Review: Intuos Creative Stylus for iPad

I was very excited to receive the new Intuos Creative Stylus for iPad in the mail today -at least until I tried it.

Don't get me wrong, it's great to look at and has a nice solid feel in my hand. As a long-time Wacom user (my current workhorse is a XL Intuos4) I appreciate that this pen feels just as well made as that of a proper Intuos. That said, I think I'll be returning this one, my gripes:

1.) It "sticks" majorly to the iPad's screen as I'm trying to draw with it. This lends a highly unpleasant "gummy" feeling to every stroke and serves up just enough friction to make little jaggies everywhere.

2.) It relies on software implementation to actually make use of the pressure sensitivity. In the three supported apps I tried (Procreate, Bamboo Paper, and ibisPaint X) none of them seemed to integrate this very well. In Procreate, for example, you have to really monkey with brush settings to get any hint of pressure sensitivity and often end up with brushes that are hair-thin, ghost light, or blobby.

3.) The pressure threshold at which the pen actually engages feels really high. Meaning I have to press far harder than I'd like, creating far more friction (the aforementioned sticking problem) than is enjoyable to draw with. Now maybe this isn't an issue for someone with a strong hand and heavy touch.... but it's far from the hand gliding effortlessly over the drawing surface (ah-la a real Intuos pen) that I'm looking for.

Bonus: I just tested the non brush end of my Sensu brush and even it feels better than this Intuos pen for sketching and drawing on my iPad. Though it is made of a similar rubber material it actually glides quite well on the iPad surface.

Looks like there is a proper pressure sensitive tablet somewhere in my future. But for now it looks like I'll have to wait a while more as Intuos Creative Stylus just doesn't do the trick for me.

Links:

http://intuoscreativestylus.wacom.com/en/
https://www.sensubrush.com/

'Alvernas rike' Books Arrive in the Mail

A great surprise appeared on my doorstep today: a box full 'Den eviga eldens magi: Alvernas rike' books. As always, the printing and design look amazing!

This books is continuation of 'Den eviga eldens magi' by Patrik Bergström. It's a fantasy middle grade series published by Lilla Piratförlaget out of Stockholm, Sweden! (Sadly not yet in English. One day, I hope!)

I created the cover, map, and all of the interior illustrations for this book.


Link: Publisher's site for this book.
Link: Author's site for this series.

Asimov's Reader's Award

Today I recieved a notice in the mail that the cover art I did for Asimov's Science Fiction, Dec. 2012 issue, won the Asimov's 2012 Reader's Award for Best Cover Artist. I am delighted and honored!

The illustration was based in Chris Beckett's short story entitled "The Caramel Forest." I had a lot of fun painting the various colorful fungi.

The award!

The cover.

The art.

Painting on iPad

So, I finally went out and bought an iPad for sketching/painting on the go. This is remarkable because I am very much a PC/Android girl. It was the rentina screen, I swear -I was hypmotized by that crisp high 2048×1536 res. (And, yes, I am aware that Wacom just announced a true artist's tablet for this summer.)

Of course, I also then needed a proper stylus. I chose a Sensu Brush, which, like the name would suggest, is a capacitive paintbrush! I've had my eye on this one for quite a while.

Liking it very much so-far. Highly impressed with both the screen and the feel and fluidity of the brush while painting. Though I haven't tried it in too many applications yet, I am very much enjoying Procreate for iPad. "Paper" is also fun.

I look forward to taking this baby with me as my spring travels begin around Europe!

iPad and Sensu Brush

iPad and Sensu Brush ...painting in Procreate

Test painting (1 hour). =)

Interiors Portfolio Updated

I just got through adding a number of grayscale interior children's illustrations to my site portfolio.

Many of these were created for Patrik Bergström's Magi series, for which I created about 9 images per book. These are my favorites from books 1 and 2, both of which have been published at this point (though, sadly, not in English yet!):
 

We also have an interior I did for K.E. Stapylton's recent Phantism book:

Perfectionism and Storytelling

I have been hard at work on a large personal project of mine lately. Yes, one that has been in the making for years *cough.* Today as I was painting I had a breakthrough of sorts. This post is to make a serchable note of it to myself and in the off chance that it helps others who work like I do (or that some will find it interesting).

So, I've been doing much thinking on the idea that illustration is about communicating an idea, not about getting the execution "perfect." In fact, the more time I spend trying to make the image/text perfect the more likely I am to get sidetracked and stymied in the energy flow of the project as a whole. There is a big difference between major edits for communication and endless fiddling around.

Also, I've been working against myself by thinking "oh, well I have to finish and perfectly polish this one part before I proceed." When I do that I ignore that I tell a story -in my mind- in as sequence of visual images and text. Without the space and energy to springboard one to the other I run into a roadblock and out of steam on either and let that temporarily table the project. It also tends to yield many polished segments that are suppose to be parts of a cohesive whole, yet, because they were labored over in isolation and to the inth degree, don't fit well with the greater story. And the kicker is that by the time I get back to the other side of the storytelling, writing or art or vice versa, I often have changed things up so much that I render this former "polished gem of an image" (or segment of text) irrelevant or in need of sweeping changes anyway.

A good example of this is the way I "tell" stories to myself as I am working on a painting about what is going on there. And I often find that I will re-order or sometimes completely "re-write" parts of the tale based on my time with the image. Painting is a meditation to me, but not so much in the general sense, as in the interest of space to muse on the project and story at hand in a visual way. It also feels more open and less heavy-handed somehow than when I am sitting down to write, likely because these thoughts while painting tend to bounce around far longer in my head before working their way into the story. When I do this method properly, it feels like my text is as equally in service to my art as the other way around. It's a nice balance.

I should too remind myself that the essence and story of a piece of artwork is NOT derived from how pretty each of the brush strokes is or how smooth and perfect every surface is rendered or even about exact anatomy of the characters. It's about the read and gist of the piece. The more useful question is "is this conveying what it needs to?" because at a fundamental level, at a beginning-to-end level that is what matters in telling the story. I would say, when a piece is "working" that the first 80% of it, the gist of it, comes far sooner and with far more energy and ease than the last 20% which tends to be the laborious polishing of every pixel.

And, lastly, I want to make a note for myself that it is only right to give my intended audience (primarily 8-12 children) credit for possessing their own brilliant imaginations. I don't need to be perfect or fill in all the gaps (literal or metaphorical) their minds will. Just as I did (and do) when I am in contact with a text and visual work that is really speaking to me. The most concrete example I can think of here is the way I "read" Polar Express when I was a 3rd grader vs. the ways I can read it now. Because when I was younger I didn't have that level of criticality about art or text that I do now and responded purely on a level of imagination. I could feel the magic of the tale through the page. Not to say that I don't regard it as a brilliant book today, but that I can't look at it through the eyes of a child quite the same way ...my grown-up brain is always wanting to dissect things down to the line or shading or word. So I should really be asking myself "what would my 9-year-old self get from this image (or text)?"

Phantism Cover

I want to share a book cover I was working on before and during the Germany Move for a holiday book launch. This is cover #3 for author K.E. Stapylton's Prism series, it follows The Terror of Prism Fading (Prism book #1) and The Deeper Darkness (Prism book #2). It is set in a firey subterranean world and is the "yellow" book for the series.

Special thanks to my husband Chris for patiently modeling for photo reference and to Kareyn for graciously rolling with the disruption of my moving schedule:

Book Cover for Phantism - art only

Book Cover for Phantism - with text design

More information on the book series can be found here:

Prism Website
Author's Blog

On Amazon Kindle