I Can’t Put It Down

Seriously. I burned away an hour more than I had intended to last night because of it. Just sitting there on the sofa. No table of art supplies at the ready. No need for optimal lighting (though, don’t get me wrong, I’d always love good light.) Just me, the iPad and two new tools that I’m sure to incorporate sooner than later into my Artistic First Aid Kit. I know what you’re thinking. Charger? Check. Carrying case? Check. But hang on a second. Art Set? Check. Cosmonaut? Check. 

Wait. What?

Okay, the first two we could pretty much guess. The second two? Those are the new kids on the block and I’m thrilled to welcome them. How did I find out about them? My friend Geoff gave the first recommendation and then Anna told me about them. I trust these people with things like this. I knew I could not go wrong.

A few days later, this bad boy arrived in the mail.

Excuse me. You had me at *awesome packaging*. I hadn’t even tried it yet and I was grinning from ear to ear. Come to me, Cosmonaut.

Now, let me say that this is not any sort of concise review per se. ILOVEIT, but I haven’t had enough time yet to run a battery of tests on it. But so far, I really enjoy the feel and what it can do. I’m keepin’ it. ‘Nuff said.

And Art Set? Oh yes. It’s also grin-inducing. Again, I haven’t tried everything it’s capable of, but of what I’ve seen so far, it’s really good.

Gobs of media options, an array of color and paper choices, erasing, blending, smudging tools…

Like I said, nothing else existed while I was drawing on this late last night.

Seriously, get these two things and turn the t.v. off. You will be totally engrossed and have something fun to show for it in the morning instead of a tired grump of, “Why did I stay up to watch that drivel?”

It’s also a liberating way to get all of your rusty bad drawing out of the way. You know what I mean. When you really haven’t drawn a certain way for a while. Or even drawn at all in a while. This is a great way to get your garbage sketches out of the way, so you can move on to more fluid and masterful pastures. 😀  

*see some of my junk above <— and why do I keep drawing cars?*

I’m a believer. And seriously, for $.99, Art Set is worth a test run. 

No, these things won’t replace regular paper, pens, paint, pencils and all that. But when you’re on the go or have little space to spread out and you have a drawing burning away in your brain, this is an awesome way to get it out into the light. And knowing I can doodle quick bits and pieces and save them so I can import them later into Ai makes me really happy. I know it will become part of my textile designing repertoire very soon.

In the meantime…