Digital painting programs such as Photoshop and Painter, combined with tools such as Wacom tablets, have made commercial illustration and concept design work much more efficient. The computer enables multiple undos, powerful tools for adjusting almost any aspect of a 2D illustration, and even the ability to combine photos and 3D models with 2D digital paintings.
But despite all of these advantages, the use of digital painting tools does have its shortcomings. One thing I have noticed when trying to draw with a stylus on a tablet is that much of the tactile, hand-eye feedback of pencil on paper is lost. It’s not such an issue with painting, but drawing requires a much more direct connection in order to capture the subtleties of hand-drawn linework. Add to that the inability to move a monitor around like you would a piece of paper (although Painter’s canvas Rotate tool mitigates this somewhat), and the act of drawing on a computer becomes a vastly different experience from drawing on a piece of paper.
When I first heard about tablet PCs, with a pressure-sensitive digitiser built into the screen, I became pretty excited about the possibility of a drawing experience that was closer to that of pencil on paper. Although the Wacom Cintiq monitor bridges that gap somewhat, it still seems clunky to me for some reason; using a tablet PC feels a lot more like drawing in a sketchbook than my experience using a Cintiq monitor ever does.
Programs such as ArtRage and Sketchbook Pro seem like perfect, scaled down tools for digital painting and drawing on tablet PCs. I had tried demo versions of both on a desktop computer and was impressed with how well they captured the look and feel of a pencil sketch. I was curious to try ArtRage on a tablet PC to see how well it could function in a simple concept design situation.
From issue 10.
But despite all of these advantages, the use of digital painting tools does have its shortcomings. One thing I have noticed when trying to draw with a stylus on a tablet is that much of the tactile, hand-eye feedback of pencil on paper is lost. It’s not such an issue with painting, but drawing requires a much more direct connection in order to capture the subtleties of hand-drawn linework. Add to that the inability to move a monitor around like you would a piece of paper (although Painter’s canvas Rotate tool mitigates this somewhat), and the act of drawing on a computer becomes a vastly different experience from drawing on a piece of paper.
Programs such as ArtRage and Sketchbook Pro seem like perfect, scaled down tools for digital painting and drawing on tablet PCs. I had tried demo versions of both on a desktop computer and was impressed with how well they captured the look and feel of a pencil sketch. I was curious to try ArtRage on a tablet PC to see how well it could function in a simple concept design situation.
From issue 10.