Me using the gestures whole drawing ^
Ever since getting an iPad Pro + Pencil I’ve loved being able to work on a digital drawing literally anywhere. For example, I brought it to Maine and produced ten portraits (20″ x 24″) in a week, interviewing women living on Mount Desert Island. A few months later I sat in the stands of Seattle’s Key Arena during the Dota 2 International cranking out a bunch of work. It’s easier to carry than a laptop and is my most beloved and utilized piece of technology ever, next to my hair straighter.
The downside to the iPad Pro has been that even the best drawing apps (Procreate) has its limitations. Simply put, nothing beats running Photoshop on a Cintiq. I’m not able to take the plunge financially so I bought a Wacom tablet for my desktop computer. Even after six months I still haven’t gotten used to drawing on a tablet while looking up at a screen—plus all my beautiful mobility is gone!
This is where Astropad comes in. Instead of sinking a ton of money into a pricy piece of hardware, I decided to try “turning my iPad Pro into a drawing tablet” as advertised. All I had to do was download the app to my iPad and it was set up in under a minute. I signed up for the Astropad Studio because the extra features allowed for the customization I wanted with my pencil stroke and for $65 a year that seemed like a steal (considering the cost of Adobe CC each month).
The first thing I noticed when I sat down to draw was how much I had missed using my iPad. Since getting a Wacom tablet for my desktop, I had been using the iPad less. I really prefer the weight of the Apple Pencil and its lack of stupid buttons on the side to randomly push on accident. Wacom tablets and their styluses love little buttons and funky attachments which makes me feel like less of an artist and more of a gadget geek—it gets old really fast. It felt so right to be using my iPad with all the functionality of Photoshop at my fingertips.
Everything I do was mirrored on my laptop screen. Normally, I keep two windows of the same drawing open so zoomed in or not I always have an idea of what the bigger image looks like. That isn’t possible with my set up as I don’t have the screen real estate to spare with my laptop. I’ve adjusted by being better at zooming back out occasionally to take it all in.
I initially tried connecting my iPad to my MacBook Air laptop over the wifi and was told immediately by the other person who used the internet in my house that I was taking up to much bandwidth. Since then, I’ve plugged in using the charger cable that came with my iPad. There is a little bit of latency, but honestly after using it for two weeks I don’t really notice while I work. While my iPad will not lose battery as quickly when its plugged in it is working too hard to stay charged.
The magic gestures are super intuitive. Zoom, rotate (a very new feature as I write this), undo / redo, color select—I’ve stopped noticing when I do them anymore. Customizing the side menu has been straight forward and I’ve eliminated most things other than increase / decrease brush size, new layer, and brush or eraser select. Fussing with the pen controls allowed me to get a little whippier with my pencil but not so sensitive that the slight shake I have isn’t as noticeable. There’s a setting to have the quick buttons displayed which gives you that treasured cluster of shift, control, alt, and command without having to look at a whole keyboard—this is super useful.
I’ve already mentioned the wifi hog and my personal problems with display. The only real downside to this set up the occasional drop in responsiveness. When this happens, I can still draw but my side menu buttons I use for switching between eraser / brush stop working. My own laptop has trouble responding to the shortcuts. I just save and take a quick break. When I come back it’s fine. Note: This only happens when I’ve been working for several hours on end.
I’ve tried to balance being both informative and to the point here so if someone ever reads this and has questions please feel free to comment. At the end of the day, I’m really happy with Astropad. I can bring my laptop and iPad anywhere and have everything I need to do my job. I’ve been working much faster than ever now that I have the ability to work they way I want to. Between this and the price, I’m not planning on upgrading to a Cintiq or the other mobile tablet thingies that they have any time soon.
