.  Unfortunately, I can’t.  When I import a drawing into Photoshop, I need it to be clean, and I will rarely have any use for a rough unfinished sketch like the ones you see above.  Will this device be useful to others?  Yes, I’m sure that it will, but it’s not for me.

 

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Why I Paint on the iPad

This is a painting I recently finished on the iPad.  For those who want the technical specs,  I’m using the first generation iPad, the Wacom Bamboo Stylus, and the procreate app.  The actual size and resolution of this image is roughly 13″ X 9″ at 72 ppi.  The only photo used was for reference (thanks, Pete!) and I designed my own brushes.  I have no idea how long it took me to paint as I worked on it over four or five days, an hour or two here and there.  I’ve never done a painting in one sitting and doubt I ever will.

Since the resolution and size for the iPad is so low, I’ll likely never be able to do what I call ‘finished work’ on it, so you might wonder why I bother at all.  As a sketch pad, it’s great, but why put all the time into painting in detail, light and shadow?  Very simply put, it’s a challenge, and it’s fun.

At the risk of sounding immodest, I already know how to make Photoshop sit up and do the boogaloo when it comes to painting.  I know what it takes to get the fine details and I’ll always keep working to add more realism and texture to my paintings, but any limitations I have in my painting are my own.  If my paintings aren’t as good as I can possibly make them, the fault doesn’t lie in Photoshop or my Wacom tablet, it’s in my ability.  I can’t remember the last time I thought, “I wish Photoshop could do…”

With the iPad, however, the challenge is to see just how far I can take a painting before I’m limited by the tools I’m using.  The resolution tops out at 72ppi.  The size is finite.  I have to work with what I’ve got, which is a combination of the device, the stylus and the app, all three I feel are the best I can find for my needs at the moment.  I’m not about to buy a new iPad while this one still works very well.  By working with limited hardware and software, it forces me to become a better painter, to find new ways of achieving the best I can from an image, with the tools I have at my disposal.  That stretching of skills can’t help but translate to better painting when I’m NOT limited by the hardware and software.

The fun part comes from being able to paint on a portable device.  As much as I enjoy working with the Wacom Cintiq 12wx and a laptop, or even just the Wacom Intuos4 small tablet and a laptop, neither option is REALLY as portable as a pencil and sketchbook, or an iPad and stylus.  Even though I work all day in my office, I often sketch the next day’s cartoon or paint on the iPad while sitting in front of the TV with my wife in the evening.

When I began to paint this ring-tailed lemur, I really had no intention of taking this image any further than this.  It was fun to work on, but it wasn’t supposed to be a finished painting.  But, much like the ostrich painting that was first started on the iPad, I’m pretty happy with it, and I love the manic expression in this little fella.  There is a very good chance I’ll be taking this painting into Photoshop, bumping up the size to 18″X24″ at 300 ppi and spending many more hours finishing it.

For the difference in iPad painting vs. Photoshop painting, here’s a comparison of the Ostrich Totem.

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The upside of 2011

Bighorn Sheep TotemAll things considered, 2011 was a great year.  While every year will have it’s challenges, I’ve been fortunate that I’m honestly able to see each year of the past decade as having continual forward momentum.  The work I’m doing is far beyond what I had hoped for when I first started in this profession and I’m very grateful for it.

I became nationally syndicated in September of 2001, sending cartoons out across Canada each week, and got very few bites.  For two years, I had no more than three newspapers, paying the bare minimum rate, and I will admit to almost giving up on it more than a few times.  With a full-time job to pay the bills, I had to get up at 5:00am each morning to get a cartoon out before I went to work.  When I came home, I had to sketch in the evening and work on the weekends in order to manage it all.  Finally I started making progress, got a few more papers, took advantage of other opportunities, and about six years ago, I was able to leave my job and play this game full-time.

Through it all was my ever supportive wife, Shonna, and I’m incredibly grateful that she never told me not to do any of this.  The only caveat given when I went full-time was that if I couldn’t pay my half of the mortgage and bills, I had to go back to work.  Canmore is an expensive place to live and we couldn’t do it on one income.  Fortunately, it never came to that, and each year has been better than the one before.  At the time, it was an incredible struggle, but in retrospect, I’m glad I had to go through it because it makes the present all that much sweeter.

If my 2001 self could see the work I’m doing now, he’d be pleasantly surprised, and I try to think about that when I’m having a bad day or feeling sorry for myself because of a heavy workload or when money is tight.  So far, I’ve not only gotten what I wanted, I’ve gotten much more.  Best of all, I discovered that I loved getting up at 5:00am to work, I still sketch in the evenings, and being self-employed means you often work weekends anyway, so I was already used to the routine.  Now, I can’t imagine doing anything else.

Here’s a recap of my professional highlights of this past year, some of which I’d forgotten about until I went back through the blog entries month by month.

iPad Painting: Started playing around with this in January, and damn if it hasn’t been a lot of fun figuring it all out.  Ended up trying four different styli and half a dozen apps.  It would seem that I’ve finally settled on the Wacom Bamboo Stylus, the Nomad minibrush, and the procreate app.  The combination of those three gives me the best results, and while I don’t consider anything I paint on the iPad to be finished work, I would go so far as to call it advanced sketching, and I plan to keep doing it.

PhotoshopCAFE DVDs:  In March, I finished my first DVD, called Cartoon Illustration Techniques in Photoshop.  Easily one of the most difficult projects I’ve ever worked on.  Having only done a little bit of sound and video editing for a failed Flash animation project a few years back, it was a struggle.  But I finished it, it went into production, and is selling well.  I’ve heard from many who bought the DVD that have learned a lot from it and complimented me on my instruction, so I’m guessing I didn’t do so bad a job.

The second DVD, Animal Painting in Adobe Photoshop, was a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable as I wasn’t teaching raw Photoshop beginners.  It was more about the painting than the software and while it was a challenge, the difficulty I went through with the first DVD paid off while recording the second as there were few problems I hadn’t already solved.  Recording one DVD this year would have been enough of a milestone, but I never expected to record two, and to be very pleased with both of them.

Cartoon Ink: While my old website was ‘fine,’ it had become difficult to use and it was no longer the image I wanted to project.  While I had always done my own website in the past, this time I realized one of the most important business practices that so many have learned before me.  Hire professionals to do their job, so you can focus on doing yours.  With that in mind, I hired Erik Bernskiold of XLD Studios in Sweden to create a new website for me.  I knew Erik’s work and know him personally, so I was confident he would deliver much more than I could create myself.  With the help of Elizabeth Gast at Design by Firgs, another colleague and good friend who consulted on the site, and created an improved evolution of my logo, I was very pleased with the final logo and website and would highly recommend both of their work.  The time I saved was well worth the money spent and reduced stress.

Wacom: I began to form a relationship with the great folks at Wacom at Photoshop World in 2010 after I won the Guru Awards for two of my Totem paintings and I couldn’t be happier about it.  Having used their tablets since the late 90’s, you won’t find a bigger fan, so I’m very pleased to be working with them from time to time.

Over the course of the year, I’ve been featured in the Wacom eNews, have represented the company and demonstrated their products at one of Scott Kelby’s seminars in Calgary, and have been a featured guest on two of their one-hour Wacom webinars.  The people I’ve worked with at Wacom have been incredibly supportive and are absolute pros at what they do and I look forward to a continuing relationship with them.

The photo shown here is Joe Sliger demonstrating the new Wacom Inkling for me at Photoshop World this year.  He is also one of the moderators of the webinars.

Island Art Publishers: In July of this year, I began a licensing deal for some of my Totem paintings to be produced on art cards.  These are distributed throughout Western Canada and the northwestern U.S. and time will tell whether this arrangement bears any fruit.  An artist friend once told me that art cards are often your best advertising, because not only does the person buying it see your work, but so does the person receiving it.  You may not make much money early on, but it’s enough to get your work out there to a market that otherwise might not see it.  And the cards look really good.

Photoshop World: While it’s true that I didn’t learn much about technique or improving my work at this year’s Photoshop World in Las Vegas, I still think it was worth attending because of the networking opportunities.  Having recorded two DVDs for PhotoshopCAFE, it was great to finally meet the owner of the company in person, and see their operation on the Expo Floor.  I was able to meet a few more of the Wacom folks in person, and talk with other industry professionals I otherwise might not have had the opportunity to talk to.  Online interaction is fine, but it doesn’t compare with face-to-face conversations.  So while I won’t be going back as an attendee, I still think this year’s trip was well worth it.

knmadventuresAt the time, I was doing some illustration work for wildlife photographer and instructor, Moose Peterson as well, and being able to go over sketches with him in person was a real treat, as most of the time this would have all been done online.  The other benefit of the Photoshop World conference is that I get to meet with so many talented photographers, many of whom I consider close friends.  For somebody who relies on great photo reference for my painted work, their skills and talent are often one of my most valuable resources, not to mention their generosity with their work, and the support they offer for mine.

Paintings: Saved the best for last.  I am so very pleased with the progress I’ve made on my painted work this year.  The first half of the year, I was so busy with the DVDs and other work that I only painted one animal in my Totem series, the Great Horned Owl.  When I realized this in the latter half of the summer, I was ticked off.  The work I love to do most, I had placed in last priority.  In retrospect, however, I’m glad it happened because when I realized it, I vowed it would never happen again and it stoked the fire.  The end result is that from September to December, I’ve painted a number of new images and I feel they are my best work to date.

I had been becoming bored with painted caricatures of people in the past couple of years, but recently, I’ve realized that it wasn’t people I was bored with painting, just caricatures of them.  Beginning with a couple of iPad paintings, I’ve discovered how very much I enjoy painting portraits, and I’ve done a couple of pieces recently that I’ve really enjoyed.  Inspired by the work of Drew Struzan and others, I think I’ll be painting a lot more portraits of people, if nothing more than for the sheer enjoyment of it.  While style is always evolving, I think my paintings now have a definitive look that is mine, whether it’s people or animals, and it’s one I want to continue to develop and refine.

I’m now getting commissions to paint pet portraits and caricature this year, and it’s really enjoyable work.  The painting of Don Diego that I did for my DVD, the memorial to Titus the cat, and to being able to finally create a real painting for my folks of their dog, Bailey, it’s looking like this could be a big part of my work in the coming years.  Working on another commission at the moment, and having fun with it.

My real passion, however, is still the Animal Totems.  Nothing I’ve ever done in my career has filled me with as much joy as that I get from painting these whimsical caricatures of wildlife.  Not only are they fun to work on, but they sell well in the galleries which means others like them, too.  I’ve been fortunate that a number of wildlife photographers I know have been willing to sell me the license rights to use their photos as reference, or have enjoyed my work enough to want to trade me the use of their images for canvas prints of the painting when it’s done, both of which I’m more than willing to do.

Humpback Whale TotemEach of them is my favorite for different reasons, but the one I was most happy with this year was the Humpback Whale Totem.  I don’t know if it’s because I’ve wanted to paint it for so long or that it was such a challenge to paint an animal with no fur or hair, and the end result lived up to my expectations.  Either way, these paintings are the only work I’ve ever done that I still enjoy months and even a year after I’ve painted one.  That alone tells me this is the work I’m meant to do, at least for now.

As you can see, I’ve had a very good year, and I’m grateful for it.  For all of you that follow my work, your messages of support here on the blog, through social media, and email are all appreciated.  It’s a solitary existence, this freelance lifestyle, and it’s nice to know that others are getting enjoyment out of the work I do.  And if you’re struggling with your own creative endeavors, whether you’ve just begun or are just trying to keep going, I would urge you not to give up.  It may not seem like it in the moment, but I assure you, if it’s something you love to do, it’s worth the effort.

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Wired for Wacom

If the name Wacom means nothing to you, we’ve likely never met, you’re not a digital artist, or you landed on this blog entry by accident.

I’ve been using Wacom tablets since the late 90’s.  It’s true that you’ll occasionally hear stories in chat rooms about other tablets, but much like the Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster, I’ve never met anybody who’s actually seen one.  Wacom is by far, the industry standard.

My first tablet was a first generation 4″ X 5″ Intuos and I used that for many years.  While I replaced the pen nibs a few times, and the transparent overlay at least twice, the tablet never gave up.  The only reason I replaced it was that it had a nine-pin connector, and my new computer did not.  Over the years, I’ve had a small Graphire, an Intuos and Intuos 2, and I currently own a medium Intuos 4, a small Intuos 4, and a Cintiq 12wx.  Add to that a Bamboo Stylus for my iPad, and my plans to buy a Wacom Inkling, and it’s obvious I’m a fan.

I’ve been fortunate to form a relationship with the company over the past year, and have been pleased to meet a number of great people from Wacom.  In the Spring, I was asked if I’d like to demo for Wacom at Scott Kelby’s ‘Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It’ tour when it came to Calgary in July.  It was a great experience, one I’m eager to repeat if the opportunity shows up again.  Not only did I get to see what it was like to be on the ‘other side’ of an event like that, but I was able to remove the fear of new technology for a few people.  These devices aren’t difficult, they’re a lot of fun, and often it just takes sitting down with somebody, and putting the pen in their hand to get them to realize it.

An added bonus of demoing for them was having every tablet Wacom makes show up at my front door a week before the show.  It was like winning the lottery for this digital painting art geek, until they insisted I send them all back once the show was done.  How is that fair?

Wacom recently announced their Inkling device, and rather than a clunky explanation from me, watch the video and you’ll get the idea.

When it was launched, I started getting emails and Facebook messages from friends and colleagues who insisted I give more details on what it’s like to use it.  Let me tell you what I told them.  I found out about the Inkling when the rest of the world did.  I was not a beta tester, and had no idea it was even being planned.  Wacom, like any smart tech company these days, doesn’t talk about products in development and is very good at keeping secrets.  Doing a demo for Wacom does not give you access to the vault.

But since it was launched just days before Photoshop World, I was really looking forward to putting it through its paces on the Expo Floor.   The staff at the Wacom booth were being pestered about it on Day 1 (hey, they did it to themselves!), but they didn’t have one available to try right away as they  had just received them and they needed to charge before releasing them to a lineup of eager testers.

I did not get to put the Inkling through its paces.  There were far too many people wanting to try it, so I got about two minutes with the device.  But Joe (patient, patient Joe) demonstrated the process, workflow and explained the pen and device quite well.  Bottom line, I will be buying one when it’s available in October, and I’ll be sure to provide further details after I’ve given it a good trial.

Wacom also announced their new 24″ HD Cintiq this week.  This thing looks beautiful and if I had the spare $2500 lying around, I just might get one.  But I’ve made no secret that my lack of traditional art training makes the Cintiq a ‘nice to have’ for me, but not a ‘must have’.  As much as I like painting and doing live demos on the Cintiq 12wx, I do the majority of my day to day work on the medium Intuos4.  I just prefer to see my whole screen without my arm in the way.

Finally, I was pleased to be asked to be a guest on Wacom’s webinar series this week.  While I will admit to being a little nervous about the whole thing, I relaxed into it quite quickly and had a lot of fun.  Wes and Joe (yes, the same patient Joe) were great to work with, and encouraged me to keep it light and casual, which is right in my wheelhouse.  The hour flew by and I would welcome the opportunity to do something similar in the future.

Thanks to so many of you that commented on Facebook, Twitter and email afterward, letting me know that you enjoyed it.  A few of you even apparently learned something, which is always a nice bonus.

It really is a thrill for me to be working for and with Wacom once in awhile, because it’s so easy for me to pitch and endorse their products.  People will often ask me if they need a Wacom tablet to do the type of work I do.  Most of the time it’s because they’re trying to avoid making the financial investment, even though they’re very affordable.

The answer, is an unconditional YES.  To paint digitally or do almost any type of creative artwork in Photoshop or Painter, you NEED a Wacom tablet.  Just as an oil, acrylic or watercolor painter needs to spend money on canvas, brushes and paint, a digital painter needs to spend money on the necessary tools as well.  A Wacom tablet is absolutely one of those necessary tools.

If you’d like to catch a replay of the webinar that was live earlier in the week, here it is, available on YouTube.

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Tech Stuff

Like many guys, I’m lured by gadgets, things that go click, whir, light up and basically are adult versions of the cool toys we had as boys.  But fortunately, I don’t make impulse buys.  I have a fear of buyer’s remorse, so I will very rarely buy anything without thinking it through.  Took me two months of going back and forth in my head last summer about whether or not the iPad was a toy or something I really would benefit from.  As I use it everyday,  I have no regrets and consider it one of the best purchases I’ve ever made.

Here are a few fairly recent buys that I’m pleased with.

ZAGGmate iPad keyboard – To find out all the details about this wonderful little device, head on over to their website.  I’ve known about this keyboard for at least six months and I’ve gone back to look at it every once in awhile, usually after typing something lengthy on the iPad screen, dealing with autocorrect and annoying editing issues.  Love the iPad, don’t like typing on the screen.  I’m quite a fast typist, comes from years of admin office work before I was a full-time artist, so I find typing on the touchscreen to be anything but user friendly.

The ZAGGmate works on Bluetooth, so contrary to what you might think from looking at their site, it doesn’t even need to be touching the iPad to work well.  I’ve often left the iPad in the Apple case, propped it up on its spine on a table and just typed with the keyboard as is.  I bought this great little Case Logic sleeve at Staples, which holds the iPad (in the Apple case), the ZAGGmate keyboard, plus it has a small pouch on the front for headphones, my Wacom Bamboo Stylus, a USB key, and the makeshift glove for drawing.

So whether I want to use the ZAGGmate as a case for the iPad, as a keyboard, or both, I’m very pleased with the purchase.

Canon PIXMA MX870 Printer – Bought this at the beginning of the year from B&H, as I realized I needed a colour printer.  To be honest, this has sat in my office, in the box for the majority of the year.  Finally unpacked it and set it up a couple of weeks ago, replacing my all-in-one Xerox PE16.  While the Xerox was only black and white, it did the job for a number of years, but in today’s terms, it was big, clunky, and finally outlived its usefulness.

I don’t do a lot of printing of my images as I send those out to be done professionally.  While I need to print off reference photos for sketching, and the requisite office documents that go with running any office, for the most part, my experience with color printers had been less than ideal.  Ink that dried out all the time, constantly doing print tests, all of the problems that have plagued home printers for years.  What I didn’t realize, is that over the many years I’ve been using the Xerox, technology has advanced.  Who’d a thunk it?

After checking with colleagues and reading reviews, I decided on this model and so far, I’m not disappointed at all.  Easy setup, very nice printing in both color and black/white, copier and fax work well (can’t remember the last time I faxed, though) and best of all, the scanner is dead quiet.  The Xerox scanner was horrible and loud, so I’ve just been taking digital photos of my sketches and importing them into Photoshop that way (don’t laugh, it works very well!).  But I’ve started using a scanner again, too, because the quality of the Canon is excellent.

Even the replacement ink cartridges are reasonably priced.  If anything changes with the quality or performance, I’ll be sure to post an update, but for now, very pleased.

Sony Cyber-shot Digital Camera H70 – While we have a Nikon D60, which is a great user friendly camera for anybody who wants to learn more about photography, but still wants the point-and-shoot option, it’s not exactly portable in a jacket pocket.  As I’m heading to Photoshop World in a few weeks, and don’t want to lug around the Nikon, I wanted to get a new compact point-and-shoot.  Our current model is many years old, a Pentax 3.2 Megapixels, so very obsolete.

While I normally would have done a lot of research before buying another camera, this one was almost an impulse buy on my part, because I did very little research and what I did do was on my phone while comparing prices at three different stores.  Retailing for $250 (much less than our first point-and-shoot cost years ago), I got a sale price of $219.00, and it’s a great little camera.  16.2 Megapixels, 10X optical zoom, takes two different kinds of data cards, and has a lot of options normally not found on a point-and-shoot.  I’ll need to spend some time learning the ins and outs, but so far, pretty pleased with the purchase.

I’m probably done buying hardware and accessories this year, but who knows?  Come to think of it, I really could use a zoom lens for the Nikon.

 

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Catching my breath.

Looking back on my career so far, it would seem that I spend most of my time living through periods of deadline panic with large projects, followed by periods of lesser panic where I figure that NOW I can finally gain some control over my life and relax.  This delusion is then followed by the next period of deadline panic with a large project.  I’m a slow learner.

Last week, I finished another DVD for PhotoshopCAFE, which definitely falls under the ‘deadline panic with large project’ category.  While I know that it will be ready for Photoshop World in Las Vegas the first week of September, I would imagine it will be available sooner than that online.  This was a big one for me.  While my first DVD effort was on cartooning, I’m pretty comfortable with that process, so even though the actual recording was hell (why mince words?),  the subject matter was fairly routine, as I’ve been drawing cartoons in that fashion every day for a number of years.

This second DVD, the recording and painting were both challenging, but still very enjoyable.  The editing, however, was just challenging.  I enjoy painting more than any of the other creative work I do, so I wanted the painting in the DVD to be my best effort.  While I’m pleased to say that I think I achieved that, I’m relieved that it’s done.  I ended up taking an involuntary day off once all the files had been sent, because I was completely exhausted.

Finished a commission of a cat painting this week.  There’s a great back story to this one, but I can’t share it, or the full painting, until after the client gives it as a gift.  Keeping secrets is often part of the job.  But I’m happy with how it turned out.   Recording the painting DVD created a little pressure (self-induced, of course) to up my game, and I’m looking forward to my next wildlife painting.  I’ve been thinking about this one  for almost a year and I’m excited to get started on it.

This week, I intend to finish a painting of my parent’s dog, Bailey, a wonderful little shih tzu with a great personality.  Been wanting to paint her for awhile and pleased I finally get to give this gift to my Mom.

I’ve got one more large illustration gig to wrap up in August, but other than that, I’m almost caught up.  I still have my regular editorial cartoons to draw, and five or six extras to get done in advance for my week away at Photoshop World Las Vegas at the beginning of September.  But, all in all, I think I’m finally going to be able to find a few days of downtime soon, gain some control over my life and relax.

Did I mention that I’m a slow learner?

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iPad Painting and the Wacom Bamboo Stylus

Here’s another iPad painting that I just finished.  This is Marcia Gay Harden in character as ‘Mother Carmody’ from the Frank Darabont movie, ‘The Mist,’ based on the novel by Stephen King.  She is one of my favorite movie villains which made this a lot of fun to work on.  Frank Darabont is one of my favorite filmmakers and Stephen King is my favorite author, so it should come as no surprise that The Mist is one of my favorite movies.  How many times can you use ‘favorite’ in a sentence?

Darabont has made movies out of a number of King’s books.  In addition to The Mist, there was The Green Mile and The Shawshank Redemption.  He is also responsible for the breakout miniseries ‘The Walking Dead,’ which is one of the few television shows I would pay extra to see.  And if that weren’t enough, Darabont has used Drew Struzan (one more favorite) to create the posters for a number of his movies, including the ones I’ve mentioned here.  It’s no wonder I’ve chosen two of his characters to paint on the iPad.

I’ve already written a great deal about the process for painting on the iPad and the ArtStudio app, which is still preferred over all others.  If you’d like to see other iPad paintings and posts, there are links at the end of this entry.  The process is very much like other digital painting, with some limitations due to the nature of the iPad.

What made this current painting different is that I was taking a new stylus for a test drive.  Up until now, I had been using (and recommending) the Targus stylus, but I recently got my hands on the new Bamboo Stylus for iPad by none other than Wacom.  I’ll be honest, I had REALLY high expectations for this stylus.  Wacom has long been established as the go-to company for drawing tablets, and having owned more than a few of them, I’m a pretty big fan.  I couldn’t do my work without a Wacom tablet.

I already knew that the stylus wasn’t going to be reinventing the wheel.  Anybody expecting pressure sensitivity (something Wacom tablets are very well known for) should dismiss it now, no matter what stylus you’re using.   The iPad currently does not support pressure sensitivity, so that discussion ends pretty darn quick.

Without going into great boring technical details, I can sum up the Wacom Bamboo Stylus pretty easily.  It is the best stylus I’ve used so far.  Every other stylus I’ve tried, and there have been four of them, has been a little like drawing with a piece of chalk.  A large surface area with the tip, because the iPad is built to register a finger, not a pen.   What it looks like Wacom did, however, was take that tip size to the ultimate minimum.  The contact surface is significantly smaller than any other stylus I’ve seen so far.  It’s still not fine point tip, but it’s a definite improvement over all others I’ve tried.

What else did they get right?  Well, it’s longer than any other stylus I’ve used, so it feels better in my hand.  It has better balance, too.  They included a clip (something others have failed to do) and it looks good, too.  While I’m sure a lot of work went into the research and development of this stylus, it’s not a complicated device.  It’s a pen that allows you to write, draw, and paint on the iPad.

Many people will recall that I liked the Targus stylus, and up until now, it was all I needed.  Wacom, however, raised the bar with the Bamboo Stylus and it’s now my primary drawing device for the iPad.  I still have to use the glove so I can rest my hand while drawing without activating the app with the heel of my hand, but that’s a compensation for the iPad, not the stylus.

As with all of the stylus products out there, there are metal parts on them, so a little bit of care for your iPad is warranted.  Don’t leave your stylus sitting on the screen or push really hard at a very steep angle as there is always the risk of slipping and possibly scratching the iPad.  You don’t need to push hard with ANY stylus, and if you use the Bamboo Stylus properly, you should have no issues.

I do not have a screen protector on my iPad, so I can’t say how it works with one, but I used my iPad a LOT, do a lot of painting with it, and the only scratches I’ve ever got were from a brief test of the Dagi stylus which put three nice little scars on the screen.  Even those are hard to find, but it was enough for me to abandon it.  The Apple case is all I’ve ever needed for the iPad, so I don’t see the need for a screen protector.

Bottom line, I would highly recommend buying the Wacom Bamboo Stylus.  Yes, at $29.95, it costs a little more than others on the market, but I’ve always believed that you get what you pay for, and this one is worth it.  It’s a joy to paint with and after the first few minutes, I didn’t think about the pen at all, which is the best endorsement I can offer.  I find the best products (hardware and software) are the ones that allow you to think about your work, not the tools you use to create it.

As for those who are demanding pressure sensitivity, talk to Apple about it.  In the meantime, you can easily fake pressure sensitivity with most apps on the market by varying the opacity of the brush in the app itself.  That’s what I did throughout this whole painting and it worked very well.  I rarely use full brush opacity when painting, even in Photoshop.

One final note about painting with the iPad in general…

The iPad has limitations that prevent me from producing ready-for-market paintings.  Just the color calibration and resolution limitations are enough to put the brakes on creating finished work.  This ‘actual pixels’ image is as close as you can zoom in on the first-gen iPad.  Were I to import this into Photoshop, it would serve as a sketch for a painting, with many more hours required to create a finished piece.  Had I painted this in Photoshop, I would consider this to be about half done at this stage.

With that in mind, you might wonder why I bother painting with the iPad at all, when I can get much more detail and a tighter rendering with Photoshop and a traditional Wacom tablet.  The reasons are simple.  With the right app, and the right stylus, the iPad is a great sketchbook.  I also enjoy the challenge of seeing how far I can take a painting, and it’s just great overall painting practice.  Another reason is simply to show that you can create quality artwork on the iPad, despite the critics (fewer all the time) that say it’s of no practical use to artists.  One thing I’ve learned over the years by watching what talented and creative people do with all sorts of mediums in this world is that artists will decide for themselves what is and isn’t of practical use for their own creativity.

If you’d like to see other iPad painting posts I’ve written along and images I’ve painted, here are some links.

iPad Cartooning: An Ongoing Experiment

iPad Painting: Billy Connolly

iPad Painting: James Whitmore

iPad Painting: Daniel Day-Lewis

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Photo Reference

In a blog entry from November, I wrote about the need for photo reference when it comes to my Totem paintings.  In the interest of keeping this blog entry from becoming lengthy, you can follow this link and read it, if you’d like more information on that.

While I usually get photo reference from photographer friends and colleagues, I’ve recently realized that I need to start developing some photography skills so that I can start gathering my own.  I have a decent digital SLR camera, a Nikon D60, and while it is by no means a professional rig, it’s enough for what I need it for.  The only lens I have is the one it came with, and I’m beginning to see that I’m going to eventually need a zoom lens in order to get the close detail shots, if the photos are going to be of any use to me.  Even in a zoo, the subject of the shot is going to need to be pretty close.

I happened to look out my office window this morning and saw this handsome fellow sitting on the fence making those wonderfully articulate sounds that ravens make.  Even though I’ve already painted a raven, there’s nothing to say I won’t paint another in the future, and you can never have enough reference.  I was able to get a LOT closer than I thought I would.  I would estimate that of the 20 or so shots that I took, the last one was from only about three feet away before he took flight.  He really didn’t seem all that concerned.

Photography is an elusive art form for me, and while I like taking photos, I’ve got enough talented and skilled photographer friends that I know the very large difference between real photography and the point-and-shoot method.  I’ve gotten to a point that I need to do more of the former and less of the latter. Fortunately, I belong to a vast community of talented creatives through the NAPP organization that I can go to for advice and resources.  I also believe that I’ll be taking some more photography classes at Photoshop World this year.

My true love is painting and illustration, so I have no desire to become a professional photographer, and I know that I will still rely on purchasing photo reference from professional wildlife photographers to get the detailed photo reference I need to bring my paintings to life.  I would, however, like to bring my photography up to ‘skilled amateur’ level, in order to make my paintings even better.  I’ve often spoken about the need for artists to continue to grow, and I think this is something that will help me do that.