1st IMPRESSION: Surface 4 Pro and Surface Book for Artists

This past weekend, I was able to check out the new Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book while visiting the Microsoft store here in town.  Ever since I sold my small, barely portable Cintiq 12WX, I've been on the lookout for a portable solution for me to use when I want to work on digital art out of the studio.  I never could get used to the art apps on the iPad or find a stylus for it that I liked.

Starting Specs

To start off with, both the Surface and the Book have pretty nice starting specs which I know will run Photoshop smoothly.  The processors are even better than the previous models!  Though I'm still undecided if I need the hot keys that the Cintiq device would provide.  The sliders and hotkeys on the Cintiq are useful for quickly zooming in and changing brush size, but are they worth the extra expense?

Subtle Improvements

The Surface Pro 4 seems a nice improvement on the previous model in subtle ways, as it now has a much improved stylus with a purported 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity as well as an eraser that actually erases, which it didn't have in previous models.  The representative also told me that the stylus comes with interchangeable nibs by default so you can change the resistance of the stylus if you want.  The Freshpaint program that comes with both the Book and Surface also seems to work very similarly to Corel Painter, which was a surprise!

Differences Between the Book and Surface

The Surface Book is much like the Surface, except that the Book's screen is a couple inches bigger and has a hardier keyboard, though I felt that both keyboards were comfortable and could probably replace my laptop as far as typing if I actually wanted to use either one to write while I'm out as well.  The Book, like the Surface, also disconnects from the keyboard to become a standalone tablet.

Extra Stuff

The Surface has one USB 3.0, a micro SD slot, and a mini displayport, while the Book has two USB 3.0 ports, a full sized SD card slot, and a mini displayport.  These will be handy for plugging up extra hd's or devices.

Price

The Pro starts at $899 while the Book starts at $1,499 (with the Cintiq Companion being $2,499 by comparison).

I'm hoping to save up and get the Book if I can, but I may end up settling for the Surface.  Either way, I'll be sure to come back with a full review once I've had time to completely settle in with either of these devices!

ART PRODUCT REVIEW - Etsy Card Reader

Etsy recently announced their own gadget for taking credit cards, but with a new twist from other card readers.  It's meant to sync with your Etsy shop and provide a branded smooth experience for your in-person sales.  I got mine in the mail yesterday (it's free if you request one) and put it through a quick test run.

Packaging

First off, their packaging was excellent, as I would expect from the premiere handmade marketplace.  I got a few ideas just from their clever and simple presentation.

Here's the envelope it came in.  I love the idea of a branded envelope sticker.

The reader itself came in a sturdy reusable custom cut box made of what looks like composite wood.  Again, I love the brand consistency of the reader and insert cards with the orange and white.

Extra bonus!  The box itself has a slot on the underside where you can place the card to make a stand up sign.  One side of the card shows that you take credit cards while the other side is a "I'll be right back." sign with a spot for you to write in shop's address.

The Nuts and Bolts

I ran two test transactions, one of an item which was already up in my online shop and another which was a new 'quick sale' item not already present in my online shop.

You will need to let the app access your location and your microphone.  Your location is recorded and inserted into the receipt e-mailed to the customer later on, should they elect to receive one.  The hub of the app looks like this on an iphone.

You can control your inventory from within the app, which connects to your online Etsy shop (ie. renewing listings, creating new listings, putting your shop on vacation, checking orders, etc.).  The app is available for both Android and iOS markets, but not for the iPad, oddly enough

Be aware that a minimum $1 transaction is required for a customer to use a credit card.  You can also set your sales tax rate in the Settings so that this is automatically calculated when making your sales.  The funds from your credit card are added to your Shop Payments account (the same place as your Direct Checkout funds), so you will need to wait the usual time for the money to be deposited after your sales.  This usually isn't more than a couple of days, in my experience.

When selling an item in-person that is also in your shop:

•  You choose the item in your online shop to sell in-person via a list.
•  The shipping fee is automatically waived when an item is sold in-person.
• The item is also removed from your online shop when it is sold, which will help save headaches on syncing inventory automatically instead of manually (ie. if you've ever had an item sell while you're out at an event and had to deal with the headache of explaining that it sold when you get back home).
• There is no Etsy transaction fee like there are for online sales, only the credit card processing fee, which is comparable to other readers (2.75%).

When selling an item in-person via a quick sale where you type in a brief description and cost:

• It is still counted towards your sold items stats, but only you as a seller can see those transactions in the Orders section of your shop.
• There is no transaction fee or listing fee, only the credit card processing fee.

Promotional Automation

Now here's the really powerful feature of this reader.  After you make your sale and get to the point at which you can offer your customer an e-mail receipt, there is a checkbox which is automatically selected (you have to manually deselect it). The checkbox says this:

After you make the sale and the customer elects to be e-mailed their receipt and is opted in to Etsy's updates about your shop, the customer will get an e-mail like this:

Location map blurred for privacy.

I've asked my test customer to let me know what kinds of e-mail he receives in the future so I can see just how often these e-mails are sent out and what kind of info they include.  I will edit this post with an update once I know more about these communications.

Why is this powerful, you ask?  The items suggested at the bottom of the e-mail offer the customer a tantalizing glimpse at your other items, some of which they might be interested in that you might not have had on display where they were shopping in-person.  Because these images actually link to the items, they encourage further purchases without the seller having to lift a finger.

This e-mail communication is a powerful addition to simply handing out a business card, since business cards are easily lost and most shoppers require repetition of information before they truly retain that information.  So far, this is the only e-mail my test customer has received, which gives me hope that these won't turn into spammy communications.

Also, Etsy's current online market doesn't have a function that lets you automatically add your past customers to a mailing list, which is a feature I've always wanted.  I currently have to first ask for the customer's permission to add them to my mailing list, then add them in mailchimp manually, which takes up valuable time I could be working instead.  My newsletter only goes out once every 3 months, so I am curious to see how often this Etsy-managed newsletter will be sent out and how they might mesh with the information I already send out in my newsletter.

Bottom Line

The Etsy card reader doesn't do anything vastly different from other card readers, but it does allow powerful synchronization options between your online Etsy shop and your physical inventory that could save you time if your Etsy shop is your main outlet for sales.

It also allows for promotional automation that doesn't require you to lift a finger, saving you time, especially if you do not yet send out your own newsletter yet.

More updates to follow when I have them!

iPad and the Artist

Yup, I was one of those people that used to scoff at my significant other's Apple gadget love.  Why did we need all of these excess things that only serve to tether me to the internet so that I can never, EVER escape?

But then he gifted me an iPad and now I am forced to admit the usefulness of this tool for the working artist. (Curse you, Kev!)  Could I live without it? Probably.  Would I want to?  Nope!

A Thousand and One Uses

Credit Card Processing - While it wasn't my original intended use because I had a more expensive credit card terminal, I eventually retired my more expensive terminal in lieu of the portable Paypal Here processor.  I was paying a monthly fee, bound to a contract, and paying a large 'security' fee every year to keep my professional terminal active.  

What was worse is that I still had to pay for it when I wasn't using it much.  Now, with more flexible data options built right into the iPad as well as mobile processors like Square and Paypal Here, processing cards is a far less daunting task!  I will miss being able to print receipts from my terminal, but most people seem to be okay with signing digitally and having a digital copy mailed to them.

Reference Tool - I've gotten into the habit of propping my iPad up on my desk with references up on the screen.  This allows me to save paper since I would've printed a collage of references out to carry with me in the past.  I can then have those references anywhere I prop up the iPad, in the studio or on the go.  If I have internet access, I can always set up the iPad anywhere there's a tabletop and get in a quick life drawing section with Pixellovely.

Illustration Research - I've gotten into the habit of using my iPad for multiple types of research.  I have many albums of reference photos, tons of cheap digital collections of masterworks, and every digital ebook reader possible.  I never thought I could give up the glorious smell and feel of holding paper books, but the ability to highlight passages from novels and add searchable notes to them makes finding descriptions for future illustrations far easier!  I even have a handy app called Art Authority that has artists organized by period, title, subject, etc. and is updated regularly.

Space Saving - This ties into my last topic.  After much trepidation, I've been converting all of my text novels into digital.  The iPad allows you to use Nook, iBooks, and Kindle, which makes it the most flexible ebook reader out there.  I still keep physical artbooks because there is just nothing that beats the presence oversized printing has.  Still, I ran out of bookshelf space long ago and replacing the space my novels took up with artbooks has been an easier trade-off than I thought with the advantages digitized books give me in reference tagging my novels.

Art and Portfolio Display - I've noticed a trend in artists producing their bodies of work as specialized apps fans can download where they can browse their art, share it, and purchase prints.  That just blows my mind!  With the massive amount of folks browsing the Apple appstore, this is an opportunity to really get your work out there.

Not to mention, I have since retired showing my little Itoya portfolio to folks at cons. The glare on the plastic pages was always annoying, as well as the scratches that built up on the pages over time.  Now, I just whip out my iPad and let the viewer control the flow.  When I want to add new work, I just download it instead of having to print it out and add it to the physical book.

I've also seen some really cool trends with people publishing their Tarot decks digitally.  Check out Stephanie Pui-Mun Law's beautiful deck app to see what I mean.  What an amazing way to publish your work (especially if it's a card deck)!  I can imagine interactive sketchbooks done in a similar vein.  Click the finished painting to see video of the works-in-progress or hear the artist talk about their inspiration for the piece.

My portfolio on the iPad using Portfolio for iPad.
App review forthcoming!

At Home - The iPad also serves as a portable music and movie viewer when I'm cooking or cleaning house.  It's also my recipe database, which allows me to consolidate my cook books since we do not have too much excess space in our apartment.

My Favorite Art Apps for iPad

Portfolio for iPad - As shown earlier in the screenshot. It has some advantages that using iPad's default album doesn't allow you, such as toggling views for your gallery images (full screen or image with thumbnail strip showing the rest of the work in your gallery).  It allows you to fully customize the fonts, arrangement, and images in your gallery.  More on this app later once I've given it a convention test run!

Pose Tool - A simple little 3D pose tool that lets you play around with a male or female figure. You can view the models with skin, with muscles, or broken down into gestural shapes, which I find effective for figuring out the physics and flow of your poses.  You also can choose between body types for each gender, old, plump, average, and lean.  I also love this app because it's pretty simple and I don't need to learn any sort of robust program to use it.  Just select a limb and use the sliders.  It's not perfect, but it'll do for simple posing needs.

Color ViewFinder - Point your camera and capture the colors in the viewfinder.  You can then save the palette with hex codes. Best of all, this app is free!

Disney Animated - A bit hefty in the price tag, but when you consider the fact you're getting so much info in one place, it is well worth it!  There's everything from visual development on every major Disney feature to concept art and a timeline of Disney Animation.  I supremely enjoyed the color 'barcodes' of all the major feature films all put into a timeline by year.  It's Disney art at its best, meaning endless inspiration for any kind of artist and storyteller!

Other Cool Things?

I haven't had the chance to utilize the iPad as a digital sketchbook much.  The glare from the screen in sunlight is pretty harsh, though the new Wacom stylus tempts me so!  Do you guys have any other tips for using the iPad this way? App recommendations? etc.?

Any other cool things I should know about?  I'd love to hear your thoughts!  The iPad makes me squee with the potential it has to enrich the lives and marketing potential of artists everywhere.  I must know all the things about it!

The Search for the Cintiq

Made from unicorn dust &
the dreams of every artist.

It was during the middle of last year that I decided the next direction I wanted to push my work in would be digital.  Mind, that I don't want to abandon traditional entirely, but rather I wanted to be able to present myself as a multi-skilled artist capable of doing both.

There was just one problem - I absolutely loathed working on my Intuos3!

Reasons I Wanted to Upgrade

It's true that the Intuos3 6x8 tablet I was using was a vast improvement upon the tiny graphire2 I used to own, but there was still a disconnect between what I felt was a natural sweep of my hand with a pencil and what I was seeing on screen.  It wasn't comfortable and I thought that comfort would come with practice. It does for some, but it didn't for me.  It came to the point I just found digital uncomfortable and continued to avoid using it for anything more than coloring my traditionally drawn line art.

For years, I had thought the Cintiq, a form of tablet that's basically a pressure sensitive monitor where you actually draw directly on the screen, were far out of my price range, but a random whim to check them on eBay last year revealed plenty of Cintiqs under $800 out there for the grabbing! (Most retail new at $1000+!)

Caution When Buying!

You have to be careful, however, because the first model I found was the Cintiq 15PL 550. It seemed like a good deal with a slightly larger work area than the 12WX and a pretty tempting price!  For artists, I say avoid these like the plague!  After some research, I found that they have half the sensitivity level of my Intuos3, no shortcut buttons on the sides, and really weren't meant for application as graphics tablets, but more for basic presentations.

After finding I have no room for my keyboard on my desk and Cintiq at the same time, let me tell you, you will WANT those macro buttons!  There is no survival without them, and while it's easy enough to reach and hit the keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop, it's even easier to simply program them into one of the many buttons on the newer models of the Cintiq.

What to Buy?

Eventually I settled on the Cintiq 12WX, the new smaller size model, which is somewhat more portable than the larger ones, is at a relatively affordable price point, provides a decent drawing space on screen, and has plenty of programmable macro buttons (including a slide bar to zoom in and out).  What really sold me on this tablet was this video review by Frank's Tech Help which helped me to get an idea of the scale of tablet to artist and computer.

Ironically enough, most people selling Cintiqs on eBay were people upgrading to a larger/newer model and auctioning off their old one, a testament to the quality of the product!  This is something to remember if you ever upgrade from your old Wacom equipment. They keep their value extremely well!

Where to Buy?

I bought mine from eBay, which seems the best place to find used electronics.  Be prepared to put a high bid of up to $800 on a 12WX!  However, you can get lucky and get one for about $680 like I did, which was only possible because I tried six different times using a snipe tool (Justsnipe) to land a bid at the last minute! If you're not fond of used equipment, the best price on a new Cintiq 12WX I found at the time was at Walmart.com (Who knew?).

The Proof is in the Pudding

And what glorious pudding it is!  The used 12WX I bought had all of its cds, components, and its original box. The last owner took pristine care!  It even has the alternate nibs if I want to add a little friction to the stylus' tip.  My first impressions after using the Cintiq to finish my zany digital commission is that it answers my need to be able to draw curved lines without having to make a stroke and then clicking Undo until the line is right.

I can turn the Cintiq in my lap till I get the right drawing angle in a far more comfortable and natural way, as if I were holding a sketch pad (another advantage to drawing on this smaller size).  I don't find the screen cramped at all, though you will have to make some adjustments to your monitor setup so all of your program's dialog windows show up on the main display  (which I usually set as my Cintiq).  (For further reading on priming your Cintiq for use, see this handy blog post!)

The Drawbacks?

The only drawbacks I'm finding right now is that I'm getting neck aches from working on the Cintiq because I don't have an ideal desk (it's about 5 inches too low), so I'm having to prop on a box.  A lap desk has also proven useful for propping the Cintiq directly in my lap.  Eventually, I will get one of those fancy mounting arms for small TVs so I can swivel the Cintiq to whatever position I like. I've seen this done to great effect!  If you don't trust velcro, there are also mounting arms with clips.

Sadly, the Cintiq is also not as portable as I'd like it to be.  While yes I can put it in a carrying case with my laptop, you'll have to have two free outlets (one for laptop and the other for your Cintiq).  I'll probably end up getting a small outlet splitter for this purpose.

EDIT: I've also been informed by others that the 12WX does not display certain subtle colors correctly no matter how much you calibrate it while the larger models seem to show much more accurate color.  A way to get around this, since I could not afford the larger models, is to mirror my image onto my main monitor while I work so I can check the colors on there instead.  The way to do this is in Photoshop is to go to Window>Arrange>New Window from 'filename' and it will show a new window which mirrors any change you make to your current file.

I also had to buy a new graphics card, since my current one could not support 3 monitors, which the Cintiq counts as a single monitor. I have the AMD Radeon HD 7600 series card. Another solution is to buy a less expensive cheap card just for the Cintiq, itself, if you don't want to upgrade your current card.

I Got One! How do I Transport it?

When I tried to find a carrying case for the Cintiq online, I couldn't find a single generic knock off of the shiny official $200 professional carrying case from Cintiq. It's beautiful, but with moths flying out of my pocket after buying the Cintiq, I definitely couldn't afford this pricey bag!

Instead, I settled on a Wenger Legacy 17" Laptop Sleeve (WA-7444-14F00), which bought online is about $30 less than in the store!  It fits the control box, cables, and power cords for both my laptop and Cintiq comfortably, though there is barely any wiggle room after you put all of that in!  I also put my Cintiq in a neoprene sleeve for extra protection just to make sure.

In Closing...

Anyone want my old tablet? It's up for auction now!  It's had a good run, but it's time to pass it on to another artist who can use it more.  Give it a happy home, if you can!  We weren't good friends, but I treated it right and was at least cordial during social occasions with it.  Starting bid is $80, a steal for this kind of equipment!

Click this link to be taken to my auction!

Product Review: Mustek Express A3 1200 Pro

There comes a time in every artist's life when they want to toss their scanner out the window because it's such a pain to scan large paintings into the standard format 8.5x11 Inch scanners. The pieces don't fit together right, the exposure between passes are too different, and it's such a time waster to have to sit and stitch them together in Photoshop. The problem becomes compounded when we go shopping for a large format scanner that can process anything larger and we find that such scanners cost in upwards of $2000!

In my journey to find a solution that wouldn't cost me selling my kidney on the black market, I found a humble scanner called the Mustek Express A3 Pro USB Scanner with a scanning area of 11.7x16.5 Inches (29.7x42.0 Centimeters) at the equally humble price of $150. I bought one from Newegg, which had a comparable price and 30 day money back guarantee. So with little ado (and my love of lists), I present the Pros & Cons of the Mustek Express A3 1200 Pro USB scanner.

The Pros	The Cons
The large format is a dream. All that lovely scanning space! (11.7x16.5 Inches total)	The scanner is all you get. There are no quick buttons for you quick button fiends out there.
Seems to pick up a decent amount of detail and is particularly effective at picking up color luminosity.	Subtle tones are somewhat lost in the scanning. But you can pop those out again with post-processing.
Compatible with Photoshop import options (which is the only thing I use)	Like most new scanners, this one is finicky about anything that is not pressed flat against the glass. Anything raised from it will be out of focus.
Scans up to 9600 DPI
Very affordable price tag at around $150
Cover is removable with no lip around the glass, which is handy for scanning oversized pieces.

Image Quality
I currently use an Epson Workforce 500 as my main scanner and will continue to do so unless I need to scan larger format work. Though the Mustek is decent, it does not pick up the more subtle details that my Epson does. I have also been told by my publisher that the Epson is about as close to print quality as can be.




The Skinny
The Mustek is by no means a bad scanner, but it does have its minor shortcomings. However, for the low price, it's a pretty sweet deal if you're in search of an affordable deal on a large format scanner with decent scanning quality.

EDIT: It's also come to my attention the company is no longer making updated drivers for this device! In essence, it can only be used with Windows XP machines, for now.

EDIT 2: They finally came out with a new driver for this one!  You can find it here.