Your suggestions, please, for switch to real digital
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@maureen Another vote for iPad Pro here! I like to work in Watercolour and pencil mostly too, and recently I’ve discovered that I have much more success just taking a photo of my drawing then tweaking colours and lineart in Procreate. I often work offline and only connect with WiFi if I need to do research & emails etc.
It’s not cheap but it’s totally worth it! -
Thanks, @jimsz for the info. What kind of screen protector did you get?
Is there a particular size iPad that works best?
Maureen -
@maureen Hello Maureen - here are my random thoughts - i have a cintiq 13hd touch that i have used for maybe an hour since i got my iPad pro in 2016 - i have no data plan for my iPad - the apple pencil is by far the best stylus for the iPad so i would definitely get one of those - i don't mind the drawing on glass thing, it has never been an issue, just something to get used to (also i hate screen protectors so i had no choice :)One important thing for me is that i feel very cramped when on the 13hd - there is not a lot of room to work and the icons are very small....this would have been fine 10 years ago when i could still see well but i use 3.5 readers to draw these days.. i feel like the iPad has a much bigger usable space than the 13hd - i believe that Adobe is working on a full photoshop for iPad if you are interested in photoshop(maybe don't take my word for it though)....i love the Procreate app - i do sometimes think it would be really cool to have Procreate on a huge screen like a cintiq 21hd... but i still love the iPad pro - i'll be 50 in a few days and wish i had started digital a long time ago ..but it is never too late to start
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Thanks, @smceccarelli Don't think I have Bluetooth for my desktop PC. Gads, I am such a dinosaur! Can images be transferred through a USB connection?
Maureen -
Hi, @kevin-longueil Thanks for your thoughts. So do I understand this correctly that I can get an iPad, download Procreate wherever I can find Wi-Fi, and then just draw? I don't have to sit at my laptop or stay in range of Wi-Fi? If that is all true, how long does the iPad battery last or do you just recharge it when you are not using it? Thanks for the comment about not starting too late. I blew past 50 awhile ago!
Maureen -
Thanks, @mrsdion iPad Pro and Procreate sound like the way to go.
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Thanks, @poppyk I had not thought of taking a photo. Any thoughts on "how" you take the photo, for example, just flat on a table with natural room light or something fancier?
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Loving the 12.9 Ipad pro and Procreate (and Affinity designer recently). Have had for almost a year now and no complaints. Over 50 here and learning curve was super easy. I have a few supplements for it cos I hate how apple treats file saving/sharing in general. So I have a SanDisk iXpand Mobile Flash Drive with Lightning connector transfer thingy to let me easily transfer my procreate files to my PC for backup and storage so I am not dealing with icloud not enough space crap.
Also got Tech Armor Anti-Glare/Anti-Fingerprint Film Screen Protector cos screen was kinda slippy and Poetic Lumos Apple iPad Pro 12.9 Case which has a handy spot to store the pencil so I am not losing or damaging it.
No need for data plan - just connect to wifi if you need to. Pencil works with bluetooth so no worries there.
As far as battery : it last about a day of moderate use before needing recharge. it does seem to take a long time to charge but speeds up if you turn off wifi - usually I just plug in overnight. Pencil recharges super fast. -
@maureen Yes - pay for the app once and it will get updated with awesome new features at no cost - i bought my iPad through Amazon and have had zero issues with it - you can draw anywhere you like ...not tethered to a laptop or insane bundle of cables - i like to draw at the kitchen table or on the couch with my kids - i don't know about battery life..isn't that funny..(or sad) it has never been an issue though ....i have the keyboard for my iPad but never use it - i use my laptop for any real writing also i've had a few cases for my iPad but this is by far (for me)the best
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I bought this screen protector after trying others. It has a little bit of tooth to it where many others are very smooth.
https://www.amazon.com/Tech-Armor-Anti-Glare-Anti-Fingerprint-Protector/dp/B016B12TSW
As for size, I bought the 12.9 inch iPad Pro
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@maureen No, you cannot use an USB stick on an iPad, as far as I know. You can use WiFi to transfer the images though - that´s no problem.
Battery life is very long on the iPadPro - probably around 20 hours or so. I ran out of battery a few times, but then - I never charge it until I have to
The Apple Pencil does run out of battery much more often, but it charges in 15 minutes, so it´s not a problem. -
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I found this product on amazon and so far it is working great for me to transfer files from Ipad to PC when no wifi available
http://a.co/d/eeSvGjl -
Hi, Maureen! You don’t need internet connection when using procreate on your ipad. Once you’ve bought the app and installed it, you literally don’t need the internet to have it running. Take it from me, i also use procreate on my ipad and i don’t need the internet to use it.
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@maureen No data plan for my Ipad here either. I love Procreate and have learned so much about digital painting in a really short space of time, not sure I want to use anything else now. I haven't got a scanner and I am not a great photographer so getting my 'real life' work into the ipad is hit and miss but when I do I am happy with it. I have used Bamboos in the past and it is so much better being able to draw on the piece you are working on.
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@maureen I am not the tech person in my house, but I am the artist. My husband did tons of looking for me and I have tried several things. I just got a smart phone as an upgrade from my flip phone last year (if that helps paint the picture for ya!!)
I was determined to learn Photoshop or die trying. We saved and got a Mac Air laptop and a Wacom Intuos pad to draw. But it was so very hard for me. It was taking me hours to do what I could have done in 30 minutes on paper. So we did more research and added a new ipad the 2018--not the ipad pro. It has most of the bells and whistles and the only difference I found was the size is smaller than the ipad pro. But to the ipad we added the app called ASTROPAD. It connects the ipad to the laptop or desktop and mirrors the computer screen on the ipad. Using the Apple Pencil and the Astropad app ($30 one time fee I think) my ipad becomes just like a Cintiq. You can draw right on the screen of the ipad and see exactly what you are doing in Photoshop in real time.
Having said all of that...I was still having a devil of a time on Photoshop. I was loosing my mind. So I started drawing in Procreate again and loved its simplicity. It does what I need it to do and is designed for creating art. It's very intuitive. I love it. I was not a giant fan of the slippery drawing on glass, however. So I added a screen protector called PaperLike. It gives the Apple Pencil some tooth to hold on to and is awesome so far. It is a hair less sensitive when I am zooming in and out but I will gladly take the trade off as it makes it feel (and sound) like drawing on paper. They say you go through nibs a lot faster though. But they are inexpensive so I don't think it will be too bad. I have only had PaperLike for a few days.
Sorry for the novel. I hope this might help people who are in the same boat as me coming at this as a 43 year old non-computer-savvy person. Recap is: ipad+PaperLike+procreate for me. When I was still trying to learn Photoshop I added Astropad app to mirror my Mac on the ipad and make it Cintiq-like. Also added Affinity Photo app to do all the extras that Procreate cannot do (like photo edits and some other stuff to take thing to finish.) It was also a one time fee and no monthly cost for Photoshop CC. Dropped Photoshop CC and their fees!
Now I am getting some things done. I might be brave enough to post something soon
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@jennyjones I do believe the normal iPad is not pressure sensitive though (with the Apple Pencil). Or at least, it used to be that you needed the iPadPro to have pressure sensitivity. Have things changed?
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@smceccarelli The new iPad 2018 does support the Pencil, which surprised me too.
Here is an illustrator’s video review of the current iPad that I saw earlier this year, for anyone who finds it helpful:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Mpq6Ib1IVdA -
Thanks, @missmushy This looks exactly like what I would need. I watched the short video and it seems to work pretty easily.
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Thank you all for the great info. So I won't get a Cintiq but will get an iPad. Now I just have to decide which iPad -- the Pro, regular, 12.9, 9.7, 10.5, and how many GBs of memory.
