Partly as a consequence of having some extra time, partly because I got a couple of generous iTunes vouchers from family, there are a bunch of new apps I have been experimenting with in the last few days. This is a half-hearted attempt to document them a bit further. Bear with me.

Tiny Pixels
Wonderful, wonderful pixel painter that has captured my heart a little.


Sprite Something
Interesting pixel-related animation app.



PhotoPuppet HD
Incredible, potentially very powerful (and quick!) animation app that uses the touch input method to record movements of pre-defined ‘puppets’. Highly customisable, brilliantly executed and a genuine ‘wow’ moment. This clip is merely a quick test. I present it here for no other reason than it is something to mark the moment.



I have been in touch with the developer Piotr and it looks likely that we will be working together on some animation projects. This is one of the best things I have yet seen on the app store. It is a kind of poor-man’s motion capture.

Piotr produced the following clip using some of my images. He says it took him about ten minutes. This is an incredible indication of what might be possible.



Snow Fight
I include this here because I spent a few hours playing this. It is a lovely game. Once again - pixels rule.

Tags: animation, apps, comics, film, process

There is certainly a place for considered, drafted blogging. There is also a place for being able to shove stuff onto the web without much thought. I had felt that although twitter is great it also loses something of the thread of a sketchbook. I wanted to keep stuff and gather visual material daily from my world and not have to worry about admin later on.





From the sidebar: I also use a phone-based tumblr blog as a kind of notebook arrangement for instinct-level postings of images and quotes and whatever when I am out and about. If they are good enough they usually make their way onto this site in some form or another.

Tags: apps, books, comics, film, marking, music, newspaper, photography, trondheim, moebius, sketchbook, process, radio, tv, twitter

Yes there is a lot of stuff to say about this device as I get to use it over time. The main thing is that the iPhone has some definite advantages - these boil down to mainly camera and connectivity.

Taking the process described above, I am settling happily into a new way of creating artwork. It might change the look and feel a bit but I somehow like it more. There is more of an analogue feel (weirdly) to the results and the process certainly has a greater tactility to it. Sketchbook/Procreate/Photoforge/Dropbox/Camera Connection Kit work like a sweet combo deal.

Oddly I thought I would be using the Adonit Jot pen much more. It definitely comes in handy when I am doing some finer-line stuff, but the ability to zoom in and use fingers is brilliant here. For all else I Depend on real pen on real paper and then transferred macro photography taken in reasonable light.

Along the with many many suckers out there I started reading the Steve Jobs book in the ebook format. This is my first experience with a 'proper' book and it feels good. I am still getting used to the bookmarking system in iBooks and am hopeful that it isn't just a dead-end format that can't go much further than a private read.¹

I have to say that the bookmarking/notation/sync method seems a little messed up. My notes don't correlate a lot of the time and I had to re-download the iPad version of the book to get a proper rendition of italicised headings and footnote links.

On the positive side it was a lot cheaper than Waterstones' £5 off deal.²

Other thoughts

I did a series of teaching at a youth camp in the last week and used my iPad exclusively to present video and keynote material via a really lovely projector. Part of the work involved using the Telcarta Bible app - which for the most part work brilliantly - highlighting texts and scrolling them etc. one error crept in later in the sessions: the projector/iPad link seemed to crash in some way and only a reboot would fix it. It wasn't a good moment in an otherwise flawless experience. I would also recommend that if you use any DVD materials you rip it with Ripit and don't go via the FairPlay disc download route because it put restrictions on mirroring the image via an external display.



Another aspect of the presentation/teaching experience that stood out was the use of the camera connection kit. At one point we were getting the kids to produce some reflective images - we had this big sheet of paper and they were getting stuck in making some smart images. I had a thought that it might be possible to take some iPhone snaps and then upload them to the iPad and present them. It worked VERY quickly. Within literally a minute or two I had imported and rotated them. The projection experience is very sweet because you can use the pinch zoom thing quite freely. Try doing that with iPhoto on a mac and you can have a pretty clunky time of it. This was a very sweet moment³ for me and justified the purchase price of the kit, no questions asked.

So what can't I do with it?

Mainly at the moment it comes down to the Mothership syndrome of needing physical backup storage via my mac and blogging. I'm not doing a lot of video editing at the moment so I can't comment on that right now. I am drafts blog posts (here) via Writeroom and then bringing it all together into Rapidweaver later on. Maybe the delayed nature of it all makes things work better - you know, reflection and distance and all that...

¹For quote functionality I recommend using Prizmo with a screenshot. ²Yay only £20 with the discount. ³sweet mainly because it was smooth and unflashy. No one was saying 'look at that iPad'. They forgot about the tech and the photos took precedence.

Tags: apps, process

Some further notes

1. Roughs on paper and/or procreate. In this case I knocked out something digitally first.
2. Tidy pencils on a4 paper. Usual pencil/ink routine.
3. Take a decent daylight photo using macro iphone4 lens.
4. Photo connection kit to swap the images over to iPad.
5. Create a folder for photos.
6. Duff stage: I cropped the photos using the photo album app but this was a backwards step - when I brought these into Photoforge the edits weren't recognised.
7. Import photos into Photoforge.
- stages: crop, black and white, multiple enhance fx stages until the image looks pure black and white (as per the usual photoshop scanning solutions via my MacBook).
8. Import images into a HD procreate canvas - one image per canvas.
9. BREAKTHROUGH. Colour the rest of the layer in with white, and then use the 'multiply' canvas setting. Layers below will be happy with applied colour.
10. Proceed as before having saved time 'inking'.

Oh yes.

Bizarre Photoforge errors...

After getting this far I had some problems. It wouldn't import the transparent PNG files and I ended up having to use a weird/faffy workaround that imported the images using Bluetooth via my iPhone after I had emailed them across. Synchronicity indeed.

The Photoforge settings I am enjoying currently are the pop-cam paper filters. They improve the look I think.

Update from Photoforge (19/10/11): "Sorry for the inconvenience. We believe we have found the issue you are experiencing and have submitted a fix to the app store. Updates are normally approved in less than 7 days. For the time being there is a work around, in the settings app disable location services for PhotoForge2, this will cause the default image picker to be used which does not have load size problems."

Further update (26/10/11): the latest update works a dream. No problem.

Tags: apps, process

I was so excited tonight to get to join the dots a little on the process front. Here are the stages with accompanying images:

1. Hand drawn image, inked on very ordinary paper.

- don't worry about what this image is about - I was enjoying listening to the Peter Gabriel concert on Radio 2 and just wanted to chill out with some mindless doodling.

2. Pencil rubbed out and then photo taken using iPhone 4.

- This was a remarkably low-tech event: I just stood the picture under a lamp in my living room and got a reasonable shot taken.

3. Photoforge levels

- after converting it to Black and White I went straight for the levels filter setting. In one swoosh I got it looking exactly like the scanned images I work on with Photoshop in my study.
- export to Dropbox and/or photo album.

4. Import into HD Procreate canvas

- I then painted corrective white across the image to clean up any outstanding blemishes.
- I added a lower level and filled it with a low grey (this is essential if the next stage is to work, otherwise the image will just disappear)
- convert the top black and white drawing layer to 'multiply' mode



- paint and add lower levels as normal. It just works. So happy.

5. Export canvas and filter in Photoforge

- I went for Popcam and the paper filters



So happy with the iPad as a real illustration option that frees me from my desk. For smaller image jobs (up to maybe ten or so images of A5 size print quality) this is a definite viable method for production.¹

¹Of course this assumes that the usual (and vital) foundational skills of brief definition and interpretation, client relationship, roughs and approval processes are in place...

Tags: apps, process

So I had a go at reinterpreting an image () from my mate Kath's blog. I imported the original image into Procreate and made a quick draft layer. I then just ploughed in and created the picture below using my three usual layers: drawing, figure and object shading, background.¹


My interpretation is - as the article goes on to say - based on purely visual considerations
and not the actual guts of what the article was about.

The background shading techniques available in Procreate are better than on the Mac. Even Artrage on OSX isn't as good to me. I struggled a little with the line work but that’s merely a case of not being sure of what I’m doing. Eventually I settled in and the dropbox-exported image looks decent on the mac. There is a slight appearance of blurriness or excessive pixelisation on the iPad window that didn't translate when I finally saw it on my MacBook. Sweet.

And then things got better...

I wanted to manage photo cropping and resizing from the iPad so I could technically finish a job away from my mac. I did a search and found Photoforge2. For 69p this thing shines - and then some.

My key interest of cropping and resizing was well served. You can do a pixel-perfect resize and then even edit the meta data on the exported image if you want.

The really great stuff turned up: if you export a transparent PNG from Procreate then you have further options in Photoforge: it manages layering. This means that you can further tweak things with a background credit link or extra texture or whatever.

And finally: something super awesome.

I was frustrated with the mistaken belief (I wrongly tweeted this earlier in the week) that with a wifi-only iPad I could exchange files using a wifi network with my iphone and then email/send them on to wherever. This only works if you have an existing wifi network to plug into - iOS devices don't create wifi networks unless you have tethering or jail breaking set up.²

And then Photoforge jumps in with a Bluetooth-Bluetooth via Photoforge option :0



Having already paid for this universal app I simply re-downloaded it to my iphone and then BINGO! I simply share the file from the iPad and it goes across ready for client delivery. To say I am happy is an understatement. This is a significant workflow loop sealed up.³

Which brings me to the evil of Stock Photography

Having done all of this I am ready to now deliver the image to my Kath and for her to exchange a stock photo image for something bespoke and... well, decent.

But then I look again at what the blog post was about and it is immediately clear to me that this image wasn't that good in the first place. It was simply an image she probably bunged in, which had a vague passing resemblance to what she was doing. In actuality it was probably "good enough" at the time but in hindsight is a bit smelly.

And this is why stock images are so bad. They aren't personal, unique or really appropriate. They are cliched visuals that cheapen the wonderful articles they are supposed to be serving.⁴

And that is why illustrators and commissioned photographers are so worthwhile.

¹Yes I have variations, but this is structurally the way I tend to work. ²Neither of those options are desirable for simple reasons to do with staying within the safer supported boundary of iOS updates and having to give O2 less cash. ³to be able to transfer text via bluetooth in a similar fashion would be sweet indeed. ⁴No criticism intended of Kath by the way - she is just probably a slave to this stuff as much as everyone else and she doesn’t know it. Yet.

Tags: apps, process

Don’t get too worked up on this one - it is just messing about to see what the tools feel like and how the exported psd file correlates to existing stuff.

When I export a ‘HD’ image at 1408x1920, the image inspector tells me that the image is 234 pixels per inch. When I drag those layers into a new document at full 300dpi print resolution it almost fills an A5 page:


This is my first decent impression of the sizes I am working with, and how to proceed in terms of workflow:
1. Create rough draft materials in pen/pencil on A5 pages to get the right feel
2. Use either the iPad inferior-cam or iPhone to get a good reference shot as a template
3. use the iPad to ‘ink’ the final
4. export to iTunes for final adjustments or… go via Inkpad

The Inkpad route

Steps:
1. Create an A4 document within Inkpad.
2. Within Procreate open document, ‘save canvas to photos’. This creates a transparency-supported png file.
3. Import the png file into your A4 document.


4. Do whatever mucking about you need in Inkpad and send the file to Dropbox or email. I would suggest that pdf or png are the best options - jpeg looks less crisp on zooming in.

Multi-back and forthing

Another process I am interested in, is to do this:
1. Create a rough drawing on paper and transfers a guide document using the camera
2. Import into Inkpad and then add text to get the right feel for things
3. Export the image to the photo album and import this text/hand drawn image into Procreate as a guide for detailed and careful painting
4. Re-send the new image to photo album and bring it back into Inkpad and refine placement and wording.
5. Final sending off.

This all assumes that you have a decent image in mind, the skill to pull it off and an art editor who can handle whatever you send them. My gut feeling is that in extreme situations I will need to use a wifi network to email or Dropbox my stuff off, but generally it is a case of going via Procreate to PSD in iTunes. That is probably the best route at the moment.
Use paper/camera/Inkpad to compose an A5 illustration. Use Procreate to finish inking/colouring. Send to Photoshop via iTunes to complete the cycle on your Mac. Very occasionally resend via Inkpad and export as a PNG.

Tags: apps, process

The big thing about Steve Jobs is that he gave people access to freedom of expression, creativity and a chance to do things a bit different.

Even when Macs were still a niche Market it was an exciting thing to be able to explore new digital possibilities in the way that they allowed you to.

My own experience with Mac and the inherent Apple philosophy began as a student teacher at Beauchamp College in Leicester. One of the Design Tech teachers there sat me in front of a laptop and said I should go through the learning course. It was one of the original PowerBooks and it had the Mac smily face as it booted up in monochrome halftone dots. I have no idea which OS it was on - probably 7. The things that stood out to me were the round tracking ball and the helpful immersive introductory sequence that taught you the basics. It was actually fun.

The course I was on (PGCE Art and Design at DeMontfort Uni) had a lovely man called Steve Bruntlett who introduced a bunch of us to the Acorn RISC machine (then described as a 'poor man's Mac' due to it's compositing and Dtp software that cost a tenth of the mac equivalents¹). We learnt something of the Mac approach to things at a time when Macs were a ridiculously expensive and exclusive format.

I eventually bought a RISC machine as a very young teacher but started to use macs a bit through the school I started teaching at. They had invested heavily in the Classic/Performa-era machines and I spent quite a lot of time wrestling with Claris Works to make a short Bill & Ted parody for an RS lesson called Ben & Tony. This romanced me at a deep level.

After getting a bit stale (I had been teaching in a school for 6 or 7 years) I decided to start a limited company and simply start learning how to make stuff. I sank about £5k into the first few years but gained a lot of new experience as I went through a bunch of mac machines second-hand. A G4, an early iBook and then eventually an TiBook. Along came OSX and I joined in further.

Eventually after ten years of various adventures - making documentary shorts, designing websites, taking and editing photos, chopping up music, teaching my wife to chop up music for her dance teaching (and so on) I finally worked out that my strengths lay in teaching (particularly teaching Religious Education from a position of Christian Spirituality), communication thinking and drawing.

This journey of self-discovery feels like it came quite late (I have always felt like a late developer) but it did come after a lot of playing around with stuff. This is where the Steve Jobs thing comes in.

If Steve Jobs' accomplishments mean anything to me, they stand for the entirely agreeable educational philosophy of adventurous exploration through ease of access and enthusiastic engagement. Yes that was a mouthful to me too.

Even in my current day-job this has been a benchmark for what I am about day to day. I use a MacBook Pro for teaching, demonstrating, recording and assessing. It is a digital classroom as far as I am concerned: I carry it with me everywhere to edit podcast materials, upload website information, communicate with students who occasionally need extra help or advice and chop up clips.

If any of my students have been helped to get further in their studies it has a lot to do with the tools that Steve Jobs worked hard at putting within my reach.

The thing I love most about a truly Mac/Apple philosophy is that it doesn't usually get in the way. It enables you to take the initiative.

2 Frustrations: missing the big point

One frustration in recent years is the way that people attribute impressive results in digital-based art or education directly to the Apple tools employed. The fact is that these tools enable creative people to be expressive in fresh ways. Just because something is coloured digitally it doesn't mean that the computer made those choices!

My other frustration is tied up with how one should best remember and celebrate the life of this incredible man. Apple has become for many people a fashion or brand statement and although this may be useful for sales and a boost for revenue, the sad thing is that you get people who never make great stuff while holding an incredibly creative device. Clearly this is the voice of a school teacher who likes to see people progress into the joys of self-expression through technology.

My frequent response to students or friends who say that they are "getting an iPad" or iMac or iWhatever is "do something decent with it"².

Anything less feels like a genuine waste of a great life.

¹Photo desk and Page something or other. I once went to an Acorn tradeshow for some bizarre unremembered reason and met one of the Cambridge design team - a man in a tweed waistcoat with a bow-tie and probably one of the least friendly figures I have ever met. He was a cross between Doctor Who and, well, a Cyberman I suppose. ² it doesn't take much to see how fortunate we are in the UK at this time in history. Just a short journey in time or geography will leave you in no doubt that there are people making huge advances creatively with the lowest of tech items. What are you doing with yours? Surfing the net for shoes? Talking about TOWIE? Seriously do your life and historical context a favour and get on making something interesting instead of applying herd-values to the recycling and regurgitation of third hand sentiment. Yes that seemed harsh but it is worse to kill time you are never getting back.

Tags: steve jobs, apps, film, music, photography, process

I got to really play this evening for a few hours and made some further progress in my quest for finding workable iOS illustration processes. The big revelation is how usable some of the newer apps for the iPad are. There are some real gems out there that seem to make a genuine difference if you have a good idea of how to make best use out of them.

I have already reflected on my search for something decent on the iphone. My current convictions are firmly along the line that illustration just isn't workable on this size screen. As expensive as an iphone is, you want to make the most of it, right? But after a lot of playing about I don't personally feel that the space works that well. It becomes tiring and as miraculous as the apps are, it is clumsy. Even with the Jot stylus it doesn't quite match up to low tech biro markings on a sheet of scrap paper.

Where the iphone excels is in the mobile communication/news feed/networking applications. With a bluetooth keyboard it also becomes a very respectable writing tool.

For mobile illustration, however, the larger screen is really necessary. Something to do with basic human ergonomics I guess.

Anyway, here are the latest reflections:

Intaglio is out, Steve Sprang's Inkpad is most definitely in.

I spent time looking at a few vector apps before and settled on Intaglio, which stills has lots to commend it. However, tonight I did some illustration corrections and found the document set-up, object handling and general operation of Inkpad a first class and refreshing event. Bravo to that man.

Exporting material via email and Dropbox was a sync-synch (ho ho).

Sketchbook Pro is out Procreate is still the king.

The relative lag and ultimately what feels like a bunch a frustrating tools leave me going for the delete button. I imported an earlier illustration that needed adjusting, having decided to redraw it, import it into inkpad for some text work and then email it to my client.

Procreate was pretty straightforward. I used a low opacity foundation layer for tracing and set up a few swatches easily enough. It was easy, although the so-called 'HD' resolution of 1908x1420 pixels isn't quite up to an A4 300dpi image. It is good enough for smaller A5 images though, Which actually means quite a lot of flexibility for print work.¹

"Can your mother sew?"

Then tell her to stitch this.²

Yes I went to a Haberdasher today and spent 70p on some elastic. I then tastefully sewed a pen sleeve onto my case. Yes it looks like I have skills. Yes I am genuinely happy. No I am not posting a photo because. Yes I am scared of being mocked.

¹even with my MacBook and scanner I have to adjust to the fact that A3 images have to be scanned in pieces on a much smaller device before being reassembled. ²an old joke derived from some Geordie types - the 'this' refers to the wound inflicted from headbutting the other person at the end of the short interaction about their maternal parent

Tags: apps, sketchbook

I am only a few hours into enjoying my iPad and I want to make a few observations.

1. It is weird to have to wait for two weeks. I was sorely tempted and made at least one coded attempt at asking my wife to let me open my birthday present early¹.

2. It is doubly weird to finally open it on the day of the news of Steve Jobs' passing. Much of my life 'wallpaper' was designed or closely directed by him. There is a lot to say about this but now is not that time.

2. On opening the package I had limited time (starting a very busy/lengthy work day) so I made a few quick decisions about what needed doing. Downloading Procreate was high on the list.

3. Simply put: the combination of the iPad2, Adonit Jot Pro pen and the Procreate app is a rare treat.

The control and precision is wonderful: for the first time since owning a Sony Clie I am able to enjoy making accurate digital marks that feel satisfyingly controllable and not the usual coincidental/interesting accidents.²

The bigger screen, responsive zooming, tight pen movements, easy left handed brush size changes and general comfort form factors all make for a refreshing experience.

It feels like the best of several past things:
- when I had a spell of writing super tiny digital notes on a Sony Clie using a stylus. Lovely days.
- working on my Mac with a Wacom Bamboo and photoshop scanned pen drawings
- some aspects of real-life physical drawing (namely - having good control, being able to rotate and get the feel of a sketchbook)

These are a combo that make the iPad an unusual step forward. Previously these experiences were separate processes, but for the first time this device enables a possible synthesis. I will post some further thoughts as I explore this avenue.

Reservations

I have a handful that I am working through:

1. To enable professional-grade (ie paid) illustration work to happen on an iPad I need to grasp the correlation between the screen space I am working in and the pixel count/dpi export size. When I work on scanned drawings in photoshop I know how big the end image will look and I have a clear sense of what screen sizes mean in print and web terms. This link is yet to be made in my mind with the iPad.

I am probably going to do some testing and exporting/importing to see what the links might be. It will probably mean having some saved templates as imported photo layers with imprinted sizes and guides.

2. Storage and use of the pen. Steve Jobs said "If you see a stylus, they blew it." Actually when it comes to precision digital painting he was wrong. Having the Adonit Jot is a revelation, but the ability to store it with the iPad is a bit of an issue. I am probably going to sew an extra pen-sleeve to the soft wallet I got for it so I can carry it permanently with the tablet. In my mind this is a vital physical link if the iPad is to succeed in digital illustration.

One other aspect of the pen is potentially tricky: I still don't entirely trust the nib to remain strong. For £25 it is a decent bit of kit but feels liable to some depressing accident. We shall see. I hate the idea of the whole thing hinging on a wobbly plastic nib. Anyways.

¹ she either didn't understand what i was asking or didn't stand for it
² it was so depressing that I had almost given up on trying to make it work

Tags: apps, sketchbook

It’s my birthday in a few days’ time and there is a paid-for iPad waiting somewhere for me.

While the wait is in fact actually killing me a bit it does mean that I get some time to catch up on the mass of iPad information that I have ignored for the past year or so. Because it seemed so excessive to get into that area (I am well resourced with a Macbook at home, a Macbook Pro at work and a lovely iPhone 4 that goes with me, well, everywhere...) I simply shut down my iPad radar and ignored anything beyond the general stuff that floats past on the feeds.

After coming to a point of deciding to get one², I’ve been digging about looking at apps and various reviews. There is a lot to catch up on. One sweet thing is that we are up to a second iPad generation and apps that have had a decent amount of development time. This thing might actually be more than a neat gadget.

Neither Plant nor Zombie

One thing I am keen on doing is decide a few principles before I get going with it. The main issue with iOS technology is that it can become an unfiltered mediator of reality - no reflective screening in between your brain and the touch surface. You just get sucked into the vacuum as a Plant or Zombie¹.

Having a few days to think this over is useful.

Limits

For a start I decided to skip 3G entirely. It means continual paying out to phone networks and I already do that with my iPhone. Should I ever need that kind of connectivity I can either do some kind of workaround using a pastebot-style wifi connection with my phone, use ‘proper’ tethering or get some mifi- style device. I suspect that with the lifestyle I currently have I won’t be doing that anytime soon.

The plain fact is that with the basic 16 gig Wifi iPad you are getting the best value for money in terms of unit cost. Sure - it may cause a slight headache later one when you can’t carry a ton of stuff on it, but this is part of the deal as far as I am concerned. To know those limits and to work them to their best potential.

I confess that when I got my iPhone 4 I bought into the notion that the best is the best. It still serves me amazingly well, but I suspect that somewhere I swallowed the lie that you aren’t complete until you have the highest spec item. This iPad will be different.

What is it ‘for’?

One of the important factors in deciding what I am going to be doing with this device is to work out what space it exists in. With the advent of the iPad there has been a real challenge about where these things fit - is it a serious thing for work? Is it a leisure consumption device? Is it for sharing? Is it private?

This is a really hard question to answer - my static brain answer projects thoughts like this:
Laptop(s) for ‘work’. Teaching, design, editing, manipulation, writing, web-curating.
iPhone for news consumption, communications and general multi-platform staying in touch.
iPad for creativity and open-ended less serious play. A digital sketchbook.

I agree with these ideas, but I can see a number of problems with them that I haven’t the energy to go into now.

Is it necessary? If not, then what is?

Not really. An iPad is a luxury. It can be replicated by lots of other stuff. A sketchbook can provide - in many ways - a superior thinking platform. If you have a piece of paper and a pen you can do a heck of a lot. If you want cut and paste you can simply tear stuff up and tape it down in another arrangement. How is an iPad any better? Low tech rules.

The need is for space to think.

Without space to juggle ideas, to refresh perspectives, to engage with context and to shift paradigms you are stuck. Where an iPad might be a suffocating curse is in it’s shutting down of this most vital oxygen bubble. I intend to fight this and make the best use I can out of a lovely gadget. I intend to use it for making interesting stuff. I don’t want it to carry me along, but I want to make something interesting that transcends it’s wonderful design. If this means returning to sketchbook processes then so be it.

Let’s talk about usage and apps etc.

What do I intend to use on it? Probably these items:

• the Adonit Jot. I discovered this baby from this site after looking at this site. When finger painting is simply described as using a fat crayon it is probably a good idea to get a better method in. This looks like it. I shall post updates and reflections after I get stuck in.
• Procreate looks like the best HD drawing and painting app on the iPad due to it’s non-laggy software implementation. The Artrage and Sketchbook Pro competitors don’t look so hot, although may end up trying SP in the end.
• Seeing as I have Photoshop CS5 on my Mac, I thought that Adobe’s Eazel might be worth a go.
• Writeroom/Dropbox/Evernote are already universal and working well on my iPhone. No brainers.
• All the iWork/iLife stuff is supposedly better on the iPad, so that follows. One area to consider is the use of an iPad in a teaching environment.

iOS: an artists’ dream fades

I have previously written about how I felt sad about the lack of realisation when it comes to using iOS as a creative platform. Maybe the larger screen and different space will be a way forward. This post is worth hanging on to.

I shall be posting updates as things develop. Please excuse what reads like a bit of daft post - how many people stress about this kind of thing? Don’t they just dive in and forget about it?

¹Or an Angry Bird with tiny wings. ²I made my decision based on a number of probably not great factors. Buying into a luxury while acknowledging it as such is maybe the biggest thing. I didn’t get it because I needed it - I got it because I wanted it. I had the money and it is my birthday. Having said all that, I want to make the most of it and not simply let this experience sink into some depressing gadget-freak cycle.

Tags: apps, process

The issues surrounding privacy and all that are rendered less relevant by the fact that you are a part of their ‘free’ service.

The truth is that if you are accessing one of the many monolithic and ‘free’ services (Google+, Posterous, Fakebook, Twitter, Tumblr etc etc) then at some point you become one their products. The issues surrounding privacy and all that are rendered less relevant by the fact that you are a part of their ‘free’ service. If they can’t sell knowledge of you (anonymous or not) then how are they going to keep afloat financially? They can’t, so somewhere there has to be a product delivered to someone somewhere. If you are happy with this trade-off then go for it. Just don’t be sad when you realise that they can take advantage.

I still have a twitter account but I don’t lean on it as heavily as I have done for this reason. I also ditched my fakebook account some time back purely because I was uneasy about investing in something that I didn’t trust.

The thing which troubles me most is that there are literally millions of people who donate their creative energies to fakebook and the like. Whatever the goodness might be, there are aspects of this deal which stink.

Update: I just realised I am echoing Gruber. Ouch.

Tags: apps, fakebook, twitter, google, gruber