As a freelance illustrator, I have to move around a lot with my digital gear. That includes the laptop, tablet, pen, battery charger, sketchbook, and a pencil.
And occasionally, it's better to share a few sketches to show your client exactly what the hell you're talking about too.
Sadly, small pencil doodles on a piece of paper are no longer impressive and easily lost! So I've started to look for a portable digital sketchbook.
- It has to be portable to be more convenient than a heavy bag full of things that need to be assembled to work.
- It has to be digital so you can save time - scanning, cleaning up can take a lot of time. And TIME equals MONEY.
- I don't want to spend too much money on a "sketchbook". No iPads (those things are not even designed for anything in particular, and I can't stand touchscreen).
Something that's cheap, durable, portable, compatible with a tablet, can run some kind of art software, and can handle a few knocks here and there. Did I find one? Not really.
Strangely, nobody has designed a product that can actually be useful. What a surprise.
BUT I did find a youtube clip that introduced me to a new form of computer.
Meet Motion Computing.
LatinVixen was kind enough to do a comparison of 2 products. Here is the video:
I just checked out the price of Motion Tablet PCs on eBay, and they are cheap. You can buy extra RAM and HD at a pretty reasonable price too. Keep in mind that most of these computers are used, but if you're like me, and are just looking for something that can handle a few punches in a bag, I think one of these babies are a good buy.
If you are also not willing to pay a fortune for another legal copy of Photoshop, there are open source art apps you can easily download for free - like
GIMP (doesn't hurt to make a small donation if you can). Who wants to pay over $1000 for software just for sketching? We all know that artists aren't made of money. Right, Adobe?