Cool Techy Things to Draw

Photo © Michael Bretherton

Last calendar week we offered a guide to Elevation Gadgets for Writers, and at present it'south the artists' plough. Begetting in mind the standard disclaimer—goose egg here will brand you any expert (merely many hours sat earlier the ultimate photoshop tutorial, nature herself, can do that)—let me to ignore the accented basics, taking for granted the paints, pencils, easels and other key tools. The mismatch of gadgets, cool stuff and workaday utensils listed here will doubtless seem arbitrary: be sure to tell us what nosotros missed.

A Graphics Tablet

The benefits are profound and obvious: traditional methods and technique allied to modern technology. But if you've never used a good tablet before, you really should get to a store, where you can dabble around with a tablet and Corel Painter, before making a delivery. Information technology's hard to recommend them without qualification, considering the more you're used to holding a brush, pencil or mark, the greater the initial challenge of adjusting: perhaps it'due south and then close to what we're used to, the differences have us by surprise.

That said, tablets are fantastic, especially to those struggling to work with mice, who detest the mess of art, or simply want a hands-on stab at digital fine art. Start, perhaps, with a used Wacom Graphire or the HyperPen series by Aiptek (cheaper than Wacoms and not then well-made, only the merely widely-sold alternative with a articulate track record).

If y'all like it and find yourself wanting something better, motility upwardly to the Wacom Intuos (pictured) when gear up—its higher resolution, tilt sensitivity and range of pens add together a powerful sense of control. Whichever brand or model y'all try, get one with a big drawing expanse, 6"x8" is the bare minimum, and most volition want letter-size or larger.

Poseable Mannequins

Fine art departments the world over have bucketloads of these things, and you can choice ane up for $v at any Hobby Vestibule or art supply store in the nation. The standard poseable wooden mannequin offers an old-fashioned heroic canon and good-enough joint, though it won't turn yous into an anatomical Michelangelo.

Pictured is an example of specialist mannequins designed to help get the details right: Misterart.com's robotic wooden hands are $21. Just you lot'll still have to figure out toes for yourself.

A Tiny (But Good) Camera

Observation is a central skill, but few have perfect memories. A photographic camera small-scale plenty to sideslip in the pocket, but with decent enough image quality to accurately reverberate the detail of its subjects, is a bully style to build a catalog of beautiful things to act as inspiration and reference textile. Countless models fit the beak: the Canon Digital Elph serial and Casio'due south Exilim series fit it best.

Pictured is the ultracompact Canon PowerShot SD40 Digital Elph, known in Europe as the IXUS i7. Some observe the quality compromise too much, however, on this smallest of models: alternatives include Sony's Cyber Shot DSC-T10 and Casio's Exilim EX-Z850. Hunt for older models (like the PowerShot SD20 or Exilim P700) on eBay: they're functionally identical.

While pocket-sized is skilful, don't get "gimmick" modest: credit-bill of fare cameras, goofy "spy" cameras and the similar often use stockpiled 0.3 megapixel CMOS sensors manufactured years ago and are next to useless.

An Airbrush

I'll confess up-forepart: I've rarely used airbrushes, and never owned a loftier-quality model. So I'll keep to the basics, and keep information technology brief: Don't buy a plastic airbrush. Become a decent air compressor. Get a "double-action" model, which allows the artist to command both airflow and paint volume. Go one which mixes internally. For your first model, don't spend more than $100 or so: y'all tin ever sell or souvenir equipment you lot've outgrown.

A more than comprehensive guide to airbrushes is here, but beginners can't go incorrect with a Paasche starter prepare at Amazon to get used to the feel of working with one and the rigmarole of keeping them clean.

Pictured in a higher place is the Paasche AB Double Activeness Airbrush, a more expensive model.

Electrical Eraser and Pencil Sharpener

An essential quality of engineering is that it saves labor. Why waste free energy scratching at pencil wood or rubbing out your own scrawls when you can get a machine to exercise information technology for you?

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Staedler makes an electric eraser, and as far as making a point goes, geeks.com's iSharpener cuts close to the bone (or the graphite.)

Wacom Cintiq 21UX

I've tried to avert using specific model names to caput up each category, only this affair has little in the way of peers. For the creative person who has everything, this is the outrageous and extravagant crown to his or her gadget collection. Costing $ii,500, Wacom'southward Cintiq 21UX (Read our review) combines graphics tablet and LCD monitor into a single device, offering sensitivity and accuracy no affect-screen can match. If zilch else, this is the closest we'll get, for now, to the science-fiction future that artists (just like everyone else) were promised.

Inkjet-Coated Fine art Papers

A loftier-quality inkjet printer isn't just for photo reproduction. With appropriate papers, information technology can be good for everyday crafts, decals, gummy characterization printing and, best of all, canvas printing, to replicate the await and feel of a natural-media painting. Inkjetart.com and dickblick.com have great selections for digital artists who similar to fake it (or who just similar great stock). For large size prints, online services such as CanvasComplete and Canvas On Demand will fulfill orders. I've never used these services, however, and they seem aimed at "improving" normal photos with pretentious brush-stroke effects rather than accurately reproducing digital artwork, so caveat emptor. GicleeMaster.com touts itself as a art store, but is more than expensive.

A Natural Light Lightbulb

The ott-low-cal natural lightbulb (pictured) costs $45; at the lower end are blue-tinted incandescent bulbs that offer a fuller spectrum than the norm. As eco-unfriendly as it is, stick with these cheap alternatives if you don't fancy splurging a Grant on a lightbulb: inexpensive fluorescents are available, merely I'm trying 1 currently and dislike its milky hue. That said, it'due south definitely preferable to the warm, ruinous yellow cast of a standard incandescent. If you're painting nether one of these, you may as well put on 3D glasses and piece of work under a sodium lamp for all the color fidelity you'll get from information technology.

Moleskine Sketchbook

Though a questionable expense for writers, the high-quality paper, small size and durable binding of the Moleskine (and take care to go the sketchbook version, which has much thicker paper) is perfect for the mobile artist. Cheap alternatives are abundant, but in this one category, it'south rubber to ignore the precious marketing nonsense and just buy the damn thing.

Loupes

Fancy yourself as the 21st century'south respond to Nicholas Hilliard? Pictured is a fancy jeweler'south model from Schneider, costing $200. For your paint-stained fingers, a $40 model from Baush and Lomb will do but fine. Cheaper ones may have poor lenses that produce distortion and blur: cheque them out commencement at the local Hobby Antechamber if y'all want go the job done for less than $15.

Flat Files

I alive without flat files, the storage organization favored by many artists, because I'm but a digital-based dilettante and don't fancy the expense, which typically works out at between $70-$100 a drawer. To those who earn a living equally artists, even so, flat files are oft a necessity, keeping finished pieces organized, safe and, well, flat. Get the chore washed for half-cost with Safco's Behemothic Stacking Trays, $100 for two at Dickblick.

50.A.S.East.R. Tag

If you happen to have a laptop, high-powered DLP projector, loftier-resolution camera and a 60 megawatt green laser, why not try your hand at sketching over entire buildings from distant, illuminating the night sky with painted light? Developed past the Graffiti Research Lab, the open up-source Fifty.A.S.E.R. Tag system has to be seen to be believed. And earlier you're done, don't forget a little guerilla fine art (very footling, in fact), courtesy of their LED Throwies.

An Air Purifier

Depending on your favored media, the fine art studio'southward heady fumes might be more or less desirable. As far as your health is concerned, however, if information technology gets you loftier or makes you cough, it'due south probably bad news. The more than enclosed your infinite, the more you'll benefit from a good air purification arrangement. Avoid Sharper Image's Ionic Breeze nonsense: fifty-fifty though they no longer produce poisonous Ozone, they're withal not up to snuff. Racket is always a problem, especially for the hard-concentrating types: it's an unwelcome and unfortunate trade-off. Pictured is the hardcore ARTIST'S AIR EASEL ATTACHMENT Air Purifier, a thousand-dollar beast that attaches direct to the easel to suck fumes and pastel dust immediately abroad. The $285 Austin Air Health Mate Jr Air Cleaner offers a more full general, sensible compromise: with three speeds, it's practiced for upward to 700 sq ft rooms on its highest setting, which filters 200 cubic anxiety of air per minute.

What's your suggestion for some other cool creative person tech tool? Add the fifteenth gadget below in the comments.

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Source: https://www.wired.com/2007/02/15-gadgets-for-/

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