Doodlebombing PC World.
Categories: artwork
Tags: Nomad Brush, Digital Art, PC World, Sony stylus, Microsoft Surface RT 2, SOny Vaio Duo, Advent Tegra, Nexus 7, Dagi pen
Date: 23 November 2013 22:16:58
Finances, budget and, lets be honest, need all preclude me from owning all of the tablets, styli and apps that I'd love to create pictures on so thank flip for shops that allow you to rock up with a handful of styli and try the screens out. In fact my local PC World pretty much encourages me to draw on screens as it tends to gather a bit of a crowd each time so that generally goes down well.
Today wasn't wall to wall fab... best left to the past once I get to tomorrow I think. But I did go for a walk and have a two hour draw in the store. Which was very therapeutic and allowed for some much needed non-thinking time.
So I drew these as we all know it's Doctor Who Day and the Marleks are one of my favourite things to draw.
Sony Vaio Duo 13, Sony Pen and MS Paint.
Nexus 7 2013 edition, various styli and Webchemy app.
Advent/Tegra Note tablet, Nvidia draw app and a range of styli, including the built in stylus...
Surface RT 2, Fresh Paint app, range of styli.
Thoughts? The Advent is a weird shape which makes the screen positively sink into the bezel which is no mean feat as that's normally the effect of a white surround not a black one. The speaker grills are so distracting (being front facing and very eye catching) that the screen almost becomes the last thing you look at. Coupled with a hint of washed out colour saturation and it didn't endear itself to me from the get go.
But... the stylus is fascinating. A thin form factor; like a cross between and 3DS stylus and S Pen - and two rubber ends - one to create a thick line and one for more detail. It's an interesting stylus to use and made less of the in built app than I might have hoped. To be able to spin it around in my hand and change line widths was very good though. Liked that. The thin end of the stylus was odd though - hard to work out how to connect with the screen as it didn't have an obvious point. Didn't dislike the tablet at all and the stylus does make me want to play more with it.
The Nexus 7.2 is much how I would have expected it having drawn a few times on the 7.1. Snappy (although the 7.1 did seem to grow into a laggy state after a few months use) and running Android as well as you would expect it's a good slab of tablet. The screen ratio seemed a little less thin than some other tablets I've used too which was nice to see. Liked it although it refused to connect to a couple of the styli I used (wood and paintbrush particularly) which was odd.
The Surface RT2 and Sony Vaio Duo 13 were the ones I enjoyed the most, partially because of the increased screen real estate and partially because they're both thumping good machines. Way back in the past year I took a number of students to the Gadget Show Live and the machines I enjoyed most were the Sony Vaio Duo 11s with the Sony Pen. Fabulous machines and the 13 is a worthy successor. If money were no object I'd go for the limited edition red one as it's a corking hybrid machine to draw and paint on but, oh boy, it's a bit expensive...
The Surface RT2 - personally I've no idea why RT became so toxic as it's no different, in ways, to the difference between iOS and OSX. But hey ho. I'd forgotten my Wacom Feel stylus (or at least, sigh, my replacement stylus as I lost a clutch of mine two weeks ago :( ) so I stuck to the RT 2 tablet and was delighted to see it had Fresh Paint installed and ready to go.
Two hours and four pics later I waddled home to watch Who with family. That at least was a lovely end to the day.