Inkling.

I used the Wacom Inkling today.  I didn't know about it, but I sure do wish I'd been using it forever.  It was released a good while ago, but today saw my first experience with it in practise.

Unfortunately, the image that I drew isn't on here, as I am not an administrator and cannot, therefore, install software on my computer.  It's on another computer, but that computer is not connected to the internet, so I can't post it from there.  I have only now thought of putting the image onto a USB and bringing it over to this - the computer with an internet connection - and uploading it here - my blog.  But the problem with that is that I'm sat down pretty comfortably and want to get this posted quickly so I can go home.

Anyway:

This is the Wacom Inkling.  It is pretty great.

The smaller box at the bottom is clipped onto the top of a page and then switched on.  You use the special pen and start drawing.  The device and pen talk (or something) and the device records how hard you push down with the pen.  So you can have really nice, soft pen strokes or a bolder line.  The main selling point?  You see the on/off button to the left of the Wacom logo?  Well, the square-looking button to the right is a new layer button.  You push this and whatever you draw from then on is on a layer that's separate from what you've already drawn!

I drew with 5 layers.  It's odd at first because obviously the pen and paper themselves are all the same layer - it's a piece of paper.  But after a while, it's fun experimenting with the layer system and drawing things over what you've already drawn.

For those who don't use a pen to draw, it's good because you can get your basic guidelines down, put a new layer down and then do the lines that you want people to see.  For me, I use a pen anyway and it's always nice to see the process from start to finish.  With this, I can have my full process on the paper as a single image and then I can put it onto the computer to use layer-by-layer, should I so choose.

It's really nice, but the one downside is that there only seems to be two pressures to it - soft and hard.  Once the technology improves somewhat, I think it'll be a much more effective tool, but I'm really going to have to wait for that to happen until I get one for myself.  It's a really fantastic tool; it's great for documenting your process without having to scan in a million images and it also leaves you with your image on the paper; so you get the best of both worlds - a file to upload to the computer and a sketchbook page that's drawn all over.  Win win!

I'd probably even consider buying one when the pressure increments are increased even slightly.  Hard and soft are good, but it doesn't fully capture the range of linework that makes pen and paper so unique and attractive.  Several increments between the fainest and boldest line would give a much better result.  Even so, it's a fine piece of kit.

Peace.