BETT 2014.

Tags: Marmite, Chin Chin labs, BETT 2014, London Excel, Table top projector, Steljes, Interactive Whiteboard art

Date: 26 January 2014 12:20:41

(Drawn on Tesco Hudl on the way to BETT day 2, Sketchbook app).

A longer blog post to come I think, with a few more details. But in brief, I and some of my graphics and IT students were invited to be a part of the Steljes stand at BETT (www.bettshow.com). Working on SMARTboards we were asked to draw for two 45 minutes sessions and explain some apps which might be useful for teachers or the artistic process for teachers who may not teach art (or some who might) and who could use pointers on where to start. (a student drawing on a SMARTboard using ArtRage app).

Working primarily in ArtRage - an excellent program and app which is both very powerful and also very sympathetic to new digital artists - we also created images in Sketchbook (less kind to beginners but the symmetry mode is an excellent first picture icebreaker). We also showed off SumoPaint, Didlr and Webchemy - the latter package delivering excellent results which I look forward to posting soon. I also drew a few pictures in SMARTs own Note application which was very useable and often caught people's attention because they recognised the interface but not the outcome. (drawing dinosaurs on Note program, SMARTboard).

For my part? Well, I'm in the post show/absolutely shattered phase at the moment (which, coincidentally has me wondering when the next show is because they're a huge amount of fun to do). "For only drawing for 90 minutes a day?" you might say aloud in astonishment. "You great big wuss" you may additionally think, being, of course, far too polite to say such an accusatory awfulness aloud. Well, no. Because literally every second I was there I spent either walking to new stands or drawing on devices I'd rarely seen before. BETT is a fabulous show and from day one I found myself surrounded by a plethora of devices I couldn't wait to connect my stylus to, ranging from unreleased (as yet) larger screen tablets to table top projectors to huge interactive screen displays to... well... all sorts. The pedometer tells me I walked a minimum of 8 miles a day so I think I'll return it as it's obviously faulty. I did WAY more than that :)

(drawing a Marmite jar on an Epson tablet top interactive projector).

Four days were, very much, nowhere near enough. I made it a rule, one I almost stuck to, to not draw on any device twice, regardless of how much I liked it. Even with that constraint in place I found myself finishing the final day regretting a number of missed opportunities of screens unscribbled. The highlight? Well, I like screens, and I found few I didn't enjoy drawing on. I thoroughly enjoyed myself on the Microsoft, Lenovo, Samsung, Dell, Sony and Intel stands. Again I surprised myself by enjoying the HP stand (sorry, but up until a yer or so ago I'd found HP screens to be muddy and laggy and unresponsive to the styli I rested against them). To find that the tablets on offer were significantly better than I remember was heartening and, most importantly, they had a HUGE six screen wall of monitors which they were kind enough to allow me to hijack for half an hour. THAT was the highlight of the four days for me, with the only regret that half an hour drawing on such a huge and impressing canvas was not nearly enough. A video to come on that, soon.

(drawing a Marmite jar on the HP six monitor set up using Microsoft Paint).

Another highlight was getting to take two sets of students to Chin Chin Labs :) Which is ALWAYS a wonderful way to end an event day.

I'm told this looks like Santa Clause. Which I can sort of see, so is doubly brilliant. All in all a hugely tiring and utterly excellent week.